YOU SHOULD KILL THE KIDS. THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE, SO YOU CAN KILL YOURSELF…! – LINDSAY CLANCY’S CHILLING FINAL WORDS TO HER CHILDREN REVEALED AT TRIAL.
Lindsay Clancy said ‘Go to God’ aloud as she strangled each of her children with exercise bands, a psychiatrist revealed in court during her high-profile murder trial.
Dr Avram Mack, who evaluated the mom-of-three for the state this April, took the stand Friday afternoon inside Plymouth County Superior Court, Massachusetts, as the prosecution began its rebuttal case.
Clancy is charged with first-degree murder for strangling Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, inside the family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023. The labor and delivery nurse then tried to take her own life, cutting her wrists and neck and jumping from a second floor window.
She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing she was suffering from severe postpartum mental illness and depression at the time.
On Friday, jurors heard opposing views from two defense and prosecution witnesses as to whether Clancy was in a state of postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings – and whether or not she lacks criminal responsibility for the killings.
In a courtroom packed to the brim with members of the public – many of them Clancy’s supporters – Dr Mack revealed new details about the mom-of-three’s version of that tragic day.
He said that Clancy told him that she heard a loud, male voice late in the afternoon on the day of the killings.
‘You should kill the kids. This is your last chance, so you can kill yourself,’ the voice allegedly said.
Clancy first took Dawson down into the basement and strangled him with an exercise band, repeatedly saying, ‘Go to God,’ as she killed him, Mack testified.
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Lindsay Clancy said ‘Go to God’ aloud as she strangled each of her young children with an exercise band, a psychiatrist revealed in court
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Dr Avram Mack, the state’s psychiatrist who evaluated Clancy in April, took the stand Friday during her murder trial and testified about the events just before the 2023 killings
He told the court that Clancy then strangled Cora and Callan before retreating to the second-floor master bedroom and attempting to take her own life.
Once upstairs, Mack testified that Clancy took medication, cut her wrists and neck, then ’caused herself to fall from the window’ after cutting the screen.
After laying bare the chilling details of her children’s final moments, the psychiatrist told the court that it was his medical opinion that Clancy did have the mental capacity to be held criminally responsible for the killings.
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Describing some of her actions as ‘methodical’, he said this shows she was able to conform her behavior to the law.
He explained: ‘The deaths were done one by one in a way that was organized and attempted to achieve a particular goal. Her attempt at suicide was also organized in that it included as many methods as possible.’
When asked about the last words Clancy said to her children, he testified that the phrase was ‘not only hope for the children but a description of the situation.’
According to Dr Mack, when Clancy woke after the killings, she was overcome with immediate horror and shame – feelings he said showed she knew what she had done was wrong.
The psychiatrist also testified that Clancy had reported having a ‘good day’ on the day of the killings. Her husband, Patrick, also told investigators that it was the best day she had experienced in a long time.
‘She described the day as being a fun and productive day,’ he said. But he said that behavior was ‘not inconsistent with suicide’ and did not necessarily contradict the depressive disorder she had.
Dr Mack explained that some people experience an improved mood immediately before attempting suicide.
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Mack said Clancy told him that, on the afternoon of the murders, she heard a loud male voice say: ‘You should kill the kids. This is your last chance, so you can kill yourself’
To the psychiatrist, Clancy was suffering from a major depressive episode but was not in a state of psychosis.
His testimony countered the testimony of Dr Phillip Resnick who said that Clancy was ‘frankly psychotic’ at the time of the killings – and could not be held criminally responsible.
Dr Resnick is a very highly-regarded, well-known forensic psychiatrist and expert in filicide – when a parent kills their child. He also has an extensive history of working on postpartum psychosis cases.
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He has previously worked as an expert in the cases of Jeffrey Dahmer, Casey Anthony, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, the Aurora movie theater shooting, the Oklahoma city bombing and Andrea Yates – the mother who killed her five children while suffering from postpartum psychosis.
He testified that, at the defense’s request, he met with and evaluated Clancy in May 2023, about four months after the killings.
He found that she was experiencing ‘command hallucinations’ on the day of the killings and a ‘delusion of influence’ – where it felt as though something else had taken over her body.
‘She had a delusion of influence. Not only did she hear a command but she felt like her body had been taken over by an external force,’ he said.
‘It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings.’
In his expert opinion, Clancy was not able to make decisions but was following the commanding voice.
He testified that Clancy falls into two types of filicide: altruistic filicide – where a parent kills their child out of love, believing they will be better off if they kill them – and acutely psychotic filicide – where someone is acting on their psychotic beliefs.
Clancy believed she would be doing the children a favor by taking them to heaven with her, he said.
His testimony came one day after jurors heard from a chaplain at the hospital where Clancy was treated. Sheila Cavanaugh testified that Clancy told her she was glad the children were ‘safe’ days after the killings.
Dr Resnick diagnosed Clancy with bipolar two disorder with severe depression and found that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her children.
He testified that Clancy had a mental defect at the time of the killings which meant she was unable to conform her conduct to the confines of the law – and thereby lacks criminal responsibility.
Dr Resnick was a key witness to the defense’s case, laying out Clancy’s exact insanity defense.
He became the second psychiatrist – after Dr Paul Zeizel testified earlier in the week – to give his expert opinion that Clancy suffered from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and cannot be held criminally responsible.
While Dr Resnick met with Clancy just four months after the killings, Dr Mack – and the other prosecution expert witnesses – did not meet with and evaluate Clancy until more than three years on from the killings.
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Clancy with her husband Patrick Clancy and two oldest children Cora, five, and Dawson, three
During Dr Resnick’s testimony, it also emerged that one of the prosecution’s own expert witnesses found that Clancy was not faking her symptoms. Dr Kirk Heilbrun actually found that Clancy tended to minimize rather than exaggerate or lie about her symptoms.
Dr Heilbrun is also expected to testify as a rebuttal witness for the state.
The trial will resume on Monday morning with the defense’s cross-examination of Dr Mack expected to continue.
The state then has two more expert witnesses to call: Dr Heilbrun and Dr Gregory Saathof as prosecutors push back against the insanity defense.
Closing arguments could take place as soon as Tuesday.
If convicted, Clancy will be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be sent to a psychiatric unit where she will come up for periodical review.
