TRIAL BY TIKTOK: Mum Accused of Ki-lli-ng Her Three Children Sparks Fierce US Debate as Chilling Claims of Postpartum Psychosis Divide Public Opinion
HOME alone with her three children, Lindsay Clancy allegedly heard a chilling male voice instructing her: “This is your last chance. You have to kill the kids so you can kill yourself.”
Not long after, the mum led her three children into the basement and strangled them one-by-one with exercise bands. She then cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-storey bedroom window.
Jurors in the trial of Lindsay Clancy remain in deadlock after a fifth day of deliberationsCredit: Reuters
The mum is accused of murdering her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old CallanCredit: Plymouth Superior Court
Clancy, 36, survived but was paralysed from the waist down that fateful day in January 2023 and over the past six weeks, the horrifying details have unfolded in the court, where the mum is being tried for three counts of first-degree murder.
The killing, which happened in Duxbury, Massachusetts, has gripped America and the world in what has been named “a trial by TikTok”.
There are more than 300,000 videos about it on the Gen-Z favourite social media platform that have collectively racked up hundreds of millions of views – often from armchair sleuths discussing and debating what really happened.
Some label the mum an “evil” murderer but others claim she cannot be held responsible due to her waning mental health – which the prosecution allege intensified after the birth of her third child.
While Clancy does not deny the vicious killings of Cora, aged five, Dawson, three, and baby Callan, who was just eight months old, she alleges she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis.
On the day of the killing, January 24. she claimed to have heard a male voice instructing her to murder the children and then herself, which she labelled a “command hallucination”.
After sending her husband Patrick to pick up a takeaway, Clancy alleges she was taken over by a mysterious force and “felt an overwhelming, irresistible compulsion to comply” with the chilling demands.
Roughly 45-minutes later when her husband returned, the house was “unusually quiet” and he soon discovered the grizzly scene. An upstairs bedroom floor was stained with blood and the window was open.
On the ground below, lay semi-conscious Clancy, whose body was broken from the fall. Patrick called 911 and not long after discovered the children. Two were in the basement’s den, the other in his home office. All of them still had the exercise bands around their throats.
The trial has been an international circus since it began in July with sleuths, fans and intrigued people travelling from hundreds of miles away to watch the case unfold in court.
One lady told The Sun Clancy was being treated as if she was “Taylor Swift” by a pink-clad mob protesting her innocence. Some have verbally abused and harassed those involved in the trial.
The jury, consisting of nine women and three men, today remained deadlocked for a second time in a row having been unable to reach a unanimous decision over whether she is guilty of murder.
It’s feared that the case could end in a mistrial due to the jury’s verdict struggles. This would lead to a retrial with the same or a new jury, a negotiated plea agreement or the charges being dropped altogether.
If the outcome is not guilty, former nurse Clancy could still be hospitalised in an “asylum for the criminally insane”, psychologist and attorney Jean Cirillo told The Sun.
This could see her locked away for longer than if she were to go to prison, she says. Equally if “the doctors say she’s ok… she’s free to go out”.
Cirillo, who doubts she would get less time in a psychiatric hospital, adds: “It’s not a get out of jail free card. You might get out of jail, but you’re going into a locked institution.”
Prior to the killings, Clancy was known to have struggled with her mental health – with it claimed she spoke to multiple healthcare providers for symptoms including suicide ideation, intrusive thoughts and insomnia.
She had experienced postpartum anxiety following the births of her first two children and when the third arrived in 2022, the feelings intensified.
By December that year, Clancy – who had been prescribed a range of antipsychotic drugs in the past – called a suicide hotline twice and spoke about suffering with hallucinations.
She also had been referred for hospitalisation twice and twice visited the emergency room while battling suicidal thoughts. She declined impatient treatment.
Unbeknown to Clancy’s loved ones, that month she had searched for information online about medication, bipolar disorder, hallucinations and also insomnia – alongside other chilling things.
They included “Where is the carotid artery”, “How to slit your throat to die”, “Can you turn airbags off on Kia Sorento”, and “Can you treat a sociopath?”
In court, husband Patrick insisted “my wife is not bipolar”, following the defence’s suggestion that the disorder may have contributed to her horrific acts.
On New Year’s Eve 2022, Clancy began voluntary inpatient treatment at a highly-ranked psychiatric institution, where she was diagnosed with “major depressive disorder, severe, without psychotic features”.
After several nights of good sleep she discharged herself on January 5 but within weeks her mental health started “deteriorating” according to her psychiatrist Jennifer Tufts.
On the morning of the killings, Clancy told Patrick she was feeling “good” and slept “pretty well” but was concerned about her daughter Cora having a stomach ache.
She searched laxatives online and later dispatched her husband to pick a bottle of a popular kid-friendly brand as well as a takeaway.
Patrick left the house around 5.15pm and returned at 6pm. The horrors he witnessed are unimaginable. First he found his severely injured wife and then the children.
Clancy’s lawyers have claimed postpartum psychosis contributed to the killingsCredit: Facebook
Clancy jumped out of the window of a second-storey bedroom after killing the childrenCredit: Reuters
Clancy sustained spinal cord injuries from the fall and currently remains paralysed from the waist-down. In hospital she was revived from cardiac arrest and received multiple blood transfusions.
She requested to sign a ‘do not resuscitate’ order but doctors refused due to her suicide attempt and concerns she was not in the right frame of mind to make such a decision.
The couple’s daughter Cora, five, and Dawson, three, were pronounced dead in hospital. Eight-month-old Callan was found to be brain dead due to lack of oxygen and was removed from life support three days after the attack.
The debate surrounding Clancy’s mental health has been rife since the trial began on July 20. She alleges postpartum psychosis and other illnesses on the mind fueled her bone-chilling actions.
Both Clancy and Patrick have also filed lawsuits against multiple health care providers who she consulted. They allege the companies’ medical malpractice and negligence contributed to the killings.
Patrick quietly remarried, tying the knot with Dr Rachel Danis in Spring this year, and has launched the charity Heard Foundation, which is battling to ensure “no parent faces perinatal mental illness in silence and no family is left behind”.
The prosecution believed Clancy should be found guilty of first degree murders. They allege she acted “intentionally, rationally, and swiftly” to end the children’s lives.
Since the trial began, hundreds have flocked to the courtroom each day to follow the case – many express support for Clancy’s plea.
Others are attempting to profit from it by sharing lengthy TikTok posts about proceedings, which can earn them clout, followers and monetary payments from the social media platform.
It has been dubbed a “Trial by TikTok” due to armchair sleuths positing so many conspiracy theories – including that one jury member’s decision to wear pink, a colour embraced by not-guilty supporters, was an indication of her thoughts about the case.
Another stemmed from closing statements, where Clancy was believed to mouth “he did it” twice. It was unclear if those were her words but it happened while her attorney said Clancy “knows loss”, named the children and said they were victims of a “horrible, horrific act”.
Sleuths theorised that this could mean husband Patrick was guilty of the killings – despite there being no evidence and nothing to suggest he had any involvement in the attacks.
The fanfare surrounding the case was labelled the “Karen Read effect” by Boston reporter Dave Wedge – referring to a murder trial, which similarly saw hundreds of not-guilty supporters amass, all wearing pink and often carrying pom-poms.
Read was acquitted of killing her former boyfriend John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, whose body was discovered outside a party in January 2022.
The first case ended in a mistrial in 2024 due the jury being deadlocked. A year later, she was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Wedge believes “social media does have a place in all this” and “value”, arguing that amateur sleuths have “expertise in certain areas” that could be vital for cases.
He told us: “A lot of these people are helping the defense solve the situation because they’re bringing forward information that the defense may or may not have had.”
However, Wedge stated when this form of ‘activism’ leads to those involved in the trial and victims’ families being verbally abused by the mobs, it crosses a line.
The mum-of-three had suffered with mental health issues prior to the killingsCredit: Facebook/ Lindsay Marie Clancy
Hundreds of ‘not-guilty’ supporters have amassed outside the court in Plymouth, MasachussettsCredit: Getty
He added: “When you’re shouting things at victims and being disrespectful of the families of people who’ve lost their loved ones, that’s where you lost me.”
Kimberly Souza, 58, who has watched the legal proceedings unfold, has described ‘fans’ treating Clancy like she is Taylor Swift when she appears at court – much to her horror.
“The first day the pink shirt people showed up, what I noticed was that they didn’t talk very much about the kids,” the mum-of-three told The Sun.
“And when Lindsay showed up in the Sheriffs van, it was as if Taylor Swift showed up. It was absolutely disgusting to me.”
Today, the jury were unable to reach a unanimous decision for a second time and tomorrow they will now enter their sixth day of deliberations.
But regardless of when a verdict is made, the case will be far from over.
For the trial will likely still continue to play out for days, weeks, months, even years online.
In the world of “trial by TikTok” rational reasoning and evidence seldom comes into play and are often trumped by unverified ‘information’, hearsay and conspiracy.
It would appear through their incessant obsession, that the harrowing deaths of three children have been long forgotten as they clamour for online fame and money.
For these amateur, armchair detectives the horrors and suffering that occurred fall by the wayside as they excitedly battle one another to try to ‘solve the case’ themselves.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
