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A psychologist testified Tuesday that Lindsay Clancy said she heard a “male voice” commanding her to kill her children, according to testimony at her murder trial.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, faces three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, all younger than 6, who were discovered strangled at the family’s Duxbury home in 2023. The prosecution rested its case Monday morning, and Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney has begun presenting its case, contending that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time she killed her children.
Dr. Paul Zeizel, a clinical and forensic psychologist, testified that after Lindsay Clancy killed her three children, she told her then-husband Patrick that she had heard a voice instructing her to kill them.
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“She had told Patrick that she loved him very much. She was unable to express a lot of emotion, but she expressed love for him, and she had said that she heard a male voice ordering her, telling her that she didn’t have any choice. But she had to kill her children and then kill herself,” Zeizel said.
Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s defense attorney, asked if she was lying about her symptoms.
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“She was not faking. There was no evidence of any malingering. She presented as an honest citizen,” Zeizel said.
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Zeizel visited Clancy in the hospital following the alleged killings of her children, after Reddington obtained a court order permitting him to speak with her.
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Reddington asked Zeizel why he let Clancy use his phone.
“I let her call her husband out of human compassion,” he said.
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Susan Clancy, Lindsay’s mother-in-law, said on Tuesday that she had concerns about Lindsay’s mental health during the 2022 holiday season, but described her as a “wonderful mother.”
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“Lindsay was struggling. We were all very concerned,” Susan Clancy said. “She was very nurturing, very loving.”
“She was begging for help,” Susan Clancy added.
The defense resumed its case Wednesday morning, as attorneys work to persuade jurors that Lindsay Clancy was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis when she killed her children.
