Lindsay Clancy trial live updates from Aug. 20: Mysterious jury drama as chaplain reveals killer mom’s haunting reaction to kids’ deaths
Posted by Ryan Mitchell - September 14, 2026
Lindsay Clancy had a chilling message for a hospital chaplain who visited her after the Mᴀssachusetts mom strangled her three young children, once a breathing tube was removed one week after her heinous act and botched suicide attempt, the chaplain revealed Thursday.
Clancy’s defense attorney said this morning that he expects closing arguments Monday in Plymouth, Mᴀss. — and that his client is “so beat up and just so sad” after sitting through nearly four grueling weeks of testimony.
The labor and delivery nurse, 36, has sobbed at times while witnesses divulged details about the night she killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands in the basement of the family’s Duxbury, Mᴀss., home in January 2023 — crying out “I can’t do this!” as autopsies were shown.
Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
The defense argues she is not criminally responsible for her three kids’ deaths because she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder, exacerbated by a dangerous cocktail of 13 powerful psychiatric medications.
If you’ve been following the Lindsay Clancy trial, chances are your algorithms on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms are serving up some wild conspiracy theories — particularly, claiming the killer mom’s then-husband, Patrick Clancy, is the one who strangled their three children and framed his postpartum wife, or otherwise is at fault.
Patrick Clancy with his children, Cora, baby Callan and Dawson.GoFundMeWild conspiracy theories are circulating on social media, claiming Lindsay Clancy’s then-husband, Patrick, is the one who strangled their three children and framed his postpartum wife — or otherwise is at fault.Courtesy Patrick Clancy
Judge William Sullivan said he anticipates that closing arguments by lawyers on both sides will likely start Monday or Tuesday, meaning jurors could begin deliberating by early next week.
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington said he has one more doctor he plans to call to the stand Friday. Then, prosecutors have three more of their own medical witnesses they plan to call to make their reʙuттal case.
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington said he has one more doctor he plans to call to the stand Friday.AP PH๏τo/Josh ReynoldsLindsay Clancy’s two oldest children, Dawson and Cora. They were 3 and 5 years old, respectively, when she strangled them in late January 2023.Facebook / Lindsay Marie ClancyLindsay with middle child, Dawson, in an undated pH๏τo she shared on Facebook.Facebook / Lindsay Marie Clancy
The lawyers also discussed with Sullivan what they wanted to be in the instructions the judge will give the jury.
Chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh told the jury that Lindsay Clancy talks about her kids often and “carries immense grief.”
“Lindsay talks frequently about her children; she loves them deeply. She carries immense grief,” the chaplain said.
Lindsay Clancy listens to testimony from a hospital chaplain during her murder trial on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Mᴀssachusetts.AP PH๏τo/Josh Reynolds
Cavanaugh said she has continued to see Clancy weekly in the years since the killings, including as recently as just before the trial kicked off at the end of July.
On Feb. 6, 2023, days after the killings, Clancy told Cavanaugh she had “fears of not being able to walk again,” and worried that would make her vulnerable to other people, according to the chaplain’s notes.
She also recounted the first time she saw Clancy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Jan. 25, 2023 — the day after the killings.
“The unit was filled with law enforcement,” Cavanaugh recalled.
When she went into Clancy’s hospital room, Clancy couldn’t speak because she had a breathing tube in her mouth.
A pH๏τo entered into evidence shows Lindsay Clancy in the South Shore Hospital ER in South Weymouth, Mᴀss., covered in warming blankets after strangling her children and trying to commit suicide by jumping out her second-floor bedroom window.Gregory Derr / PooLPH๏τos showing Lindsay Clancy intubated in a hospital bed were presented to the jury shortly after the trial’s start in late July, as her defense lawyer cross-examined a cop who was ᴀssigned to watch over the killer mom.AP
“She was dressed in medical armour, she had tubes, she was intubated, she had bandages, she had a neck brace,” the chaplain said. “She was just covered and layered in equipment that allowed her to breath.”
Cavanaugh said she still prayed with Clancy, even though the mom couldn’t speak.
When Cavanaugh saw Clancy on Jan. 31, a few days after the breathing tube was taken out, “her emotional state was very neutral, a flat affect. I remember vividly the first thing she said to me,” the chaplain testified.
Cavanaugh said Clancy told her she was “so glad my children are safe.”
Once Lindsay Clancy’s breathing tube was removed and she could speak, she told a hospital chaplain, “I’m so glad my children are safe.”Facebook / Lindsay Marie Clancy
Clancy and her infant son, Callan.Plymouth Superior Court
4 weeks ago
Jury let go for day after testimony from just one witness
By Priscilla DeGregory
Judge William Sullivan has let the jury go for the day and told them earlier that Friday would be a full trial day.
Judge William Sullivan addresses the courtroom after dismissing the jury for the day during Clancy’s murder trial on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Mᴀssachusetts.AP PH๏τo/Josh Reynolds
After the panelists were out of the room, Sullivan said he would take a break and then come back and discuss the jury instruction with the lawyers.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague asked chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh if she knew that Lindsay Clancy used a yellow exercise band as part of her rehab at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, testifies during the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Mᴀssachusetts.AP PH๏τo/Josh Reynolds
Cavanaugh has visited with Clancy over 200 times at three different hospitals since Clancy strangled her three kids with colored exercise bands.
“In those conversations, did [Clancy] tell you in her first weeks at Spaulding that she was working out with a yellow exercise band?” Sprague asked.
Lindsay Clancy, center, speaks with her lawyer Kevin Reddington during proceedings in her murder trial on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, in Plymouth, Mᴀssachusetts.AP PH๏τo/Josh Reynolds
“I don’t recall her telling me that,” Cavanaugh said.
Chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh told the jury that Lindsay Clancy told her several times that she heard voices telling her to kill her kids.
She said “if she didn’t follow the command neither she nor her family would be safe,” Cavanaugh recalled.
“It was a male voice and it was persistent,” Cavanaugh said Clancy told her.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a board-certified chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is seen during day 17 of the Lindsay Clancy trial.AP
“The voice conversation came up several times during several of our visits,” the chaplain recounted.
On cross-examination, Jennifer Sprague pressed Cavanaugh on why she never put in her notes that Clancy mentioned voices.
Cavanaugh said the notes weren’t taken down word for word.
Lindsay Clancy told a hospital chaplain one week after strangling her three young kids that she was “so glad my children are safe.”
Sheila Cavanaugh — a chaplain who visited Clancy several times at Brigham and Women’s Hospital — went to Clancy’s hospital room on Jan. 25, 2023, and the next day too, but she couldn’t speak because she was intubated, Cavanaugh told jurors Thursday.
The chaplain saw her again on Jan. 31 after Clancy’s intubation tube had been taken out — and exactly one week after she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, met with Lindsay Clancy three times while she was treated there after her botched suicide attempt on Jan. 24, 2023, the night she killed her kids.AP
The chaplain held Clancy’s hand as the killer mom told her: “I’m so glad my children are safe.”
“You’re children are safe, they are safe in heaven with God,” Cavanaugh said she responded.
The strange parade of jurors being called up to speak with Judge William Sullivan one by one this morning isn’t something we’ve seen before in 16 days of the Lindsay Clancy trial.
Judge William Sullivan appeared to ask each juror a single question, to which the juror would say “no,” according to live coverage from the Plymouth, Mᴀss., courtroom.The strange parade of jurors being called up to speak with Judge William Sullivan one by one Thursday morning isn’t something we’ve seen before in 16 days of the Lindsay Clancy trial.
The individual interviews with the justice were all very short and quiet, so it’s unclear exactly what was said.
Typically, Judge Sullivan starts the day by asking the 18-person jury, all together and aloud in the courtroom, if they’ve consumed any media that would affect their ability to be impartial.
Sullivan appeared to ask each juror a single question, to which the juror would say “no,” and the interview would end, according to live coverage from the Patriot Ledger.
Lindsay Clancy appeared a bit alarmed as she turned toward her defense attorney Kevin Reddington.
Lindsay Clancy appeared a bit alarmed Thursday morning as she turned toward her defense attorney Kevin Reddington.
Lindsay Clancy had a chilling message for a hospital chaplain who visited her after the Mᴀssachusetts mom strangled her three young children, once a breathing tube was removed…
