LINDSAY CLANCY TRIAL TAKES SH0CKING TURN: CHAPLAIN REVEALS KI-LLER MOM’S HAUNTING FIRST WORDS AFTER HER CHILDREN’S DE-ATHS — AS MYSTERIOUS JURY DRAMA ADDS ANOTHER TWIST TO THE CASE
Editor’s note: Coverage of this case is disturbing. Scroll with discretion.
had a chilling message for a hospital chaplain who visited her after the Massachusetts mom strangled her three young children, once a breathing tube was removed one week after her heinous act and botched suicide attempt, the chaplain revealed Thursday.
Clancy’s defense attorney said this morning that he expects closing arguments Monday in Plymouth, Mass. — and that his client is “so beat up and just so sad” after sitting through nearly four grueling weeks of testimony.
The labor and delivery nurse, 36, has sobbed at times while witnesses divulged details about the night she killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands in the basement of the family’s Duxbury, Mass., home in January 2023 — as autopsies were shown.
Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
The defenseargues she for her three kids’ deaths because she was suffering from and, exacerbated by.
Court has wrapped for the day, but keep reading to catch up on news from the Lindsay Clancy trial on Thursday:
Patrick Clancy with his children, Cora, baby Callan and Dawson.GoFundMe
Wild conspiracy theories are circulating on social media, claiming Lindsay Clancy’s then-husband, Patrick, is the one who strangled their three children and framed his postpartum wife — or otherwise is at fault.Courtesy Patrick Clancy
— who has been in the courtroom and providing daily analysis of the trial — recently broke down the Patrick theories:
So you think you know more than Kevin Reddington?
If there were any evidence that Patrick Clancy had a role in the deaths of his three children, Reddington would use it.
A lawyer who has spent his entire career identifying the strongest available defense does not concede the act…— Sue O’Connell: COMMENTATOR, not a reporter (@SueOC_NBCBoston) August 14, 2026
Lindsay Clancy killed her three children.
At opening statements, Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington told jurors that she knows she killed the children.
She has pleaded not guilty, arguing that she lacked criminal responsibility because of mental illness.
The defense isn’t…— Sue O’Connell: COMMENTATOR, not a reporter (@SueOC_NBCBoston) August 14, 2026
My notes on Reddington’s opening statement don’t accurately reflect what he said.
This, however, makes it clear:Motion for Reconsideration of Motion for Bifurcated Trial, filed by Kevin Reddington in Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy, No. 2383CR00199.
“The issue of the actions… https://t.co/heImz482UF
— Sue O’Connell: COMMENTATOR, not a reporter (@SueOC_NBCBoston) August 14, 2026
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington said he has one more doctor he plans to call to the stand Friday.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Lindsay Clancy’s two oldest children, Dawson and Cora. They were 3 and 5 years old, respectively, when she strangled them in late January 2023.Facebook / Lindsay Marie Clancy
Lindsay with middle child, Dawson, in an undated photo she shared on Facebook.Facebook / Lindsay Marie Clancy
The lawyers also discussed with Sullivan what they wanted to be in the instructions the judge will give the jury.
Lindsay Clancy listens to testimony from a hospital chaplain during her murder trial on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Cavanaugh said she has continued to see Clancy weekly in the years since the killings, including as recently as just before the trial kicked off at the end of July.
On Feb. 6, 2023, days after the killings, Clancy told Cavanaugh she had “fears of not being able to walk again,” and worried that would make her vulnerable to other people, according to the chaplain’s notes.
She also recounted the first time she saw Clancy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Jan. 25, 2023 — the day after the killings.
“The unit was filled with law enforcement,” Cavanaugh recalled.
When she went into Clancy’s hospital room, Clancy couldn’t speak because she had a breathing tube in her mouth.
A photo entered into evidence shows Lindsay Clancy in the South Shore Hospital ER in South Weymouth, Mass., covered in warming blankets after strangling her children and trying to commit suicide by jumping out her second-floor bedroom window.Gregory Derr / PooL
Photos showing Lindsay Clancy intubated in a hospital bed were presented to the jury shortly after the trial’s start in late July, as her defense lawyer cross-examined a cop who was assigned to watch over the killer mom.AP
“She was dressed in medical armour, she had tubes, she was intubated, she had bandages, she had a neck brace,” the chaplain said. “She was just covered and layered in equipment that allowed her to breath.”
Cavanaugh said she still prayed with Clancy, even though the mom couldn’t speak.
When Cavanaugh saw Clancy on Jan. 31, a few days after the breathing tube was taken out, “her emotional state was very neutral, a flat affect. I remember vividly the first thing she said to me,” the chaplain testified.
Cavanaugh said Clancy told her she was “so glad my children are safe.”
Judge William Sullivan addresses the courtroom after dismissing the jury for the day during Clancy’s murder trial on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
After the panelists were out of the room, Sullivan said he would take a break and then come back and discuss the jury instruction with the lawyers.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, testifies during the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Cavanaugh has visited with Clancy over 200 times at three different hospitals since Clancy strangled her three kids with colored exercise bands.
“In those conversations, did [Clancy] tell you in her first weeks at Spaulding that she was working out with a yellow exercise band?” Sprague asked.
Lindsay Clancy, center, speaks with her lawyer Kevin Reddington during proceedings in her murder trial on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
“I don’t recall her telling me that,” Cavanaugh said.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a board-certified chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is seen during day 17 of the Lindsay Clancy trial.AP
“The voice conversation came up several times during several of our visits,” the chaplain recounted.
On cross-examination, Jennifer Sprague pressed Cavanaugh on why she never put in her notes that Clancy mentioned voices.
Cavanaugh said the notes weren’t taken down word for word.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, met with Lindsay Clancy three times while she was treated there after her botched suicide attempt on Jan. 24, 2023, the night she killed her kids.AP
The chaplain held Clancy’s hand as the killer mom told her: “I’m so glad my children are safe.”
“You’re children are safe, they are safe in heaven with God,” Cavanaugh said she responded.
Judge William Sullivan appeared to ask each juror a single question, to which the juror would say “no,” according to live coverage from the Plymouth, Mass., courtroom.
The strange parade of jurors being called up to speak with Judge William Sullivan one by one Thursday morning isn’t something we’ve seen before in 16 days of the Lindsay Clancy trial.
The individual interviews with the justice were all very short and quiet, so it’s unclear exactly what was said.
Typically, Judge Sullivan starts the day by asking the 18-person jury, all together and aloud in the courtroom, if they’ve consumed any media that would affect their ability to be impartial.
Sullivan appeared to ask each juror a single question, to which the juror would say “no,” and the interview would end, according to live coverage from.
Lindsay Clancy appeared a bit alarmed as she turned toward her defense attorney Kevin Reddington.
Lindsay Clancy appeared a bit alarmed Thursday morning as she turned toward her defense attorney Kevin Reddington.AP
Aimee Breault of Acushnet, Massachusetts, live-streams a demonstration in support of Clancy outside Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Supporters of Lindsay Clancy stand outside Plymouth Superior Court where Clancy is on trial for the death of her three children on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Many of the demonstrators wore pink in support of Clancy, who is on trial for on Jan. 24, 2023.
Breault live-streams as she joins a demonstration in support of Lindsay Clancy outside Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Kara Hurston holds her daughter, Prinn, 4, as they join a demonstration in support of Lindsay Clancy outside Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Clancy’s defense argues she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and when she used elastic exercise bands to strangle Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan before she tried to kill herself in their Duxbury, Mass. home.
The case has garnered national attention as many appear to sympathize with her in the four months before the killings and the fact she was desperately trying to get help for postpartum.
Clancy saw a psychiatrist, called a suicide hotline twice, checked herself into a mental institution for five days and tried many psychiatric medications to help her deal with crippling insomnia, anxiety, depression and intrusive thoughts, according to testimony.
The pink ladies also filled the gallery Thursday morning, reacting as Judge William Sullivan addressed the courtroom.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Clancy’s defense argues she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and hearing voices when she used elastic exercise bands to strangle Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan before she tried to kill herself in their Duxbury, Mass. home. on jan. 24, 2023.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Supporters of Lindsay Clancy stand vigil outside Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday, August 20, 2026. (USA Today 2026)USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Some of the Lindsay Clancy supporters were waving flags from a variety of nations.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Organizer Renee Kimball of Maine gathers supporters of Lindsay Clancy in a circle for a moment of silence on Thursday outside Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
During that time, the 36-year-old mother had been given 30 prescriptions for 13 medications and had six of those in her blood after the slayings, jurors have learned.
Prosecutors meanwhile have claimed that Clancy carefully planned the murders and wasn’t suffering from psychosis at the time.
The trial has been unfolding over the past four weeks in a courthouse in Plymouth, with jurors hearing from roughly 80 witnesses.
Mandie Reibold carries Michelle Martinez, 1, both of York, Pa., during a demonstration in support of Lindsay Clancy outside Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday.AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s lawyer, told reporters on his way into court Thursday morning that he expected closing arguments to begin Monday.
Jurors were questioned at sidebar before the trial kicked off Thursday.
Judge William Sullivan is seen during day 17 of the Lindsay Clancy trial.AP
The panelists were sworn in and then asked questions from the judge, one by one.
After they concluded the inquiry, the judge called a short break.
Closing arguments could come as soon as Monday, the defense attorney said.
Prosecutors are slated to call rebuttal expert witnesses today, who Reddington said he plans to cross examine before he calls one more witness over video Friday.
Lindsay Clancy and defense attorney Kevin Reddington on Thursday in Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP
As for the 18-person jury (a panel of 12 plus six alternates), “they are very, very attentive and they are putting a lot of work in on this case. It’s moving for them. They don’t forget it,” he said.
Clancy’s case “shines a light” on health care generally and mental health care, Reddington told Fox.
“A woman is going through what so many people do, and they go to a doctor and they give them this pill and give them that pill, treat them for 15, 20 minutes and send them on their way.
“Its just not right,” Reddington said.
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