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Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children in January 2023, is set to face trial as her defense team mounts an insanity plea. She is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan, who were strangled inside the family's home while their father was out picking up dinner.
Before her trial began on July 20, 2026, Clancy's attorney argued she may not be criminally responsible for the killings, pointing to postpartum psychosis and a cocktail of prescribed medications.
Everything to know about the case, below.
Lindsay Clancy's Insanity Defense Takes Shape
Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington told the court his client was overmedicated for postpartum depression when the killings occurred.
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Reddington has said Clancy struggled with depression for a long time and voluntarily committed herself to a local psychiatric hospital less than a month before her children died, per CNN. Her doctors took her on and off medications to treat the depression, which Reddington said only worsened her symptoms.
At a pretrial hearing in June 2026, Reddington and the commonwealth's prosecutors debated what expert evidence would be admissible to support an insanity plea.
Reddington argued jurors should hear why Clancy and her husband, Patrick Clancy, "would go to consult with doctors because of depression, because of the life that she was living, which was one of horrific misery because of medications."
Prosecutors pushed back and signaled they may bring in their own experts to testify on whether Clancy was criminally responsible for the killings.
What Happened Inside the Clancy Home in January 2023?
The killings took place on January 24, 2023, when Lindsay asked Patrick to go pick up dinner for the family. Patrick returned home 25 minutes later to a devastating scene: his wife had jumped out the window from the second story of their home.
While calling 911, Patrick discovered that all three of their children had been strangled with exercise bands tied around their necks. Cora and Dawson were rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead soon after. Their youngest, 8-month-old Callan, died a few days later.
Reddington has said the defense believes Clancy was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time and that she had been prescribed 15 medications in the months leading up to the tragedy in response to her postpartum depression. Prosecutors, however, have argued that Clancy carefully planned and plotted the killings when she sent her husband out for food.
Clancy was arrested and pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder. She is currently being held at the public Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts.
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Lindsay Clancy's Bifurcated Trial Request Denied
In April 2026, Reddington filed a motion revealing that Clancy "is offering to admit that she killed the children" if the judge agreed to a bifurcated trial format, according to WCVB. A bifurcated trial is a two-stage legal proceeding in which liability and damages are heard separately and often decided by the same jury.
"The defendant states that the issue of the actions that resulted in the death of the decedents in the indictments at the bar is not a live issue and the defendant is willing to stipulate formally in writing to her involvement," the motion read, per People. The filing went on to state that, as a result of the admission, "the only live issue for consideration at trial would be the defendant's state of mind as it relates to the defense of lack of criminal responsibility."
The April 2026 motion followed an earlier denial of another defense request that would have split the proceedings into two separate trials - one to determine whether Clancy was guilty and a second to determine whether she was criminally responsible for the killings.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan ultimately denied the bifurcated trial request as well, ruling the matter could be handled in a single trial.
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Lindsay Clancy's Path to the July Trial
Reddington first announced in December 2025 that the defense intended to pursue an insanity plea, arguing that Clancy was in the grip of postpartum psychosis when she asked Patrick to leave the house that January evening. Ahead of the trial, Clancy was scheduled to undergo a forensic psychological evaluation.
The trial had originally been set to begin in February 2026 before it was postponed to July 20, 2026. Clancy also appeared in court on April 23, 2026, for a status hearing as both sides continued to spar over what evidence and testimony would be presented to jurors.
Prosecutors continue to maintain that Clancy carefully staged the moments before the killings, sending Patrick out of the house so she would be alone with the children. The defense counters that her behavior that evening was the tragic culmination of untreated and mismanaged postpartum illness - not premeditation.
If Clancy is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she would likely be committed to a psychiatric facility rather than sentenced to prison. A first-degree murder conviction in Massachusetts carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
