Lindsay Clancy trial: Jurors excused for day after responders testifying about treating children

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First responders testified Thursday in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who is accused of killing her three children in 2023.

Lindsay Clancy trial Day 3: Key moments so far

• First responders testified about the emergency response at the Clancy home.
• Multiple first responders described Patrick Clancy appearing to be in shock.
• Defense attorney Kevin Reddington raised objections during testimony from first responders, arguing the defense does not dispute what happened. The judge allowed questioning to continue.
• Tomorrow, jurors will visit the Clancy home. More key takeaways from the trial are here.

Lindsay Clancy was indicted on three counts each of murder in the 2023 deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson and 8-month-old son Callan. She pleaded not guilty to the charges.

She became a paraplegic after harming herself in the immediate aftermath of her children’s deaths.

Jurors were released for the day after several first responders from Duxbury, Massachusetts, testified about what they saw when they were called to the Clancy family home on the evening of Jan. 24, 2023.

Duxbury police officers Brian Josephine and Stephen Hall said they found Patrick Clancy in the backyard, standing over his then-wife.

Josephine said he believed, at the time, that injuries to Lindsay Clancy’s wrists and neck did not appear to be life-threatening.

They said Patrick Clancy left to go look for his children. Josephine and Hall then heard loud screams coming from inside the house. They found Patrick Clancy and 3-year-old Dawson Clancy in the basement of the home.

“I called for paramedics to come to the basement. I also called for a supervisor, and officer Josephine picked up the child and ran through the front door to the ambulance,” Hall said.

Josephine testified officers and first responders immediately began CPR and other emergency measures on the children while additional ambulances were called to the scene.

“My first instinct was grab his head, and tilt it to the side, see if I could get a pulse. But, based on my training and experience from previous incidents, I knew it wasn’t going to be good,” Josephine said.

Josephine said Patrick Clancy appeared to be in shock and an ambulance was called for him.

Thursday’s testimony followed an emotional day Wednesday as the gut-wrenching 911 call Patrick Clancy made after he found his young sons and daughter with exercise bands around their necks was played.

Patrick Clancy testified that he left Lindsay Clancy home with the children to pick up medication and dinner, and when he returned, the home was quiet.

He said he entered his bedroom and “saw blood everywhere, and the window was open.” Patrick Clancy said he went outside and found Lindsay Clancy “face up” in the yard.

“She had deep cuts on her wrists. She had a red line across her neck,” Patrick Clancy said as he recalled finding his wife bloody on the ground outside their second-story window.

He asked her what happened, and she said, “I tried to kill myself,” and told him the children were in the basement. Patrick Clancy said he was on the phone with a 911 operator when he went to look for his children.

“I saw Cora. She had (an exercise) band around her neck. She was face down,” Patrick Clancy said. “I immediately ran over and tried to take the band off.”

He said he removed the band, and then saw his son, Callan, who also had an exercise band around his neck. Patrick Clancy said he then found Dawson Clancy on the other side of the basement with an exercise band around his neck.

“I knew that he was gone,” Patrick Clancy said.

Patrick Clancy was excused from the courtroom before the prosecution showed jurors the exercise bands that prosecutors said were found around the children’s necks and the clothes the children were wearing at the time.

The 911 call was played in the courtroom for the jurors, but it will not be released to the public. Lindsay Clancy buried her face in her hands and was visibly sobbing as the call was played in court.

On the call, Patrick Clancy is heard screaming, “She killed the kids.”

At least one juror was in tears.

Before he was excused from the stand, the prosecutor asked Patrick Clancy about a phone call he had with Lindsay Clancy in the days after the murders.

“She didn’t talk about our kids. She talked about what she went through,” he said. “She said she heard a man’s voice telling her that if she didn’t do it now she would lose her chance, or something like that.”

During the recess, EMTs responded to the courthouse, where an officer said someone was experiencing an anxiety attack; however, all the jurors returned when testimony resumed.

Angela Krause, who works at the CVS Pharmacy in Kingston, testified that she had a “normal interaction” with Lindsay Clancy hours before the children’s deaths when she called the store inquiring about a laxative for children.

Saria Shelgren was working as a hostess at ThreeV, the restaurant where the Clancys ordered dinner on the evening of the children’s deaths. She testified that a woman called in the order, which was picked up by Patrick Clancy. Shelgren said she had no issue understanding the woman and it was a normal interaction.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Kevin Reddington focused on Lindsay Clancy’s life as a mother and her treatment in the months before the children’s deaths. He showed family photos, social media posts and handwritten notes, while Patrick Clancy testified that she loved being a labor and delivery nurse but struggled with anxiety, sleep deprivation and medication changes.

The defense also pointed to empty medication bottles from the couple’s bedroom that police did not seize, arguing the fuller pill bottles previously shown to jurors were for discontinued doses.

Opening statements delivered:

The jury of 12 women and six men heard opening statements before testimony began.

Video below: Prosecution’s opening statement

Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham started by telling the jury the children were strangled “meticulously.”

“One by one, she wrapped exercise bands around each one of the kids’ necks and pulled until their little bodies were limp and lifeless,” Buckingham said.

The state argued Lindsay Clancy understood her actions and made a deliberate choice.

“She heard a voice, a male voice, a voice that she had never heard before, a voice that she had never heard again. That voice told her it was her last chance; she had to kill her kids so she could kill herself. She immediately took action when she heard the voice with no direction or details from this so-called voice, and she killed the children,” Buckingham said.

The state laid out the alleged events that led up to the children’s deaths on Jan. 24, 2023, and warned the jurors they would hear graphic testimony as she urged the group to use their common sense and life experiences as they listen to the case.

Video below: Defense’s opening statement

Lindsay Clancy’s defense team plans to use the insanity defense, arguing that she suffered from postpartum psychosis and was overmedicated at the time of the alleged crimes.

In his opening statement, Reddington said his client knows she killed her children but questioned what was going on in Lindsay Clancy’s mind.

“After the second child she had postpartum. … You will hear evidence that was one of the issues that was important because it can lead to (being) bipolar. One of the things you don’t do if someone is bipolar, you don’t put them on an antidepressant, on Zoloft. It messes with your brain, and it was done in this case,” Reddington said.

Reddington showed the jury graphic photos of Lindsay Clancy in the hospital after she jumped out of her bedroom window in an effort to head off any move by the prosecution to make the attempted suicide appear to be fake.

Background of the Clancy case:

• Lindsay Clancy faces three murder charges in the 2023 deaths of her children, Cora, Dawson and Callan.
• She also jumped from a second-floor window, leaving her partially paralyzed.
• In a civil case, Lindsay Clancy alleges a “catastrophic failure” of multiple medical providers in diagnosing and treating her psychiatric condition.
• Her trial is scheduled to begin July 20. Although her legal team offered to stipulate to the deaths of the children, she has pleaded not guilty.
• She is being held at Tewksbury State Hospital.
• The jury is made up of 12 women and six men. They will not know until the presentation of the case is concluded who will deliberate and who will be an alternate.

This case involves issues of mental health. If you or someone you know needs help, you can talk with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or sending a text message to 988, or you can chat online here.