Lindsay Clancy Breaks Down in Court as Her Late Children’s Names Are Read Aloud

Lindsay Clancy, who is standing trial for the murders of her three children, has shown little emotion in public since the tragedy that landed her in a courtroom, but Monday morning, the composure finally cracked.

The 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse broke down in tears and physically shook in her wheelchair as opening statements began and the names of her three deceased kids were read out aloud at Plymouth Superior Court, the Daily Mail reported on Monday, July 27.

Clancy — who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation — is accused of killing her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, using exercise bands at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023.

The murders occurred while she sent her ex-husband Patrick Clancy to pick up medicine and a takeout order.

As Globe previously reported, the trial officially began after a jury of 12 women and six men was seated last week, with opening statements clearing the way for testimony to begin. The central question before the jury is not whether Clancy caused the children’s deaths, but whether she was legally responsible for her actions at the time.

Her defense team argues she suffered a severe episode of postpartum psychosis and was overmedicated, having been prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications in the months before the killings. Prosecutors contend the deaths were deliberate and planned.

Clancy survived a suicide attempt after the deaths of her children but was left paralyzed from the waist down.

In response to criticism of Lindsay’s previous lack of public displays of emotion regarding the case, her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, told the New Yorker in 2024 that Lindsay was taking an antidepressant that made it difficult to cry. “She’s just so numbed, and very self-conscious of that,” he explained.