![\"Lindsay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TPYNHMHZG4MFDJYUS5U5UKCFNU.jpg\")
Lindsay Clancy, the trial on Wednesday.David L. Ryan\/Globe Staff<\/p>\nBut the jury in the murder trial of his-then wife, Lindsay, heard the entire call, from the moment he found her injured on the lawn of their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023, after jumping out a second-story window, to the discovery of the bodies of his children in the basement.<\/p>\n
He screamed, \u201cShe killed the kids!\u201d<\/p>\n
During the recording, several members of the jury fought back tears and others appeared shaken. The recording was so graphic that Plymouth Superior Judge William F. Sullivan previously took the extraordinary step of prohibiting its release to the public, allowing only those present in the courtroom to hear it.<\/p>\n
Lindsay Clancy, paralyzed by her suicide attempt, sobbed uncontrollably in her wheelchair as jurors were led out of the courtroom for a break after the playing of the 911 call. Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, placed his hand on her shoulder.<\/p>\n
It was Patrick Clancy\u2019s second day on the stand at Lindsay Clancy\u2019s first-degree murder trial for the slayings of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan.<\/p>\n
The session Wednesday focused heavily on horrific details, including evidence shown to jurors of the killings, and also featured a sharp rebuttal of a previous assertion by prosecutors that Clancy wasn\u2019t taking medications she had been prescribed for postpartum depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n
Lindsay Clancy, the trial on Wednesday.David L. Ryan\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
Clancy, 35, has admitted she killed her children, but has pleaded not guilty under what\u2019s commonly known as the insanity defense. Her attorney maintains she was so deeply in the throes of post-partum depression and psychosis at the time that she lacks criminal responsibility for her actions.<\/p>\n
Patrick Clancy, 38, testified that he left their home that evening at Lindsay\u2019s request to pick up medicine for their daughter at a nearby pharmacy and then dinner from a restaurant in Plymouth.<\/p>\n
At CVS, he called Lindsay to ask whether a generic version of the medication was acceptable.<\/p>\n
Lindsay Clancy didn\u2019t pick up, but called right back and said it was. It seemed as if she\u2019d been \u201cin the middle of something,\u201d Patrick Clancy recounted, but was otherwise normal. He said he guessed she was giving the kids a bath.<\/p>\n
He picked up their takeout and returned to their Duxbury home, about a 10 or 12 minute drive from the restaurant.<\/p>\n
When he opened the door into the home, only silence greeted him, he said. He went upstairs and found the door to his and his wife\u2019s bedroom locked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I knew something was wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He unlocked the door to an empty room. But, he testified, there was blood \u201ceverywhere,\u201d the window was open, and their bed was pushed away from it, he said.<\/p>\n
Patrick Clancy told jurors he ran downstairs and outside, where he found Lindsay Clancy lying face-up on the ground in the backyard. She had cuts to both wrists and her throat.<\/p>\n
The prosecution called her wounds \u201csuperficial\u201d and cast doubt on the seriousness of them. Reddington, her attorney, sharply criticized that, noting her injuries from leaping out the window left her paralyzed.<\/p>\n
Patrick Clancy called 911 as he remained with his wife, and first responders arrived in what he guessed was about four or five minutes. As they tended to her, he headed inside to the basement, he said. There, he discovered the three children, strangled with exercise bands. The two oldest were pronounced dead that night, and the baby died several days later.<\/p>\n
Patrick Clancy was then allowed to leave the courtroom ahead of the playing of the 911 call. First, though, the judge reiterated some of his instructions to jurors: that it\u2019s natural to feel emotions like horror or empathy when faced with horrific facts, he said, but ultimately their decision must be made on the evidence.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/347O2SGCCFD4RESNYEVVXDGV44.jpg\")
A view of the courtroom as Kevin Reddington, attorney for Lindsay Clancy, cross examined Patrick Clancy.David L. Ryan\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
After an extended recess following the recording, the jury heard testimony from two women who had brief phone conversations with Lindsay Clancy on the day of the killings. One was a manager at the CVS who spoke to her about a substitute brand for her daughter\u2019s medicine, the other a hostess at the restaurant where Lindsay Clancy ordered the takeout meal.<\/p>\n
Both described the conversations as \u201cnormal\u201d; Clancy seemed to understand what they were saying and was not slurring her words. <\/p>\n
The prosecution has argued Clancy was in control when she killed her children, and did so in a calculated and meticulous manner.<\/p>\n
Her attorney says she was having a psychotic episode. Reddington said Clancy was overmedicated by a system that can often fail to treat post-partum mental-health issues correctly, and on that night experienced a \u201ccommand hallucination\u201d of a male voice telling her this was her only chance to kill her children and then herself.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Patrick Clancy testified he spoke with his then-wife by phone about a week after the killings and she told him she heard a man\u2019s voice telling her that if she didn\u2019t \u201cdo it now, she would lose her chance,\u201d or words to that effect.<\/p>\n
He said she had not spoken of hallucinations before. In previous months, she had talked about killing herself, he said, and at one point, harming the children, though she said at the time she had no plan to do so. He said none of the medical professionals they\u2019d spoken with had said he shouldn\u2019t leave her alone with the children. In fact, he\u2019d left her with them multiple times, and nothing bad had happened. <\/p>\n
Patrick Clancy has said he\u2019s forgiven Lindsay, and asked others to do the same. (The couple have since divorced and Patrick has remarried.)<\/p>\n
![\"Lindsay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5ZVRVP5SU3GPIDXMTEKCLN475M.jpg\")
Lindsay Clancy’s parents, Paula and Mike Musgrove, attended court on Wednesday.David L. Ryan\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
During one point under cross-examination, Reddington asked Patrick Clancy to let him know if he was coming on too strong with his questions.<\/p>\n
In his questioning, Reddington sought to paint a picture of a loving mother who would not harm her children if she was in her right mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was very dedicated,\u201d Patrick Clancy said of his ex-wife. She did everything for them, he said, reading them books, taking them to music lessons, caring for them, putting their little artworks all over the house.<\/p>\n
Reddington introduced several photos of the walls of the home showing colorful drawings. In one, a string of photos of their son, Dawson, stretch across the top of the wall, each documenting a month of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she resent him?\u201d Reddington asked. Patrick Clancy responded, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the family had an excellent summer in 2022. Then Reddington\u2019s questioning shifted to that fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cLindsay\u2019s mental health started to deteriorate,\u201d Patrick Clancy said. She was more stressed and anxious, he said.<\/p>\n
She began seeing medical professionals who prescribed her medication, Patrick Clancy said. But it didn\u2019t seem to help; she got worse through December, but then seemed better following a stay at a mental hospital in earlier January 2023.<\/p>\n
On Monday, prosecutors suggested Clancy was not taking some medications she\u2019d had prescribed, as only a few pills were missing from some of the bottles.<\/p>\n
But on Wednesday, Reddington asked Patrick Clancy about those bottles, which he described as \u201cdiscontinued prescriptions,\u201d meaning she was prescribed a new dose or given a different medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout that context, it paints a different picture,\u201d Patrick Clancy said.<\/p>\n
After that, Reddington held up what Patrick Clancy said was a drawer from Lindsay Clancy\u2019s nightstand and pulled multiple pill bottles from it onto the witness stand. Those, Patrick Clancy said, were the medications that hadn\u2019t been discontinued.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague attempted to bolster her claim Lindsay Clancy killed her children because she was a controlling mother who didn\u2019t believe anyone else could care for them after she killed herself. She peppered Patrick Clancy with questions about detailed notes she gave a baby-sitter about caring for their baby.<\/p>\n
But on cross-examination, Reddington noted the baby-sitter had only worked for the family briefly and asked, \u201cFair to say Lindsay was a concerned mother who gave instructions to people who cared for her children?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Patrick Clancy said. \u201cI would have done the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelley Murphy can be reached at shelley.murphy@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @shelleymurph<\/a>. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @cotterreporter<\/a>. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n