Kimberlee Kruesi
Lindsay Clancy’s former husband said he forgave her for killing their three young children in his first televised interview, on Sunday on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, since a jury deadlocked in her trial for the children’s deaths.
Patrick Clancy talked about his grief, saying he battled suicidal thoughts after the killings and experienced a panic attack while testifying at Lindsay Clancy’s trial when attorneys played to jurors his 911 call to report the children’s deaths.
At trial, the anguished 911 call included Patrick howling and crying after he discovered the bodies of his children in the family’s basement as a confused dispatcher repeatedly asked what happened.
Earlier this month, 11 of 12 jurors were ready to clear Lindsay Clancy of criminal responsibility, with the majority feeling that the Massachusetts mother was in the grip of a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids in 2023. But a lone juror sided with prosecutors, who had argued that Clancy knew what she was doing. The deadlock forced a judge to declare a mistrial on September 4.
Clancy also said his youngest son, Callan, didn’t die immediately that fatal day on January 24, 2023, but lived four more days before dying in his arms.
While holding his eight-month-old son, he said he typed with one hand tributes to his other children, Cora, 5, and Dawson, 2, and also forgave his wife.
“I saw headlines that say ‘killer mom’ and ‘baby murderer monster’ and none of them were accurate,” he said. “I believed that it was her mental illness that caused that.”
Clancy said stress from the murders and trial took a toll.
“There was a time I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday, and I was completely fine with it,” he said.
He also addressed social-media conspiracy theories surrounding the case, which have included unfounded claims he was connected to the death of his children.
“It’s deeply harmful to the legacy of my children,” Patrick Clancy said. “It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health.”
His new wife, Dr Rachel Danis, joined him in the interview, describing him as the “most selfless and supportive partner”.
“I don’t understand how the story has been so twisted,” she said. “I was just a girl that met a guy running in Central Park on a really cold Saturday. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
In the interview, Patrick Clancy was asked if he was angry with himself or felt like he had failed in some way.
“I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time,” Clancy said. “And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.”
During the trial, neither side disputed that Lindsay Clancy strangled her children in the family’s home before trying to end her own life.
But her attorney said she was a loving mother experiencing deep delusions and other mental health problems, for which she had been getting treatment.
The Plymouth County district attorney has yet to say whether he’ll seek to put Clancy on trial again.
AP
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