Ep. 17: Lindsay Clancy: Postpartum Psychosis, Premeditation & the Case Against Her

In January 2023, Lindsay Clancy’s husband left their Duxbury, Massachusetts home to pick up dinner and medication. When he returned, he found a scene that would become the center of one of the most complicated and heavily debated criminal cases in recent years. Lindsay, a labor and delivery nurse and mother of three, was accused of killing her three young children before attempting to take her own life. In the months leading up to the deaths, she had been struggling with her mental health, seeking psychiatric treatment, taking multiple medications, and expressing concerns about postpartum anxiety and depression. Her defense now argues that she was suffering from severe mental illness, including postpartum psychosis, and was not criminally responsible for what happened. Prosecutors tell a very different story, one of planning, awareness and deliberate action. In this episode of Crime Snob, we break down the Lindsay Clancy case from the beginning and examine the evidence now being presented at trial. We discuss her psychiatric treatment and medication history, appointments in the days before the deaths, attempts to contact a suicide hotline, the family’s pediatrician visit on the day of the killings, Patrick Clancy’s testimony, the prosecution and defense theories, and some of the details that have fueled intense discussion online. At the center of the case is an extraordinarily difficult question: Was Lindsay Clancy experiencing a psychiatric crisis so severe that she could not understand or control her actions or does the evidence show that the deaths of her children were planned? We’re going through the testimony, the timeline and the evidence so you can decide what you think for yourself. Content warning: This episode discusses the deaths of children, suicide attempts, mental illness and postpartum psychiatric conditions. Listener discretion is advised.