Mother's Online Searches Before Child Slayings Revealed

Lindsay Clancy researched online topics such as hallucinations, psychosis, and drug side effects in the period before she allegedly strangled her three young children in January 2023. Analysis of her phone data, presented at her murder trial in Massachusetts, also showed searches for suicide methods and postpartum depression.

Clancy's defense team asserts she was suffering from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that can distort reality for new mothers. A forensic psychiatrist has diagnosed her with these conditions following the killings.

Prosecutors, however, contend that Clancy intentionally murdered the children. They argue she orchestrated her husband's departure from their Duxbury home by sending him for takeout and to the pharmacy on January 24, 2023, before using exercise bands to strangle the children.

The defense team states that Clancy sought extensive help, including outpatient providers, medication trials, a suicide hotline, an emergency room visit, and a psychiatric hospital stay. They claim her condition worsened despite treatment, with some psychiatric medications proving problematic for bipolar patients.

Prosecutors aim to demonstrate that Clancy had access to mental health services but sometimes disregarded medical advice and discontinued certain medications. Medical providers testified that she never expressed a plan to harm herself or her children and did not exhibit signs of psychosis or mania, though she did report suicidal thoughts.