On August 17, 2026, the mother of Lindsay Clancy took the witness stand and offered a deeply personal account of her daughter’s deteriorating mental health in the months before the deaths of her three children. Paula Musgrove told the jury about a specific evening in early to mid-December 2022 when Lindsay confided that she had been experiencing thoughts of harming her kids.
According to Musgrove, the conversation took place in the kitchen of the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Lindsay appeared very nervous and said she needed to tell her mother and then-husband Patrick Clancy something important. She then disclosed that she had been having thoughts of harming Cora, who was 5; Dawson, who was 3; and Callan, who was about 8 months old at the time. Patrick asked whether she felt unable to be alone with the children. Lindsay answered that she did not feel that way.
When prosecutors later asked Musgrove whether the disclosure had prompted her to consider having her daughter committed or whether she feared for the children’s immediate safety, she said no. She explained that she was frequently present in the home during that period and therefore did not believe the children were at immediate risk.
Musgrove described how she had become a near-constant source of support as her daughter’s condition worsened. In mid-October 2022, Lindsay sent a text message asking her mother to come stay with her. In the message, Lindsay wrote that she was “really sick,” that something was wrong, that she was suffering from severe insomnia, and that she believed medication prescribed for anxiety was making her symptoms worse. She said she was scared and did not want to be alone. Musgrove, who lived in Connecticut, drove to Massachusetts that same day and began a series of extended visits that continued for months.
She testified that she traveled back and forth so often she could barely keep track of the stays. When she was not physically present, she maintained daily contact through text messages checking on Lindsay’s sleep, mood, and response to medication. One such message, sent just five days before the children’s deaths, asked how Lindsay was feeling and whether she noticed any change with a new medication. Lindsay replied that she was managing and that the medication might take weeks to fully take effect.
Musgrove painted a picture of a mother who, under ordinary circumstances, was loving, dedicated, and fully engaged with her children. She said Lindsay had always wanted a large family and that becoming a mother was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Lindsay was described as fun, attentive, and willing to do anything for her kids. Yet between October 2022 and January 2023, Musgrove said she watched her daughter change dramatically. Lindsay became increasingly anxious and paranoid, lost a significant amount of weight, and sometimes asked her mother to sleep in the same bed because she was afraid to be alone. Musgrove often drove Lindsay to pick the older children up from school because Lindsay no longer felt comfortable driving herself.
By January, Lindsay told her mother that the medications were “destroying her mind” and that the person she had become was not her true self. She expressed a strong desire to feel better and to enjoy her children again. Musgrove said her daughter continued trying to maintain a sense of normalcy, including hosting a birthday party for Cora in early January and attending social gatherings with the family in the days leading up to the tragedy.
Lindsay Clancy is on trial for the deaths of her three children on January 24, 2023. After the children were killed, she injured herself and jumped from a second-story window of the family home. She survived but was left partially paralyzed and now uses a wheelchair. She does not dispute that she caused the children’s deaths. Her defense team is arguing that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, contending that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis that was worsened by a large number of psychiatric medications prescribed in the preceding months. The defense has also stated that she reported hearing voices instructing her to harm the children.
Prosecutors rested their case earlier on the same day Musgrove testified. She was among the first witnesses called by the defense. During her testimony she became emotional when speaking about her grandchildren, saying she loved them with all her heart and that the experience of being a grandmother was profound and irreplaceable.
The trial continues in Plymouth Superior Court as the defense presents evidence focused on Lindsay Clancy’s mental state and the extensive psychiatric treatment she received in the months leading up to January 24, 2023.