The final witnesses are taking the stand in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mom who killed her three young children while in the family's home on Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy's defense attorney claims she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled her children and attempted to take her own life. Prosecutors argue that Clancy — who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder — is criminally responsible for her children's deaths.
If she is found guilty, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not criminally responsible for the three murder charges, she will be sent to a state mental health facility.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are not on your own.
Testimony in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy is set to conclude Wednesday, as jurors prepare to hear closing arguments and begin their deliberations on Thursday. Prosecutors are ending their case with testimony from a senior psychiatrist with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, who testified that, based on the 11 hour he spent interviewing her, Clancy's account of killing her three children was full of inconsistencies and does not align with how most patients experience hallucinations stemming from postpartum psychosis.
Judge William Sullivan told jurors that prosecutors would rest their case on Wednesday, with closing arguments likely to take place Thursday.
Gregory Saathoff, a senior psychiatrist for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, took the stand on Tuesday afternoon as prosecution's final rebuttal witness.
Saathoff picked apart Clancy's account of events during his testimony, comparing her description during two interviews with accounts from her ex-husband Patrick Clancy, as well as what she told others previously, noting several inconsistencies.
In his testimony, Saathoff raised concern that Patrick and Linsday Clancy had very different accounts of that afternoon, including Patrick Clancy saying that the kids were already eating chicken nuggets when he left the house the day of the killings, while Lindsay Clancy said she was preparing the chicken nuggets when she heard a voice telling her to kill her children.
Saathoff testified that he spent about 11 hours interviewing Clancy. He told jurors he has treated "thousands" of patients with psychosis throughout his career and testified that Clancy's description of the voice in her head commanding her to kill her children was "very unusual" compared to most descriptions of psychosis, in his opinion.
Saathoff testified that in his experience, it was unusual that Clancy claimed to have heard the voice only once in her head, compared to most patients with psychosis, who he said regularly experience auditory hallucinations.
Saathoff also testified that, in his opinion, it was unusual Clancy claimed to have heard a constant voice — rather than an intermittent one — and that it abruptly ended once she killed her children.
Saathoff testified that he has never seen a scenario when a patient reported a hallucination ending once the act demanded was complete.
"Committing the act is not curative of the voice. I've not ever seen that," he told jurors.
Saathoff also noted in his testimony that Clancy had told another psychiatrist the voice began as soon as Patrick Clancy left the house to run errands but told Saathoff that the voice began right after her phone call with Patrick – about a 20-minute gap.
