Hall said he went down to the basement and initially discovered the discolored body of Dawson, 3, laying shirtless in just a diaper or underwear.
Hall and Officer Brian Josephine quickly picked up Dawson and rushed him outside to waiting EMTs, before going back to the basement to see if there were any other children in distress.
Hall then discovered “two children on the [basement] floor, motionless, and EMTs and paramedics were working on them,” he said. Hall later learned those were the Clancy’s other children: Cora, 5, and Callan, 8 months old. All of the Clancy children died by strangulation.
“They asked me to grab a heart monitor,” Hall said of the paramedics, speaking softly into the microphone on the stand.
Hall was among 10 first responders who testified Thursday morning in the first-degree murder trial of Lindsay Clancy for the killing of her three children in 2023. Shortly after noon, Judge William Sullivan dismissed jurors for the day, but was vague in his explanation for the early dismissal, and instructed jurors to return Friday morning for a view of the crime scene.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, has admitted to killing her children and has pleaded not guilty, employing what’s commonly termed as an insanity defense. Her attorney says she was deep in the throes of post-partum depression and psychosis and lacks criminal responsibility for her actions.
After Hall’s testimony, Josephine exhibited a somber demeanor on the stand as he relayed what he heard and saw at the crime scene. Like Hall, Josephine said he initially heard Patrick Clancy screaming from inside the home before the officers went to the basement.
“Upon his observation of us … [Patrick] proceeded to head in our direction, leaving that [basement] room,” Josephine said. “And at that point he looked up and he screamed ‘she killed the [expletive] kids.’”
He also described giving chest compressions to Cora in the basement.
“It felt like forever,” Josephine said, adding that another officer “came down further to assist. Where I continued with chest compressions and he used a bag valve mask to give rescue breaths.”
Later, he said, officers observed a distressed Patrick Clancy upstairs in the home.
“He was still frantic, kind of in shock, still screaming and losing himself and I think at that point, one of us requested that we get an ambulance for him as well,” Josephine said.
As first responders testified, Lindsay Clancy sat next to her attorney, Kevin Reddington, at times with her hands folded, her head bent downward at the defense table, as if in prayer.
Earlier in the morning, Reddington objected as prosecutors tried to call another first responder, prompting a sidebar conference before Sullivan sent jurors out for a morning recess. During early testimony, Reddington did little cross examination — instead merely thanking Hall for his “incredible service,” and telling Josephine, “I’m sorry, I have no questions.”
Following the break, prosecutors continued to call first responders who described life saving efforts on the children.
“It turned very chaotic very quickly,” said Duxbury Fire Captain PJ Hussey of the devastating scene at the home.
Duxbury firefighter Jennifer Stratton said she performed chest compressions on Callan, adding that she used her thumbs because of the 8-month-old’s size.
Reddington objected when Stratton was asked to describe the compressions she gave to the infant, but Sullivan allowed her to answer.
Though Reddington declined to cross examine many of the first responders, he did grill some who testified that Lindsay Clancy’s wounds to her wrist and neck appeared to be superficial.
Prosecutors have repeatedly highlighted that her wounds weren’t bleeding, suggesting her suicide attempt wasn’t genuine. Patrick told jurors the day before that he found his former wife lying face-up on the lawn in the backyard with cuts to both wrists and her throat. She jumped out of a second-floor window, a fall that left her paralyzed.
And on Thursday, Reddington elicited from some of the responding firefighters that it was dark at the scene, and that it was also a cold winter night, which may have affected the blood flow from her wounds.
The responders testified on redirect that the ambulance was well-lit and that the hospital was heated, and that her wounds still did not bleed heavily. Prosecutors also noted that Lindsay Clancy’s wrist wounds didn’t have to be sutured in the hospital until the following day, and that her neck wound never had to be sutured.
“I didn’t get any of that information after,” said Duxbury Firefighter Daniel Dougherty, when asked if he was aware of the timing on the wrist sutures.
Asked if he was aware her neck wound never had to be sutured, Doherty said, “same answer.”
Duxbury Fire Captain Keith Nette said Dawson had no pulse as medics tended to him in an ambulance en route to the hospital, and that Patrick Clancy later appeared “visibly upset” in the emergency room after his children were pronounced dead.
The grim testimony on Thursday came a day after jurors fought back tears while listening to the gut-wrenching recording of Patrick Clancy’s call to 911. They heard his anguished screams as he told police his wife had killed their three children while he was picking up dinner.
The recording was so graphic that Sullivan prohibited its release to the public, allowing only those present in the courtroom to hear it.
Patrick Clancy answers questions from the defense in second day of his former wife’s murder trial
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.