If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
The day Lindsay Clancy allegedly killed her three children and paralyzed herself when she attempted suicide started when she built a snowman with her 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.
That was outside the Clancys' Duxbury, Massachusetts home the morning of Jan. 24, prosecutors said during Tuesday's arraignment in Plymouth County District Court.
At 4:02 p.m., the 32-year-old nurse searched on her phone about kids' MiraLAX and takeout restaurants, according to prosecutors, who alleged this was the beginning of a murderous plot to kill her children.
By 6:11 p.m., her husband, Patrick Clancy, was on the phone with 911 screaming for help when he found his wife in the backyard after she jumped from their bedroom window.
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He was still on the phone with 911 emergency personnel when he screamed after finding his children with exercise ropes around their necks, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors detailed what happened in the two-plus hours that began with Lindsay's internet searches and ended with Patrick's 54-minute trip from their house to CVS, to the restaurant and back.
Lindsay Clancy searched on her phone about kids' MiraLAX, which is a laxative, then searched "takeout ThreeV," prosecutors said.
"Immediately after that, she used Apple Maps on her phone to determine how long it would take someone to drive from her home in Duxbury to ThreeV Restaurant in Plymouth, so she would know how long someone would be gone if they ran that errand," Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said.
Clancy allegedly searched the CVS website and then called the Kingston pharmacy and talked to the manager about the MiraLAX, according to prosecutors.
"According to the manager of CVS, her voice did not sound slurred or impaired in any way," Sprague said. "She had no trouble understanding the defendant, and it was a perfectly normal conversation."
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Clancy's husband was working from home in his basement office, and she allegedly asked him to go to CVS and pick up takeout at ThreeV Restaurant in a text, saying, "I didn't cook anything. It's been a long day," prosecutors said.
He obliged.
At 5:06 p.m., he asked her what she wanted to eat, and she responded. Once they got their orders together, she called the restaurant at 5:10 p.m.
Patrick left the house at 5:15 p.m. and was seen on surveillance footage in the Kingston CVS at 5:32 p.m.
He called Lindsay at 5:33 p.m., but she didn't answer, according to prosecutors.
She called back a minute later, and they spoke for 14 seconds about which medication to get. "It was a completely normal call," Sprague said.
"Although he did mention that she seemed like she was in the middle of something," she added.
Patrick was seen leaving CVS at 5:37 p.m.
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Patrick is seen on security footage picking up the food at this time, and he's in and out "within a minute."
"When he arrived home, the first thing he noticed was the silence," Sprague said. "He did not see or hear the defendant or the children."
Because of the unusual silence, Patrick called Lindsay, but there was no answer. He searched the house for her and discovered their bedroom door was locked, according to prosecutors.
He was able to get inside and saw blood on the floor in front of a mirror and an open window.
He ran downstairs to the backyard, where he found his wife.
Patrick called 911 and said that there were wounds on his wife's wrist and neck, but they appeared to be dried up, and she was conscious but injured.
On the phone, emergency personnel heard Patrick ask Lindsay, "What did you do?"
She responded, "I tried to kill myself and jump out the window," Sprague said.
He was still on the phone when he asked Lindsay where the kids were.
"He later told police that she replied, 'In the basement,'" Sprague said.
Patrick was still on the phone with 911 dispatchers when he ran downstairs to the basement and found his three children with exercise cords around their necks, prosecutors said.
"He can be heard screaming in agony, in shock as he found his children," Sprague said. "His scream seemed to get louder and more agonized as the time passes. …. He removed the bands and begged them to breathe."
Cora, 5, and Dawson, 3, died in a hospital. Seven-month-old Callan survived three more days before he died.
Lindsay woke up in the hospital but couldn't speak, prosecutors said. The first thing she wrote on a whiteboard was, "Do I need a lawyer," Sprague said.
In a statement on a GoFundMe page, Patrick said he forgave his wife and asked others to do the same.
"The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients," he wrote. "The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace."
Lindsay appeared from her hospital bed via Zoom in Plymouth County District Court for her arraignment, when she was charged with two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation, and assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
A plea of not guilty on all charges was entered on her behalf, and the judge didn't set monetary bail.
Lindsay is paralyzed from the waist down, according to her defense attorney Kevin Reddington, who said she has a history of struggling with her mental health and has been overmedicated, which turned her into a "zombie."
"This is a significant issue between the postpartum depression, as well as possibly postpartum psychosis, that is pretty much ignored," added Reddington, who called this a "tragic" case and an example of a "flawed" mental health care system.
Prosecutors said Clancy was never diagnosed with postpartum depression, though.
"The defendant did not take advantage of the situation when her husband left the home that night. She created it," Sprague said.
