Boston.com18%
Lindsay Clancy murder trial: Here’s a quick primer on the case 28%
By Abby Patkin29%
7/20/2026, 9:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Confirmation Bias, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 33.7% saturation with 169 hits. Analysis detected 800 faulty-reasoning hits from 501 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.3% and a BS Rank of 28% (14,759 of 20,453 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 72.20% of the article peer group.
Lindsay Clancy will soon head to trial for allegedly strangling her children to death in 2023 — a violent incident that sent shockwaves through the family’s South Shore community and sparked national debate about postpartum mental health.
Jury selection in the Duxbury mother’s trial starts Monday, more than three years after she allegedly killed 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy.
Below, find a quick guide to the case.
Prosecutors say Clancy sent her husband out to pick up dinner and run an errand the evening of Jan. 24, 2023, using Apple Maps to determine how long he’d be gone so she could “execute” their children “one by one.”
Clancy allegedly strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury home before attempting suicide, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead later that evening, while Callan died three days later at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Prosecutors allege Clancy planned the killings, noting that she wrote a journal entry about “resenting” her two oldest children and wanting to “feel love and connection with all of my kids.”
Shortly before Jan. 24, she allegedly made an internet search for “can you treat a sociopath?”
Further reading: Lindsay Clancy timeline: Here’s what prosecutors say happened in the family’s Duxbury home on Jan.
24
Further reading: What we learned from Duxbury mom Lindsay Clancy’s superior court arraignment
Clancy’s lawyer contends she had worsening depression and insomnia following the birth of her youngest child.
According to the defense, she desperately sought help from mental health care providers, who prescribed her more than a dozen different psychiatric medications in a matter of months.
Clancy filed a malpractice lawsuit against several of those providers in January, accusing them of failing to diagnose her bipolar disorder and prescribing a revolving door of pharmaceuticals that triggered a psychotic break.
She alleges she heard a voice in her head on Jan. 24 that told her, “This is your last chance.
Kill the children so you can kill yourself.”
Further reading: ‘Go to God, baby’: Lindsay Clancy files malpractice lawsuit, says she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children
Further reading: Lindsay Clancy timeline: What court records, attorney statements reveal about the Duxbury mother’s mental health
Further reading: Lindsay Clancy was prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications in recent months, attorney says
The charges Clancy faces include three counts of first-degree murder.
She was previously charged with three counts of strangulation as well, but prosecutors dropped those “redundant” charges earlier this month ahead of her trial.
Further reading: Lindsay Clancy’s strangulation charges dropped ahead of murder trial
Further reading: Duxbury woman Lindsay Clancy indicted in deaths of her three kids
How long the trial will take remains unclear, though attorneys on both sides have estimated the proceedings will run four to six weeks once a jury is seated.
Judge William Sullivan said he plans to impanel 18 jurors, including six alternates.
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