On January 24, 2023, someone placed a distressing call from a home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The caller was Patrick Clancy, and he had just returned home to find his three young children unconscious in the basement. Patrick had gone out to run errands and pick up dinner while his wife, Lindsay Clancy, was alone with their children for less than an hour.
According to the prosecution, Lindsay took the children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan — to the basement and strangled them one after the other using exercise bands. Lindsay was later found seriously injured after she jumped from a second-floor window in what investigators determined was an apparent suicide attempt.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that night, while Callan was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital but died several days later. Investigators concluded that the children’s deaths were caused by asphyxia.
Lindsay survived the fall but suffered severe spinal injuries, which left her paralysed. She was arraigned in February 2023 and pleaded not guilty to the three counts of strangulation and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. In September 2023, a grand jury indicted her on three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation.
Because of how severe her injuries were and her mental health conditions, she was put in medical and psychiatric care instead of jail. The case moved through the court system before her murder trial officially began this year.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office prosecuted the case, and Lindsay was represented by defence attorney Kevin Reddington, while Judge William Sullivan presided over the trial.
Now, the prosecution did not deny that Lindsay, in fact, had mental health issues; however, they argued that Lindsay intentionally killed the children. They pointed to the fact that she waited for Patrick to leave the house before taking the children downstairs and strangling them, then attempted suicide after the killings. They claimed that the action was deliberate.
The defence, on the other hand, actually accepted that Lindsay killed her children; however, they argued that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at that time. Her lawyers presented evidence that showed the deteriorating state of her mental health after the birth of her last child, Callan. Her husband also testified about changes like severe depression, problems sleeping, hallucinations, and disturbing thoughts that he had observed in her behaviour and mental state. He also shared that Lindsay had told him about her frightening thoughts and experiences before the killings.
The defence maintained that Lindsay’s condition had progressed from depression into psychosis.
What exactly is Postpartum Psychosis?
Postpartum psychosis is not the same as postpartum depression. While postpartum depression can involve persistent sadness, feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, loss of interest, difficulty functioning, and suicidal thoughts, postpartum psychosis is more severe and rare.
A woman who is experiencing psychosis may hear voices that other people cannot hear. She may develop delusions and become paranoid, confused, and severely disorganised.
As said earlier, the condition is rare, and it affects one to two women in every 1,000 births. It is recognised as a psychiatric emergency because of the risks linked to severe psychosis, such as suicide and in rare cases, harm to an infant.
We must understand that these risks do not mean that every woman with postpartum depression or psychosis is dangerous. However, when psychosis is suspected, it must be treated as an emergency and not just dismissed casually.
In Lindsay’s case, she had already recognised that she was struggling with her mental health. She spoke to people around her about her experiences, including hearing a male voice telling her to act before it was too late, and also sought psychiatric care. In fact, Lindsay and Patrick have separately sued the doctors over the inadequate mental care she received.
Although there have been many speculations and think pieces online about this case, it is necessary to have a conversation about how society handles mothers and their mental health with levity.
According to a report from the WHO, almost 1 in 5 women experience a mental health condition during pregnancy or in the year after giving birth, yet these conditions are left untreated. A 2024 review established that only 55% of women who screened positive for perinatal depression went on to receive professional care, and in low- and middle-income countries, the figure drops to 37%.
Motherhood comes with enormous expectations. A woman is expected to cope with sleepless nights, physical recovery, feeding, childcare, and the emotional demands that come with caring for a new baby. This can be very distressing, and the sooner we acknowledge that, the better.
But Would We Have the Same Conversation if She Were Black?
There is another case in Massachusetts that makes the whole conversation about Lindsay Clancy more complicated. As Black women, we must talk about it because the way society talks about white women experiencing severe mental health crises is different from the way it talks about Black women.
In 2018, Latarsha Sanders, a Black mother from Brockton, killed her two sons, eight-year-old Edson Brito and five-year-old La’Son Brito. She was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and she also suffered from mental illness. Her defence, just like Lindsay’s, claimed she lacked criminal responsibility because of severe mental illness, but many of the psychiatric records that could have supported that defence were excluded from her trial. And so, she was given two life sentences.
In August 2026, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned Sanders’ convictions and ordered a new trial. The court found that the trial judge, William F. Sullivan, who is the same judge presiding over Lindsay’s case, had improperly excluded relevant medical records. The court also found that the exclusion was prejudicial because criminal responsibility was the important issue in the case. This means Sanders was convicted and sentenced without the jury hearing the medical evidence that should have been considered. And that is where the question of injustice comes in.
In order to really look at these issues from every side, we need to ask ourselves: Would they extend the same grace or understanding to a Black woman? Whose mental illnesses do we believe? And who do we take seriously in cases like this?
We need to ask because Black women already face disparities in maternal and mental healthcare. If we are serious about believing that postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency, then we need to understand that it cannot only apply to women who fit a particular image of motherhood.
This is not just an “American problem”, because this year, a Nigerian case report documented the case of a 30-year-old woman who was 12 weeks postpartum and also experienced psychotic symptoms with a seizure disorder. She killed her two children and was later assessed as having postpartum psychosis.
Although cases like this are not common, postpartum psychosis is not a “Western Issue” that happens only to women we see on American TV. African women also experience different postpartum mental illnesses. The difference is that we are dealing with it in a healthcare system where mental health services are underfunded and cultural stigma makes it hard for women to ask for help.
And Then… There Is the Argument About Women in Power
One of the ugliest reactions to this case is the attempt to turn one woman’s crisis into evidence that women, generally, are not capable of leadership.
Men are making excuses and giving takes like, “This is why we say women are too emotional. They are too hormonal. They cannot be trusted to make rational decisions. What happens when their hormones start to misbehave?”
This is a very misogynistic take because if one woman’s severe psychiatric illness is enough to prove that women are biologically unstable and therefore unfit to lead, then where is that same logic when men commit acts of extreme violence? Because research on familicide suicide, a specific category in which family members are killed followed by suicide or attempted suicide, has found that men make up the overwhelming majority (91%) of perpetrators in the case studies.
Yet, nobody is saying men should not be allowed to lead companies, governments, or countries because they are inherently violent. Women’s bodies and biology are constantly used to question whether or not we are competent. If it is not menopause that is being used to question older women’s competence, it is menstruation being used to make jokes about their moods, or pregnancy being used as evidence that women cannot handle responsibility.
Why Are Some Women Rallying Around Lindsay?
One part that confuses people is why some women are rallying around Lindsay despite killing her children.
These women can feel pity for the children while also sympathising with Lindsay because of the mental health questions surrounding the case. Some of them recognise pieces of their own experiences, because they have struggled after childbirth, experienced depression, been dismissed by doctors, or been told that anxiety and exhaustion are part of motherhood.
This is why, during the trial, women supported Lindsay by attending the trial and sharing their experience of postpartum mental problems and their encounters with the healthcare system.
So yes, the children were innocent; yes, their deaths were horrific, but it is also possible to acknowledge that Lindsay was experiencing serious mental health problems and that her mental state deserved examination.
What Comes Next For Lindsay?
After almost six weeks of trial, with more than 80 witnesses and testimony from family members, police officers, medical professionals, and psychiatric experts, the jurors could not reach a unanimous decision and on the 4th of September 2026, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial.
This means there was no verdict and the charges are unresolved. The prosecution could seek a retrial, the two sides could potentially reach a different legal resolution or prosecutors could decide not to pursue another trial. A further hearing has been scheduled for September 29.
I feel really sad for the children and for everyone who loved them. But I also believe we should be able to ask what happened to her mental health before that moment.
Society needs to do better about ensuring that new mothers are given adequate care. Their family members should be vigilant and educate themselves so they can easily recognise symptoms of mental illness, while healthcare facilities should not just dismiss or reduce the feelings and complaints of a new mother to tiredness or exhaustion.
Lindsay’s case has shown how mental health can worsen over time if left untreated. Maybe, just maybe, if she had received adequate care and attention, it would not have gotten to this stage where children’s lives are lost.
