The husband of a Boston nurse who strangled her three children to death during a bout of postpartum depression has revealed the circumstances that led to the life-changing tragedy, insisting he did not “marry a monster” before the horrific murders. .
Patrick Clancy, 33, father of Cora (5 years old), Dawson (3 years old), and Callan (8 months old), was arrested on January 24, 2023, for drugs and drugs for one child. I left my home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, for dinner. family, he said new yorker In an interview published Monday.
His wife Lindsay Clancy had been battling anxiety and insomnia due to her pregnancy with Curran since mid-November, but things seemed to be returning to normal at home.
Lindsay sought help from several postpartum mental health professionals, but Patrick said that, to her knowledge, she had never been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, a serious condition.
Just a few weeks before the tragedy, Lindsay told her husband she had “death thoughts” and was “numb” and confessed to having “intrusive thoughts” of hurting him on New Year's Eve. was taken to the hospital.
The next morning, she was admitted to the inpatient program at McLean Hospital outside Boston, but a few days after her arrival, she texted Patrick, “I don't belong here.”
Five days after admission, she denied having any further intrusive thoughts and was discharged with a prescription for antidepressants.
Two days after being discharged from the hospital, they hosted a party to celebrate their daughter Cora's fifth birthday at a trampoline park. Patrick said Lindsay's mood during the party gave him “hope” that things were getting better, noting that Lindsay was sleeping better and was clearly feeling better.
“I think it gave her hope, too,” he told the magazine.
On the morning of January 24, 2024, Patrick said he woke up to Lindsay and asked her the same questions he had when she was dealing with mental health issues.
“How are you feeling? How did you sleep?” he recalled asking her, to which Lindsay replied, “I feel fine” and “I slept well.”
Patrick, who was busy with work, allowed Lindsey to take care of the children and even take his daughter Cora to the doctor when she had a stomach ache.
He hoped the visit would help his wife “come back to reality” after weeks of improvement.
But that night, tragedy struck when he was at CVS and suddenly felt something was wrong after Lindsey asked him to pick up some medicine for her coke and dinner.
Patrick said he called Lindsay to confirm the brand of the medication, but Lindsay didn't answer.
A few minutes later, she called him back and instructed him to pick up Pedia Lux for Coke. However, she seemed distracted by something during the 14-second call.
When I got home around 6pm, the house was quiet.
Patrick ran to the master bedroom to find the door locked and had to force his way inside, where he found the window open, blood splattered on the floor and a bloody knife on the nightstand. the reporter said.
Lindsey then ran outside, where she attempted suicide by jumping from the second-story window of her home, and was found barely conscious on the ground.
“What did you do?” he asked her, and she replied, “I tried to kill myself.”
He then asked where the children were and she replied, “In the basement.”
They had already called 911, where they found Lindsay with an exercise band around her neck after allegedly killing Cora, Dawson, and Curran before attempting to commit suicide.
When paramedics arrived, they heard voices in the basement screaming, “She killed the kids!”
Despite Cora and Dawson's best efforts to save them, they were pronounced dead at the scene, and Callan later died at the hospital.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Patrick had been staying with her parents after burying her children, but received a phone call from Lindsay a few days before her arraignment.
“She didn't look like my wife,” Patrick told The New Yorker about the interaction, telling him that she appeared to be panicking and that he heard voices telling her to kill the children. After about a minute on the phone, he hung up.
Six months after the murder, Patrick called Lindsay on her 33rd birthday at her father's suggestion and told her that Lindsay was “not feeling well and going downhill.”
During the phone call, she said, “Every day was the worst day of my life,'' and “I miss my kids,'' Patrick recalled.
“know [it] Sounds crazy to some people. But that's the reality,” he explained.
Since he said that, they've started talking more regularly.
Patrick eventually asked her some questions about what happened that day.
“I think one of the first things I asked was, 'Did you plan this? Is that why you kicked me out?'” he told The New Yorker.
“She said, 'No, it was like a snap of the fingers.'”
When she asked Lindsay why she researched how long it would take to pick her up for dinner, she said she was worried about getting stuck in traffic.
“Then I said, 'Have you Googled how to kill someone?' And she said, 'Well, for myself, because I've been suicidal for two months. .”
Patrick has only spoken publicly a few times since the tragedy.
Days after the murder, he appealed to people to “find it deep within your heart” to forgive her as he had done.
In April, Clancy ran the Boston Marathon in honor of her children, raising more than $73,000 for the hospital where her youngest son, Callan, was treated before his death.
Patrick said she decided to speak to New Yorkers to stop the “lies and misinformation” swirling around her upcoming murder trial.
“I didn't marry a monster. I married someone who was sick,” he told the outlet.
Lindsay has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation, three counts of assault and assault with a dangerous weapon.
Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, indicated he was planning an insanity defense.
However, prosecutors said Lindsay had previously been diagnosed by a mental health professional who said she did not suffer from postpartum depression, and that she had researched the method of killing on her cell phone leading up to the murder, proving the killing was premeditated. I think it is possible.
Her trial date has not yet been set.
