Jury in Lindsay Clancy trial hears ex-husband Patrick’s 911 call after murders of 3 children

Around the time that Patrick Clancy’s 911 call was played and the jury was dismissed for an extended break, there was a medical emergency inside the courthouse.

“The Plymouth Fire Department responded to a medical emergency at the courthouse this morning but is not releasing any additional information,” the Plymouth Fire Department said in a statement.

After the jury left the courtroom at the conclusion of the 911 call, a firetruck could be seen pulling up to the courthouse. 

WBZ-TV’s Kristina Rex, who was inside the courthouse, reported that a court officer walked EMTs and paramedics who were holding medical equipment into the District Attorney’s office inside Plymouth Superior Court. 

It is not clear exactly what the medical emergency was or who needed attention.

When court resumed about 80 minutes later, all 18 jurors were present, along with attorneys and Lindsay Clancy. 

Following several witnesses that completed their testimony quickly, Judge William Sullivan called court into recess for about two hours.

Normally, there is a break from 1 to 2 p.m. for lunch in Plymouth Superior Court.

But the judge told jurors at noon that they would have an extended break.

“Members of the jury, remember I said today was going to be full of a couple of starts and stops? This is going to be one of those stops. So what we’re going to do is I’m going to excuse you until 2 o’clock,” Sullivan said. 

Sweeney Schelgren was the next witness called. She was working as a hostess at ThreeV in Plymouth the night the Clancy children were killed.

Prosecutors say Lindsay Clancy ordered food at the restaurant for her husband at the time, Patrick Clancy, to pick up. The prosecution has argued that Lindsay sent Patrick out of the house to give herself time alone with the children in order to murder them.

Schelgren recalled a woman placing a takeout order, saying she had no trouble understanding her. She called it a normal interaction. The hostess also was asked about the man who picked up the food, and said there was nothing out of the ordinary about that interaction.

Testimony lasted less than five minutes for Schelgren, and the defense did not have any questions on cross-examination.

CVS Kingston general manager Angela Krause was only on the stand for about five minutes. 

She said she received a call from a woman asking if a medication was in stock. She was asked if the woman seemed impaired at all.

“It was a very normal interaction,” Krause said.

A surveillance photo was shown on the screen and Krause completed her testimony without cross-examination.

Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan called the 18 jurors back into the courtroom and testimony resumed around 11:40 a.m. after a break that lasted about 80 minutes.

Angela Krause, general manager of CVS in Kingston, took the witness stand.

Judge Sullivan had previously said that Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy’s ex-husband, could step down from the stand but may be called back later. With Krause taking the stand, it appears Patrick will not yet be cross-examined.

On Tuesday, Lindsay Clancy’s defense team filed a new motion.

They are seeking for parts of the prosecution’s opening statement and early testimony by Patrick Clancy to be stricken by Judge William Sullivan.

They want to strike the timeline in which the three Clancy children were killed. The defense argues that it implies a hatred for one child over others, adding that there is no evidence there was any meaning to the order of their deaths.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington also wants testimony excluded about Lindsay Clancy having a dinner and massage for her anniversary about a month before the killings, because Patrick Clancy testified that it never happened.

In the prosecution’s opening statement, there was a reference to a Google search for “ways to kill.” The defense wants that excluded because they argue the search was for methods of suicides. 

Following the emotional reaction to Patrick Clancy’s 911 call from the day his three children were killed being played for jurors, court went into recess for nearly an hour.

At about 11:25 a.m., Judge William Sullivan returned to the bench and called attorneys to sidebar.

About 30 minutes after Patrick Clancy’s 911 call was played, court remains in recess.

Judge William Sullivan, who is overseeing the proceedings in Plymouth Superior Court, did not specify how long the recess would be.

The prosecutor showed the jury the clothing that the three children were wearing, and the exercise bands used to strangle them. Lindsay Clancy did not look up during the presentation of evidence.

The jury then heard Patrick Clancy’s 911 call. It lasted about six minutes. The judge told jurors they must not let their emotional reaction interfere with their judgment.

The judge previously approved Patrick Clancy’s request to keep the audio of the 911 call private. The media is not allowed to broadcast the audio.

WBZ-TV’s Kristina Rex, who is inside the courtroom, said Clancy could be heard telling the dispatcher that his wife tried to commit suicide.

“Where are the kids, Lindsay,” he can be heard saying. “Did you fall out the window, Linds? Did you fall? Is there something on your neck, Lindsay?

As first responders arrive, he says he has to check on his kids. 

Clancy can be heard screaming and saying he needs help in the basement now.

“She killed the kids!” Clancy says.

Lindsay Clancy was hunched over the defense table as the call played, crying. Court went into recess as she was wheeled out of the room, sobbing loudly with her face in her hands.

After Patrick Clancy detailed what happened the night of the murders, prosecutor Jennifer Sprague asked him if anyone ever told him not to leave the kids alone with Lindsay.

“No,” he replied.

“In January of 2023, did Lindsay ever tell you that she wanted to harm your children?” Sprague asked. 

“No,” he said.

A week later, he says he got a phone call from Lindsay Clancy.

“She didn’t talk about our kids. She talked about what she went through,” Patrick Clancy said. “She said she heard a man’s voice telling her if she didn’t do it now she would lose her chance, or something like that.”

He said he didn’t remember if Lindsay Clancy told him that she had psychosis.

“I didn’t know what psychosis was until after this happened,” he said. 

Patrick Clancy was then excused from the stand, but the judge said he could be called back later today.

When he got to the basement, Patrick Clancy said he saw his 5-year-old daughter Cora first.

“She had a band around her neck,” he said, referring to an exercise band. “She was face down.”

He untied the band, but said she was unresponsive. He then saw 8-month-old Callan next to her with an exercise band around his neck as well. 

Clancy said he then looked for 3-year-old Dawson and found him in his office, also with a band around his neck.

“I knew he was gone,” Clancy said. 

He said he went “back and forth” between the children, trying to give CPR before first responders arrived and took over.

Patrick Clancy said he ran outside after encountering the bloody scene in the bedroom. He said he found his wife on the ground with “deep cuts on her wrists” and a red line across her neck. 

“She said, ‘I tried to kill myself,'” Clancy recalled.

He asked where the kids were, and she answered that they were in the basement. She did not indicate that they were in danger or injured, Patrick Clancy said.

He said his wife was going in and out of consciousness. When first responders arrived, he said he ran to the basement. 

Patrick Clancy described to the jury what he saw when he unlocked his bedroom door.

“I just saw blood everywhere and the window was open,” he said. “It looked like it was sprayed, almost like with a hose. There was a huge puddle in the middle of the room … I remember it was on the doorknob.”

Prosecutors have said Lindsay Clancy cut her neck before jumping out the second-floor bedroom window.

Patrick Clancy said that when he returned home around 6 p.m., he noticed that “the house was really quiet,” which he said was unusual. He said he called out and no one answered.

“I called down to the basement and no one answered. I called Lindsay to see if she was home,” he said.

He said he checked the bathrooms and the kids’ bedrooms and didn’t find anyone. He went to his bedroom and found that the door was locked.

“And that’s when I knew something was wrong,” Clancy said.

Patrick Clancy returned to the stand Wednesday morning to talk about the night of the murders on Jan. 24, 2023.

He said he left the house to pick up takeout food that his wife ordered, and while he was on the way, Lindsay Clancy texted him around 5:15 p.m. to pick up some medicine for the kids at CVS. He said he called her while he was looking for the medication she told him to get.

“She was pretty quiet. It sounded like she was busy,” he said. “I remember hanging up thinking she was probably in the middle of giving baths or something like that.”

The judge said jurors on Friday will visit the Duxbury home where Lindsay Clancy is accused of killing her three children before jumping from a window.

Police will secure the area on Summer Street during the jury visit. 

“The parties will be permitted to visually inspect the outside of the property as well as the following interior areas: the basement, all rooms on the first floor, and all rooms on the second floor of the premises,” the court order states. “Parties are not permitted to open closet doors, touch any items within the premises, or disturb items.”

Patrick Clancy’s motion to suppress media access to his 911 call and pictures of his deceased children was approved by the judge Friday.  

Judge William Sullivan wrote in his ruling that “The media shall not, record, display, reproduce, distribute or otherwise disseminate” the 911 call or the autopsy photos of the children.

The camera will be turned off when those pieces of evidence are shown to the jury in the courtroom.

Opening statements were presented Monday as Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial got underway in Plymouth Superior Court.

Patrick Clancy then took the stand as the first witness. He was married to Lindsay Clancy at the time of the murders, but they have since divorced and he remarried.

Patrick Clancy testified about his ex-wife’s mental health struggles, which included a stay at McLean Hospital for psychiatric treatment about one month before she killed her three children.

When court ended for the day, the prosecutor had just gotten to questions about the day of the murders. Patrick testified that, despite her recent struggles, Lindsay had “one of her best days” in the hours leading up to their deaths.

Patrick Clancy works in the tech industry. He worked for a startup company and later got a job at Microsoft.

Patrick and Lindsay Clancy first met in 2013 and moved in together in 2015. They were married in 2016 and had their first child, Cora, in 2017.  

They were married at the time of their children’s deaths, but later divorced. Patrick Clancy has since married another woman.

During the start of his testimony on Monday, he became emotional at times, particularly when photos of his children were shown on a screen in the courtroom. He described their interests and personalities and said Lindsay was a loving mother.

He also went into detail about his ex-wife’s mental health struggles. He testified that Lindsay shared suicidal thoughts and also told him she had thought about hurting their children in the past.