Beyond All Repair - The Clancy Trial | Ep. 1: The Case

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

WBUR reporter Deborah Becker spent many of her days this summer at the Plymouth County courthouse. She's been covering the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who was charged with murdering her three children before attempting to kill herself. The Massachusetts woman's defense argued she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time and should not be held criminally responsible for her actions. After weeks of testimony and seven days of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. The tragedy at the center of the case is unbelievable — a mother killing her children. But what is also remarkable about this case is how it's captivated the public and drawn immense support for the woman on trial. Now, everyone is looking for some type of closure to this harrowing case.

Hey, it's Amory. It's been a while. I'm here because we have a new story for you. It's another one that is difficult and deeply complicated and really needs to be told with precision and care. And my colleague, Deborah Becker, is the one to do it. She's a longtime reporter and host here at WBUR, and she's been following this particular story since it broke years ago. It's about a case here in Massachusetts that you may, may very well have heard about wherever you are. It's the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy. A big heads up, this case involves violence against children and self-harm. Deborah has the story from here. I think we should kind of start at the beginning, if you don't mind. When this case first happened in 2023, when Lindsay Clancy was first charged with killing her three children, I went to her arraignment. from member station WBUR here's Deborah Becker as WBUR's Deborah Becker reports and as WBUR's Deborah Becker reports her defense will put the mental health system I'm Deborah Becker and I'm a

reporter and host at WBUR usually I report on mental health particularly mental health and addiction I mean I would say I've probably been focusing on covering mental health for probably at least 10 years. I spent all day at the Plymouth County Courthouse today, and I have spent many of my days this summer at the Plymouth County Courthouse at the Lindsay Clancy trial. You know, the tragedy here is pretty unbelievable. A mother killing her children is a very tragic event,

but watching how this case has galvanized people and people supporting a woman accused of killing three children, that is highly unusual. I went to her arraignment. It's a formal appearance when someone is charged with a crime. And in that particular case, she appeared virtually because she was in the hospital. and her attorney argued that she had been over-medicated and had been seeking mental health treatment. The woman before you, who was a beautiful person,

was thoroughly destroyed by these medications. Being someone who covers mental health, particularly the intersection of mental health and the criminal legal system, I was intensely interested. But what was surprising to me was that at her arraignment, there were women there saying they supported her and they sympathized with her efforts to get postpartum mental health care.

This happened over three years ago, and I remember saying to my editors, this is a really unique kind of story. It isn't just this story of a mother killing her children, which we may have heard before, but this is people saying that there may be, in this case, a realization of what happened, in the postpartum period, and they feel that perhaps this trial might bring attention to it.

And so we knew then that this was going to be a story, not ever, ever realizing how big it was going to become. People waited for hours to get inside of the courtroom this morning for closing arguments in the Lindsay Clancy trial. Now to Chanel Cole. She's outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This is now day six. The Lindsay Clancy trial admitting they can't reach a verdict this morning. The judge is really hoping for the jury to be able to come to some decision. What did you hear? So Lindsay Clancy is charged with killing her three children, strangling them in the basement of her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, which is an affluent suburb, south of Boston. And she had three children. They were five years old, three years old, and eight months old when they died.

And by all accounts, she was a very devoted mother. And she became really overwhelmed a few months after the birth of her third child. And she started seeking help for her mental health. She went to several providers. They had diagnosed her with different things like, generalized anxiety disorder and depression. At one point, a clinician suggested bipolar disorder, bipolar two, and they had tried various medications to help alleviate her symptoms. And she continued to report that her condition was deteriorating. And they tried different medications. She reported to her family members that she had thought, of suicide. She at times expressed thoughts of harming the children. They asked her if she was worried,

if she should be kept away from the children, and she said no. And then she seemed okay. And she was going to a doctor and they thought they were trying to help her. And then on January 24th of 23, she seemed to be fine. Her husband, her now former husband, testified. that she was fine that day. How was Lindsay's mood? She seemed happy. Did she tell you she was having thoughts of harming the kids? No.

Did she ask for help or anything that caused concern? No, she's having one of her best days. She had been home with the kids. He had been working from home, and he went to pick up, take out for dinner, and stop at the pharmacy. When he came home, he found her outside in the ground outside their house.

And then he found his three children strangled inside in the basement. I will say that I saw Patrick Clancy testify for two days. And I also was in court when they played the 911 call that Patrick made when he found Lindsay outside. That call is so harrowing that the judge has decided not to release it to the public. but it was played for the people who were in the courtroom that day. And that call is something that I will never forget. He called 911 when he found his wife outside,

and you can hear him saying, I think my wife tried to kill herself, and you can hear her moaning, and he's yelling, Lindsay, stay with me, Lindsay, stay with me. And he's staying on the phone, and the dispatcher is telling him not to move her. and then when the first responders arrive, he says, okay, I need to go find my kids.

And he goes in the house. And you hear him running in and you hear him going down the stairs. And then you hear this howl. It is such primal screaming from this man. And he starts yelling his children's names. And then you hear him yell, she killed the kids. I don't think there was a dry eye in that courtroom.

I've covered a lot of trials. I have never not been able to control my emotions until then. It was the worst thing I've ever heard. After she strangled the children, went up into her bedroom, may have taken some prescription pills that looks like she mixed in a cup near her bed. cut herself with a knife on her wrists and her neck and jumped out a window. That failed suicide attempt left her paralyzed from the waist down. I was keeping track of when the trial was going to start,

and I went to the media briefings where they were outlining the rules for the media during the trial, how we would get audio, we had to be credentialed, and those kinds of things. This is 90.9 WBUR in Boston. I'm Lisa Mullins. The Duxbury woman accused of killing her three children will remain in the hospital as she awaits trial. WBOR's Deborah Becker has more. We talked about it in the newsroom

and thought that I should go for jury selection. I've been to many courtrooms before and covered many trials, even big ones. I don't think I've covered a trial of this length before going so many consecutive days. That's a big commitment. But this has turned into such a spectacle that it was pretty much impossible for me to leave. The defense in this case alleges that she was struggling with her mental health. She had experienced postpartum psychosis.

and that episode of psychosis caused her not to be able to understand that her actions were wrong and not be able to control her behavior. And therefore, the defense argues she should not be held criminally responsible for killing the children. The defense doesn't dispute that she killed the children. She knows that she killed these children. We'll sit here, listen to their evidence. But I suggest to you that the infant. issue, but consideration is what was going on in that woman's mind.

Prosecutors say they acknowledge that Lindsay Clancy was struggling with her mental health, but they say that she deliberately planned the killings. She was rational at the time, and she could understand that her actions were wrong and she could have controlled her actions. The prosecution disputes the claims made by defense experts who said that Clancy was hearing a voice that was ordering her to kill her children so she could kill herself. And prosecutors say Clancy was suicidal. They called the children protective factors and said that the children were in her way of being able to carry out death. by suicide, so she had to kill them to kill herself. So it's very gruesome, all of it, and it's very upsetting.

It's incredibly emotional. The judge is Judge William Sullivan. He seems to want to make sure that things are orderly. While the Lindsay Clancy trial was going on, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered a new trial for another mom who was charged with killing her two children in this same judge's courtroom. And the high court found that the judge did not allow the mental health records of this mom to be admitted. And so they ordered a new trial. So it's unclear whether that case may have affected some of what he did in the Lindsay Clancy case, right? Because

he was just admonished by the state's highest court. But overall, I would say that Judge Sullivan has been fair and has given both sides time to present their cases. There was one really kind of unbelievable point during the trial where the defense asked for a mistrial. This was when a prosecution expert was testifying about what Lindsay told him after the children were killed. And he testified, this expert, Kirk Halbrun,

testified that Lindsay Clancy told him that she told her children after she strangled them to go to God. And he believed that she thought she was going to be in heaven with her children, and he started citing her Catholic faith. the defense called for a mistrial because this was the second time that Clancy's Catholic faith had come up during the trial. The first time was when Clancy's former mother-in-law, who was testifying for the defense, by the way, which is something, Susan Clancy, Lindsay Clancy's former mother-in-law was testifying, and the prosecution asked Susan Clancy

if she was an act of Catholic, and she said yes. So you're aware that murder is considered a mortal sin. Counsel, can I see you over here? The judge struck the question and called both sides to a sidebar. But when it happened with the prosecution expert the second time around bringing up Lindsay Clancy's Catholic faith based on what she told him in an evaluation, the defense asked for a mistrial and said it was intentional misconduct on the part of the prosecution to bring up religious. which is not allowed if it's being used to prejudice jurors. The judge denied that request for a mistrial,

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I would say Lindsay Clancy's demeanor has been different on different days of the tribe. and for the most part she seems engaged with her lawyer. In the beginning, she was sort of removed, it seemed, from the proceedings and just seemed to be watching what was happening. But then as the trial went on and the prosecution witnesses were detailing the injuries and deaths to the children, she became very emotional. and at one point, a couple points, she was sobbing uncontrollably, and the judge had to temporarily stop the proceedings.

This case hinges on Lindsay Clancy's mental health. It is what was her mental state at the time of the children's killings? That is the key question. Was she suffering psychosis or was she not? The defense experts say that she was. They say she heard a voice that ordered her to kill her children. A hospital chaplain who met with Lindsay in the very early days of this met with her to comfort her. And she said that Lindsay, the first words Lindsay said to her were, I'm glad my children are safe.

and Lindsay told this chaplain that a voice had ordered her to kill her children. And then other forensic experts called by the defense said the same thing, and they said she was experiencing psychosis, including Dr. Phil Resnick, who's a forensic psychiatrist, and is like a leading expert on this type of thing. He evaluated Lindsay Clancy. determined that she was experiencing psychosis. He also determined that she wasn't faking it. But the prosecution called its own medical experts, and they said it was very unusual for someone in psychosis to hear a voice only once and never again. And they basically refuted the theory of the defense experts and said it was not psychosis, and she should be held criminally

responsible. I think for postpartum psychosis, it's not really common, but I spoke with a mom who experienced it, and it sounds incredibly frightening. I went to sort of from feeling a little off all day to suddenly believing people were watching me. They say it can come on suddenly. Someone can start with symptoms like anxiety or paranoia, and then they can quickly become delusional. I don't think that there's a lot known about it. Now, what has come out during this trial is that postpartum depression affects a lot of new mothers, one in seven, I think, are the statistics. Postpartum psychosis is not as common. That's estimated to affect one to two of every one. 1,000 births.

So, but it does seem as if there hasn't been a lot of education of the medical providers about postpartum health and how to help new moms after they give birth. But there's not even agreement among medical experts about when the postpartum period is. And this was also brought up at trial. Some define it as being four weeks after births. Some define the postpartum period as being a year. Medical experts said she didn't have postpartum psychosis because she wasn't postpartum. Her son was eight months old.

She was out of that definition. So it clearly shows that there is a lack of clarity about how to deal with postpartum issues. And I wasn't aware of that. I didn't realize that there wasn't clarity or agreement about how to do this and how to help new mothers. And I also think, you know, a lot of new moms, I'm a mom, you know, they may rally for their children, right? They may not show what's going on all the time. And it may be difficult to know exactly how much they might be struggling. At the start of this trial, they had a witness list of almost 200 people.

There was always an opportunity for, say, a plea deal or something else to happen, but because it's a first-degree murder case, it goes before a jury. Jury selection finished today in the trial of Lindsay Clancy. Well, I think the jury has a lot to think about, right? The jury has to think about the legal definitions involved here, and there are several options that they can think about, first-degree murder or second-degree murder or manslaughter or not guilty because of a lack of criminal responsibility,

because of her mental state. So then they have to not only think about the legal complexities of all of those definitions, but they also need to think about the mental health complexities and how to define exactly what Lindsay Clancy was experiencing. more than three years ago. Based on conflicting testimony from medical experts,

based on what they heard from her medical providers, based on what they heard from her family, her medical records, they have a lot of information to go through. And I don't necessarily think it's limbo.

Most of the legal experts that I spoke with said it's really, with this long of a trial, a five-week-long trial and all of the things that they have to consider being slow to reach a verdict.

is not that unusual. A friend of mine called me and she said, why can't you just come out for lunch? They're only deliberating, right? And no, it is, we're on verdict watch at the moment. So that means that you go in and you get to court by 9 a.m. The judge calls the jury in. You need to get in line.

All the media get in. And then the public gets in. and then they call the judge in, and then they call the jury in. This court's not a session. And then you hear the instructions to the jury every day, which are usually the same ones. Then the jury leaves to deliberate, and the judge will make any announcements at that point. Then the judge will call a recess, and you wait in the hallway. Basically, you wait near the door because all of a sudden the court officers will open the door and say,

okay. And when the jury has something to say, it's public. So then you go through that whole process again. The media will get called in. The public will get called in. The judge will come in. You all rise. You sit down. The jury's called in. All parties are present, including the defendant and including the 18 jurors. You sit down and then you figure out why the jury was called in. And today they were called in because they announced that they could not reach a unanimous verdict. And so then the judge said, well, I realized that this is a complicated case. I know that this was a long trial. You've heard from more than 80 witnesses and you've reviewed more than 300 exhibits,

but I'm asking you to go back and try again. I'm going to ask you to go back out, keeping in mind all the instructions that I gave you. So they went back again. This was probably 10.15 this morning. and then you go out in the hall and you wait again. And you need to be near the door to hear if the court officers might call you in for a jury question or another jury comment or perhaps the verdict. It's pretty stressful, actually.

It's stressful because you don't know. You're afraid to get up from the bench where you're sitting because you don't know if they're going to call and call everyone into the room again. And so you need to get in the room to hear what's going on. You have no idea when that's going to happen. Seriously, you don't want to go to the restroom because you are afraid that they're going to call you in and you might miss something or not be able to.

I have the one audio hookup that's there for radio. So I do not want to lose my spot where I can hook up to the court audio. I have to kind of get my elbows out a little bit and kind of make sure I get my seat. And then, of course, the whole media circus of this. And it's all over social media. And it is constantly on, you know, all of the networks as well as YouTube and other sites. So it's turned into a real circus.

Would you show the same mercy to Lindsay if she had killed your children? Would you opt for keeping her out of prison because, She was having a hard time mentally and she had been taking pills on and off. Probably not. All of us cannot have just been gaslit and made up this conspiracy that Patrick did it. We all can't be wrong. Oh, yeah. You absolutely can. And you are. There's a ton of misinformation online.

And I think there certainly have been. things circulated about whether her former husband Patrick Clancy may have had some kind of involvement in the children's deaths and all sorts of bad information that I've seen. I will say that I saw Patrick Clancy testify for two days and I also was in court when they played the 911 call that Patrick made when he found Lindsay outside and I don't know how any of that. everybody after hearing that could really believe that that wasn't real. I think everybody wants closure, right? Everybody wants to see which way this is going to go.

So I think people want an answer. They want to know what's going to happen. And if it's a hung jury, right, it'll be a mistrial. I am in Plymouth. I am drinking a large coffee. I have so many empty coffee cups in my car. I really have to clean my car. I have had so much coffee. It's my favorite new spot. I come to this Dunkin' Donuts at least twice a day. So today, Thursday, September 3rd, went back to court thinking there would be some sort of an outcome to this case today. The jury reported that it was deadlocked twice. That's the second time the jury's reported that. The judge, gave them formal legal instructions, telling them to keep trying to reach a verdict.

And typically when that's done, if the jurors then don't reach a verdict, the judge declares a mistrial. So I thought that by the end of Thursday, we would have either a verdict or the declaration of a mistrial, ended up with neither of those things. What happened in court today was that the judge called everyone back in after jurors had been deliberating. the entire day, really, until about three o'clock in the afternoon, and said that the jury passed a note. He called the prosecution and the defense to a sidebar, and the defense attorney Kevin Reddington was very animated and appeared angry while he was talking with the judge in the prosecution, and we weren't sure what was going on because we couldn't hear the sidebar.

then defense attorney Reddington wheeled Lindsay Clancy in her wheelchair up to the judge, and they called in each of the 12 jurors, swore them in, and asked them a question under oath. Later in that proceeding, they brought the jury back in, and the judge read them the definition of reasonable doubt and said that they had to consider this case and feel that the evidence presented, proved their verdict beyond a reasonable doubt. And he reminded them that if they felt that they couldn't agree that something was proven beyond a reasonable doubt on the part of the prosecution, then it was the jury's responsibility to acquit the defendant.

The jurors then left the room, and Kevin Redington, the defense attorney, made a motion to ask the judge to replace one of the jurors. with an alternate juror because he said that there was one holdout juror and all of the 11 were on the other side. And he said he wanted one of the alternates to come in because that one holdout was not obeying the law on reasonable doubt. The prosecution then said, we only have a note from the juror that there's one holdout. We don't know what that means and the court should not intervene. The judge refused the defense motion to replace a juror with an alternate juror, and the jury went back to deliberate. About a half hour later, they were excused for the day, and deliberations will continue for a seventh day on Friday.

This court's now in session. We've received it. Here I, for the purpose of the record, we retreated present for the court, 12 deliberating jurors and six alternates in the matter, Carmeloff versus Lindsay Clancy, all other parties are present. All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. All right, members of the jury, at this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mis trial. And I just kind of wanted to let you know. I understood how hard everybody worked in this case.

I understood that you all gave everything you could and probably more than you thought you could. I just kind of wanted to thank you behalf of myself. in behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And the matter of Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy, the court declares a mistrial. All prior bail orders remain in full force in effect. This matter is continued to September 29th, 2026 at 9 a.m. for status, trial assignment and the Rule 25 motion in Plymouth. All right.

All right. This episode was reported and voiced by me, Deborah Becker. produced by Ben Brock Johnson and Amy Gorell, edited by Dave Shaw. Additional editorial guidance from Elizabeth Harrison, sound design by Paul Likis. To find more of our reporting on the Clancy case, go to wbUR.org.