Patrick Clancy suffered a “massive, traumatic panic attack” while giving evidence at the trial of his former wife, Lindsay Clancy, telling 60 Minutes that he was taken to an ambulance and offered medication before insisting on returning to the witness stand.
The father-of-three was testifying about the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, who was eight months old, when he became overwhelmed during a break at Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts.
“We did take a break right before they played the 911 call, which I knew was going to be just horrific,” he said. “And I went to a back room, and I started having this massive, traumatic panic attack. My heart was pounding.”
Mr Clancy said he declined medication because he wanted to complete his evidence. “I said ‘I don’t want it because I want to go back and I want to finish this so I can be done with this,’” he said. “And I went back and I finished the testimony.”
His testimony was temporarily halted while two brief witnesses gave evidence. The jurors returned to the courtroom, but Mr Clancy did not, returning several hours later to continue his account.
He had been a key prosecution witness in the case, describing his former wife’s deteriorating mental health and the moment he returned to the family home in Duxbury on January 24 2023.
Patrick Clancy describes the aftermath of his children’s deaths
Lindsay Clancy, a 36-year-old labour and delivery nurse, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. She did not deny killing the children but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she had been suffering from severe postpartum depression and psychosis.
Prosecutors said she strangled the children with exercise bands while Mr Clancy was away collecting medicine and a takeaway meal. She then tried to kill herself by cutting her wrists and neck and jumping from a second-floor window.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that night. Callan survived for four days before dying in his father’s arms.
“I’m so grateful for those four days that I had with him. And I’m so grateful he hung on,” Mr Clancy told 60 Minutes.
He said he became suicidal after finding his children’s bodies in the basement and felt that his life had lost its purpose.
“There was no family routine, no bedtime stories, no purpose. Everything just had to come to a screeching halt,” he said.
Mr Clancy recalled driving past the children’s school at the time their friends were being dropped off. He said he did not believe he would live to see his 35th birthday and was “completely fine with it”.
His 911 call, made after he discovered the children, was played to the jury during the trial. His screams could be heard before he cried: “She killed the kids!”
The call has not been publicly released. Mr Clancy said he had faced online conspiracy theories and accusations that he may have been involved in his children’s deaths, despite being the person who found them.
He described the speculation as “painful” and a “huge distraction” from the issue of perinatal mental health.
“It’s deeply harmful to the legacy of my children,” he said. “It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health. And it’s done real harm to real people, myself included but also others.”
Lindsay Clancy trial ends in mistrial
The six-week trial ended in a mistrial after the 12 jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict following seven days of deliberations.
It later emerged that one male juror, identified as Michael P Desronvil, had not agreed with the other 11 jurors, who were reported to have favoured finding Ms Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.
Several jurors accused Mr Desronvil of expressing reasonable doubt while refusing to apply it to the law. He has hired a lawyer and said he believed Ms Clancy “knew exactly what she was doing”.
Ms Clancy’s defence lawyer, Kevin Reddington, has asked the court to acquit her, arguing that the state did not present sufficient evidence and should not be allowed to retry the case.
The motion is due to be argued at a hearing at Plymouth County Superior Court on September 29. District Attorney Tim Cruz has not said whether prosecutors will seek a second trial or pursue the same or lesser charges.
Mr Clancy said he had since spoken to psychiatrists and experts in postpartum mental illness to understand what had happened. He recalled noticing changes in his former wife’s mental health in autumn 2022, including nights when she did not sleep.
She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for five days from New Year’s Day 2023, 17 days before the children were killed.
“I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome,” he said. “I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could.”
Mr Clancy moved from Duxbury to New York City in April 2023. He later met Dr Rachel Danis at a running club in Central Park, and the couple married in April.
Dr Danis joined him for the interview and said she tried to “take some of the weight” from his grief. The couple said they were starting a family together and looked forward to telling their children about Cora, Dawson and Callan.
