Trial examines mental-health care received by mother before children’s deaths
Prosecutors and defense presented evidence that Lindsay Clancy sought extensive psychiatric treatment in the months before she allegedly killed her three children and attempted suicide, raising questions about diagnosis and coordination of care.
A New Hampshire jury heard testimony that Lindsay Clancy, 36, accessed multiple mental-health providers between September 2022 and January 2023 while experiencing anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances. She was prescribed a succession of antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs and antipsychotics, totaling 13 different medications, as clinicians adjusted treatment in response to side effects and symptom changes.
Prosecutors argued that Clancy planned the killings, citing her husband’s absence from the home on Jan. 24, 2023, and the sequence of events leading to the deaths of her children, Cora (5), Dawson (3) and Callan (8 months), followed by her own suicide attempt. The defense contended that she suffered postpartum psychosis, a psychiatric emergency that can produce auditory hallucinations and compel harmful actions.
Medical experts testified that Clancy’s care was fragmented. Dr. Veerle Bergink, director of Mount Sinai’s Women’s Mental Health Center, said the testimony indicated “the diagnosis was missed and she did not get the right treatment” on several occasions, and that adverse reactions to antidepressants suggested a condition beyond postpartum depression. Dr. Tracy Moran Vozar highlighted systemic communication gaps when patients see multiple providers across different health systems.
Court records show Clancy first saw psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts in mid-September 2022, receiving diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder and an adjustment disorder with depressed mood, and an initial prescription of sertraline (Zoloft). After reporting worsening symptoms, Tufts added lorazepam, buspirone and hydroxyzine, then later reduced lorazepam despite continued insomnia and anxiety.
Clancy also visited South Shore Hospital’s emergency department, where she received trazodone, and was seen by psychiatric nurse practitioners who prescribed fluoxetine, mirtazapine, clonazepam, zolpidem and later the antipsychotic quetiapine (Seroquel). In December, she called a suicide-crisis hotline and sought inpatient care but was denied admission, with clinicians noting the absence of a concrete suicide plan.
In early January 2023, Clancy was evaluated at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, where psychiatrists documented numbness, sleep problems and medication side effects but did not observe psychosis or a definitive suicide risk. Her final appointment with Tufts on Jan. 23 recorded continued depressed mood and numbness, but no suicidal or homicidal ideation.
The jury began deliberations after closing arguments on Thursday, while the trial continues to scrutinize whether gaps in diagnosis and coordination of mental-health services contributed to the tragic outcome.