On January 24, 2023, police in Duxbury, Massachusetts responded to a report of a woman who had fallen from a window of a home on Summer Street. Inside, first responders found three children in the basement. Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, were taken to hospitals and pronounced dead. The medical examiner determined the cause of death in each case to be asphyxia. Their mother, Lindsay Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse, survived her fall with serious injuries.
Lindsay Clancy was charged with three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation or suffocation. She was arraigned in district court on February 7, 2023, appearing remotely from a hospital bed, and pleaded not guilty. A Plymouth County grand jury returned indictments on September 15, 2023, and she was arraigned in Superior Court that October.
Plymouth County Superior Court, sitting in Brockton. The Honorable William Sullivan presiding. The Commonwealth was represented by prosecutors Jennifer Sprague and Shanan Buckingham of the office of Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. Lindsay Clancy was represented by defense attorney Kevin Reddington.
Clancy's defense did not dispute that she caused her children's deaths. It argued that she lacked criminal responsibility for them.
Massachusetts does not use the word "insanity" in its legal test. Under the standard set out in Commonwealth v. McHoul, a defendant is not criminally responsible if, as a result of mental disease or defect, she lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law. The defense argued that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis and met that standard. The Commonwealth argued that she understood what she was doing and retained the capacity to choose otherwise.
Once a defendant raises lack of criminal responsibility, the burden rests on the Commonwealth to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was criminally responsible. That allocation of the burden is why so much of this trial consisted of competing expert testimony.
Jury selection began the week of July 20, 2026. Opening statements were delivered on July 27. The Commonwealth rested on August 7, the defense opened its case on August 10 and rested on August 21, and the Commonwealth called rebuttal witnesses through August 26. Closing arguments were made on August 27, and the jury began deliberation, which is ongoing.