Psychologist who spoke with Lindsay Clancy after killings takes the stand
A forensic psychologist who has met with Lindsay Clancy approximately 60 times over the last three years is set to return to the witness stand in her murder trial on Wednesday, as defense attorney Kevin Reddington seeks to prove that an episode of postpartum psychosis led Clancy to kill her three children in January 2023.
Clancy is facing three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and infant son Callan at her family's home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023. She has pleaded not guilty.
Reddington has argued that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three children and attempted to take her own life. Defense lawyers do not contest that Clancy was responsible for the deaths of her three children. Instead, they argue she should not be held criminally responsible for their deaths because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.
Clinical and forensic psychologist Paul Zeizel offered key testimony in Clancy's defense on Tuesday, describing a phone call he facilitated for Clancy to her then-husband Patrick Clancy about two weeks after the killings.
Zeizel said he first met with Lindsay Clancy on Feb. 4, 2023 -- 11 days after she killed her children -- to help evaluate her. He testified that Clancy, then handcuffed to a bed in a hospital room guarded by armed officers, remembered what had happened and requested to speak with her husband.
"She wanted to know how he was doing. She wanted to know if she could call him and find out where things are with her and with him, and how he was faring, and to just speak with him," he said.
Zeizel said he tried to facilitate a call over speaker phone, but Patrick Clancy did not pick up. Two days later, they tried again, he said.
According to Zeizel, during the second call, also made over speaker phone, Lindsay Clancy told her husband "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," he told jurors.
Zeizel told jurors that he has met with Clancy approximately 60 times since then, including during the trial. He said he had reviewed her extensive medical records, testifying that Clancy's symptoms such as brain fog and disassociation appeared genuine and saying "she was not faking."
Zeizel also argued that Clancy's medications seemed to have worsened her condition, adding that the symptoms of psychosis vary from day to day.
Jurors previously heard testimony about how Clancy was prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications in the four months before she killed her children.
"People with psychosis have intermittent symptoms," Zeizel said. "They can function fine one day, and the next day they can be hearing voices."
He added, "Hallucinations are like the waves at the beach: They come, go, they come and go."
Zeizel is set to resume his testimony Wednesday morning and is expected to face cross examination afterward. According to Reddington, prosecutors have suggested that Zeizel planted the idea Clancy heard a voice telling her to kill her children during their first meeting, two days before she made a similar comment to her husband over the phone.
Reddington has sought to pre-emptively push back on that allegation, and an officer who stood guard outside Clancy's hospital room testified previously that there was no evidence Zeizel planted the idea.
It remains to be seen whether prosecutors will address the allegation when they conduct Zeizel's cross-examination.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide -- free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988.
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