Lindsey Clancy’s defense rests at trial over whether postpartum psychosis drove her to kill her kids

BOSTON (AP) — The defense rested its case Friday in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial after eliciting more testimony about her mental state before she strangled her three young children.

Prosecutors then began calling rebuttal witnesses before attorneys make their closing arguments in the trial, which is likely entering its final days.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. They were found in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts. Clancy jumped from a second-story window after strangling the children and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, hasn’t disputed that she killed the children but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Prosecutors argue that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, planned the killings.

Reddington sought to bolster that defense by having the jury hear from more of Clancy’s family members, who detailed her worsening mental health before the January 2023 killings. He also called a psychologist who met with Clancy after the killings.

Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, described her daughter as a dedicated and loving mom whose mental health began declining in October 2022.

In a text message displayed to the jury, Clancy wrote: “Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit? I’m really sick. Something is wrong.”

Musgrove also recalled a more alarming disclosure in December. Musgrove, Clancy and Clancy’s then-husband, Patrick Clancy, were in the couple’s kitchen when Clancy said she had to tell them something.

“She told us she had thoughts of harming the children,” Musgrove said.

Clancy’s former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, testified that Lindsay Clancy begged for help in the months leading up to the killings. The jury was shown texts between the two in which Lindsay Clancy spoke about fears that she had developed a dependence on benzodiazepines, but couldn’t sleep without taking them.

“I’m not okay and I’m terrified of taking meds tonight,” Lindsay texted her mother-in-law on Nov. 30, 2022, about two months before the killings.

Reddington has said that in addition to postpartum psychosis Clancy also had bipolar disorder and was overmedicated.

Another defense witness was Paul Zeizel, a psychologist who treated Lindsay Clancy in the hospital after she killed the children.

“She was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law. She had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act,” Zeizel said, adding that she had “a mental disease or a defect.”

Zeizel also testified that psychological testing administered by a government doctor found no evidence she was faking or exaggerating psychiatric symptoms.

Prosecutors argue that Clancy contrived to get her husband out of the house the day of the killings. They have attempted to show that while she was getting treatment for anxiety, insomnia and depression, she wasn’t suffering from psychosis.