
It’s been nearly two years since Patrick Clancy left his family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to run errands and to pick up dinner. When he left his wife, Lindsay Clancy, with their three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, on January 24, 2023, everything seemed fine. But when Patrick Clancy returned home less than an hour later, he could never have imagined the horrific scene that awaited him.
Lindsay Clancy allegedly tried to kill her three children and then herself in what some experts speculated was likely postpartum psychosis. Cora and Dawson died that day, and though Callan was air-lifted to receive treatment in Boston, he later died from his injuries. Patrick Clancy spoke to the New Yorker about the unfathomable tragedy and insisted his wife wasn’t a monster when they married.
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Everyone seemed to love Lindsay Clancy.
Patrick Clancy’s sister, Erin Donahue, told the New Yorker that her sister-in-law was “sweet, and a little quiet, but just lovely.” Kristen Walton, who introduced Patrick and Lindsay, said, “They never really had any bumps in the road.”
Her former co-workers agreed and said Lindsay Clancy was a positive person and someone they loved working with.
Patrick Clancy told the New Yorker, “I wasn’t married to a monster – I was married to someone who got sick.”
When Cora was born, things seemed to change.
Patrick Clancy said that after Cora was born, Lindsay Clancy had anxiety related to motherhood and would often spend hours in online forums trying to ease her mind that she made the right parenting decisions.
He told the New Yorker it was so bad that his wife had even worried about genetic mutations after noticing a vein on Cora’s nose. He said she met with a therapist to talk about her anxiety, but “they didn’t really vibe.”
Not long before the tragedy, Lindsay Clancy sought medical help for 'intrusive thoughts.'
Patrick Clancy said his wife told him, “I have thoughts of wanting to die, and I feel numb to them.” He took her to the emergency room, where she repeatedly received mental health treatment. On January 5, just weeks before Lindsay Clancy allegedly killed her children and attempted to kill herself, she said the thoughts were gone. Sadly, it seems that wasn’t the case.
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Patrick Clancy distanced himself from Lindsay after the killings.
Patrick Clancy told the New Yorker he didn’t speak to her for a long time after January 2023. He explained he did answer one call from Lindsay Clancy, and she allegedly told him she heard a voice telling her to kill the children and herself because it was her “last chance.” He ended the call after only a minute, saying, “She did not sound like my wife.”
Patrick Clancy now lives in New York City.
He’s moved on from his Duxbury home and the life he had as a husband and father of three. Nothing will ever be the same. “There’s no house anymore,” he said. “There are no kids. All that’s left is me and Lindsay.”
Lindsay Clancy’s case continues. She is being held without bail in Tewksbury Hospital after suffering paralysis following her jump from a second-story window.
She was charged with three counts of murder and strangulation, 25 News reported.