The Entire Courtroom Fell Silent When Lindsay Clancy’s First Words to Chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh After She Was Able to Speak Were Revealed: Every Word She Uttered Felt Like a Knife to the Heart of Every Mother
THE chaplain who visited Lindsay Clancy in the hospital after her suicide attempt has revealed the first things she said to her after being extubated.
Lindsay was placed in the ICU following her attempt to kill herself after strangling her three children on January 24, 2023.
Lindsay Clancy (pictured August 20) faces three murder charges for strangling her three children to death in 2023Credit: AP
Sheila Cavanaugh (pictured August 20), a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, revealed the first thing Lindsay said to her after medical staff extubated herCredit: AP
Lindsay, now 36, was rushed to the hospital after she cut herself with a knife from her kitchen and jumped from her second-story bedroom window, which ultimately left her paralyzed from the waist down.
On the morning of January 25, 2023, Lindsay met with chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she had been transferred to for additional treatment.
Cavanaugh said Lindsay’s unit was “flooded” with law enforcement, who were executing a search warrant, and hospital security on that day.
“She was dressed in medical armor. She was just covered and layered in equipment that enabled her to breathe,” she said.
Lindsay Clancy mystery as jurors called to speak one-to-one with judge
“She had tubes, she was intubated, she had bandages, she had a neck brace.”
Cavanaugh said she saw Lindsay again on January 31, 2023, where she was finally able to speak after no longer being intubated.
“She was covered, tubes everywhere, the neck brace. Her emotional state was very neutral, flat affect.”
Cavanaugh said she prayed with Lindsay in the days previous, and said the first thing Lindsay told her was, “I am so glad my children are safe.”
“I replied, theologically to Lindsay, and I said, ‘Lindsay your children are safe, they’re safe in heaven with God.’
“And I held her hand throughout that conversation, and we prayed for them.”
Cavanaugh said Lindsay during their conversations, the former labor and delivery nurse alluded to hearing a voice in her head that told her it was her “last chance” to kill the kids and herself.
“According to Lindsay, [the voice] told her that if she did not follow the command neither she nor her children would be safe,” the chaplain testified.
Lindsay seen in a hospital bed at South Shore Hospital before she was transferred to Brigham and Women’s Hospital after her suicide attempt in January 2023Credit: Reuters
Cavanaugh said Lindsay also brought up the voice she heard before she killed her kids in several of their conversationsCredit: AP
She added that Lindsay alluded to it being a “male voice and it was persistent.”
Cavanaugh said she visited Lindsay roughly 14 times while she was at Brigham and Women’s, and that the voice Lindsay heard came up several times in their chats.
Cavanaugh continued to visit with Lindsay at the various places she received treatment, revealing she saw Lindsay upwards of 200 times since she was admitted to Tewksbury Hospital, a state psychiatric facility, in May 2023.
“Lindsay talks frequently about her children, she loves them deeply, she carries immense grief,” the chaplain said, which was immediately objected by the prosecution before the judge overruled.
Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy were found with exercise bands around their necks in the basement of their Massachusetts homeCredit: Facebook
Lindsay has not denied killing her kids, and is instead seeking an insanity defense in her murder trialCredit: Instagram/heardwithlove
In some of her notes, Cavanaugh wrote about how Lindsay expressed fears of not being able to walk again and was hopeful about being transferred to a rehabilitation center.
Closing arguments are expected to come in Lindsay’s murder trial on Monday or Tuesday, according to Judge William Sullivan, who is overseeing the trial.
Lindsay has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges, but has admitting to killing her three children: five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington has argued that Lindsay was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings, and she was therefore not criminally responsible for murder.
The prosecution, who rested their case on Monday, argued Lindsay acted deliberately and intentionally in killing her children.
On January 24, 2023, Lindsay strangled her kids with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home, while her then-husband Patrick Clancy was briefly out of the house.
After Patrick returned home from picking up takeout and medicine for Cora from CVS, he found Lindsay on the ground in the backyard.
Patrick called 911, and said in his testimony that Lindsay told him the kids were “in the basement.”
Lindsay’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington (pictured August 20) is expected to rest his case on August 21 or August 24Credit: Reuters
Lindsay’s then-husband Patrick Clancy found her in the backyard after her suicide attemptCredit: Facebook
Patrick then found his three kids motionless on the floor, and removed the exercise bands from around their necks.
Dawson and Cora were pronounced dead soon after arriving to the hospital and Callan was taken off life support three days later.
If Lindsay is found to not be criminally responsible, she will be committed to a state mental health facility.
If the jury convicts her, she faces life in prison without parole.
If you or someone you know needs help or support for their mental health, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected with a certified crisis counselor.
SOURCE: THE SUN
https://www.the-sun.com/news/16871419/lindsay-clancy-chaplain-recalls-response-after-strangling-kids-safe/
