Crime
Clancy’s ex-husband on Wednesday walked jurors through what happened the night she strangled their children at their home in Duxbury.
updated on July 30, 2026 | 9:29 AM
2 minutes to read
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Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial enters its third day of testimony Thursday following an emotionally charged day in court.
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s former husband, was back on the stand Wednesday to walk jurors through the night she strangled their children at their home in Duxbury. Prosecutors also played a recording of the agonizing 911 call Patrick made upon returning home to find all three children unresponsive in the family’s basement.
Lindsay Clancy, now 35, does not deny that she strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan on Jan. 24, 2023. However, she maintains she was struggling with postpartum mental illness and heard a voice in her head telling her to kill the children and herself. Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, is mounting what’s colloquially known as an insanity defense, essentially arguing she cannot be held criminally responsible.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have attempted to demonstrate that Lindsay appeared coherent and able to keep up with day-to-day tasks leading up to the killings. They allege she acted “deliberately and meticulously” because she no longer liked her life as a mother and didn’t trust anyone else to take care of the children the way she wanted.
Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague Wednesday, Patrick testified that no one ever told him not to leave the children alone with Lindsay, even as her mental health worsened.
He also confirmed that Lindsay did not tell him she wanted to harm the children that January, or that she was going to kill them. But in his earlier testimony Monday, Patrick testified that Lindsay confided in December 2022 that she was having “intrusive thoughts” about hurting the kids or seeing something bad happen to them. At the time, she denied having a plan to act on those thoughts, he noted.
During his cross-examination, Reddington pushed back on prosecutors’ suggestion that Lindsay wasn’t taking her psychiatric medications as prescribed. Patrick likewise testified that his former wife “always took them as instructed.”
Reddington further highlighted earlier opportunities Lindsay had to kill the children, had that been her plan all along. He specifically noted a trip Patrick took to New York in November 2022, as well as his occasional brunch outings and “guys’ nights.”
Asked to describe the kind of mother Lindsay was, Patrick — who has since divorced her and remarried — had only kind words.
“She was very dedicated. She did everything,” he recalled. “She started reading them books at 3 months, and she made up songs for them. I remember she used to make green eggs and ham for Cora, because she liked that book.”
Lindsay Clancy during her trial on Wednesday. – David L. Ryan/Boston Globe Staff
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.
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