Woman who killed her three children reveals defense plea in court amid murder charges
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse and suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A mom who has been accused of killing her three children before attempting to take her own life has revealed her defense plea in court.
Labor and delivery nurse Lindsay Clancy was indicted on three counts of murder and strangulation back in September 2023.
She is accused of using exercise bands to strangle five-year old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, eight-month-old Callan before throwing herself out of a window of her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts back in January 2023.
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Lindsay was left paralyzed from the waist down after her attempt to take her own life, following her husband's concerns about her mental health.
Fox News has seen a notice filed by Clancy’s attorney, Kevin J. Reddington to the Plymouth Superior Court on Dec. 13.
It reveals she is attempting to use the insanity defense, according to the report which quotes: "Statements of the defendant as to her mental condition will be relied upon by defendant's expert witnesses, and the defendant does intend to present to the court a defense of lack of criminal responsibility."
The documents also give a look at the events leading up to the alleged murders, detailing the 32-year-old mom's actions that day.
The Plymouth District Court made the decision to unseal 299 pages of records.
This revealed 11 confidential search warrants had been issued in January 2023, and were used to collect exercise bands, medications, computers, notebooks, phones, a belt, a bathrobe, pyjamas and a silver knife.
The documents also revealed Lindsay had told her husband Patrick Clancy that she was feeling 'anxious' about returning to her job as a nurse.
She was also being prescribed several medications, including Zoloft, Valium, Trazodone, Ativan, Klonopin, Prozac and Seroquel.
Fox News has previously reported that Patrick had shared concerns with a family friend that he suspected she was suffering withdrawal symptoms from an anxiety prescription a month earlier.
The documents also shone a light on Lindsay's movements on the morning of the killings, January 24th.
She started her day by taking her daughter to see a pediatrician, before calling a local pharmacy about a stool-softener prescription.
Clancy then ordered dinner from the ThreeV restaurant in Plymouth, before searching on her phone in order 'to determine the time it would take someone to travel from her home in Duxbury to ThreeV in Plymouth.'
It is then alleged that Lindsay sent a text to her husband to ask him to pick up the dinner order from the restaurant as well as the prescription order.
Patrick eventually arrived home to 'silence', where he then found blood on the floor before noticing an open window.
The unsealed court documents also revealed that her husband ran out to the backyard, where he found Lindsay lying on the ground, still conscious but with cuts to her wrists and neck.
He immediately called 911.
It is reported that a trial date is being sought for September 2025, according to Boston 25 News.
They say that Assistant District Attorney Jennifer L. Sprague requested the date from the court, submitting a filing that states: "While DNA testing results and reports from experts are outstanding, it is reasonably believed that this discovery will be complete[d] well in advance of September of 2025," she wrote in the filing obtained by the station."
Grieving father Patrick has previously opened up about the reasoning his wife gave when he came home to the horrendous scene.
“I think one of the first things I asked was, ‘Did you plan this? Is that why you sent me out?’
"She said, ‘No, it just was, like, a snap of the fingers,'" Patrick said.
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News, Mental Health
Jen Thomas