Lindsay Clancy ‘created the situation’ to kill her 3 children
PLYMOUTH − Attorneys painted two diametrically completely different photos in a court docket listening to Tuesday of the lady accused of strangling her three youngsters in her Duxbury dwelling final month.
Her protection lawyer, Kevin Reddington, advised the story of a household in ache and an overmedicated mom with debilitating postpartum psychological sickness. Assistant District Legal professional Jennifer Sprague, quite the opposite, stated Lindsay Clancy knew precisely what she was doing when she “created the scenario” to kill her three youngsters, and urged she was of sound thoughts.
Clancy, 32, was arraigned Tuesday on two prices of homicide in Plymouth District Court docket, the place she appeared through a Zoom name from a hospital mattress. She additionally faces three counts every of strangulation and assault and battery with a lethal weapon within the loss of life of her three youngsters.
Clancy wore a medical masks and remained nonetheless throughout the listening to, solely blinking because the state accused her of strangling her youngsters for a number of minutes every utilizing train bands within the basement of their dwelling. Reddington and Sprague appeared in individual.
Choose John Canavan didn’t set a bail quantity within the case, and as an alternative stated Clancy is ordered to remain within the Boston hospital the place she is being handled. Reddington stated his consumer is paralyzed from the waist down.
When the time comes for her to be launched from the hospital, she is to be admitted to a 24/7 rehabilitation facility, Canavan stated. After that, she might be launched to dwelling confinement with GPS monitoring, topic to additional hearings. She was ordered to proceed present process psychological well being therapy.
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Police responded to a 911 name positioned by Clancy’s husband, Patrick Clancy, on Jan. 24. He was calling to report his spouse’s obvious suicide try. First responders discovered two of the three Clancy youngsters − Cora Clancy, 5, and Dawson Clancy, 3 − useless inside the house. A 3rd little one, 8-month-old Callan, died at Boston Kids’s Hospital a number of days later.
“It is a very unhappy and really tragic case,” Plymouth District Legal professional Tim Cruz stated.
Court docket listening to reveals ugly particulars in Clancy case
Sprague, the prosecutor, stated Clancy was having “one in every of her greatest days” on Tuesday, Jan. 24. She took Cora to the pediatrician and referred to as an area CVS to debate over-the-counter medicine choices for her youngsters. Nobody reported something amiss, Sprague stated.
At about 5 p.m., she requested her husband to drive to CVS to choose up the kid’s medicine after which Plymouth to choose up takeout meals for dinner, which Sprague referred to as “an uncommon request.” The assistant district legal professional stated Lindsay Clancy then opened the Apple Maps utility to examine how lengthy it might take to drive to the Plymouth restaurant and again.
Patrick Clancy left shortly after 5 p.m. and referred to as his spouse from CVS to make clear what medicine to purchase.
“It was a totally regular name, although he did point out she appeared like she was in the course of one thing,” Sprague stated.
When Patrick Clancy returned dwelling to Summer season Road in Duxbury, Sprague stated he famous the home was quiet. He went to his bed room, the place he advised police he noticed blood and an open window. He ran to the yard and located his spouse injured however acutely aware. When he requested the place the kids have been, she advised him they have been within the basement.
“Instantly after this occurred she knew what she had executed, she knew the place the children have been,” Sprague stated. “Patrick might be heard on the 911 name coming into the basement. At one level, he calls out, ‘Guys?’ He can then be heard screaming in agony and shock. … When (police) discover Patrick, he yells out, ‘She killed the children.'”
Sprague stated the kids have been all strangled utilizing train bands. Cora and Dawson have been useless when police arrived. Callan’s mind perform couldn’t be recovered by medical professionals, and he died a number of days later. The way of loss of life, Sprague stated, additional signifies that the killings weren’t against the law of ardour.
“She needed to strangle every of them to unconsciousness, after which maintain the bands squeezing their little necks for a number of minutes. She may have modified her thoughts at any level in these jiffy, however she did not,” Sprague stated. “The defendant didn’t ‘take benefit’ of the scenario when her husband left the house that night time. She created the scenario, and she or he used Apple Maps to make sure she would have sufficient time to kill every little one.”
Lindsay Clancy stays hospitalized with a number of damaged bones in her again, and Reddington referred to as her “a paraplegic.” Sprague stated one of many first questions Clancy requested on the hospital was “Do I would like a lawyer?”
Later, whereas present process a psychological well being analysis, Clancy used her psychiatrist’s telephone to name her husband, and advised him a voice compelled her to kill the kids and herself, Sprague stated.
“Mr. Clancy advised police the defendant had by no means heard voices earlier than, and he additionally advised police the defendant had by no means used the phrase ‘psychosis’ with him earlier than,” Sprague stated. “The primary time she makes use of the phrase ‘psychosis’ was when she was with a physician employed by protection counsel and utilizing his cellphone.”
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Reddington: Deaths have been ‘not deliberate by any means’
Kevin Reddington, the protection lawyer, stated Lindsay Clancy’s case is a first-rate instance of a rustic that routinely fails ladies in search of therapy for postpartum despair, nervousness or psychosis.
He stated Lindsay Clancy was underneath the care of medical professionals who prescribed her a cocktail of medicines that harmed her psychological well-being. He described a girl “unable” to really feel real emotion as a result of medication.
“Our society fails miserably in treating ladies with postpartum despair and even postpartum psychosis,” Reddington stated. “It is medicate, medicate, medicate, take the drugs and see if that works. If it does not, improve the dose.”
On Jan. 1, Lindsay Clancy checked herself in to the McLean Hospital for psychological well being therapy. She left Jan. 5, and had been going forwards and backwards with docs about prescriptions ever since, he stated. Reddington described Lindsay Clancy as “a fantastic girl who was completely destroyed by these drugs.”
“This isn’t a scenario that was deliberate by any means. It is a scenario that, clearly, is a product of psychological sickness,” he stated.
Reddington stated he submitted to the court docket near 50 letters from docs, family and friends members hailing Lindsay as an unbelievable mom, spouse and nurse. He stated he has additionally obtained messages from “world wide” from medical professionals and different moms sharing their struggles with postpartum psychological sickness.
“This girl has unbelievable assist. … Letters from her household, mates, individuals she has identified because the sixth grade who’ve stayed in contact together with her,” he stated. “Lindsay beloved her youngsters.”
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Extra: Deaths of Duxbury youngsters push postpartum despair and psychological well being to forefront
A neighborhood in shock
The small city of Duxbury and the bigger South Shore neighborhood responded swiftly to information of the tragedy.
Prayer teams have turned their eyes to Patrick and Lindsay Clancy, and a whole lot attended a vigil held days after the kids’s deaths. About 15,000 individuals have donated greater than $1 million mixed to a GoFundMe on-line fundraiser meant to learn Patrick Clancy, and the tragedy has sparked a push to acknowledge and supply assist to these combating postpartum sicknesses corresponding to despair and psychosis.
A non-public Fb group referred to as “Lindsay’s Military of Love” has greater than 500 members.
“We’re right here, as mothers and nurses, to point out our love and assist for Lindsay and the Clancy household,” the group description reads. “Whether or not you labored together with her or noticed her in passing, she was one in every of us. She beloved her youngsters and was doing her greatest to deal with herself. We have to band collectively to point out our open assist for one in every of our personal.”
In a publish on the fundraising web page, Patrick Clancy confirmed his spouse was combating “a situation” and requested the neighborhood’s forgiveness.
“Our marriage was fantastic and diametrically grew stronger as her situation quickly worsened,” he wrote. ”I wish to ask all of you that you simply discover it deep inside yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I’ve. The actual Lindsay was generously loving and caring in the direction of everybody − me, outdoors youngsters, household, mates and her sufferers. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I want for her now could be that she will be able to by some means discover peace.”
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Attain Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.
This text initially appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Lindsay Clancy faces a decide in deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan
