Lindsay Clancy’s mother testifies “she had thoughts of harming the children”

Lindsay Clancy’s Massachusetts murder trial is back underway Monday in Plymouth Superior Court, and the prosecution rested its case. The defense is now calling witnesses, including Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove.

You can watch the trial live on CBS News Boston or YouTube when court is in session.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, in their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023.

The prosecution, led by Jennifer Sprague and Shanan Buckingham, alleges that Clancy planned the murders before faking a suicide attempt. 

Clancy admits to killing her children. Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington argues she should not be held criminally responsible because she was overmedicated and suffering from postpartum psychosis.  

At the start of the day, Judge William Sullivan told jurors it’s possible the prosecution could rest its case on Monday and allow the defense to begin calling witnesses. That happened around 11:15 a.m.

Cross-examination of Lindsay Clancy’s mother

The prosecutor also read several text messages between Musgrove and Clancy from January 2023, in the weeks leading up to the children’s deaths.

In several of the messages, Musgrove would ask how Clancy was feeling. In the messages read by Sprague, Clancy answered several times that she was going “good” and feeling “a little bit” better.

On Jan. 22, 2023, Lindsay and Patrick Clancy took their two older children to a friend’s party and Musgrove stayed at the Duxbury home with Callan, the youngest child.

After the party, Musgrove wrote to her daughter, “Enjoyed seeing everybody this weekend. Nice to see you doing better.” She was asked about the message by Sprague.

“The text from me was meant to encourage her, because I didn’t think it did any good to discourage her. So the text was meant not necessarily what I observed that weekend, but it was meant to encourage her because I was encouraging her to do things with the kids to kind of try to get back to normal. So it’s not necessarily a representation of what I observe that weekend,” Musgrove said.

Sprague asked Musgrove if she remembered her interview with police the day after the children were killed.

“I do not recall. I remember speaking with police. I had just found out what happened. I was pretty much in shock,” she said. “Honestly, I remember two things I told police. Anything else you have there I must have said, but I don’t recall them. I’ve been going through my mind, I can only recall two things I told police during that interview. I was pretty much in shock.”

With her last question, Sprague asked Musgrove if she remembered telling police that Clancy “seemed brighter lately.”

“I don’t recall,” Musgrove said before finishing her testimony around 2:50 p.m.

“She told us that she had thoughts of harming the children”

Musgrove took the stand just before the lunch recess.

She described her daughter as a loving mother who was dedicated to her children.

Musgrove said that around the second week of October 2022, she noticed a change in Clancy’s demeanor.

Reddington displayed text messages for the jury.

“Mom will you please come up and stay with me for a bit. I’m really sick. Something is wrong. I had horrible insomnia all night and I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the day. I started taking the medicine my doctor prescribed for anxiety and I think it’s made things worse. It’s just really scary and I don’t want to be alone,” Clancy wrote.

Reddington’s final question involved a conversation Musgrove had with Clancy and her husband at the time, Patrick.

“I remember her being very nervous. I remember her saying, ‘I just have to tell you guys something.’ And then she told us,” Musgrove said. “She told us that she had thoughts of harming the children.”

On cross-examination, Sprague asked Musgrove about the conversation.

She asked if Musgrove had any concerns about the children’s safety.

“No, because I was there,” Musgrove said.

Sprague asked if Musgrove had any thoughts about having Clancy committed to a mental health facility. She said she did not.

Lindsay Clancy’s sister testifies

Allison Ozga, Clancy’s sister, was called to testify for the defense.

She said she and Clancy are very close, even though they haven’t lived in the same state for 10 years.

Ozga said that in November 2022, she came home for Thanksgiving and that is when she first noticed a difference in Clancy’s mood.

“I think at Thanksgiving, her mood did not look good, her energy wasn’t high. Definitely seemed off from how I saw her in the past,” Ozga said.

Ozga said that in December 2022, Clancy told her that she was in “a really tough spot.” She said she remembered asking Clancy if she was safe, and she said yes.

On cross-examination, Sprague highlighted that the day after the children’s death, Ozga told police that she saw Clancy two weeks prior and she seemed OK. Sprague asked if Ozga had any concern about the safety of the children or her sister to file a police report, and she said no. 

Defense calls first witness

The first defense witness was Margaret Hamp, who has worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Mass General Hospital since 2012.

She was working on the labor floor when Clancy first started working there as a nurse.

They worked together until 2022 when Clancy had Callan, her third child.

Hamp said there was one time when Clancy first started working at the hospital when a patient arrived who had plans to harm herself while pregnant.

According to Hamp, Clancy was shocked that the woman would be willing to harm her baby. Hamp said she asked Clancy if she was familiar with the case of Andrea Yates, a Houston mother who drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001. Yates was found guilty, but later in a retrial was found not guilty because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

“We had a conversation about mental health and pregnancy and postpartum. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Andrea Yates case. She hadn’t. I explained that to her and she cried and she said, ‘How could a mother hurt her children?'” Hamp said. 

Judge denies motion to find not guilty

After the prosecution rested, Judge Sullivan heard arguments from attorneys without the jury present.

Reddington asked the judge to find Clancy not guilty or reduce the charges from premeditated first-degree murder to second-degree murder.

The defense attorney argued that Clancy was “clearly and unequivocally suffering from a mental defect.”

Judge Sullivan denied the motion.

The jury then returned to the courtroom, and Reddington began calling witnesses.

Ian Whiffin cross-examined

The final prosecution witness called was Ian Whiffin, who works for digital forensic company Cellebrite. He was the only person the prosecution called on Monday before resting.

Whiffin testified during Karen Read’s high-profile murder trial about data including the timestamp on witness Jennifer McCabe’s Google search for how long it would take someone to die in the cold.

In Clancy’s trial, he faced direct questioning for about 45 minutes before Reddington took over cross-examination around 10:45 a.m.

On cross-examination, Reddington called into question some of the data from Jan. 25, 2023, the day after the children were killed. He asked Whiffin if the data came from Clancy’s phone or her Apple Watch. Whiffin said based on his report it wasn’t clear which it came from.

“On January 25, Lindsay Clancy was in a coma, lying in bed with tubes coming out of her body and certainly not wearing the Apple Watch,” Reddington said.

“Based purely on the report there, I’d suggest it came from the phone,” Whiffin answered.

On re-direct questioning, Sprague highlighted that if police were carrying the phone around that day, it could have registered data in Whiffin’s report.

Whiffin stepped down and the prosecution rested its case.

Ian Whiffin from Cellebrite takes stand

Earlier, Whiffin was asked on direct examination about Apple Health data and other information from the family’s home from the night the children were killed.

Her last measured heart rate was 57 beats per minute at 5:23 p.m.

In addition, Whiffin also assessed search records and messages from Clancy’s iPhone.

On Jan. 12, 2023, at 7:48 p.m., Whiffin said that Clancy searched “how does Wellbutrin work for depression?”

She also searched at one point “how to tell if you’re sleep deprived – or depressed.” In another search, Clancy searched “ketamine for suicidal ideation.”

On Jan. 19, 2023, Whiffin said that Clancy searched for “symptoms of postpartum psychosis.”

According to Whiffin, Clancy’s phone was also used to plan a route from her Duxbury home to a restaurant in Plymouth called ThreeV. Prosecutors have said Clancy sent Patrick, her husband at the time, to CVS and ThreeV in order to give herself time to kill her children.

Patrick and Lindsay Clancy were married at the time of their children’s deaths. They have since divorced and he is married to another woman.

Lindsay Clancy trial

Last week, prosecutors attempted to use electronic materials to lay out their theory that Clancy premeditated killing her three children. Also last week, court was paused several times as Clancy sobbed while witnesses from the medical examiner’s office were on the stand.

If she is convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. If the jury finds that she was not criminally responsible for the deaths of her children, she will be sent to a state psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts.  

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

For more information about mental health care resources and support, the National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.