Lindsay Clancy said four chilling words as she strangled kids… & they could be crucial in trial that’s gripped the world

RETURNING home after running errands Patrick Clancy was greeted by an eerily silent house. He called for his wife, Lindsay, and their three young children but upstairs, the master bedroom door was locked. Lindsay Clancy and Patrick Clancy with their three children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months Credit: Plymouth Superior Court Defendant Clancy awaiting the start of proceedings during her murder trial. She is unable to walk after leaping from a window following the deaths of her three children Credit: AP “That’s when I knew something was wrong,” he testified later, the packed courtroom hanging onto his every word. Inside the bedroom, Lindsay’s pink iPhone was on the nightstand next to a large blood-covered kitchen knife. “I just saw blood everywhere and the window open,” Patrick, 38, recounted. Outside, he faced a harrowing scene, yet something more horrific was about to unravel. He found his wife splayed beneath a window with deep cuts to her wrists and a wound to her neck. Fading in and out of consciousness, she told him she had tried to kill herself. And when Patrick asked where the children were, she said they were in the basement, which is where he found them. Five-year-old Cora had an exercise band wrapped tightly around her neck. Nearby was eight-month-old Callan, also with a band around his neck, which Patrick pulled off. Three-year-old Dawson was inside the basement office with another exercise band around his neck. Patrick removed it but later testified: “I knew he was gone.” He tried to perform CPR on Cora until first responders took over. Callan was airlifted to hospital but died several days later. Today, Lindsay, now 36, wheelchair-bound and paralysed from the sternum down after jumping from the bedroom window, is on trial at Plymouth Superior Court accused of murdering all three children. She cuts a broken figure in the courtroom, clutching her lawyer’s hand and sobbing when Patrick, who has since divorced her and married a fertility doctor, gave testimony about the events that night inside their family home. But while there is no dispute that she killed the children, the horrific case centres on whether she knew what she was doing. Now, we can reveal details from two damning civil lawsuits we have obtained, which raise disturbing questions about the mental health treatment she received before the killings. The complaints allege that poorly coordinated treatment and a bewildering combination of powerful prescription drugs contributed to Lindsay’s catastrophic deterioration. At one point she described herself as feeling ‘like a zombie’. Trial coverage has described 13 psychiatric medications being prescribed over roughly four months, including Zoloft, Prozac, Seroquel, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan, trazodone, Ambien, Remeron, Lamictal and amitriptyline. Lindsay’s lawsuit alleges medical malpractice, while Patrick’s separate wrongful-death complaint, filed on behalf of his children’s estates, accuses members of her mental health team of missing a catalogue of warning signs as her condition spiralled. Photos of the Clancy home were shown in court Credit: Court TV Evidence was shown during the trial Credit: Court TV The claims are contested and have not been proven. Lindsay’s lawsuit alleges healthcare providers failed to diagnose bipolar disorder with postpartum onset and instead subjected her to what it calls a ‘disorganised, uncoordinated course of polypharmacy’, which she claims sent her condition spiralling and triggered a psychotic break in which she lost touch with reality and started hearing voices ordering her to kill her own children. She said medication left her ‘emotionless’, ‘disoriented’, ‘numb’ and ‘not connected to her body’. Patrick’s lawsuit alleges her treatment was fragmented, with different clinicians prescribing and changing psychiatric drugs without anyone adequately overseeing their overall effect. It claims doctors failed to carry out blood tests that might have revealed whether Lindsay was metabolising medication abnormally and alleges drugs were ‘added and accelerated’. Those allegations now echo the central battle playing out in the courtroom. Prosecutors say Lindsay planned the killings in the affluent seaside town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, pointing to online searches and the fact that she asked Patrick to leave the house on errands as evidence of organised behaviour. Her defence argues she was suffering from severe postpartum mental illness or psychosis, with underlying bipolar disorder and adverse medication effects, and was therefore not criminally responsible. And at the heart of that argument is the claim that Lindsay heard a male voice in her head that commanded her to kill the children and herself. Her lawsuit describes the hallucination as a ‘demanding, powerful’ voice. In harrowing detail, it claims she fell into a ‘dream-like state’, leaving her with an ‘irresistible compulsion to comply’. It alleges that after Patrick left the house that night to collect a takeaway, the repetitive voice told her: “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.” According to documents, she strangled each child while muttering: “Go to God, baby.” Lindsay Clancy’s defence argues she was suffering from severe postpartum mental illness or psychosis, with underlying bipolar disorder and adverse medication effects Credit: Facebook According to documents, Lindsay strangled each child while muttering: ‘Go to God, baby.’ Credit: Facebook But prosecutors have sought to cast doubt on whether Lindsay was experiencing command hallucinations. Police explored whether that account had been influenced after the killings, although an officer acknowledged there was no evidence establishing that theory. The tragedy was a horrifying reversal of what Patrick describes in his lawsuit as an idyllic family life. The couple married in 2016, and both wanted children. After Cora was born in 2017 and Dawson in 2019, Lindsay, a respected midwife and fitness fanatic, organised her life around them, arranging work around childcare and even checking their baby monitors while working. Callan arrived in May 2022, and the family spent parental leave visiting relatives, going to the beach and enjoying time together. Lindsay repeatedly told Patrick how happy she was and how much she loved their new baby. But she had previously experienced mental health problems after Dawson’s birth in 2019 and, according to the lawsuits, sought psychiatric help and managed her symptoms with therapy, exercise and meditation. Then, as she prepared to return to work in autumn 2022, Patrick testified that her mental health began to deteriorate. Lindsay recognised she needed help and found psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Tufts online, according to her complaint. She scored 23 out of a possible 30 on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, a screening test used to identify women who may be suffering from postnatal depression. Her lawsuit says the high score indicated severe depression. Tufts diagnosed generalised anxiety disorder/adjustment disorder with depressed mood and prescribed antidepressant Zoloft. Lindsay initially wanted to try therapy first but eventually began taking the drug in mid-October. Her lawsuit alleges that after increasing the dose she suffered a severe reaction, going 48 hours without sleep as racing thoughts and worsening anxiety took hold. Patrick’s complaint says she felt ‘awful’, with insomnia, poor appetite, depression, crying and mental fog. By November, she was sometimes sleeping just three hours a night and sought help at an emergency department. Prozac followed, but Lindsay complained it worsened her insomnia. On November 25 she was prescribed sedative Ambien, antidepressant Remeron and anti-anxiety drug Klonopin. According to the lawsuits, after taking Remeron she became dissociated and disoriented and struggled to work out what was real. Then her condition became more alarming. After antipsychotic Seroquel was prescribed, the complaints allege Lindsay developed suicidal thoughts and experienced what her lawsuit now describes as auditory hallucinations. She lost around 15lb, struggled to eat and suffered panic attacks and confusion. On December 15, Patrick told her clinician his wife had endured a ‘devastating week’ of ‘horrible thoughts’. Her lawsuit alleges she was hearing a voice telling her she would never be the same and that ‘the only option is to die’. She also told Patrick: “I have thoughts of harming the kids.” The tragedy was a horrifying reversal of what Patrick describes in his lawsuit as an idyllic family life Credit: Facebook/ Lindsay Marie Clancy By New Year, Lindsay was suicidal and admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital for five days. Her lawsuit alleges she was discharged despite records describing her insight and judgment as ‘limited’. Three weeks later, Cora, Dawson and Callan were dead. At trial, Lindsay’s mother testified that her daughter had told her the medication was ‘destroying her mind’ and that she was frightened of being alone. Her sister, Allison Ozga, said Lindsay had experienced suicidal thoughts every day for around a month. But Dr Tufts testified she did not observe psychosis. Lindsay’s phone also showed ordinary, organised activity on January 24, including caring for the children and ordering the takeaway. Digital evidence included searches relating to suicide, postpartum psychosis and medication. The prosecution argues this was a woman capable of planning rather than someone detached from reality. Armchair sleuths have suggested Patrick was in some way involved in his children’s deaths, though he has never been named by police or prosecutors as a suspect. Lindsay faces three counts of first-degree murder and life imprisonment without parole. The prosecution says the quiet house Patrick walked into was the result of a deliberate, meticulously planned triple murder. The defence says the woman responsible was a desperately sick mother whose mind had collapsed after months of insomnia, psychiatric treatment and rapidly changing medication. In the coming days, the jury will decide which version it believes.