Toxicologist testifies only quetiapine was slightly elevated in Clancy's blood

Clancy told psychiatrist she heard voice telling her to kill her children

Forensic toxicologist Justin Brower testified Wednesday at Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that his lab at NMS Laboratories examined levels of four psychiatric medications detected in the defendant’s blood: the antidepressant mirtazapine, the mood stabilizer lamotrigine, the antidepressant trazodone and quetiapine, a drug used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. Brower noted that quetiapine could also be prescribed in low doses to treat insomnia.

Asked whether the concentrations of each drug differed from what was prescribed, Brower said the only drug that appeared slightly elevated was quetiapine, though it was not at a “toxic concentration” or “suicidal concentration.” “Usually people take handfuls of pills when they’re trying to harm themselves and take their own life, and this is not consistent with that,” Brower testified. Under questioning from Clancy’s defense attorney, he acknowledged the toxicology results “don’t tell the entire story.”

Prosecutors allege Clancy intentionally killed her three children — Callan, 8 months old; Dawson, 3 years old; and Cora, 5 years old — in January 2023. Her defense attorneys say she was a loving mother who was overcome by postpartum psychosis, had undiagnosed bipolar disorder and was on problematic medications. If convicted, Clancy faces life in prison without parole; a not-guilty verdict by reason of lack of criminal responsibility could lead to commitment to a state mental health facility.

Clancy’s attorneys have said her condition seemed to worsen on an ever-shifting lineup of psychiatric prescriptions. In the three months before the killings, various clinicians prescribed antidepressants, sleep aids, an antipsychotic and other medications while she reported increasingly profound insomnia, anxiety, despair and confusion about what was real, according to a civil lawsuit filed against caregivers that claims they should have recognized that both she and her children were at risk.

On Monday, jurors heard excerpts from Clancy’s journals that described her mental struggles, including thoughts of suicide and feeling overwhelmed with motherhood. The entries described struggles to get her newborn to sleep, going back to work as a labor and delivery nurse, not being able to breastfeed and feeling disconnected from her children and husband. “I want help. I want to be well,” she wrote. She described feeling “incredibly sad and guilty” about not breastfeeding and wrote: “I now have horrible insomnia and anxiety which is causing depression. I have no appetite. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Clancy first sought help from a postpartum depression program in late December 2022. She checked herself into a psychiatric hospital and told a psychiatrist that she heard a “man’s voice” in her head telling her to “kill the children so you can kill yourself.” Nineteen days later, after being discharged, she carried out the killings.

The jury also heard the 911 call Patrick Clancy made on the night of the killings; several jurors were seen holding back tears. Patrick Clancy described returning home after collecting medications and a takeout meal to find the home “quiet.” He went upstairs and found the door to the couple’s bedroom locked. After breaking in, he found the room covered in blood and the window open, with his wife lying on the ground below. She told him she had tried to take her own life. When he asked where the children were, she told him they were in the basement. When emergency services arrived, he went downstairs and found the three children with exercise resistance bands around their necks. Duxbury police officer Brian Josephine testified that he heard Patrick Clancy scream, “She killed the fucking kids.”

Clancy is now paralyzed from her attempt to take her own life. Dr. Jhilam Biswas of Brigham and Women’s Hospital testified that when a forensic psychologist asked how she felt, Clancy responded: “Horrified.” She asked whether she could have visitors and where her family was, Biswas said. Testimony has at times been halted when witnesses, including Patrick Clancy and the defendant, became overwhelmed. Patrick Clancy has testified about the medications his former wife was taking, her health and demeanor, and the destructive thoughts she was having. He has said he forgives Lindsay and believes the killings were motivated purely by her mental health.