The mother of Lindsey Clancy took the stand Monday to describe the disturbing thoughts and mental deterioration that consumed her daughter in the weeks before Clancy strangled her three young children in their Massachusetts home.
Paula Musgrove testified for the defense in her daughter’s high-profile murder trial, describing changes she observed leading up to the January 24, 2023 killings of Clancy’s 5-year-old daughter, Cora, 3-year-old son, Dawson, and 8-month-old son, Callan.
“I remember her being very nervous. I remember her saying, ‘I just have to tell you, guys something,’ and then she told us she had thoughts of harming the children,” Musgrove said before reading aloud a text she received from Lindsey in October 2022:
“Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit. I’m really sick. Something is wrong. I had horrible insomnia all night, and I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the day. I started taking the medicine my doctor prescribed for anxiety and I think it’s made things worse. It’s just really scary and I don’t want to be alone.”
Clancy was prescribed 13 different medications over a four-month period, The Daily Wire previously reported. The medications included amitriptyline, buspirone, clonazepam, diazepam, fluoxetine, hydroxyzine, lamotrigine, lorazepam, mirtazapine, quetiapine, sertraline, trazodone, and zolpidem.
In December 2022, Clancy also contacted psychiatric nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta through her patient portal about her reaction to Remeron, the brand name for mirtazapine.
“I really don’t like the way I feel on the Remeron, and I know that I can’t stick with taking it,” Clancy told psychiatric nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta through her patient portal in December 2022. “I started having very intrusive thoughts that I never had before.”
Musgrove testified that her daughter became increasingly concerned that officials at her children’s school were becoming aware of her deteriorating mental state. She also recalled Clancy losing a significant amount of weight and becoming paranoid about things that did not appear logical to her family.
“Lindsey had lost a lot of weight. She had become, during this whole time, paranoid about different things that really weren’t logical to become paranoid about,” Musgrove testified.
“She would mention that this wasn’t her mind,” Musgrove continued. “She would say to me, ‘This isn’t me. I’ve never been like this before.’”
Musgrove said her daughter also complained of memory problems and blamed the medications she had been taking.
“She said that she couldn’t remember anything. The medication was pretty much just destroying her mind, and it wasn’t her,” Musgrove testified. “She said that this isn’t me. I just want to feel better and enjoy my kids.”
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges for strangling all three of her young children. Prosecutors say she strangled her three kids with exercise bands before cutting her own wrists and throat and jumping from the second-story window. Clancy survived the fall but was left paralyzed from the waist down and has attended the trial in a wheelchair.
The defense has not argued that Clancy did not strangle her three young children, but has instead argued that she is not criminally responsible for the killings by reason of insanity. Clancy, the defense says, was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis — made worse by a series of mood-altering medications — at the time of the killings.
The weeks-long trial has captivated much of the nation. It has sparked a heated debate in the court of public opinion about the role mental illness plays in criminal responsibility.
Supporters of Clancy argue a failed medical establishment and postpartum psychosis led to the deaths of the three children. A GoFundMe for Clancy’s parents has raised a staggering $860,000 to help absorb what they called “the travel, lodging, and living costs required to remain close to their daughter.”
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh pushed back Monday on arguments that Clancy’s reported intrusive thoughts should lessen her responsibility for the killings.
“All parents have intrusive thoughts in the sense that they worry about all the horrible things that might happen to their children. But a desire for that thing to happen, or a desire even to cause that thing to happen, is an entirely different matter,” Walsh said.
“The former just makes you a normal person. It means you love your kids and are worried about their wellbeing. The latter means you’re a sick monster,” he added. “The latter is not normal or okay, and it’s also not something that any therapist or drug can easily solve for you.”
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