The Clancy Trial | Ep. 1: The Case

Amory (0:00)

Hey, it's Amory.

It's been a while. I'm here because we have a new story for you. It's another one that is difficult and deeply complicated and really needs to be told with precision and care. And my colleague Deborah Becker is the one to do it. She's a long time reporter and host here at WBUR, and she's been following this particular story since it broke years ago. It's about a case here in Massachusetts that you may very well have heard about wherever you are. It's the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy.

Big heads up, this case involves violence against children and self-harm. Deborah has the story from here.

Deborah Becker (0:46)

I think we should kind of start at the beginning, if you don't mind. When this case first happened in 2023, when Lindsay Clancy was first charged killing her three children, I went to her arraignment.

SPEAKER_3 (1:02)

From member station WBUR, here's Deborah Becker.

SPEAKER_4 (1:05)

As WBUR's Deborah Becker reports.

SPEAKER_3 (1:08)

And as WBUR's Deborah Becker reports, her defense will put the mental health system.

Deborah Becker (1:14)

I'm Deborah Becker and I'm a reporter and host at WBUR. Usually I report on mental health, particularly mental health and addiction. I mean, I would say I've probably been focusing on covering mental health for probably at least 10 years. I spent all day at the Plymouth County Courthouse today, and I have spent many of my days this summer at the Plymouth County Courthouse at the Lindsay Clancy Trial.

You know, the tragedy here is pretty unbelievable. A mother killing her children is a very tragic event, but watching how this case has galvanized people and people supporting a woman accused of killing three children, that is highly unusual.

I went to her arraignment. It's a formal appearance when someone is charged with a crime. And in that particular case, she appeared virtually because she was in the hospital, and her attorney argued that she had been overmedicated and had been seeking mental health treatment.

SPEAKER_5 (2:37)

The woman before you, who was a beautiful person, was thoroughly destroyed by these medications.

Deborah Becker (2:45)

Being someone who covers mental health, particularly the intersection of mental health and the criminal legal system, I was intensely interested. But what was surprising to me was that at her arraignment, there were women there saying they supported her, and they sympathized with her efforts to get postpartum mental health care.

This happened over three years ago, and I remember saying to my editors, this is a really unique kind of story. It isn't just this story of a mother killing her children, which we may have heard before, but this is people saying that there may be, in this case, a realization of what happens in the postpartum period, and they feel that perhaps this trial might bring attention to it. And so we knew then that this was going to be a story, not ever ever realizing how big it was going to become.

SPEAKER_3 (3:48)

People waited for hours to get inside of the courtroom this morning for closing arguments in the Lindsay Clancy trial.

William Sullivan (3:53)

Now to Chanel Cole.

Deborah Becker (3:54)

She's outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_7 (3:57)

This is now day six.

SPEAKER_8 (3:59)

The Lindsay Clancy trial admitting they can't reach a verdict this morning.

SPEAKER_7 (4:03)

The judge is really hoping for the jury to be able to come to some decision.

Deborah Becker (4:10)

So Lindsay Clancy is charged with killing her three children, strangling them in the basement of her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, which is an affluent suburb south of Boston.

And she had three children. They were five years old, three years old, and eight months old when they died.

And by all accounts, she was a very devoted mother, and she became really overwhelmed a few months after the birth of her third child. And she started seeking help for her mental health. She went to several providers. They had diagnosed her with different things, like generalized anxiety disorder and depression. At one point, a clinician suggested bipolar disorder, bipolar II.

And they had tried various medications to help alleviate her symptoms. And she continued to report that her condition was deteriorating, and they tried different medications. She reported to her family members that she had thoughts of suicide. She at times expressed thoughts of harming the children. They asked her if she was worried, if she should be kept away from the children. And she said no. And then she seemed okay. And she was going to a doctor, and they thought they were trying to help her. And then on January 24th of 2023, she seemed to be fine. Her husband, her now former husband, testified that she was fine that day.