The defense does not dispute that Clancy caused the deaths of her children. Instead, her attorneys argue that a severe mental illness left her unable to understand the wrongfulness of her actions or control her conduct under the law.
Outside the courthouse and Tewksbury State Hospital, where Clancy is being held, supporters wearing pink gathered as the defense continued presenting its case.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington described his client’s emotional condition before entering court.
“She’s so beat up, and so sad, so this will really help her out, I think.”
Thursday’s only witness was Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who visited Clancy approximately 14 times after the deaths and Clancy’s fall from a second-story window.
Cavanaugh recalled first seeing Clancy on January 25, 2023, when the defendant was unable to speak because of extensive medical treatment.
“She was dressed in medical armor. She had tubes. She was intubated. She had bandages. She had a neck brace. She was just covered and layered in equipment that allowed her to breathe,” Cavanaugh testified.
But it was Cavanaugh’s account of what happened after Clancy was able to speak that quickly became the focus of the courtroom.
According to the chaplain, Clancy made a statement about her children that Cavanaugh has never forgotten.
“She said to me, as I held her hand to comfort her, ‘I am so glad my children are safe,’” Cavanaugh said. “I replied theologically to Lindsay, and I said, ‘Lindsay, your children are safe. They are safe in Heaven with God.’”
Cavanaugh also testified that Clancy spoke about hearing what she described as a male voice.
“She alluded to having heard a voice.
And the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would not be safe,” Cavanaugh said.
The chaplain said the subject of “the voice” came up on more than one occasion during her hospital visits.
Prosecutors, however, immediately challenged the testimony by focusing on Cavanaugh’s own written documentation.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham noted that the chaplain had kept detailed notes from her meetings with Clancy.
“You wrote very detailed notes,” Buckingham said.
“Yes, I did,” Cavanaugh replied.
“And you never once wrote about the voice, correct?”
“Correct,” Cavanaugh answered.
That exchange highlighted one of the prosecution’s central arguments: some of the most significant claims about hallucinations and command voices appear in testimony and evaluations conducted after the killings, while the contemporaneous medical records do not contain the same allegations.
The issue also surfaced during testimony Wednesday from forensic psychologist Dr. Paul Zeizel, who met with Clancy numerous times following the tragedy.
Zeizel supported the defense position that mental illness substantially impaired Clancy’s ability to recognize the wrongfulness of her conduct or comply with the law.
Reddington asked the psychologist about records from January 7, 2023, shortly before the children were killed.
“Did she have, at this point, intrusive thoughts continuing regarding voices in her head that she heard constantly?” Reddington asked. “Yes,” Zeizel said.
“What were these voices saying to her?” Reddington followed. “They were getting worse, and they were telling her to kill herself,” Zeizel replied.
But Buckingham pressed Zeizel on whether those claims appeared in the actual treatment records from the months leading up to the killings.
“My question to you, though, was where in the records from September to Jan. 23 or Jan. 22 did she tell any of the providers she saw that she heard a voice telling her to kill herself?” Buckingham asked.
“It’s not in the records,” Zeizel acknowledged.
The prosecution also questioned whether Clancy had continued reporting auditory hallucinations since the deaths.
“She has not heard voices since the event took place in 2023,” Zeizel said.
Prosecutors have continued examining hospital records and observations from emotionally significant dates, including the anniversaries of the children’s deaths and their birthdays, as they challenge the defense narrative.
Other defense witnesses have painted a picture of a woman struggling in the months before the killings.
Dr. Donald Condie described symptoms associated with postpartum depression, including anxiety and mental fog. Former medical examiner Dr. Elizabeth Laposata detailed the severe injuries Clancy suffered in her fall from the window, apparently countering any suggestion that her suicide attempt was not serious.
Clancy’s former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, also offered emotional testimony about the defendant, describing her as “very nurturing, very loving” and “a wonderful mother” who “loved her children, all of them, very, very much.”
She also testified that Clancy had sought help for sadness and insomnia during late 2022.
As the defense approaches the end of its case, the trial continues to center on two sharply different interpretations of the same events.
The defense argues that an untreated and catastrophic mental breakdown explains the killings and eliminates criminal responsibility. Prosecutors, meanwhile, are focusing on the gap between the accounts now being presented in court and what was actually recorded by doctors and other medical professionals before the tragedy.
Judge William Sullivan has also dealt with several interruptions during the proceedings, including an unexpected issue that cut Wednesday’s testimony short and a dispute involving a potential defense witness reportedly identified through TikTok.
The jury was dismissed early again Thursday after Cavanaugh completed her testimony. A fuller day of proceedings is expected as the defense moves toward resting its case.
For the jury, the ultimate decision will not simply involve whether Lindsay Clancy suffered from mental illness. The far more consequential question is whether that illness legally destroyed her ability to understand or control her actions when three young children were strangled to death.
The answer may depend heavily on the evidence surrounding the alleged voices — and on why some of the most dramatic claims presented in court today do not appear in the medical records created before the killings.
