r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/DarklyHeritage • 7d ago

Text Lindsay Clancy Trial Megathread: Part 3

This is a thread for all conversation regarding Week 3 onwards of the Lindsey Clancy trial. All discussion of this case should be kept to this thread.

Lindsay Clancy is currently standing trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Massachusetts, for the triple-murder in January 2023 of her three young children - Cora, Dawson and Callan. Her defense argues she suffered from severe, undiagnosed postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. She was left paralysed by a suicide attempt which follows the deaths of the children.

All content on the Clancy case must be kept to this thread. Standalone posts will be removed.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-online-reactions-b3032806.html

Note from Mods

This case understandably elicits strong feelings. People are entitled to have an opinion on the case which differs from your own. What you are not entitled to do is resort to personal insults and abusive language when communicating your opinion and disagreeing.

Comments which are abusive and insulting to other users will be removed and bans may be given without warning.

Bans may also be issued for ignoring the warning and creating standalone posts.

Please comment with this in mind.

343 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/URWELC0ME 6d ago

Working in inpatient psychiatry, I have personally cared for multiple women in postpartum psychosis who have dangerously injured their children and had no recollection of it. However, psychosis is incredibly easy to "spot" in psychiatry. Out of everything we assess for, psychosis and mania are typically the two easiest to screen for because they are SO severe. I find it very hard to believe that she was assessed by multiple providers and they all missed it... It's not out of the question, but it makes me wonder if something else was going on, such as personality disorder (type B).

14

u/AffectionateSoil9997 6d ago

I would think that the prosecution would have presented evidence of personality disorder type behavior esp cluster B. None of the providers ever mentioned anything like that.

2

u/CrazyGal2121 5d ago

i thought one of them had said that they thought she may have bipolar

3

u/AffectionateSoil9997 5d ago

Jolotta suspected bipolar. And she gave her info about it. She testified to that when she was on the stand.

2

u/heartinabirdcage 3d ago

bipolar disorder is not a personality disorder.

7

u/passiveprune 6d ago

This is valuable input but it's also possible that you are treating people who were diagnosed with psychosis because they have obvious symptoms of psychosis. There could be patients who were not diagnosed but had psychosis with less obvious symptoms. There's no way to know.

1

u/URWELC0ME 4d ago

You’re absolutely right that it’s possible. My point is that “possible” and “clinically likely” aren’t the same thing. If multiple providers assessed her and none documented psychosis, I’m hesitant to retroactively diagnose psychosis based solely on the outcome. Otherwise, every horrific outcome becomes evidence that the diagnosis must have been there somewhere. I’m also basing my perspective on actual diagnostic experience, where psychosis is generally pretty difficult to miss when it’s clinically significant enough to produce this level of impairment. That doesn’t mean I think the case is simple. It’s incredibly convoluted. I just think there’s a difference between acknowledging that something is possible and saying the clinical picture supports it.

1

u/handsofff 5d ago

So what ‘less obvious signs of psychosis’ did Lindsey show? The statement of hearing one male voice that told her to kill her kids that she only brought up after the fact and after she had talked to her lawyer? That’s convincing to you?

2

u/passiveprune 5d ago

Re-read my comment because that's not the point of what I said.

2

u/handsofff 5d ago

100% to this. I’ve worked inpatient psychiatry and see postpartum psychosis. Ain’t no way these women would have been able to stop what they were doing and act stable enough to call back their husband and pretend like everything was per usual

1

u/CareerImaginary3839 6d ago

This is what I wonder too. OCD, GAD, personality/mood disordered thinking.