Lindsay Clancy has “unhealthy days and worse days” on the hospital the place she is monitored round the clock to make sure she doesn’t kill herself, a psychologist testified Wednesday.
The 36-year-old Boston-area mom isn’t left alone at Tewksbury Hospital, the place she is being held throughout her homicide case after she strangled her three youngsters and paralyzed herself in a suicide try on Jan. 24, 2023, Dr. Paul Zeizel advised a jury.
“She is on a continuing one-to-one [monitoring] to make sure Ms. Clancy doesn’t take her personal life,” mentioned Zeizel, who has met with Clancy dozens of occasions and was testifying in her protection.
He mentioned she is in good fingers, however the concern she might attempt once more to kill herself once more is at all times underneath the floor.
Clancy, who’s now wheelchair-bound, has been accompanied to courtroom every day by two nurses, her lawyer, Kevin Reddington revealed Wednesday.
Throughout cross-examination of Zeizel, prosecutor Shanan Buckingham learn from Tewksbury Hospital information, noting Clancy’s behaviors on the anniversaries of her youngsters’s birthdays and the anniversary of the day she killed them — suggesting she was unaffected and performing usually on the hospital on these days.
The information mentioned she didn’t attempt to hurt herself on any of these days, took the drugs she was given, interacted cordially with hospital employees and usually carried on as regular.
Clancy — a former labor and supply nurse — shook her head barely back and forth and blinked slowly through the portion of Buckingham’s questioning.
However Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, tried to counter the suggestion she was unaffected on these days when he mentioned to Zeizel: “I didn’t hear that she is laughing and partying and having a great time whereas within the Tewksbury Hospital, did you see something like that?”
“No, Lindsay Clancy has unhealthy days and worse days,” the physician responded.
At one other level, Zeizel advised jurors Clancy, “actually loves [her kids] and misses them and thinks of them each single day, virtually each second of the day.”
When requested by Buckingham, Zeizel confirmed that Clancy refers back to the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan as “my tragedy.”
He additionally confirmed she hasn’t made a suicide try for the reason that day of the slayings.
Reddington needs a jury to search out Clancy not criminally liable for the murders on the grounds she was affected by extreme postpartum psychosis worsened by highly effective psychiatric drugs prescribed to her by docs.
Zeizel on Tuesday advised the jury he heard Clancy inform her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, throughout a name days after the murders {that a} man’s voice commanded her to “kill her youngsters and kill herself.”
The physician mentioned within the months earlier than the killings, when Clancy was combating intrusive ideas, insomnia, nervousness and melancholy, she fearful that individuals might hear her darkish inside ideas and would take her youngsters away from her eternally.
He recommended this will likely have been the explanation why Clancy allegedly minimized her signs and by no means advised her docs about her auditory hallucinations.
Zeizel additionally mentioned he believed Clancy had bipolar dysfunction and postpartum psychosis and that, “She was unable to adapt her conduct to the rule of legislation and he or she had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act.”
Clancy hasn’t heard any voices since committing the horrific acts, Zeizel admitted throughout Buckingham’s grilling.
Choose William Sullivan at one level Wednesday blocked a witness who Reddington hoped to have testify in entrance of the jury, therapist Emily Thorndike.
Thorndike was known as to the witness stand when the jury was out of the room to inform the decide about her time working at psychological establishment McLean Hospital — the place Clancy did a five-day stint for suicidal ideas weeks earlier than the murders.
Thorndike had been following Clancy’s trial and made a 10-minute TikTok video explaining why she felt the testimony about McLean was “deceptive,” and painted it in too optimistic of a light-weight.
Reddington had needed Thorndike to testify concerning the lack of staffing at McLean on holidays and weekends, however Sullivan mentioned her testimony wasn’t related since she stopped working on the facility a yr earlier than Clancy’s keep.
Clancy checked herself into McLean on New Yr’s Day 2023 and checked herself out on Jan. 5 — simply 19 days earlier than the murders.
Patrick — who remarried earlier this yr — was noticed final week along with his new spouse, reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Rachel Danis, showing stressed and making telephone calls on the patio space of a Manhattan house constructing.
He was the primary witness to testify at trial over three weeks in the past, and advised jurors about returning residence to search out the three youngsters immobile with elastic exercise bands tied round their necks. He additionally found Clancy laying on her again of their yard, unable to maneuver and with gashes on her wrists and neck.
Patrick and Clancy individually filed lawsuits towards the docs and suppliers who handled her the months earlier than the murders, claiming they misdiagnosed and overmedicated her.
Prosecutors have sought all through trial so present that Clancy rigorously deliberate the murders and was not experiencing a psychotic break on the time.
In case you or somebody you already know is affected by any of the problems raised on this story, name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or textual content Disaster Textual content Line at 741741.
If you’re combating suicidal ideas, you possibly can dial the 24/7 Nationwide Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
