Part 2–Inside Filicide and the Clancy Trial

Patrick describes her as having one of the best days the day that she committed this is because maybe she was at peace with her decision in knowing that this-- I'm gonna have a great day with my kids.

This is gonna be the best day.

I'm gonna do all the things with them and- Mm-hmm ... put herself out of her suffering, and in her mind, put her children out of that same suffering.

Because I think in her mind, she was probably like, "My kids will be more devastated without me." And I- Because as a mother, I don't know, and I think this might be normal, but maybe it's not.

I do it.

I can't help but think ahead, where I try to imagine, like, where my kids are gonna be at different stages of development.

And sometimes it crosses my mind a little bit where it's like, oh my God, if something ever happens to me, what would happen to them? Your thoughts just go off.

So if she was so severely depressed and so severely wanted out of this world, it is possible in that despair and that depression that she felt like, I don't wanna traumatize my children by committing suicide, and that's how they're gonna remember me by.

Which- Hmm ... that could be a little bit of the personality of the- The narcissism ...

the narcissism.

It could be.

It's to say, did she know what she was doing in that moment? I think you'll never know, but I do think that you can plan a murder and still not be in your right state of mind.

Absolutely.

Especially if the feeling that this is for the greater good, I am better off, they are better off.

If that outweighed the risk of...

Also, she didn't wanna live.

So really, in her mind, she's thinking, I just gotta get through this terrible act of, like, taking my children's lives, and then I'm gonna take my life, and- Right ... we'll all be together in the end.

She ended up not succeeding, and she woke up, and now she has to live with it.

But, like- Yeah.

I- I don't know.

Let's not forget that she-- If she was successful, we wouldn't be having trial.

I think a lot of people, too, can't separate that, okay, yes, she killed her kids.

That's a fact.

But it's not from, like, child maltreatment.

That's also a type of filicide.