How Lindsay Clancy sought help before she killed her three children

In the months before Lindsay Clancy killed her three children and tried to take her own life, she was desperate for help — she saw psychiatrists, called a suicide hotline, went to the emergency room and was turned away from inpatient treatment. She was put on 13 medications over four months as providers sought to treat her ongoing symptoms and adverse reactions to the medications.

Clancy, 36, is accused of murdering her three children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months — on Jan. 24, 2023, before she threw herself out her bedroom window in a suicide attempt.

Prosecutors spent nearly six weeks presenting their case to jurors in the murder trial. They called 70 witnesses in an attempt to show that the mother planned the deaths, driving her husband from home so she could carry out the acts.

Her defense attorneys have said that Clancy was in the grips of postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that can alter new mothers’ sense of reality and is considered a psychiatric emergency. Her condition, they told jurors, compelled her to act on the voices in her head that were telling her to kill her three children and herself. For months, she had been seeking help from doctors and medical professionals.

The prosecution and defense made their closing arguments Thursday, and the jury began deliberating that afternoon.

The trial has raised questions about the type of care Clancy received. Clancy’s medical providers have said they adjusted her treatment as needed and based on her responses to the medications she was prescribed. At times, the medical providers testified, they did not have full access to her medical record and did not coordinate with one another. It was also unclear when Clancy stopped taking medications and began to take new ones.

Dr. Veerle Bergink, the director of Mount Sinai’s Women’s Mental Health Center, told NBC News that testimony about Clancy’s providers shows that “during multiple occasions, the diagnosis was missed and she did not get the right treatment.” Bergink, who specializes in mental health during pregnancy and postpartum, said Clancy’s adverse reaction to the antidepressants she was taking could have been “a major clue” that her diagnosis went beyond postpartum depression and that she needed different medication for postpartum psychosis.

Dr. Tracy Moran Vozar, a psychologist and perinatal mental health expert, said Clancy’s case exemplifies the systemic issues and lack of communication across the healthcare system, especially when it comes to patients with serious mental illness who see multiple providers across different systems. Neither doctor personally treated Clancy.

“It’s very tragic, of course, for her, her family, and everything that happened,” Bergink said. “But it’s a tragedy for doctors, as well.”

Court testimony and documents from the trial provide a timeline of the care Clancy sought and received in the months before the killings.

September 2022

On Sept. 15, 2022, Clancy first met with Dr. Jennifer Tufts, a psychiatrist at Aster Mental Health, more than three months after her youngest child, Callan, was born. Tufts treated Clancy through January 2023. Clancy reported she was experiencing anxiety attacks, depressed mood, being unable to feel pleasure, guilt, decreased appetite, racing thoughts and other symptoms, Tufts testified in court . She said Clancy responded “no” to questions about whether she was hearing voices or having thoughts about harming herself or others.

Tufts diagnosed Clancy with generalized anxiety disorder and an adjustment disorder with depressed mood, which is when someone is reacting or struggling with a stressful change more intensely than expected.

She also prescribed Clancy a standard dose of the antidepressant sertraline, known by the brand name Zoloft, at a dose of 25 milligrams, then increased to 50 mg. Tufts testified that Clancy had previously taken Zoloft for about a week after the birth of her second child, according to NBC Boston .

October

Tufts testified that in October, Clancy felt “awful” after her dose of Zoloft was increased and that she was feeling more depressed, “crying all day” and having trouble eating and sleeping, among other symptoms, according to NBC Boston .

“Anxiety was really bad even before med, now hard to differentiate. Overnight racing thoughts, paranoid of getting suicidal thoughts, something bad happening. Doesn’t want to be alone,” Tufts said, reading from her records, according to NBC Boston. Tufts said she was “very concerned” about Clancy at this point. She told Clancy to stop taking the Zoloft.

Through the end of the month, Tufts and Clancy met again, and she was prescribed the benzodiazepine lorazepam, known by the brand name Ativan, the anti-anxiety medication buspirone and the antihistamine hydroxyzine, according to the defense and court testimony.

November

Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington said at the trial that Clancy had gotten much worse by the next appointment on Nov. 2, despite the medications she was taking, according to NBC Boston . Reddington said Tufts said that Clancy’s insomnia had increased, that she had anxiety and that she was worrying about suicide.

Tufts testified that during that appointment, she said Clancy was “improving” and therefore decreased the Ativan, according to NBC Boston . Tufts responded to Reddington that she did not recall that the symptoms were significantly aggravated. On Nov. 16, Clancy went to the South Shore Hospital emergency room, where she was prescribed the antidepressant trazodone.

Days later, on Nov. 21, psychiatric nurse practitioner Julie Paul saw Clancy at South Shore Perinatal Behavioral Health clinic after Clancy’s former mother-in-law contacted the doctor, according to NBC Boston . Paul prescribed the antidepressant fluoxetine, known under the brand name Prozac, at 10 mg.

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Paul testified that during this time, Clancy “was feeling overwhelmed” and that she had increased anxiety as her husband returned to work after the birth of their child. Clancy also described having issues with sleeping. During a follow-up visit the next day, Tufts testified, Clancy denied having any suicidal ideation.

On Nov. 25, Paul prescribed Clancy the antidepressant mirtazapine, known by the brand name Remeron, at 5 mg; the benzodiazepine clonazepam, known as the brand name Klonopin, at 0.5 mg; and the anti-insomnia medication zolpidem, known by the brand name Ambien, according to the defense. At this time, Clancy also reported having had an adverse reaction to Prozac, according to the defense. Clancy told Paul she was feeling disconnected and “spacey” after having taken the medication, according to Paul’s testimony , so they switched to mirtazapine.

Clancy reported dissociation and confusion to her care team on Nov. 28 after having taken Remeron, according to a defense timeline of when Clancy sought care. Two days later, psychiatric nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta prescribed the antipsychotic Seroquel at 25 mg. Jollotta took over Clancy’s care after Paul left South Shore Perinatal Behavioral Health clinic.

December

In December, Clancy also continued meeting with Tufts. As her symptoms continued, she called a suicide crisis hotline and sought inpatient treatment — which she was turned away from, according to the defense and trial testimony.

Tufts said that during a visit on Dec. 1, Clancy denied feeling suicidal but felt “close to being suicidal.”

Clancy said she was having difficulty sleeping because of the multiple medications she was taking, Tufts said.

Clancy told Tufts she had “worse depression and intrusive thoughts” after having taken Remeron, along with “the feeling that I was going to die,” according to court testimony.

Reddington, Clancy’s lawyer, asked Tufts at the trial, “You’ve got a woman telling you she’s hopeless, she doesn’t care if she dies, she can’t sleep. What did you do to validate your therapy?”

“I told her that this was something we could address, there was hope, there were treatments,” Tufts replied, according to NBC Boston.

They also discussed the possibility of undiagnosed bipolar disorder, with Tufts testifying that Clancy did not appear to have mania at the time.

On Dec. 2, Clancy returned to the South Shore Hospital behavioral clinic. Latiesha Dukes, a perinatal clinician who provided short-term therapy for Clancy, said that during her intake appointment, Clancy presented with concerns of anxiety, lack of sleep and thoughts of wanting to die, according to NBC Boston .

Dukes testified that Clancy reported “having low mood and feeling numb” during the appointment.

She said she met with Clancy four times and did not observe any signs of mania or psychosis. She said she referred Clancy to Women & Infants Hospital in Rhode Island because of “continued passive suicidal ideation.” Clancy went to the hospital but was discharged.

On Dec. 4, Clancy called a suicide crisis hotline. She met with Dukes again the next day and told her that she had called the Aspire crisis line and was evaluated by a clinician but was told “she did not meet the criteria for inpatient treatment due to not having any suicidal ideation plan,” Dukes testified.

From Dec. 6 to Dec. 13, Jollotta prescribed the benzodiazepine diazepam, known by the brand name Valium, at different doses and also increased Clancy’s Seroquel dose.

Days later, on Dec. 15, Patrick Clancy contacted providers to report worsening symptoms, according to the defense’s timeline chart.

The next day, Clancy met with Tufts, when, according to Tufts’ testimony, Clancy was “sleeping but she was still feeling very poorly.”

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Tufts testified that Clancy continued to feel hopeless and depressed and had some suicidal ideation but that she denied having a plan to hurt herself. Tufts prescribed the mood stabilizer lamotrigine, known by the brand name Lamictal.

“While she was certainly struggling, she did not require hospitalization at that point,” Tufts said, according to NBC Boston.

Reddington asked Tufts on the stand whether she knew Clancy had told her then-husband that she was having thoughts about harming the children, according to NBC Boston.

“I would have been very concerned if I had heard that,” Tufts said.

On Dec. 19, Jollotta increased Clancy’s Seroquel dose. The next day, Clancy visited the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency room, according to a chart from the defense.

Over the next few days, she was evaluated for and participated in the Women and Infants Partial Hospitalization Program for patients with postpartum depression, according to the defense’s chart. Jollotta lowered Clancy’s Seroquel dose.

But by Dec. 30, Clancy had returned to the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency room, according to the defense’s chart.