Lindsay Clancy was ‘begging for help’ and feared drug dependence in weeks before her children died, ex-mother-in-law testifies

Lindsay Clancy was “begging for help” in the months leading up to killing her three children and attempting to end her own life, Clancy’s former mother-in-law testified for the defense Tuesday in the fourth week of her murder trial. ___ EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide.

If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. ___ “Lindsay was struggling — we were all concerned,” said Susan Clancy.

Her son, Patrick Clancy, found the Massachusetts couple’s children after they had been strangled in the family basement in January 2023.

Lindsay Clancy also attempted to take her own life that night and was left paralyzed.

Lindsay and Patrick Clancy are now divorced.

The trial centers not on whether Lindsay Clancy killed her children on Jan.

24, 2023, which her lawyers do not dispute, but on her state of mind at the time.

Her attorney argues she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis , a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

Former mother-in-law says Lindsay was open about her struggles Susan Clancy’s testimony echoed emotional accounts the day before from Lindsay Clancy’s mother and sister , who recounted for jurors how they saw her become increasingly anxious, paranoid and suicidal starting in the fall of 2022.

Susan Clancy, who, like Lindsay, worked as a labor and delivery nurse, said in Plymouth Superior Court that she and her former daughter-in-law were close and described Lindsay as a “wonderful mother” who was “very nurturing, very loving.” Susan Clancy said that Lindsay was open with her about struggling and asked for her mother-in-law’s support.

The jury was shown texts between Lindsay and Susan Clancy in which Lindsay spoke about fears that she had developed a dependence on benzodiazepines, but couldn’t sleep without taking them.

“I’m not okay and I’m terrified of taking meds tonight,” Lindsay texted her mother-in-law on Nov.

30, 2022, two months before the killings.

On Monday, Lindsay Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, said her daughter was scared of sleeping alone, became increasingly paranoid and believed the medications she was taking “were destroying her mind.” That December, Lindsay Clancy told her mother and her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, that “she had thoughts of harming the children,” Musgrove said.