The Lindsay Clancy trial shifted to the defense on Monday, and the first witnesses called were the two people who knew her longest — her mother and her sister. Both described watching a woman they had known all their lives come apart over a period of months, and both testified about warnings that were spoken aloud well before the deaths of her three children.

Clancy, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, faces murder charges in the 2023 killings of Cora, Dawson and Callan. She has entered a not guilty plea. Her attorneys do not dispute that she caused the deaths; they intend to argue she was not criminally responsible because she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time.

A Mother on the Stand

Paula Musgrove struggled to hold her composure while telling jurors she loved her grandchildren with everything she had. She described her daughter as a devoted parent who would have done anything for them.

Musgrove then walked the courtroom through the autumn of 2022, beginning with a text message she received on Oct. 20. In it, her daughter asked her to come stay for a while, saying she was truly unwell and that something was wrong. She described a night without sleep, uncertainty about getting through the coming day, and a fear that the anxiety medication her doctor had prescribed was making things worse rather than better. She wrote that it frightened her and that she did not want to be by herself.

Musgrove left for Duxbury right away and remained roughly a week.

A Winter of Decline

Things did not improve. By the time the holidays arrived, Musgrove said, her daughter had grown noticeably worse. She had dropped a significant amount of weight, and by January 2023 paranoid thinking had set in.

Musgrove described a woman trying to hold a normal routine together while something underneath it was collapsing. Her daughter was going through the motions of each day and caring for her children as well as she could manage. At one point Clancy told her the school had noticed something was off because she was no longer driving her own car at pickup time.

Clancy also told her mother the medication was destroying her mind.

Then Musgrove recounted a moment in the family kitchen in December 2022, with both herself and Patrick Clancy present. Her daughter appeared extremely anxious and said she needed to tell them something. What followed, Musgrove testified, was a disclosure that she had been having thoughts of harming the children.

Her Sister’s Account

Allison Ozga told jurors that her sister confided in her around the same period, describing herself as being in a genuinely difficult place.

Ozga said she began communicating directly with Patrick Clancy at that point because of what she was hearing. Based on those conversations, she said, her sister’s mood was deteriorating and Clancy herself was calling it depression. Suicidal thoughts were increasing, sleep remained broken, and she no longer felt like herself.

A Colleague’s Perspective

Margaret Hamp, a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, worked beside Clancy for about seven years. She described a mother who checked in on her children repeatedly while at work.

Hamp recalled one shift when Clancy saw one of the children crying on a baby monitor. When her husband did not pick up the phone, she requested a wellness check.

How the Prosecution Closed

The state’s final witness was Ian Whiffin of Cellebrite, a digital forensics specialist who previously testified in the Karen Read trial. He walked jurors through material pulled from Clancy’s phone, including Apple health records, heart rate readings and browsing history.

Among the searches recovered was one for symptoms of postpartum psychosis. Whiffin used the combined data to construct a timeline of Jan. 24, 2023.

In total, close to 70 witnesses appeared for the prosecution. Their aim was to establish that the killings were planned in advance and carried out with extreme atrocity and cruelty — the aggravating findings that carry the heaviest consequences under Massachusetts law.

Evidence That Cuts Both Ways

Retired Judge James Barretto observed that this case is unusual in a specific respect: a great deal of the evidence supports both sides simultaneously. The same records and testimony that the state uses to show planning can equally be read by the defense as documentation of a mind in crisis.

That tension is likely to define the remainder of the trial. A search for postpartum psychosis symptoms can be presented as awareness of wrongdoing or as a woman recognizing that something had gone badly wrong inside her own head. Statements made to family can be framed as warnings ignored or as proof of illness developing in plain view.

What Comes Next

Jurors are expected to hear from mental health experts who will explain psychosis and address whether Clancy met the legal standard for criminal responsibility. In Massachusetts, that turns on whether a mental disease or defect left a defendant unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform her behavior to the law.

Patrick Clancy testified a week after the deaths that his wife described hearing a man’s voice telling her it was her last chance. Clancy also sustained injuries that left her partially paralyzed.

Judge William Sullivan told jurors before the weekend recess that proceedings remain on schedule. The trial was initially projected to run six to eight weeks.

This case involves serious mental health issues. If you or someone you know is struggling with perinatal mental illness or thoughts of self-harm, support is available, and I can help find appropriate resources.