Duxbury mother Lindsay Clancy now a paraplegic under 24/7 monitoring, attorney says
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the judge’s orders Tuesday.
Update: Timeline of Duxbury killings: Prosecutor lays out case against Lindsay Clancy
At Tuesday’s arraignment for Duxbury mother Lindsay Clancy, accused of killing her three children at their Summer Street home on Jan. 24, appeared virtually from a Boston-area hospital, confined to a bed and wearing a neck brace and medical mask.
Judge John Canavan of Plymouth District Court ordered Clancy, 32, to remain at her current hospital and, upon discharge, to go to a rehabilitation center, after her defense attorney described her as in “dire medical condition.”
Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington said it would be “inhumane” for his client to be incarcerated with her injuries, which officials said were a result of an attempted suicide on Jan. 24 after allegedly killing her children.
- Read more: Lindsay Clancy ordered to remain at hospital as new details emerge of alleged Duxbury killings
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Clancy faces charges of strangulation, homicide, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after police accused her of killing her young children, 5-year-old Cora Clancy and 3-year-old Dawson Clancy. Prosecutors said Lindsay Clancy also injured her infant son Callan Clancy, who died days later in a hospital.
‘Unable to move legs’
Reddington described Clancy as a “paraplegic” who suffered several severe spinal fractures after jumping out of a 20-foot window on the night of the alleged killings.
“Unfortunately, she is not expected to recover meaningful function at this point below that level of the spinal cord, which makes her a paraplegic,” Reddington said. Clancy is “unable to move her legs or feel sensation below ... her belly button,” he said.
Clancy also has rib fractures in her chest and is “paralyzed,” Reddington said.
A doctor submitted a letter to the court stating that Clancy needs significant medical treatment and suggested discharging her to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which has a location in Charlestown, according to Reddington. He suggested the court place a GPS monitor on her if necessary.
In addition to Clancy’s physical condition, Reddington said that her emotional state is “so bad” that the hospital has her under 24/7 monitoring.
“So you’d have a paraplegic who can’t walk, who is definitely a danger to herself, and the government wants to put her in where? Framingham State Prison?” Reddington asked. “No way any humane person would do that.”
Prosecutors allege premeditation
Prosecutors walked through details of the night of the alleged killings, including the times of various text messages and calls, what restaurant Clancy had found to order take-out food from, and medicine she asked her husband to pick up from CVS for their children.
In describing some of the text messages sent by Clancy earlier in the day on Jan. 24, prosecutors from the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office said, “Nothing in the text was out of the ordinary or any sign of any distress or trouble.”
Prosecutors stated that Lindsay Clancy’s husband Patrick Clancy called her while at CVS around 5:34 p.m. on the night of the incident for a 14-second conversation.
“The defendant did not take advantage of the situation when her husband left the home that night,” Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said at the arraignment. “She created the situation and she used Apple Maps to make sure she would have enough time to strangle each child before her husband returned from where he had sent him.”
“She did so with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty,” Sprague said.
Medication & postpartum mental health
After prosecutors laid out the timeline of events on the night, Reddington drew attention to Clancy’s mental health in the months and weeks leading up to the alleged killings.
“Our society fails miserably in treating women with postpartum depression or even postpartum psychosis,” Reddington said, adding that it had been a “relatively short period of time” since the birth of the Clancy’s youngest child who was born last October.
In comments to reporters after the arraignment, Reddington said prosecutors showed a “lack of understanding or appreciation of the serious nature of postpartum psychosis, postpartum depression.”
“Our society completely abandons women with this condition,” Reddington argued. “It’s medicate, medicate, medicate, throw the pills at you and then see how it works.”
Many of the medications were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac, which come with warning labels stating they may cause suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation, according to Reddington.
Clancy had voluntarily turned herself into McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, for a period of five days, Reddington said. “Her mood was terrible after she got out of McLean Hospital. She still had suicidal thoughts,” which she allegedly shared with her husband.
“This is a significant issue — between the postpartum depression as well as the possibility of postpartum psychosis — that is pretty much ignored,” Reddington said. “A beautiful person was thoroughly destroyed by these medications.”
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