In recent months, a murder trial in Massachusetts has become a national obsession and a cultural Rorschach test. The story of Lindsay Clancy, a delivery nurse who killed her three children and then attempted suicide, has created a vortex of theorizing and suspicion online, generating furious arguments about the relationship between mental illness and criminal guilt, the ways the medical system fails mothers, and how men and women understand each other. However, at its core it is a story about a family and the worst tragedy imaginable. Tonight you will hear the father, Patrick Clancy, for the first time since the trial, talking about how he tried to rebuild a life in the shadow of unbearable pain and why he wants to refocus on the memory of his children, Cora, Dawson and Callan. In the fall of 2022, when Callan was 5 months old, Patrick noticed that Lindsay was struggling. Patrick Clancy: It was October and he had a few sleepless nights. Ross Douthat: What did he tell you he was experiencing then? Patrick Clancy: He came down one morning and said, “I didn’t sleep at all last night.” And then I said… you know, “That’s horrible. And… I’ll… take the kids to school. You just focus on… getting caught up in the dream.” Ross Douthat: Did you know anything about postpartum mental illness before this experience began? Patrick Clancy: No. I could piece together what it was like to be really anxious or depressed, but I didn’t know how to handle a postpartum illness. I think mental illness has the capacity to be tragically deceiving. So I’m… I’m sure there are things I didn’t see. Patrick and Lindsay Clancy lived in the coastal town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. They were married for six years. Months after the birth of her third child, Lindsay made repeated visits to the emergency room. She herself entered a program for patients with postpartum depression and was discharged after one day of treatment. He was also prescribed an increasing number of prescription medications. Patrick said he had a difficult time helping his wife navigate the medical system. Ross Douthat: What was the lowest point a few months ago? Patrick Clancy: I think in December. December was… it was a huge struggle for her… just a huge lack of sleep, very, very deep depression, intrusive thoughts and… at the end of that month she went to the hospital. It was New Year’s Eve when Lindsay was admitted to McLean Psychiatric Hospital. She was treated for depression and days later she was discharged. The family celebrated Cora’s birthday on January 7. Ross Douthat: She told you she wanted to come home. Patrick Clancy: He did. Seventeen days later, the unthinkable. After taking Cora to a doctor’s appointment later that day, Lindsay asked Patrick to run an errand and pick up dinner, and when he returned home, he said he found her lying in the backyard, her throat and wrists cut, paralyzed after jumping from an upstairs window. In the basement he said he found his children strangled. Cora and Dawson were dead. Callan somehow survived and was airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital. Patrick Clancy: So, I didn’t have all the details about Callan’s condition. I just knew that they got their heartbeat back. So I remember… (sigh) that night, I… I… I really thought there was a chance Callan lived. And I… I remember thinking, “Just give me one. Just give me one child, and I would raise him the best I could, and give him the best life I could. I would tell him about his brother and his sister.” And I was hoping for that. And then when I got to the hospital, I saw the doctor. I saw the look on his face and… and I knew… it wasn’t going to be… a good prognosis. Callan’s heart continued to beat for four days. Patrick Clancy: I am very grateful for those four days I spent with him. And I’m so grateful that he stuck it out. Ross Douthat: Did you talk to him during those four days? Patrick Clancy: Yes. Ross Douthat: Can you tell me some of what you said? Patrick Clancy: I said, “I’m so sorry.” And I have to… I have to hug him. I lay down next to him. And he died in my arms. During those hours with Callan, Clancy sat and wrote tributes to each of her three children, writing with one hand while holding her baby’s hand with the other. He said he was afraid that if he didn’t write about them they would be forgotten. Ross Douthat: But it wasn’t just about his kids. There was also something that I think a lot of people found incomprehensible at the time, which was something about Lindsay, where you forgave her. Patrick Clancy: I saw headlines that said, you know, “Killer Mom,” “Killer Baby,” “Monster.” And none of them were accurate. I think it was his mental illness that caused that. So I shared those words. And I think when it came to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get it, they would eat me up inside forever. Ross Douthat: Did you ask Lindsay why she did it? Patrick Clancy: I asked him if he remembered it. Ross Douthat: And what did he say? Patrick Clancy: He said it was like a dream. And… I remembered it the same way you would remember a dream after waking up. Ross Douthat: Do you feel like you failed in any way in this period or do you feel like you did the best you could? Patrick Clancy: I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time. And I live with the result. I live with it every day. Ross Douthat: Has he ever apologized to you? Patrick Clancy: No. But I gave it to him. In the weeks after the tragedy, the crowd of mourners dispersed and Clancy’s world emptied. There was no family routine, no bedtime stories, no purpose. Patrick Clancy: Everything came to a screeching halt. And then there was one day when… really without thinking, I drove to his school. And it was at the exact moment they were leaving all their friends. And I just… I couldn’t be there anymore. Ross Douthat: Have you ever had suicidal thoughts? Patrick Clancy: Yes. There was a time when I… I didn’t think I would live to be 35. And I was completely okay with that. In April, unable to stay in Duxbury, Clancy said he moved to New York City, seeking anonymity. Patrick Clancy: Five weeks after moving to New York, on May 26, I had to decide how I would celebrate Callan’s first birthday. And how do you celebrate your son’s first birthday months after his death? And then I go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I light a candle and say, “I love you, friend.” And I go out to Fifth Avenue and I start crying my eyes out. And nobody cared. Ross Douthat: And that was good? Were you grateful for that? Patrick Clancy: I thought, “This is where I need to be. I can cry.” Before moving in, she had emptied the house in Duxbury, a home filled with the most visceral memories of her children’s lives. Ross Douthat: What kind of things did you keep? Patrick Clancy: Some of his toys. Many personal items. Just things that reminded me of them. Reminders, now purposely placed in his Manhattan apartment. a baby sloth that Cora carried everywhere, a photo of Callan with a bow tie almost bigger than him, Dawson’s beloved and battered helicopter. In his hometown of Duxbury, Clancy found another way to keep them close: this new playground, built to include touchstones for each child: sloths for his daughter; a firefighter for Dawson and, later, a playground for Callan. Ross Douthat: Do you dream about them? Patrick Clancy: Yes. All the time. Ross Douthat: Tell me a good dream. Patrick Clancy: I remember having a dream at first, maybe six months or a year later. And I’m in the kitchen of the house, and Cora comes in. And I just look at her and I… it was like, I basically said, “Where have you been?” And she comes up to me and gives me a big hug. Those dreams are so real. It’s… it’s… it’s like I’m lucid in those dreams. In July of this year, Lindsay Clancy went on trial for the murder of her three children. Her lawyers argued that she was suffering from dangerous postpartum psychosis and could not be held responsible for her actions. His trial ended with a hung jury. Meanwhile, Patrick was suddenly facing a lawsuit from TikTok. An online swarm of detectives and influencers have been analyzing every detail of the case, developing theories that portray him as indifferent, unfaithful and even the murderer of his children. Ross Douthat: How do you respond to people who have that idea about you? Patrick Clancy: It is deeply damaging to my children’s legacy. It’s a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health. And it has done real harm to real people, including me but also others. Ross Douthat: How does everything online directly affect you? Patrick Clancy: It’s painful to watch. And it makes it difficult to be in public and it is possible that some of those people, after seeing lie after lie, begin to believe it and that is what we are left with. One of the catalysts for these theories was Patrick’s apparent stoicism on the witness stand. Patrick Clancy: Testifying is very difficult. The second day, much of it focused on the night of January 24th. We took a break right before they played the 911 call, which I knew was going to be just horrible. And I went into a back room and started having this massive traumatic panic attack. My heart was pounding. And they put me in an ambulance, they offered me some medication, but I said, “I… I don’t want it, because I want to go back and I want to finish this so I can be done with this.” And I came back and finished the testimony. Clancy says reaching out to survivors and experts in the field of postpartum health has helped him. Patrick Clancy: I started communicating with people at Postpartum Support International. I approached psychiatrists, experts in the field. And I asked them, “What do you think happened?” And we…we had some pretty deep conversations. Those conversations helped Patrick come to terms with what happened and so did Dr. Rachel Danis, a fertility doctor, who says they met in January 2024 at a running club in New York. They met while having coffee. Rachel Danis: Pat pulled out her phone to pay and I noticed this adorable photo of kids as her wallpaper. And I simply asked, “Who are those beauties?” And Pat said, “Those are my kids.” And then I think I asked them if they lived in Massachusetts and Pat said, “They died.” And this is only at the cashier. Ross Douthat: So what did you do? Rachel Danis: I guess I had a lot of questions and yet at the same time I didn’t know exactly what to ask. As they traveled miles together, their relationship deepened. They married in New York City in April. Ross Douthat: We talked a lot about what Pat is carrying, the pain he carries along with the good memories. Do you think you help him deal with that pain? Rachel Danis: I hope so. Ross Douthat: Do you think she helps you deal with that pain? Patrick Clancy: Yes. Yes. I’m… 100%. It’s… my life has changed since I met Rachel in such a positive way. Rachel Danis: I always try to take some of the load off of Pat. I always want to strive to do that. I know I can’t fix… I can’t bring your children back. But if I can honor them and allow Pat to grieve, but also continue to honor them in the present, I guess that’s all I can do. Ross Douthat: And you guys are starting a family. Rachel Danis: Yes. Ross Douthat: What are you going to tell your children about their brothers and sisters? Patrick Clancy: I think all parents can agree that you have different relationships with your children, but they are all your children. And I can’t wait to tell you about his brothers and sisters. Patrick and Lindsay have filed lawsuits against the health care providers who treated her, alleging medical negligence. Lindsay Clancy is being held at Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts, waiting to find out if she will be retried for the murder of her children. Produced by Michael Karzis. Associate producers, Katie Kerbstat, Kit Ramgopal and Deanna Lowe. Edited by Peter M. Berman. Editorial assistant, Aisha Crespo. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
