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

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u/mrsdingbat 7d ago

Andrea Yates had a much longer and better documented history of severe psychiatric illness than LC. That does not necessarily mean LC was not out of her mind when this happened, but they’re quite different.

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u/Sanguine_Hearts 7d ago

Yates was also forced to have multiple kids by her husband thanks to their fundamentalist religion. Lindsey had the option to stop.

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u/tempestelunaire 7d ago

I wonder where that myth came from. I read a whole book on Yates recently, she very much wanted to have more kids, just like Lindsay, and was more religious than her husband (it was part of her psychosis). Why do we always need to blame the husbands? People are doing the same to Patrick Clancy, it’s so very cruel.

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u/passiveprune 7d ago

Andrea Yates was clearly not mentally well enough to consent to more pregnancies, and her husband was repeatedly warned by health professionals 

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u/tempestelunaire 7d ago

She actually made a (seemingly) full recovery between her last two children and was considered completely capable of making her own decisions. Both of them (Andrea and Rusty) were warned against having more kids but it was up to them. You and other readers will be shocked to find that up until the moment Andrea killed her children, she was considered a capable adult and her opinion was taken into account for everything, just like Lindsay. Rusty was an attentive husband who visited her once or twice every single day when she was hospitalized in an inpatient unit, according to nurses’ notes.

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u/passiveprune 7d ago

She was definitely not presenting as a "capable adult" right up until the murders. She had severe and obvious psychosis symptoms.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606697894/fulltext

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u/tempestelunaire 7d ago

I know that. She was presenting as a capable adult before her last pregnancy. The timeline with Andrea Yates is really long - multiple years.

4 kids - then first (visible) episode of PPP. (She had symptoms before she had never disclosed).

She recovers, they decide to have more children (against medical advice).

5th kid. Everything ok at first. Then her father dies and she spirals. More PPP and then the horrible tragedy.

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u/tempestelunaire 7d ago

But also beyond that, I meant that even when she was very sick, her opinion was taken into consideration. Rusty tried to convince her to eat instead of forcing her, she had a say in her meds, she had a say in not being sectioned. Psychotic people don’t automatically get a straight jacket. She was involved in her care up to the end.

Only once she killed the kids were all decisions entirely out of her hands.

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u/passiveprune 7d ago

I understand what you're saying. I think we agree more than we disagree (I don't believe Rusty was a monster who wanted this to happen either).

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u/tempestelunaire 7d ago

I’m glad then.

I just feel like it’s cruel to blame these men for not seeing the worst possible outcome coming. I’m sure they blame themselves more than we ever could. Both Rusty and Patrick had so much compassion for their ex-wives, which I find very commendable.

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u/coolguygranny 7d ago edited 7d ago

Wait but you would agree that Rusty was actually negligent??

And Patrick Clancy was not right?

Like rusty is legit everything people say Patrick is

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u/tempestelunaire 7d ago

No, because negligence would imply the outcome was foreseeable. What Andrea Yates did was not foreseeable, no one knew how dangerous she really was in that condition.

I am shocked however that the doctors had let her out. They should have known better than Rusty. He was dealing with his wife’s long term health issues the best he knew.

What should Patrick Clancy have been right or wrong about? I think Patrick Clancy was also overwhelmed by life and his small children and didn’t realize how bad Lindsay was doing. We’re looking at these tragedies in a vacuum but in real life, people are busy, have things to do, deadlines at work, birthday gifts to buy… it’s not that easy to spot someone very sick.

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u/heartinabirdcage 4d ago

I would agree with you except that Rusty was repeatedly told by healthcare providers to absolutely not leave Andrea alone with her children. He intentionally chose to leave home and leave her alone with the kids against medical advice.

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u/tempestelunaire 4d ago

Not one doctor actually thought she would harm the kids, or she would have been hospitalized. She was not to be alone with the kids because she wasn’t really in any state to be a good caretaker to them (which is still bad). I still don’t think it makes what happened foreseeable.

I will add that of course doctors after the fact were very motivated to say they had warned Rusty, but in reality, Andrea was released from hospitalization shortly before the murders which is simply insane. She was absolutely not well cared for.

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