Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother on trial for the January 2023 murders of her three young children, has appeared in court in a wheelchair throughout the proceedings — the lasting result of a two-story fall she took the same night her kids died.
Clancy is paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from a second-story window of her family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on January 24, 2023, and her physical condition has shaped every aspect of her murder trial, which began July 27, 2026. Doctors have indicated her paralysis is permanent.
Here’s what to know about how Clancy was injured, why she uses a wheelchair and how her physical condition has factored into her ongoing trial.
Lindsay Clancy Jumped From a 2nd-Story Window the Night Her Children Died
The events that left Clancy paralyzed unfolded inside the family’s Duxbury home. Clancy asked her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, to leave the house to pick up dinner. He returned roughly 25 minutes later to a devastating scene.
Patrick discovered that Lindsay had jumped out of a window from the second floor of their home. She survived the fall but was gravely injured. As he called 911, he realized their three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — had been strangled with exercise bands tied around their necks.
Cora and Dawson were rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead soon after. Callan, the couple’s youngest, died a few days later.
Prosecutors have argued that Clancy carefully planned the killings when she sent her husband out for food. Her defense team, led by attorney Kevin Reddington, has countered that her behavior was the tragic culmination of untreated and mismanaged postpartum illness — not premeditation.
Lindsay Clancy Was Left Paralyzed From the Waist Down
Clancy survived the two-story fall, but the impact caused permanent physical damage. She is now paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair to get around.
The fall left her requiring long-term medical care and mobility assistance. In the aftermath, she was hospitalized and eventually transferred to Tewksbury Hospital, a state-run public psychiatric facility in Massachusetts, where she has been held throughout the pretrial period.
Her physical condition has factored into logistical decisions surrounding the case, including her transport to and from court proceedings and her seating arrangement in the courtroom. She has appeared in a wheelchair at each hearing and throughout the trial itself.
During the trial, Dr. Kelly McDonough, who treated Clancy, told jurors that scans showed the defendant had a “thoracic spine injury.” However, there was no apparent head injury.
“The decision was made by the team that her injuries were too severe to stay at South Shore Hospital, and the decision was made to transfer her to a tertiary care center,” McDonough testified.
Lindsay Clancy Is Being Held at Tewksbury Hospital
After the fall, Lindsay was initially treated at South Shore Hospital, but her injuries were quickly deemed too severe for that facility. She was eventually transferred to Tewksbury Hospital, where the combination of her medical needs and psychiatric evaluation could be managed in one setting.
Tewksbury has become her long-term residence, and she has remained there throughout the pretrial period leading up to trial.
Lindsay Clancy’s Defense Cites Postpartum Psychosis and Medication
While Lindsay has not denied killing her children, she has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder. Her defense strategy centers on an insanity plea, and Reddington has argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was overmedicated at the time of the killings.
Reddington told the court that his client had struggled with depression for a long time and voluntarily committed herself to a local psychiatric hospital less than a month before her children died. Her doctors took her on and off medications to treat the depression, which Reddington said only worsened her symptoms.
The defense has said Lindsay had been prescribed 15 medications in the months leading up to the tragedy. Reddington argued that jurors should hear why Clancy and Patrick “would go to consult with doctors because of depression, because of the life that she was living, which was one of horrific misery because of medications.”
Prosecutors have pushed back, signaling they may bring in their own experts to testify on whether Clancy was criminally responsible for the killings.
Lindsay Clancy Repeatedly Requested Medication Changes
Psychiatric nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta testified in court on August 11, 2026, that Lindsay asked several times to change her medications during her treatment in late 2022.
Jollotta, who works at South Shore Hospital in the perinatal behavioral health program, said she created a plan to treat Lindsay’s anxiety, depression and insomnia beginning in late November 2022. Lindsay repeatedly sought changes and claimed the drugs caused her to have intrusive thoughts, insomnia and numbness.
She also expressed concerns about becoming dependent on the benzodiazepine Ativan she had been prescribed.
“It’s just a very scary stressful time for me, and starting new meds with side effects is very scary to me,” Lindsay previously wrote in a note amid the medications.
Jollotta responded by explaining it would take weeks for the medication to be effective and told Clancy she believed her problems were more likely postpartum depression instead of side effects from the drugs.
“All of this sounds like postpartum depression,” Jollotta wrote in a note during the time she worked with Clancy.
The last time Jollotta treated Lindsay was on December 21, 2022 — approximately one month before the killings.
What’s Next for Lindsay Clancy?
If Lindsay is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she would likely be committed to a psychiatric facility rather than sentenced to prison. A first-degree murder conviction in Massachusetts carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Regardless of the verdict, her paralysis and use of a wheelchair are expected to remain permanent — a lasting physical consequence of the night that left her three children dead.
If you or someone you know is pregnant or just had a baby and is in crisis, help is available. Call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline for free, confidential support 24/7 in English and Spanish at 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262).
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
