The Insanity & Failures Of The Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial

For those following this trial, it has turned into a three ring circus, none of which prioritizes justice for the three murdered children. For most of us who follow some of the high profile trials, we have never seen anything like it.

Lindsay Clancy and her lawyer Kevin Reddington have attempted to shift all blame onto postpartum psychosis, hormones, poly-pharmaceuticals, the doctors who assessed and treated Lindsay Clancy, the health care system, and an absence of women’s rights.

As if any woman has the right to murder her own children. How backwards can things get?

Although this is a much more macabre and grandiose situation, it is kind of like the child who is being asked what happened to his homework. First he says the dog chewed it up, then it fell in the mud, then if that is not convincing enough, a sudden gust of wind blew it all away, and it flew into the river.

Years ago I spent a fair bit of time with a man who had more than twenty years of post-secondary education. He had a PhD in linguistics, and Master’s degrees in a couple of other disciplines. He told me that when someone makes multiple excuses, thinking each one adds more credibility to the first one, it actually does the exact opposite.

The more blame shifting, and excuses given, the more it weakens the foundational argument. In this case, the argument is not whether or not she did it, because it is a known fact. She admitted it, and there was no other adult in the house at the time of the murders. She also described the order in which she killed the children.

The argument is whether or not she was sane, or not criminally responsible when she committed the crimes. Each state has different laws surrounding claims of NCR. Most states have strict criteria that are not easily met.

Mental illness in itself is not a valid defense, unless the person did not have the ability to differentiate right from wrong, or there was a compulsion so powerful, they had no ability to stop themselves. They were taken over by some other force, and had no control over their actions. 

In my opinion, Lindsay Clancy was sane prior to, and during the murders, based on the many things she did that prove her own sanity. She was never once diagnosed with psychosis, in spite of the fact she was seen, and assessed by multiple different doctors.

She was driving, writing coherently, acting normal, took her daughter to a doctor’s appointment earlier that day, and raised no red flags. She Googled side effects of medications, and then reported those side effects, in order to get her medications changed. She was self-directing her own care. No one was supervising her.

On the day of the murders, she sent her husband on errands, calculated the distances and timelines, and even called him back when she was in the middle of carrying out the murders. All of those things point to a pre-meditated, well planned murder, with the ability to manipulate and deceive her husband, so no one was home to stop her.

It demonstrates that she knew what she was doing, therefore she took steps to hide what she was about to do. The fact she took each child to the basement, also shows an inclination to hide the crimes from view, in case someone came to the door, as well as to muffle the sounds of murder. The basement was also where her husband worked, so that may have been another underlying reason for the location she chose to carry out the murders.

Multiple things have muddied the waters in this case. Her husband collected $1.7 million in GoFundMe donations following the murders, and her family collected something like $2 million during the trial. On top of that, both Lindsay Clancy and Patrick Clancy are suing the system for millions more, essentially blaming the health care system for what she did.

We all know what a strong motivator money is, therefore the testimony of all those who stood to gain, should be brought under closer scrutiny, and viewed with skepticism. They all testified she was a “wonderful mother”. Some of us find that hard to believe. Those children would have been safer in a crack house. 

We have to keep in mind there are people who are called “wonderful Christians” who commit heinous crimes. The BTK killer was described as a wonderful father, and was a deacon at his church. The Green River killer was also described as a wonderful father, and husband. Same with Chris Watts.

Ted Bundy sat beside famous true crime writer Ann Rule, and she did not see the evil in the man who sat in the chair beside her. They were volunteers at the Seattle Crisis Clinic, a suicide hotline in Washington State. She thought he was a great guy, and she often asked him to walk her to her car when they were working late.

Clearly, we cannot go by what other people say about a person, because deception is often very sophisticated. In the Lindsay Clancy case, her ex husband and family also had a profit motive to make claims of how great she was.

The testimony that was given by Patrick Clancy, and her family heavily influenced the jurors. In fact, rather than evaluating the concrete evidence, based on their post trial interviews, several of the women on the jury had their minds made up at the onset. They took the wonderful mother testimony at face value, and disregarded most of the prosecutions evidence. 

They were influenced not only by the wonderful mother testimony, but also by the pink shirts outside the court room, and the powerful social media trends. Several of them even wore pink during the deliberations.

As a result of one single male hold out, who would not budge, the judge ended up calling a mistrial. The public has hailed this man as a hero. The jurors, and the media have hung him out to dry.

In fact, the persecution of the hold-out juror has been so extreme that Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, offered the man asylum, because he faces such a backlash, his life may be in jeopardy.

On top of the need for asylum, the media disclosed all kinds of negative information about the man’s background, his finances, prior legal problems, and even contacted his family members to dig up dirt.

If that is what they are allowed to do, they should do the same for all the other jurors. No doubt some of them have a few skeletons in their closets. Based on some of the interviews, they came across as absolute dimwits.

There was at least one nurse on the jury, and it sounded like she tried to override expert testimony on the toxicology reports, offering expert advice, and interpretations of her own. Personally, I don’t think they should have allowed nurses on the jury.

By allowing nurses on the jury, there is way too much likelihood of using nursing knowledge inappropriately, to influence other non-medical jurors. There is no way of knowing if a nurse would lean toward leniency toward a fellow nurse, or be harsher in her judgement, due to the dark shadow it has cast over the profession of nursing. Either way, there is a potential for a conflict of interest, which should have been obvious during jury selection.

Clearly Lindsay Clancy herself used her knowledge of nursing to self-direct her own care. It also appears that she intentionally set up the documentation, and paper trail for an insanity defense well in advance.

If this is true, it means the pre-meditation went on for months, not just the day of the murders. Based on her journal writing, constant doctor shopping, Google searches, and knowledge about the importance of documentation if something ever goes to court, it is very possible she was malingering, and manipulating the system for some time.

But why? People claim she had no motive. However she did have motives, many of them. She did not want to return to work. That was very obvious in her own journal writing. It means she was not willing to contribute financially any longer.

Other nurses testified that she loved her job, yet the testimony, like the claims of her being a wonderful mother, is incongruent with the reality of her own words, and conduct. She had the flexibility to choose to work one day a week, one day a month, or not at all.

She did not want to work at all, and decided not to return to work. Therefore the nanny was let go. Just one month after deciding to be a stay at home mom, she murdered all three children. Obviously she had no intention of being a stay at home mom. She did not want to be a stay at home mom, and she did not want to work. Her life needed a complete reset. A new beginning. 

Many women take a few years off to raise young children, and that should not be viewed as an unwillingness to contribute financially, if they can afford it. This day and age, most women do not have the luxury of staying home with young children.

However for Lindsay Clancy, her husband’s earnings were high enough for her to quit work if she chose to. They even had a nanny while she was on maternity leave. How many women have such a luxury? Patrick also got paternity leave, and had three months off. She had lots of help in the immediate postpartum period. 

Other plausible motives are resentment, anger, revenge toward her husband, perfectionism, control, and not wanting to deal with the demands of small children. She wanted her freedom. She wanted a beach babe body, which takes a lot of time and energy. But overall, I think the strongest motive was revenge.

There was a reason she set it up so her husband would be the one to arrive home to the carnage. She did not make a fatal attempt on her own life, in spite of what anyone says. She made sure the children had no chance of survival, and she also made sure she had a very good chance of survival.

Every single medical professional knows the ABC’s of survival. It stands for Airway, Breathing, Circulation. The number one, first and foremost condition for survival, is the airway. Lindsay Clancy attacked and cut off the airway of each child, which would have taken several minutes for each one. It is a very deliberate, personal, up close, and prolonged act of supreme aggression.

However, when it came to her suicide attempt, she did not cut off her own airway, she did not compromise her breathing, and she only made superficial attempts to cut herself, carefully avoiding major vessels. Unlike the direct and targeted attack on the children’s airways, she did multiple random things to herself, much of it very theatrical.

She crushed up some pills, she grabbed a big knife from the kitchen, she made a few superficial cuts on herself, and she locked the bedroom door.

Her primary miscalculation, and her most severe injuries were due to the fall, when she attempted to climb out the window, because the ground was frozen solid. It all seemed so performative when it came to her own life, compared to the cold reality of lifeless children in the basement. 

She was the first to be found when Patrick arrived home. In my opinion, this was intentional. The time frame was critical, because even just a couple minutes difference in finding the children, might have saved the baby. She seemed to want to create enough distraction, with a focus on herself, to remove any chance of resuscitating the children.

She put as much possible distance between herself and the children, by going from the basement to the top floor, and then out the window. That demonstrates she wanted distance, not closeness to her dead children. Not altruistic, but rather to delete them from her life, and start over without them. 

She was not planning to exit this world alongside her children. The distance, and the difference in the way she orchestrated the crimes against them, compared to the attempts on her own life, do not match up. It was the end for them, but not for her. 

By all accounts Lindsay Clancy had plenty of help, and resources. She chose to erase those children, because they did not fill her needs, and she was tired of taking care of them. No one truly knows what was going on in that marriage, but we can be fairly certain that a woman who loves her husband and children, would never do such a thing.

The fact her first request was for a lawyer, then she was given the doctor’s phone to call her husband, remembering his phone number with no problem. What was the first thing she said to him? Not shock and horror – Not I am so sorry, or what have I done?

No. Her first and only interest, was to set up a defense. She said “I must have had a moment of psychosis”. After the murders, once she got a lawyer, it was quickly realized that a diagnosis of depression, and anxiety was not enough to claim NCR. So the fabrications of hearing voices began.

In addition to adding the voices to the narrative, there was a major theatrical ploy to garner sympathy for his client. Kevin Reddington, throughout the trial treated her like a child, and like she was the primary victim, not the children who she murdered.

If it was altruistic filicide as one expert witness said, then why didn’t she hang herself in the basement, cutting off her own air supply like she did to them? Why not stay at their sides, in order for all of them to go to a better place together?

Thousands, if not millions of people fell for it. Lindsay Clancy has become a celebrated murderer, with multiple copycat murders on the heels of this hellish hero syndrome.

Now what? It is anyone’s guess. Will there be a retrial? Maybe. Will there be a bench trial? I guess they would have to do a plea deal to reduce the charges from first degree murder, to either second degree murder, or manslaughter.

Her lawyer is busy filing motions for a full acquittal. He is so determined to win, he will stop at nothing. A huge part of the problem surrounding this case, is that her lawyer went into this metaphorically with boxing gloves, and brass knuckles, while the prosecution went into it pussy footing around the feelings, and with a child’s bow on her head.

If they retry this case, they are going to have to fight fire with fire. They need a prosecution that will fight back. They need to drop the rhetoric, cut through the theatrics, pink shirts, and sympathy, and lay it on the line. Skip the walking on eggshells, for fear of being a meanie. That is exactly what Reddington wants. No one needs to bow down to that man’s diabolical whims. 

If Lindsay Clancy truly had remorse, she would accept responsibility, and show remorse, not blame everyone else, and their dog for what she did.

This has become a trial about the lack of protection for children, when so many women seem to think they are entitled to harm them, and claim mental illness.

It has become a regressive form of feminism, demonstrating that women are mentally unstable, and incapable of making sound decisions, subject to hormones, and bouts of psychosis. Suddenly, having babies has become a burden so great, it provides an excuse for those who want to erase their children, and abandon their responsibilities.

It has brought the entire jury system under scrutiny, and shows some glaring flaws. It has placed courtroom drama, theatrics, bullying, badgering, and media interviews, above and outside the boundaries of justice and truth.

The women jurors who were interviewed found Reddington to be engaging and entertaining. It was like they were there to be entertained, as though they were watching a soap opera, not appointed to carefully weigh evidence in a triple murder trial.

This trial has become known worldwide, so there is not much chance of finding jurors who are not familiar with it, even with a change of venue.

Should Lindsay Clancy get off based on misplaced sympathy, and the outlandish tactics of a defense attorney who lacks professional boundaries, and will do anything to win?

It seems like an unrestrained, freewheeling approach to a murder trial. It takes ambulance chasing to a whole new level. The media have become like sharks in bloodied waters.

Kevin Reddington even declared his love for Lindsay Clancy, portraying her as sweet, wonderful, and innocent. You have to wonder how there can be so much polarization, and how so many people can justify murdering children. If you watch that man in action, and take it to heart without a shred of discernment, then I guess all reasoning goes out the window. 

Recently I watched a medical examiner unrelated to this case, being interviewed. She is a woman with thirty plus years of experience. She said that dealing with the death of children, especially homicidal deaths, was the absolute worst, and most traumatic things she has ever had to deal with.

In fact, those deaths are so emotionally overwhelming, and disturbing, the organization she worked for created a policy making it a requirement to send two medical examiners, when the deaths involved children. It is more for the moral and emotional support, than anything else.

Why is there so much misplaced empathy, compassion, and sympathy for the killer when so many people surrounding this case have been severely harmed, traumatized, and had their lives altered?

We cannot forget, many innocent people have been impacted, and harmed. The first responders, police, medical examiner, and medical professionals who tried to save the baby, will be affected for the rest of their lives. 

The people who interacted with Lindsay Clancy in the weeks, and months prior to the murders will be shaken, and traumatized for years. The professionals who are being sued for what she did, will face that stress, and perhaps serious damage to their careers, and lives for the rest of time. 

One of the psychiatrists was a recent graduate. Imagine spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, and twelve or more years of intensive studies, only to face something as catastrophic as what Lindsay Clancy did, with so many pointing the finger at you, simply for being inexperienced? She never even got a chance to put her toe in the water of the system she had entered, before being thrust into the Lindsay Clancy nightmare. 

Reddington attacked her like an apex predator, giving the impression he was the expert, the one with the twelve years of medical knowledge, instead of her. You can see how such a skilled lawyer can flip the script, and put the witness on the defensive. He plays people like a screeching violin. They just want to cover their ears and hide.

Everyone is inexperienced at some point, at the entry point into whatever career they choose. Inexperience may lead to some mistakes, or may cause a person to be easily manipulated or deceived, but it is not malpractice, simply because you have not learned the ropes, or seen the depths of depravity so early in your career.

Lindsay Clancy did not have postpartum psychosis, but even if she did, it is very rare. Listening to this trial, you would think every second person who has a baby, has postpartum psychosis. It is all based on misunderstanding, and hyperbole.

It brings another chilling element to the whole saga, in that women seem to be using TikTok, and melodrama, to insert themselves into this crime. Social media is a game of oneupmanship, and attention seeking. If someone poses on the edge of a cliff, the next person dangles over the edge. And then like fools, they go right over the edge into the abyss below.

Each bit of sensationalism is broadcast all over the internet, and before you know it, someone is playing the danger game, often endangering others as well.

In the past, since when did women post pictures of themselves with their baby, bawling, and acting crazy and distressed, shaking them, and throwing water on them? It is the newest, and latest rage. “Look at me, I am sad! I am depressed. I might go crazy, and whatever I do is okay, because I have so much to deal with”.

These women are supporting, and identifying with a child murderer, as if it is the new cool. This is how you fit in. You don a pink shirt, and rant about how this “could have been me”.

Reality check for all those women. This is NOT about you. It is about a grave, and malevolent triple homicide of three innocent children Cora, Dawson, and Callun Clancy, who should have been safe in their own home.

One minute they were sitting on the couch eating chicken nuggets, and beans. The next minute they were forced into a death march down the basement stairs.

Whatever happens in this case going forth, I pray that whoever is in charge, will never lose sight of those sweet, innocent children, and how they were viciously murdered by their own mother.

The pink shirt trend needs to stop. The copycat crimes need to stop. For all the people railing about how there is not enough help for mental health, the other side of the coin is that there is not enough personal responsibility for mental health.

What do people expect? Millions of dangerous, and psychotic people are already locked up, and medicated. Did they get help. No doubt they did, but for some people, nothing works.

In the past, we used straight jackets, and I am old enough to remember those. When I first graduated from nursing, and well into the 1980’s we used all kinds of different restraints. They were not only for psychiatric patients, but were also used for geriatric patients, and in the ER’s.

They were used on any patient that was disoriented, and trying to climb out of bed, or over the guard rails on a stretcher. Some of them were upper body vests, with long ties that you tied to the underside of the bed. Others were simple leather straps that you put on and secured to the bed. 

People still managed to climb out of bed, and some were strangled by the long ties. Others were left dangling on the outside of the bed for hours. The four point restraints, with straps put onto each wrist, and each ankle, often left severe chafing, due to the struggling.

Prior to that, even women who were giving birth were strapped to a table, to include her arms, and her legs. Stirrups with several straps on them were used for the legs, and leather straps were used to secure the wrists.

Eventually these methods were seen as dangerous, and dehumanizing. The pendulum swung to the other extreme, and physical restraints basically became illegal, against policies, and were abolished with just a few exceptions.

People were allowed to climb out of bed, stagger around, fall down, break a hip, crack their heads open, or whatever. When I first graduated, you could not leave a side rail down, without being accused of neglect. By the time I left the profession, you could not use a side rail at all. Let ’em fall. 

If we could let common sense prevail, we would find ways to protect the patient from injury, without dehumanizing them, or leaving them tied to a bed for hours on end. Oftentimes, things go from one extreme to another, when the solution is somewhere in the middle. 

When I was working on Haida Gwaii, a psych patient who was being transferred to a larger hospital in Vancouver, managed to get the door of the plane open, and jump out. He almost took the entire plane down, and nearly dragged a paramedic out the door with him. The plane was flying over the ocean, and that man’s body was never found.

After that, policies were made so that a psych patient could not be transferred without being sedated to the point of intubation. The medical system went from using physical restraints for several decades to using chemical restraints, as a more humane alternative. If a person is intubated, it takes a lot more staff to do the transfer, and manage the ventilator. 

Keep in mind – no one truly knows how psychotropic medications work, and especially what the interactions are when it comes to people who are medicated with multiple medications.

For those who are seeking, or demanding mental health reforms, or treatments, they must know the limits of what their options are. There is no magic pill, or quick fix. You cannot leave you brain, or your mind at a local fix it shop, and go back a week later to pick it up, expecting it to be like new.

Outside of a physical cause for the mental health issues, you cannot get a CT scan, an ultrasound, an MRI, or a blood test to tell you, or anyone else what is wrong. If you are in a place where there are just psychiatrists, and psych nurses, chances are none of them know anything about overlapping physical ailments, abnormal blood work, or chronic conditions unrelated to psychiatry. There is not enough interdisciplinary exchange of information, so that people get more comprehensive care. 

It is wise for all people to find ways to overcome mental health issues, before there is a need for chemical restraints. That might mean lifestyle changes, overcoming addictions, changing diet, changing relationships, setting boundaries, changing attitudes, and coming to terms with your spiritual beliefs.

It might mean you have to map out a recovery plan, using talk therapy, cognitive therapy, research, and healthier outlets. Find hobbies, find ways to elevate your mood without substances, find things to be grateful for.

I do not believe in the death penalty, nor am I advocating for a lack of empathy or compassion for those with mental health issues. All people should be treated with basic dignity, whether they are being treated in a hospital, or sentenced to life in prison. 

As long as a person is alive, there is hope for them, which is why I do not believe in the death penalty. True repentance could save their soul, therefore like all people, the Gospel message in their only hope. 

At the same time, we should not be naive when it comes to manipulation, deception, and the wily attempts to get away with murder. We should not in any way condone, or excuse murder, especially the murder of children. There is no acceptable excuse, reason, or pardon to be made for the murder of innocent people. 

The breath of life is a God given gift. No one has the right to take that breath away. It is so much more valid, important, and sacred than we even realize.

We cannot expect someone else to fix our mind. Satan wants control of our mind. If we hand it over to someone else, some random entity or person, it increases the peril for us, and those around us.

We must guard our hearts, and our minds against the infiltration of evil. Evil intent, evil thoughts, and the dark powers and principalities that roam this earth, until Christ returns. 

There are no easy answers. We are inundated with knowledge, and information, yet for many, there is no way of processing that knowledge.

2 Timothy 3:7

7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I believe the bible is the best guide, and the only solution for the mental health issues we face during troubled times. No amount of physical restraints, or chemical restraints, will solve the underlying problem.

If people accept Christ, trust in God, and read the bible, they will walk in truth, in light, and in love. Their loved ones will be safe. 

2 Timothy 1:7

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2026). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.