[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Lindsay Clancy, a mother who allegedly murdered her three children, claimed to her psychologist she heard a “male voice” urging her to kill her kids before the tragic incident.
As we reported, the 32-year-old labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital was spending her week off with her husband Patrick Clancy, and their kids Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. Patrick left home on January 24 to run an errand, leaving the children alone with his wife for only 20 minutes… a decision that would later turn fatal.
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When the father returned home, according to Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague, he was met with a horrific scene. He found a broken window in his upstairs bedroom along with blood on the frame, soon after finding his wife on the front lawn suffering from injuries — she had attempted suicide. Later on, while on the phone with police, the father’s screams “seemed to grow louder and louder”. That was when he found Cora, Dawson, and Callan with exercise bands wrapped around their “little necks.” He later reportedly yelled, “She killed the kids!” when first responders arrived. Cora and Dawson passed that same day, but little Callan held on for three days before eventually succumbing to his injuries. So, so sad…
Lindsay was allegedly struggling heavily with postpartum depression and psychosis, and despite never having a formal diagnosis, she was taking medication — but could her medication be to blame?
Attorney Kevin Reddington claimed in court Tuesday the mother of three had “been unable to express any happiness, or sadness, or cry” in the time before the alleged murders took place and that her prescriptions of medicine including Seroquel and Prozac which have “homicidal ideation” as a side effect:
“[Clancy] was … a beautiful person who was destroyed by this medication … She was a shell of herself, no personality. Right up to the very end when she was so bad that she voluntarily turned herself in.”
Just heartbreaking…
He also noted Lindsay suffered a spinal cord injury after jumping from her home’s window that’s left her paralyzed from the waist down:
“She can’t walk … she can’t even go to the bathroom.”
Reddington claimed the woman was failed by the health care system due to how it treats women with postpartum depression and psychosis. In her journal, she touched on the lives of her kids and how she was suffering, mentioning she had “a touch” of postpartum anxiety prior to the murders. He also said Lindsay told her psychologist she heard a “male voice” who was telling her to carry out the killings. Chilling…
Auditory hallucinations are a serious complication of both Prozac and Seroquel, so it’s quite possible this poor mother was experiencing side effects from her medication.
The 32-year-old appeared in court via a video call from the hospital she’s currently in on Tuesday where a judge declined to set a bail and said she must stay in the current facility until reassessment. She appeared to get emotional and wipe away her tears when prosecutors alleged she was completely “lucid” during the killings and “created” the scenario in which her husband left so she could strangle her children. In response to Reddington’s claims she heard voices, prosecutors argued her condition had been improving since her stay at McClean Hospital earlier in January:
“[Clancy] strangled the children in the place they should have felt safest: at home, with their mom.”
Her difficult court case comes just weeks after Patrick begged the public to forgive his wife, writing on the GoFundMe for his family’s medical and final expenses:
“I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have. The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone – me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace.”
Mental health, especially that of mothers, should be talked about more openly and freely. It’s estimated nearly 20% of all expectant women experience some form of depression or anxiety. If we knew how to treat it better, we could learn to avoid such tragic incidents.
Our hearts continue to be with the Clancy family.
[Image via YouTube/WCVB Channel 5/GoFundMe]
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