(CNN) — The prosecution rested Monday in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three young children, after calling dozens of witnesses who testified about her mental health struggles, psychiatric treatment and behavior around the time of the killings.
Clancy, 36, does not deny she fatally strangled her children – Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan – in the basement of their family home in January 2023. But her attorney argues she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness when she strangled her kids and then attempted to kill herself.
The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office meanwhile, argues Clancy acted “intentionally, rationally, and swiftly” to kill her three children. Over several weeks, prosecutors elicited testimony from more than 70 witnesses – including Clancy’s former husband, medical providers who treated her and people she spoke to around the time of the killings – as they endeavored to prove the mother of three was not experiencing psychosis when she strangled her children.
Clancy’s defense began presenting its case Monday afternoon, starting with one of her colleagues, her sister and her mother, each of whom testified she was a compassionate and caring mother.
“She always wanted to be a mother, have many children, and I felt it was the best thing that ever happened to her,” Paula Musgrove, Clancy’s mother, said.
Through his questioning of the prosecution’s witnesses, Clancy’s defense attorney has sought to portray her as a caring mother who suffered from extreme mental illness and was not properly treated by her medical providers.
The trial could last up to eight weeks, although the judge indicated last week the case was ahead of schedule.
Clancy, who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, could face life in prison if convicted. If jurors find she cannot be held criminally responsible, the court will likely begin the process to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital. She is currently being held at the public Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts.
Prosecutors say Clancy sought ‘quick and easy’ fix for mental health
The prosecution’s case in chief began with two days of heartwrenching testimony from Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, who described how his wife’s stress, anxiety and other mental health problems intensified in the months after their third child was born in May 2022.
While the Commonwealth argues Lindsay Clancy – a former labor and delivery nurse – was not in the “throes of psychosis” when she killed her children, prosecutors have acknowledged she had mental health issues and displayed some diary entries detailing her struggles.
“It’s like I’m so desperate to get a mental break from taking care of everyone that my mind is trying to make something physically wrong with me,” one entry, read aloud by prosecutors, said.
However, prosecutors said in their opening statement Clancy looked for a “quick and easy fix” for her mental health issues, alleging she sought out different doctors, manipulated her providers and quickly switched medications when she didn’t get what she expected.
Dr. Jennifer Tufts, a psychiatrist who treated Clancy over roughly a dozen sessions beginning in September 2022, testified she adjusted Clancy’s prescriptions multiple times as the mother of three grappled with anxiety and difficulty sleeping. By the start of December 2022, Clancy was seeing multiple medical providers and had tried “a few different medication combinations,” Tufts testified.
The Massachusetts mother asked to change her medications nearly every day, saying the drugs were causing intrusive thoughts, insomnia and numbness, said one of her other providers, Rebecca Jollotta. In online messages read aloud in court, Jolotta – a psychiatric nurse practitioner – told Clancy she believed the problems likely stemmed from postpartum depression rather than the medication.
Clancy told Jollotta her issues with insomnia first began after taking sertraline — commonly known by the brand name Zoloft. The nurse practitioner testified insomnia was an “unusual” reaction, which could indicate an underlying bipolar disorder.
In a cellphone note last modified in early November 2022, Clancy wrote she was depressed because she was unable to parent her youngest child the same way as her first – an issue she identified as the “root cause of all our problems.”
“I feel not as connected with Cal now,” she wrote, in part. “I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby. And I know that’s not fair to them.”
“I still really really want a fourth child, but I need a really good therapist before then,” she wrote later in the note. “I’m on the fence about starting a new med or not. I want to feel happy, but it would be nice to feel authentically happy and not fake.”
Clancy said she ‘heard a man’s voice’ before killings
Clancy’s ex-husband said her “big spiral” began when she started taking a new antipsychotic medication around early December 2022. Around that time, she told him she was suicidal and had “intrusive thoughts” about harming the children, he testified.
“She described thoughts of hurting the kids or them having some sort of ailment,” Patrick Clancy said, adding he wasn’t concerned for their safety because she didn’t show “any intention” of harming them.
The mother of three was “constantly worried that something was going to happen to her children, or something bad was going to happen to the baby,” said Letiesha Dukes, a perinatal clinician who diagnosed Lindsay Clancy with postpartum anxiety in early December.
Clancy also voiced concerns about being addicted to one of her medications, although Dukes testified she did not believe she had a substance use disorder.
Clancy called a crisis support center twice that month after experiencing intrusive thoughts about wanting to die, though she did not have a specific plan to kill herself, the clinician said.
During a multiday stay at a locked-ward facility in early January 2023, Clancy reported feeling “numb,” according to Dr. Alina Goodheart, a psychiatrist at the facility. Clancy acknowledged previously having suicidal thoughts, Goodheart testified, but said she would never kill herself because of her family – namely her children and her mother.
Clancy seemed to improve after she was discharged from the facility on January 5, 2023, her former husband testified, saying he felt “hopeful” at the time.
Prosecutors showed the jury images from family outings later that month when the Massachusetts mother appeared to interact normally with her children. Multiple witnesses who spoke with Clancy in the days and hours before the killings testified they did not notice anything abnormal about her behavior.
In a telehealth session the day before the killings, Clancy told Tufts she was not having any suicidal or homicidal ideations, the psychiatrist testified.
“She said she was doing all right – a little more anxious, and the anxiety was described as the feeling of her heart racing,” Tufts said, adding she did not notice any signs of psychosis.
A note titled “Medication stole my motherhood and my life” on Clancy’s cellphone was last modified the same day, according to phone records displayed in court.
“I was the healthiest, happiest mom,” the note said, in part. “I worked out every morning, meditated, and took care of myself so I could be the best for my kids. Until prescription medication stole me from my own body.”
On January 24, 2023, Clancy built a snowman with her children hours before she strangled them, her ex-husband said. “She was having one of her best days,” he testified.
First responders recounted the grisly scene at the family’s Duxbury home, where Cora, Dawson and Callan were found lying in the basement with exercise resistance bands around their necks. Medical personnel described the children’s fatal injuries and the desperate attempts to save their lives.
Days later, Clancy was “calm and cooperative” during a psychiatric examination and denied having hallucinations or suicidal or homicidal ideations the day of the assessment, another psychiatrist testified.
Clancy told her then-husband about a week after killing their children she “heard a man’s voice telling her that if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance,” he testified. She had never mentioned hearing a man’s voice before, he said.
‘She loved her kids’
Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has used his cross-examinations to highlight the Massachusetts mother’s dedication to her children, mental health challenges and purported shortcomings in her medical care.
Multiple witnesses – including Clancy’s friends, her father-in-law, the family’s former nanny, and the children’s pediatrician – said she was a caring mother.
“She loved her kids,” Clancy’s friend Bethany Decollibus testified. “She was warm, kind, consistent, loving.”
While reviewing Clancy’s cellphone records in court, Reddington pointed to internet searches about caring for and playing with children, including queries about trampolines and kids’ movies. He also highlighted multiple searches about prescription medications and mental disorders – including queries about schizophrenia, psychosis, hallucinations and bipolar disorder – that were made in the weeks before she fatally strangled her children.
The defense attorney grilled some of Clancy’s medical providers on the quality of their care, implying they relied largely on what their patient told them with little independent investigation of their own. On the stand, some of the providers acknowledged they had not reviewed all of Clancy’s medical records from her previous clinicians.
In a tense cross-examination, Reddington challenged Tufts – who finished her residency a month before she began treating Clancy – on her qualifications and use of telemedicine, noting she wasn’t able to give Clancy a hug through the computer.
“I couldn’t give her a hug, but that’s not actually something psychiatrists typically do with patients,” Tufts said.
Clancy has filed a civil lawsuit against Tufts, Jollotta and other providers alleging medical malpractice. All the providers previously declined to speak with CNN about ongoing litigation.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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