Lindsay Clancy’s mental health was getting ‘worse and worse’ before the murders, ex-husband says

She is being charged with three counts of first-degree murder over the January 2023 deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. If convicted, she faces life in prison without parole.

In the coming days and weeks, prosecutors will attempt to convince the 12-member jury that Clancy deliberately committed murder, while the defence will plead that she was not responsible and raise an insanity defence.

On Monday, her ex-husband, Patrick, answered prosecutors’ questions about Clancy’s relationship with her children, her mental health, and his knowledge of her prescription drug use.

He described her intermittently seeking help from doctors and taking a variety of medications, and he recalled her saying she was starting to have suicidal ideations.

“She kept getting worse and worse,” Clancy testified.

He said she switched psychiatrists because “it wasn’t working” with a previous doctor. “It was just really stressful,” he said of witnessing his wife struggle through her anxiety and depression.

In December 2022, a month before the children’s murders, “that was really where her big spiral started”, he said.

“She started to lose a lot of weight, and she became very depressed, and she was having a really hard time.”

In their opening remarks, prosecutors sought to paint a damning picture of Clancy, occasionally bringing her to tears in the courtroom.

She was visibly shaking as Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham described the Clancy children.

“This was a woman who acted intentionally, rationally, and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal – to kill,” Buckingham said.

“She is criminally responsible for the murders, because the evidence will prove to you that she knew exactly what she was doing.”