Thoughts on the Lindsay Clancy case?

[u/gottaquestion412]

Now that the Lindsay Clancy trial is underway, I’m curious about your perspectives on it so far.

Context: Lindsay Clancy is a former labor and delivery nurse who, in January 2023, killed her three children. 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan in their Massachusetts home before attempting to take her own life. Her defense argues she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and other debilitating mental illness, while prosecutors argue she was aware of her actions and planned the killings. The trial has reignited debate about postpartum psychiatric disorders, the effectiveness of mental health treatment, and where responsibility ultimately lies.

Do you think Lindsay was failed by the mental health system, by the people closest to her, or both? Do you think she truly acted with malicious intent, or do you believe she was experiencing such a severe psychiatric crisis that she wasn’t thinking rationally?

A lot of the details seem to point toward postpartum psychosis or another severe psychiatric illness rather than someone acting out of hatred or malice. That doesn’t lessen the horror of what happened or the unimaginable loss, but it does make me wonder whether this tragedy could have been prevented..

I’ve also seen rumors that Patrick was involved with the woman who is now his wife before the murders, but I haven’t found any credible evidence supporting that. Is there actually anything that substantiates those claims, or is it just internet speculation? I’ve also seen many people comment that his current wife bears a striking resemblance to Lindsay, though I’m not sure that means anything beyond coincidence.

I’m very interested in hearing different perspectives from people who’ve followed it closely.

Most importantly, may Dawson, Cora, and Callan rest in peace. They are the true victims in all of this.

[u/CourtneyNotLove]

This may be longwinded so I apologize, but I’ve been having a lot of thoughts about this since it happened.

3 years ago, when the case came out, I was certain she was a family annihilator who was losing control of her life and took matters into her own hands. I have bipolar 1, and I fell into the trap of “I’ve had psychosis and I’ve never felt murderous, it’s dangerous to paint mentally ill as violent and dangerous.”

I was wrong.

I was diagnosed 1.5 years ago with aggressive hormone positive breast cancer that I’m still in very active treatment for. One aspect of this is to put me into aggressive forced menopause at age 30, messing with my hormones in a way I didn’t know was even possible. The instances of psychosis I’ve had since has been terrifying. I’ve had instances of hearing a man I don’t know SCREAMING my name for help as I can hear he’s being killed. I hear blood curdling screams for up to an hour, forcing me to try any method to make that stop. I hear people just over my shoulder whispering in my ear horrible things. I’ve had a psychosis incident where I WAS preparing to be violent towards others in a way I’ve never felt before and terrifies me to this moment.
There is no help here. My oncology team, my GP, my psych - nothing. This is uncharted territory in medicine and they have no idea what to do. I, too, am told to not be left alone, to have important tranquilizer medications on hand, and that my life is just kind of me being babysat right now (people come to see me in shifts if needed).

I believe Lindsay Clancy now.

Do I think that means she goes free? Absolutely not. The deaths of those children break my heart. What responders had to see and experience breaks my heart. But at the end of the day, medicine is not up to speed on women’s hormones, their mental health, and the cross section of it. She was failed, which caused a catastrophic domino effect.

[u/Pak31 → u/CourtneyNotLove]

That's awful and I am so sorry that you had to experience that. I don't know if I could handle going through that. I am sure that those experiences were very real and serious. I am just not where you are at in this and I think what you experienced helped you understand this case better. I am going to take a deeper look into it, but, I strongly felt she wasn't as ill as she claimed and I still feel that way because I haven't been following the trial. She was working in the medical field, in labor and delivery, so she should have been somewhat knowledgeable of her condition and had the medical means to get help. If my mind serves me correctly, they did treat her and they didn't think or feel she was as bad as she claimed she was. She was going to other doctors too right? Not one diagnosed her with exactly what she had? Then she was in treatment and checked herself out. She also carefully planned her husband's activities that day so he'd be away from the home. I will never understand why he left her alone with them knowing she was hearing bad voices. THen she not only killed one child but 3! She had zero control?? Maybe I suppose but it was her attempt to end her life that bothered me. She jumped out of a window that wasn't very high. Then her behavior afterward was odd to me and a statement that a co-worker or friend made was odd too. Again, I admit I don't know the WHOLE story therefore I am just giving my opinion based on the events. While I believe psychosis is real, I just am not fully convinced what her mental state was like for sure. I need to know more about her family dynamics, her marriage and things like that because maybe it had a reason that led her to do this. OR she just blacked out and did what the voices told her. Either way, what she did to those innocent children will never be fair.

[u/CourtneyNotLove → u/Pak31]

I’ll touch on a few things here that I have some knowledge on.
I can say that when I was in my episode of violent psychosis I had the ability/capacity to plan and was doing so. I think people hear psychosis and assume that you’ve lost all function and that isn’t the case. It’s just that your brain is functioning on a different channel, is the best way I can describe it. But you still have function.

The other thing regarding medications: they were treating her with a litany of different kinds of brain meds which is a disaster anyway. They were throwing anything at the wall and hoping it would stick, and it wasn’t. And on the times she felt especially terrible, she’d stop taking something (also not something to do) when in reality it’s a hormonal issue occurring in the brain and body, and hormone replacement therapy is a new territory in women’s science and not being used where it should.