Jurors in Lindsay Clancy’s trial endured days of haunting testimony as they heard her husband’s frantic 911 call, viewed the exercise bands she used to strangle her three young children, then retraced her steps on the day she killed them.

On Friday, the jury visited the Massachusetts home where she killed her three children, Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months, including the basement where they died. It was a rare jury visit that let them see firsthand the place where an outwardly ordinary family life unraveled into tragedy.

Lindsay Clancy did not visit the home with the jury, and she hasn't seen it since the day of the killings. She has admitted to killing the children but her lawyers argue she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

Before visiting the home, jurors retraced the route her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, took after she asked him to pick up takeout food and medicine for Cora on the night of the killings. He returned to find the children dead and his then-wife badly injured and bleeding in the yard.

Prosecutors say the errands were a ruse to get her husband out of the house and that Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths of children.

Her lawyers say she had bipolar disorder and her condition worsened while she was on antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child. They say on the day of the killings, Lindsay Clancy said she heard a voice telling her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.”

Lindsay Clancy remains paralyzed from the waist down after using multiple methods to try to end her life that night.

Husband’s haunting 911 call

When police rushed to the scene on Jan. 24, 2023, two officers initially focused on Lindsay, who was drifting in and out of consciousness in the snow after jumping from a second-floor window of her home. Minutes later, the officers heard her husband screaming and ran into the basement.

A fire department supervisor described glimpsing through a basement window as Patrick Clancy unwrapped an exercise band from his child's neck.

The first responders’ testimony came after jurors spent two days hearing from Patrick Clancy and listening to his emotional 911 call.

He said he arrived to an unusually quiet home. After calling out to his family, he began looking in the kids’ bedrooms and bathroom and found a trail of blood throughout the main bedroom and a window open. Patrick Clancy found his then-wife badly injured on the lawn, bleeding in their yard.

"Lindsay, what did you do?" Patrick Clancy is heard saying in the 911 call. "Where are the kids, Lindsay?"

“Look at me,” he said, “Say my name.”

Wounded but conscious, she told him that the kids were in the basement, without saying they were dead.

Patrick Clancy told the dispatcher, "I've got to go check on my kids,” and his footsteps are heard as he searches the house.

Moments later, sobs and screams are heard, along with a confused dispatcher repeatedly asking what happened. Patrick Clancy yells, “Oh my god ... she killed the kids!"

He testified he didn’t remember still being on the phone with 911 as he ran downstairs to find each had been strangled with exercise bands.

“I can’t wake them up — I can’t get them up!” he told officers.

Patrick Clancy, who has since remarried, previously said that he forgives his ex-wife, whom he viewed as ill rather than evil.

Trial will hinge on Lindsay Clancy’s mental state

Patrick Clancy testified about his wife's deteriorating mental health in the months leading up to the killings, including her telling him about intrusive thoughts of harming the children and of suicide.

Lindsay Clancy had sought care from experts in postpartum mood disorders and was put on multiple psychiatric medications. When nothing worked, she checked in to a psychiatric hospital. She killed the children 19 days after she was discharged.

Patrick Clancy said no one ever told him that his wife shouldn't be alone with the children. He testified Wednesday, “I didn’t know what psychosis was until after this happened.”

Lindsay Clancy and her ex-husband accuse her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her, according to lawsuits filed earlier this year.

On cross-examination, Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, aimed to demonstrate that she took her medications and closely tracked her declining mental health. He introduced daily, handwritten notes she made about her medicines and mood, including repeatedly writing “horrible thoughts.” She also had a book and fact sheet on postpartum anxiety and a chart where she tracked her mood.

Reddington also got Patrick Clancy to acknowledge that many of her medical appointments starting in the summer of 2022 were with nurse practitioners and on Zoom calls lasting only 20 minutes. They also went through multiple medications she was prescribed, including Seroquel, an antipsychotic medication for which doctors increased her dosage in December.

“The idea was that it would help with sleep, but she didn’t get better. She got worse,” Patrick Clancy said.

Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and her trial is set to resume on Monday morning.

If she’s convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If she’s found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI) or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.