Lindsay Clancy is accused of killing her three young kids before attempting suicide on Jan. 24, 2023. (image via Facebook)
Search warrants unsealed ahead of 32-year-old Lindsay Clancy’s scheduled Thursday arraignment in the deaths of her three young children reveal that the suspect’s “researching ways to kill” ahead of the January slayings is central to the state’s case that she premeditated the charged strangulation murders.
As ordered by Plymouth County Superior Court Justice William F. Sullivan, Clancy will be arraigned via Zoom from Tewksbury Hospital — a Massachusetts facility that treats “patients with both significant mental health issues and complex medical needs.” The defendant has remained at the hospital ever since she allegedly murdered 5-year-old Cora Clancy, 3-year-old Dawson Clancy, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy before trying to take her own life by jumping out of a window at home.
The search warrants detailed that information learned from two notebooks and one cell phone found at the shocking scene inside the Duxbury residence formed the basis for additional searches of several other devices: A tablet in a blue case found in the kitchen; an HP Pavilion laptop recovered from a basement office; a silver Dell XPS laptop located in a first floor closet; and a pink Apple iPhone found in a second-floor dresser of the bedroom where “it appeared [Clancy] cut her wrists and neck before jumping out of the window.”
Investigators said that Clancy’s notebooks showed that she documented the various medications she was taking and that she had suicidal thoughts prior to the Jan. 24 tragedy.
“Located in the basement was a brown notebook. Located in a kitchen cabinet was as [sic] separate multi-colored notebook,” the documents said. “In both notebooks, Ms. Clancy listed medications she was taking and at times suicidal expressions and thoughts.”
Authorities further said that they were “aware” Lindsay Clancy’s cell phone and journal entries contained details about her mental state, how she felt about her kids, and indicated she had researched “ways to kill.”
“In these notebooks, Ms. Clancy also expresses that she confides in friends, one named ‘Sue’ but does not list last names in the notebooks,” the warrants continued. Investigators are also aware that Ms. Clancy used her cellular telephone and journal to document her mental state and her feelings about her children, in addition to keeping track of her medications, and researching ways to kill [.]”
The documents, spanning well above 100 pages, requested access to the devices to search for even more evidence — whether in videos, photos, notes, internet searches, calls logs, emails, voicemails, or social media history — in effort to prove premeditation beyond a reasonable doubt by showing consciousness of guilt.
Back in September, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced Clancy’s indictment on three charges each of murder and strangulation in the asphyxiation deaths of Cora Clancy, Dawson, and Callan. The three children were found by their father Patrick Clancy “unconscious and with obvious signs of severe trauma” in the basement of their home, and warrants specified that the young victims had “workout bands” around their necks.
Tragically, Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead on Jan. 24 at the hospital, and Callan died days later.
Prosecutors have already alleged that the evidence indicated the defendant had planned the murders in a calculated way, asking her husband to go out for a time-consuming errand that she knew would give her enough time to kill her children in the basement of her home before jumping out of a window to take her own life.
In support of the argument that Clancy planned the murders, prosecutors said there was evidence that she searched how long it would take for her husband to pick up takeout food from the Plymouth restaurant ThreeV.
While running an errand at CVS, Patrick Clancy called his wife to make sure he had grabbed the laxative for their daughter that his wife had asked him to buy. Though he didn’t think of anything of it at the time, he said it “seemed like she was in the middle of something.”
When he got home, he immediately knew that something was wrong, as the house was completely silent. Prosecutors said Patrick Clancy “saw blood on the floor” and “the window open.” When he ran downstairs, he found a seriously injured Lindsay Clancy outside and asked her: “What did you do?”
Defense lawyer Kevin Reddington, however, has maintained that Lindsay Clancy was overmedicated on 13 different psychiatric drugs and that there was possibly “a component” of postpartum depression to the case. He said his client was suicidal and that the killings were “a product of mental illness.”
The search warrants detailed that Lindsay Clancy was prescribed Zoloft by a psychiatrist and that she was further prescribed Valium, Trazadone, Ativan, Klonopin, Prozac, and Seroquel.
“Patrick Clancy states that Lindsay Clancy would take as many as four medications a day, however she would take them as prescribed,” documents said, noting that the warning signs of suicidal ideations were there at the end of the December 2022.
The warrants discussed how Patrick Clancy confided in a longtime friend and that man’s wife that Lindsay Clancy said she had been having thoughts since late December of harming the children and herself, resulting in Lindsay self-admitting herself to McClean Hospital from New Year’s Day to Jan. 5.
The friend, who along with his wife went to college with Patrick Clancy and sent their children to the same day care, had Patrick, Lindsay, Cora and Dawson over for dinner just two days before the horrifying slayings.
“While there, Lindsay seemed fairly normal, mostly quiet while on her phone and keeping to herself. [The friend] was actually surprised that she was there due to Pat’s statements about her health and he didn’t know she was coming that night. He stated that overall everything seemed perfectly normal and this was the first time they had seen Lindsay in a couple of months,” the warrants summarized the witness account.
Patrick Clancy’s friend said he was told Lindsay was about to return to work and was experiencing anxiety, that Patrick believed Lindsay was addicted to benzodiazepines and experiencing withdrawals, and that the husband was concerned his wife was exhibiting the worst side effects possible.
“Pat felt as if Lindsay was not overly anxious and that the anxiety level was normal and not severe,” the non-verbatim witness account continued. “According to Pat, Lindsay had joked about talking to a therapist about her anxiety.”
The friend told police that Patrick Clancy worked for Microsoft and that the two interacted in a group text earlier in the day on Jan. 24, everything seeming normal. The witness interview ended with the statement that Patrick felt Lindsay was overprescribed but that he had not voiced concern Lindsay might actually harm herself.
While in the family room of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, a distraught Patrick Clancy told police during an interview that he and his wife had an “amazing marriage,” that they “Got along great,” and that they told each other they love each other 10 times a day.
Days after his whole family was taken from him, Patrick Clancy said in a lengthy statement that he found the strength to forgive his wife of six years:
I want to share some thoughts about Lindsay. She’s recently been portrayed largely by people who have never met her and never knew who the real Lindsay was. Our marriage was wonderful and diametrically grew stronger as her condition rapidly worsened. I took as much pride in being her husband as I did in being a father and felt persistently lucky to have her in my life. I still remember the very moment I first laid eyes on her and can recall how overcome I was with the kind of love at first sight you only see in movies. It really didn’t take long before I was certain I wanted to marry her. We said “I love you” to each other multiple times daily, as if it were a reflex. We habitually started every morning with a passionate hug, yielding a sigh of relief like we had each received the perfect medicine. If too much time passed with out a hug, she’d look at me and ask, “did you forget?” We mutually understood the reality that people can have bad days, but we stuck to the rule that when one of us got lost, the other was always there to bring them home, always. She loved being a nurse, but nothing matched her intense love for our kids and dedication to being a mother. It was all she ever wanted. Her passion taught me how to be a better father.
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.
When Lindsay Clancy appeared in court for the first time in February, she was in a hospital bed and wearing a mask for the Zoom court proceeding — and she affirmed to the judge that she understood what was happening.
Lindsay Clancy appears on Zoom during her arraignment from a hospital bed on Feb. 7, 2023.
Her latest arraignment is set to begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
Read the search warrants here.
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