6 days ago
Lindsay Clancy trial set for 2026 as prosecutors seek husband's statements to New Yorker
Prosecutors in the case against Lindsay Clancy, a 34-year-old Duxbury mother accused of killing her three children in January 2023, seek to obtain notes and recordings from an interview her husband gave to The New Yorker magazine.
During a Wednesday hearing in Plymouth Superior Court, prosecutors asked the judge to order the publication to hand over the information.
Clancy, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was indicted two years ago on three counts of murder and strangulation in the deaths of her three children: Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 7-month-old Callan. She is being held for court-ordered treatment at Tewksbury Hospital.
Her case has renewed attention surrounding perinatal and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, also known as PMADs. One of the disorders, postpartum psychosis — which Clancy's defense attorney has referenced in court — is rare and affects one or two in a thousand women.
Read more: It's been 2 years since Lindsay Clancy's children were killed: What we know
Clancy appeared for a motion hearing via Zoom during which prosecutors and her attorney, Kevin Reddington, laid the groundwork for her upcoming trial in 2026.
Patrick Clancy has since moved to Manhattan after his wife's indictment, and told The New Yorker that he hoped to root out 'lies and misinformation' surrounding her case.
'I wasn't married to a monster — I was married to someone who got sick,' Patrick Clancy said in an article published in October 2024.
In a GoFundMe started by Patrick Clancy only days after the children died, he wrote, 'The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring … All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace.'
In the days after the killings, Clancy's attorney said at her arraignment that she suffered from severe mental illness at the time, dealt with complications from overmedication and grappled with postpartum depression — and potentially postpartum psychosis.
On Wednesday, prosecutors said they're looking for 'the entirety of the statements and the context of those statements' made by Patrick Clancy to the New Yorker reporter to better understand Lindsay Clancy's mental state leading up to and immediately after the children's deaths.
An attorney for the New Yorker was not present in the courtroom Wednesday, but prosecutors noted an email that indicated the media company was 'not taking a position' on the filed motion.
Read more: Prosecutors to file motion to access Lindsay Clancy's medical records
'Most significantly, the defendant's husband does report statements that the defendant made about the actual crime itself,' Prosecutor Julianne Campbell said.
Additionally, there are statements attributed to Lindsay Clancy referenced in the article that 'she made to others in her life ... both before and after the events' she is charged in connection with, prosecutors said.
Because Clancy is pursuing what's known as the insanity defense — therefore making her state of mind 'squarely at issue,' prosecutors said — and she has not made any statements to law enforcement, the records are crucial to prosecutors for their understanding of her mental health.
Reddington did not object to the prosecution's motion for discovery.
'The way I analyze it is that this reporter or author, Lindsay never participated with him. We made no statements, we had nothing to do with this report and ultimate article whatsoever,' Reddington said.
Reddington said he will 'embrace and adopt and welcome' the statements Clancy's husband, friends and co-workers made that she was 'a wonderful person, an incredible mother, a lovely human being,' and would 'welcome access to those statements as well.'
Judge William F. Sullivan allowed the prosecution to seek the records through an interstate process, with a possible 90-day timeline.
A final pretrial conference is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2026. Clancy's case is expected to go to trial on Feb. 9, 2026.
At Clancy's initial arraignment in 2023, prosecutors described how she is accused of strangling her children with exercise bands before jumping out of the house's second-story window in an attempted suicide.
She had been found at the scene in January 2023 with 'superficial' cuts to her wrist and neck, but the wounds weren't bleeding by the time her husband had found her.
Reddington previously described Clancy as a 'marvelous' mother and said that he walked through the house where there were artworks and photographs in every room that showed Clancy and her husband's devotion to their children.
'She's a woman who was obviously struggling from postpartum depression,' Reddington said. 'This woman was a troubled soul.'
Clancy was on several medications, which she tracked carefully in notebooks and cellphone notes, and Reddington said she was having problems with the medications. Her husband told doctors she was 'acting like a zombie' in the weeks leading up to their children's deaths, according to Reddington.
Prosecutors to file motion to access Lindsay Clancy's medical records
It's been 2 years since Lindsay Clancy's children were killed: What we know
Lindsay Clancy ordered to undergo psychiatric exam before murder trial
Read the original article on MassLive.
