killing of the Clancy children

Hi, I'm Gemma Bath, host of True Crime Conversations, and welcome back to our miniseries unpacking the case of Lindsay Clancy in Massachusetts, the crime story the entire world can't take their eyes off.

So much has happened since our last episode, The Verdict, where we unpacked the hung jury, so we had to jump back into the studio.

Lindsay Clancy returned to court this week, and while the prosecution said they hadn't decided whether to retry the case yet, we heard a huge change in tact from the defense.

Lindsay's lawyer is now arguing there is not enough evidence she killed her three children in 2023.

It's a huge shift from the trial, where he was arguing she was not criminally responsible because of mental illness.

Before we get to that, let's rewind.

On September 4, 2026, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's triple murder case after the jury became deadlocked following seven days of deliberations.

Unlike here in Australia, once a trial is over, jurors are allowed to go to the media, and that's exactly what happened.

I'm Tammy Trujillo.

A bid to get Lindsey Clancy's murder charges dropped has been thrown out by a judge in Massachusetts.

Judge William Sullivan denied a motion filed by attorney Kevin Reddington on Thursday that would have found her not guilty of murdering her three children.

Stock futures are on the rise.

But, uh, there's that.

Oh, here's an update about Lindsey Clancy.

Judge William Sullivan has denied Lindsey Clancy's motion for a not guilty verdict, so looks like they're probably going to continue.

Oh, I found a picture.

I found a picture.

That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.

In the Lindsey Clancy case, psychosis or criminal responsibility? In this episode of Police Off the Cuff, we examine the critical difference between psychotic behavior and criminal responsibility with guest forensic psychologist, Dr.

Joni Johnson.

and as it also pertains to the Lindsay Clancy case.

So it's much more difficult.

I mean, I was almost like you, Bill, in terms of I was convinced that she's, and I still am, that she was psychotic and also not criminally responsible.

I also expected it to be the 11-1, to be 11 for guilty and one to be a holdout, only because I know the statistics and the odds of ever being successful I mean, I do think Lindsey Clancy had an attorney who fought tooth and nail for her, whether you agree with him or not.

He was certainly on the warpath in terms of, you know, pulling out all the stops.

In January 2023, a quiet Massachusetts town was shaken by the deaths of three young children and the arrest of their mother.

I am, of course, talking about Lindsay Clancy, so a case that's very much in the public eye right now.

It's very much trending.

And what followed would become a deeply complicated case, which we're going to unpick today.

There's some difficult questions about motherhood, about mental illness, about criminal responsibility.

And it's now three years later, and I think it's fair to say that there's still a lot of unanswered questions So we're going to go back to the beginning of the Lindsay Clancy case, what happened with the family, what led up to that horrific night and what happened as the story unfolded in court.

I've got a particular interest in this because obviously as a forensic psychiatrist, this is my area of expertise and I've actually given evidence in other cases of infanticide.

So I've seen quite a few, well, at least two or three mothers who have some sort of psychosis who've ended up killing their children and given evidence.

Last week I told you I'd bring you a case I'd been sitting on for a while.

One that kept surfacing in the comments and the DMs the whole time we were covering Lindsay Clancy.

So here it is.

Before we start, a warning.

We'll be here next week either way.

And there's no shame in stepping away from an episode that isn't good for you today.

in january of 2023 a massachusetts mother named lindsay clancy strangled her three children cora dawson and callan in the home she shared with her husband and then tried to take her own life by jumping from a second story window her case has spent the better part of two years moving through the massachusetts court system and as of this september after a mistrial it's still not resolved her defense has rested almost entirely on one argument That Clancy was in the grip of a postpartum psychotic episode so severe that she had no meaningful control over what her body was doing.

And that a woman in that state cannot be held to the same standard of criminal responsibility as a person of sound mind.

Mo News producer Sari here.

Today, I'm bringing you a conversation centered around the trial of Lindsey Clancy, the woman who's been accused of killing her three children in Massachusetts in January 2023.

Now, Clancy has pleaded not guilty, but her own defense doesn't dispute that she killed her children.

Instead, they're arguing that she shouldn't be held criminally responsible because she was overmedicated and suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.

The prosecution is trying to prove that is not the case and that she planned the whole thing.

So in this conversation, I'm speaking with Dr. Noah Sterling, an OBGYN and mental health expert about postpartum mental illness, what these conditions are, how they differ, and why so many mothers are seeing themselves in this trial.

Now, before we dive in, Dr.

Sterling has never treated Lindsay Clancy and has no access to her medical records.

And as with all things, take what works for you and leave the rest.

So here's my breakdown on the public response to the Lindsey Clancy case.

If you don't know what I'm about to talk about, Lindsey Clancy, a few years ago, strangled her three small children.

This is a case that most recently had a hung jury.

They couldn't come to a decision, and there was no confusion about Lindsay Clancy killing her three children, she admitted to it.

The Case, Lindsay Clancy, 6.11pm, Duxbury, Episode 1.

A

police officer walks down the stairs into a basement in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

A woman had jumped from a second-story window, and that woman was the mother of those three children.

Let's back up a few hours.

According to the account the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office would lay out in the weeks that followed, Lindsay Clancy's day had started like any other Tuesday in January.

A pediatrician's appointment in the morning, then time outside in the snow with her three kids.

Lindsay Clancy was 32 years old.