A psychologist claimed that Lindsay Clancy described hearing a “male voice” who instructed her to “kill her children and then kill herself” before she killed her three kids in January 2023.
After the prosecution rested its case during the trial on Monday, August 17, Clancy’s defense attorney called clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Paul Zeizel to the stand to discuss her mental health struggles on Tuesday, August 18.
Zeizel testified that after Clancy, 36, killed her three children, she told her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, that she had heard a voice instructing her to kill them, according to Fox News.
“She had told Patrick that she loved him very much. She was unable to express a lot of emotion, but she expressed love for him, and she had said that she heard a male voice ordering her, telling her that she didn’t have any choice. But she had to kill her children and then kill herself,” Zeizel said while under oath, recalling a phone call Lindsay had with Patrick, 36, during the visit.
Zeizel visited Lindsay in the hospital after the killings took place on January 24, 2023, and her attorney, Kevin Reddington, obtained a court order allowing him to speak with her.
Reddington also asked if Zeizel believed Lindsay had been lying about her symptoms. (The defense has argued that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and should not be held criminally responsible.)
“She was not faking. There was no evidence of any malingering. She presented as an honest citizen,” Zeizel said.
Reddington then asked Zeizel why he allowed Lindsay to use his phone during his visit. “I let her call her husband out of human compassion,” he explained.
Lindsay is currently facing three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of assault and battery after she killed her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
Reddington has not denied that Lindsay committed the murders. The defense attorney said that Lindsay – who has bipolar disorder – was prescribed antidepressants to treat her postpartum depression. However, the medication actually made her condition worse.
On the other side, prosecutors have argued that Lindsay intentionally killed her children. They said she intentionally sent Patrick to run errands so that she could be alone with her children to commit the murders using exercise bands. After she strangled them, Lindsay attempted suicide by jumping from the second-story of their home.
Throughout the trial, several witnesses testified about Lindsay’s deteriorating mental health leading up to the killings.
Also on August 18, her former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, said she was “begging for help” just months before she killed her kids.
Meanwhile, her mother, Paula Musgrove, testified on August 17 that Lindsay’s mental health started to decline about three months before the killings in October 2022.
“Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit? I’m really sick. Something is wrong,” Lindsay texted Musgrove before the killings. “I had horrible insomnia all night, and I just don’t know how I am going to get through the day. … It’s just really scary, and I don’t want to be alone.”
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).
