Warning: This story contains distressing details and discussion of attempted suicide Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of a US mother accused of murdering their three children, has said he would have been “eaten up inside forever” had he not forgiven her for their deaths. In an interview with CBS, he also said he did the best he could as his then-wife Lindsay Clancy struggled with mental illness in the months leading up to the day she strangled their children. Lindsay has not disputed that she killed them but her lawyers argued she should not be held legally responsible because she was suffering from severe mental illness. A judge declared a mistrial in the case earlier this month after the jury said it could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was guilty of murder.
The prosecution had alleged that on 24 January 2023, Clancy intentionally strangled all of her children – Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, eight months – in their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home. Patrick Clancy testified during the trial about his ex-wife’s declining mental health after giving birth. Clancy’s team said she had postpartum psychosis, a rare condition in which postpartum women can experience mania, depression or a mixture of both. “I didn’t know how to manage a postpartum illness.
I think mental illness has this ability to be tragically deceptive,” he told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner. It was her mental health that led to Patrick Clancy deciding later to forgive her. “I saw headlines that said, you know, ‘Killer Mom’, and ‘Baby Murderer’, ‘Monster’. And none of them were accurate,” he said in the interview.
“I believe that it was her mental illness that caused that. So I shared those words. And I think when it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get there, I would be eaten up inside forever.” Asked if he felt he had failed in some way in this period leading up to the killings, he said: “I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time. And I live with the outcome.
I live with it every day.” Living with his grief in the weeks after the tragedy became a struggle and he admitted having suicidal thoughts. “I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday. And I was completely fine with it,” he said. During the seven week trial, Patrick was singled out online for wild vitriol and cover-up accusations.
There were claims he was to blame for the murders in some way. Thrust into the limelight, tabloids snapped photos of him travelling and with his new wife Rachel Danis. The 36-year-old said the speculation was “deeply harmful to the legacy of my children. It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health”.
It was also “painful to see” for him personally. “And it makes it difficult to be in public and it’s possible that some of those people after seeing lie after lie after lie, they start to believe it and that’s what we’re left with,” he said. The intense scrutiny prompted him to move from Duxbury to New York City in a bid to seek anonymity. Now he is starting a family with Danis and looking forward to telling his future children about their siblings.
“I think every parent can agree, you have different relationships with your kids, but they’re all your kids. And I can’t wait to tell them about their brothers and sister.” The mistrial leaves the case unresolved. Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek a retrial. The next court hearing is scheduled for 29 September at Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts.
If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide, external. A list of UK organisations that can help is available here.
