A jury is to determine whether Lindsay Clancy is criminally responsible for killing her three children in 2023 in Duxbury, Massachusetts. She was being treated for postpartum mental health issues when she killed the children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was 8 months old. Plymouth County Superior Court Judge William Sullivan is presiding over the jury trial, which began on July 27 and is expected to last six to eight weeks.
Curated by: Meghann Cuniff (223 videos)
A chaplain testified today (Thursday, August 20, day 17) that Lindsay Clancy told her in a Boston hospital one week after she killed her children, "I am so glad my children are safe" and "alluded" to a voice telling her to kill them. Sheila Cavanaugh said she "replied theologically to Lindsay," who was intubated and wearing a neck brace. "I said, 'Lindsay, your children are safe. They're safe in heaven with God.' And I held her hand throughout that conversation, and we prayed for them," Cavanaugh said. Clancy "alluded to having heard a voice, and the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe." "And did she indicate whether it was a male voice, a female voice, loud, soft?" asked defense attorney Kevin Reddington. "She alluded to the fact that it was a male voice and it was persistent," Cavanaugh answered. Cavanaugh said she visited Clancy "minimally 14 times" at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston "and the voice conversation came up several times during several of our visits." She said she's visited Clancy at least 200 times at Tewksbury Hospital, where she resided pre-trial. In cross-exam, Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Sprague questioned Cavanaugh's lack of notes about Clancy's claims. "In all of these notes that detail every time you interacted with her, you never once wrote that she told you she heard a voice or what that voice said. Correct?" Sprague asked. "Correct," Cavanaugh answered. "And you also said that this voice, talking about the voice, came up in several of your meetings. Correct?" Sprague asked. "Correct," Cavanaugh answered. "And you never once wrote about any of it in any of your very detailed notes, correct?" Sprague asked. "Well, chaplain notes are not verbatim transcripts of patient conversations. I'm not there to evaluate the patient. I'm there to bear witness to their suffering," Cavanaugh answered. "Okay, but the question was, you did not document those statements in your notes, correct?" Sprague asked. "Correct," Cavanaugh answered. Cavanaugh was on the witness stand for 20 minutes. You can watch all her testimony on my YouTube and Facebook.