Home The case
What is actually being decided
A factual summary, compiled from public court reporting. It is written to inform, not to argue a verdict — and it presents the prosecution's case alongside the defense's.
This page contains descriptions of the deaths of three children and of suicidal ideation. If that is not something you want to read today, the donation page requires none of it, and support lines are here.
The children
Cora Clancy was five. Dawson Clancy was three. Callan Clancy was eight months old. They died in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead on January 24; Callan was placed on life support and died on January 27.
Every other fact on this page is downstream of that one, and nothing in the legal argument that follows makes it smaller.
What is not in dispute
Lindsay Clancy's defense has never contended that someone else caused her children's deaths. That she strangled them is not the contested question at this trial, and her attorney has not asked the jury to doubt it.
It is also not in dispute that immediately afterward she went out a second-story window in an attempt to kill herself, and that she survived with injuries that have left her paralysed from the waist down. She has attended her trial in a wheelchair.
The actual question
The jury is being asked to decide whether she was criminally responsible. Massachusetts has used the standard from Commonwealth v. McHoul (1967), which adopted the Model Penal Code test: a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time, as a result of mental disease or defect, they lacked substantial capacity either to
- appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct, or
- conform their conduct to the requirements of law.
Either branch alone is sufficient. The first is cognitive — did she understand it was wrong? The second is volitional — could she have stopped?
Massachusetts is also in the minority of states on the burden of proof. Once the defense raises lack of criminal responsibility with credible evidence, the burden shifts to the Commonwealth to prove she was criminally responsible, beyond a reasonable doubt. She does not have to prove she was insane; prosecutors have to prove she was not.
Timeline
Deterioration
Family members later testified that Lindsay Clancy became increasingly anxious, paranoid, and suicidal in the months after Callan's birth in May 2022. Over roughly this period she was prescribed and cycled through approximately ten different psychiatric medications, and spent time as a patient at McLean Hospital.
She tells her mother
Paula Musgrove testified that her daughter disclosed thoughts of harming the children, and said the medications were destroying her mind.
Her last psychiatric appointment
Dr. Jennifer Tufts, who had seen Clancy across fourteen telehealth appointments over four months, met with her the day before the deaths. She later testified that Clancy "never seemed psychotic" to her, and that she was unaware of any thoughts of harming the children.
Duxbury
At about 6:11 p.m., Duxbury police were called to 47 Summer Street for a report of a woman who had jumped from a window. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that day.
Callan dies
Eight months old, after three days on life support.
Arraignment
Clancy was arraigned from a hospital bed in Boston on three counts each of murder, strangulation, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Indictment
A Plymouth County grand jury returned indictments.
Not guilty plea entered
Arraigned at Tewksbury State Hospital, where she was being held under psychiatric observation. A plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf.
Continuances
The trial was postponed repeatedly while the parties litigated access to psychiatric records and prosecutors sought a reporter's notes from a New Yorker interview with her then-husband. The defense also sought, unsuccessfully, to split the trial into two phases.
Trial begins
Jury selection opened July 20 before Judge William Sullivan in Brockton. Opening statements followed on July 27.
Prosecution rests; defense opens
Paula Musgrove is the defense's first witness.
Defense rests
Ten defense witnesses in under a week. The last is Dr. Philip Resnick, who testifies that Clancy was "frankly psychotic" on the day.
Rebuttal, closings, deliberation
Prosecutors called rebuttal experts. Judge Sullivan indicated closing arguments would follow, after which the case goes to the jury.
Sourcing
Where this came from
Everything above is drawn from published court reporting and primary documents. Trial coverage is provisional by nature — testimony gets clarified, and reporters summarise. Where accounts differed, the more conservative version is used here. Last reviewed August 22, 2026.
- Plymouth County District Attorney's Office — arraignment announcement and charges, February 2023
- CBS News — day-by-day trial testimony
- WBUR — the defense case and Dr. Resnick's testimony
- WBUR — postpartum psychosis and barriers to maternal care
- CNN — defense rests, August 2026
- Courthouse News Service — trial proceedings
- NewsNation — what each possible verdict would mean
- Commonwealth v. McHoul, 352 Mass. 544 (1967) — the criminal responsibility standard
- Mass.gov — model jury instructions on criminal responsibility
- Psychiatric Times — clinical commentary on the case
Found something wrong? Accuracy matters more than persuasion on this page. If a fact here is out of date or misstated, it should be corrected rather than defended — the trial is still moving, and this page will need updating after the verdict.