Hall said he went down to the basement and initially discovered the body of Dawson, 3, laying shirtless in just a diaper or underwear.
He said the child appeared discolored and that he and Officer Brian Josephine quickly picked up Dawson and rushed him outside to waiting EMTs, before going back down to the basement to see if there were any other children in distress.
Duxbury Police Officer Brian Josephine testified during the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy on Thursday.CJ GUNTHER/Pool
Hall said he later discovered “two children on the [basement] floor, motionless, and EMTs and paramedics were working on them.”
Hall later learned those were Clancy’s other children, 5-year-old Cora and 8-month-old Callan.
“They asked me to grab a heart monitor,” he said of the paramedics, speaking softly into the microphone on the stand. “I went and found the fire captain to ask where I could grab one, and he was pretty upset.”
Hall was the first of 10 first responders to testify in the first-degree murder trial of Lindsay Clancy for the killing of her three young children in 2023. Shortly after noon, Judge William Sullivan dismissed jurors for the day so he could address matters with the opposing sides out of their presence.
After Hall’s testimony, Josephine took the stand after his coworker and, like Hall, exhibited a somber demeanor as he relayed what he heard and saw at the crime scene.
Like Hall, Josephine said he initially heard Patrick Clancy screaming from inside the home before the officers proceeded to the basement.
“Upon his observation of us … [Patrick] proceeded to head in our direction, leaving that [basement] room. And at that point he looked up and he screamed ‘she killed the [expletive] kids,’” Josephine said.
He also described giving chest compressions to Cora in the basement.
“It felt like forever,” he said, adding that another officer “came down further to assist. Where I continued with chest compressions and he used a bag valve mask to give rescue breaths.”
The Clancy home in Duxbury in January 2023. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Later, he said, officers observed a distressed Patrick Clancy upstairs in the home.
“He was still frantic, kind of in shock, still screaming and losing himself and I think at that point, one of us requested that we get an ambulance for him as well,” Josephine said.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, did not cross examine either officer — instead merely thanking Hall for his “incredible service” and telling Josephine, “I’m sorry, I have no questions.”
Reddington objected as prosecutors tried to call another first responder, prompting a sidebar conference before Sullivan sent jurors out for a morning recess.
Following the break, prosecutors continued to call first responders, who described life saving efforts on the children.
“It turned very chaotic very quickly,” said Duxbury Fire Captain PJ Hussey of the devastating scene at the home.
As first responders testified, Lindsay Clancy at times sat next to Reddington with her hands folded, her head bent downward at the defense table, as if in prayer.
Duxbury Fire Captain Keith Nette said Dawson had no pulse as medics tended to him in an ambulance en route to the hospital, and that Patrick Clancy later appeared “visibly upset” in the emergency room after his children were pronounced dead.
Another first responder, Duxbury firefighter Jennifer Stratton, later testified that she heard screaming at the crime scene, with a voice telling crews to “get inside of the house, that there was a kid hanging in the basement.”
She said she performed chest compressions on Callan, adding that she used her thumbs only due to the 8-month-old’s size.
Reddington objected when Stratton was asked to describe the compressions given to the infant, but Sullivan allowed her to answer.
Though Reddington declined to cross examine many of the first responders, he did grill some who testified that Lindsay Clancy’s wounds to her wrist and neck appeared to be superficial.
Prosecutors have repeatedly highlighted that her wounds weren’t bleeding, in an effort to suggest that her suicide attempt wasn’t genuine.
But on Thursday, Reddington elicited from some of the responding firefighters that it was dark at the scene, and that it was also a cold winter night, which may have affected the blood flow from her wounds.
The responders testified on redirect that the ambulance was well-lit and that the hospital was heated, and that her wounds still did not bleed heavily.
Prosecutors also noted that Lindsay Clancy’s wrist wounds didn’t have to be sutured in the hospital until the following day, and that her neck wound never had to be sutured.
“I didn’t get any of that information after,” said Duxbury Firefighter Daniel Dougherty, when asked if he was aware of the timing on the wrist sutures.
Asked if he was aware her neck wound never had to be sutured, Doherty said, “same answer.”
The testimony on Thursday came a day after jurors fought back tears while listening to the gut-wrenching recording of Patrick Clancy’s call to 911. They heard his anguished screams as he told police his wife had killed their three children while he was picking up dinner.
Patrick Clancy answers questions from the defense in second day of his former wife’s murder trial
Patrick Clancy answered questions from Kevin Reddington, Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney on his former wife’s attempts to seek mental health care. (undefined)
On Wednesday, jurors heard Patrick Clancy’s audible reactions from the moment he found his then-wife, Lindsay, bloodied and injured on their back lawn from jumping out of a second-story window, to the discovery of the children’s bodies in the basement.
“She killed the kids!” he shrieked.
The recording was so graphic that Plymouth Superior Judge William F. Sullivan prohibited its release to the public, allowing only those present in the courtroom to hear it.
After listening to the 911 call, jurors left the courtroom for a break. Lindsay Clancy, paralyzed by her suicide attempt, sobbed uncontrollably in her wheelchair.
The 35-year-old has admitted to killing her children but has pleaded not guilty under what’s commonly termed the insanity defense. Her attorney says she was deep in the throes of post-partum depression and psychosis and lacks criminal responsibility for her actions.
In the four months leading up to the killings, Lindsay Clancy was prescribed 13 psychiatric medications, including antipsychotics and sedatives, by psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, emergency department doctors, and staff at an inpatient psychiatric program, the Globe has reported.
Patrick Clancy’He told jurors he found his wife lying face-up on the lawn in the backyard with cuts to both wrists and her throat.
He stayed with her until first responders arrived, about four or five minutes, he said. He ran inside and discovered the children in the basement, strangled with exercise bands.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.