By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-30 15:22:01 | Updated at 2026-08-10 17:58:38
1 week ago
The primal, unearthly scream reverberated all around the packed courtroom.
It was a tortured, guttural wail unlike any sound I have ever heard before.
Over several excruciating seconds, Patrick Clancy continued to scream inaudibly. The only words discernible were cries of 'Oh my god!'
Then came the four horrifying words that laid bare the unspeakable scene that the father-of-three had just walked into.
'She killed the kids!'
Inside Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts, the deeply distressing 911 call from the evening of January 24, 2023, visibly took its toll on everyone in the packed courtroom.
Lindsay Clancy trembled and silently sobbed hunched over in her wheelchair as she was forced to listen to the audio from the defense table.
As soon as the call ended and Judge William Sullivan called a recess, the 35-year-old, dressed in a soft baby blue blouse, crumpled.
Lindsay Clancy put her head in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably after the 911 call played
Patrick Clancy returned to the stand to describe the devastating moment that he found his children dead
Putting her head in her hands, the former nurse began sobbing uncontrollably before nurses wheeled her into chambers.
Clancy's parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, hung their heads and silently sobbed from one of the rows in the public gallery.
Two female jurors broke down in tears.
There was hardly a dry eye across the gallery, which held around 70 members of the media and public.
Patrick had been excused before the 911 audio played to spare him from reliving the moment.
During the recess that followed, emergency responders entered a room beside the courtroom. Dispatch audio referred to a juror suffering a panic attack.
But when proceedings resumed, all 18 jurors returned.
Patrick did not.
His testimony had been expected to resume with cross-examination after the call but proceedings were put on pause.
I later saw the grief-stricken father-of-three leaving the room where emergency responders had been, before he returned to the witness stand, visibly calmer.
The roughly six-minute 911 call captured the aftermath of that awful night three years ago when Clancy strangled Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan inside the family's home in the wealthy suburb of Duxbury.
Patrick returned home to find Clancy injured in the backyard after cutting her wrists and neck and jumping from the window in an apparent suicide attempt.
It was only after emergency responders arrived on the scene that he then found his children dead in the basement.
Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan were strangled at the family home in January 2023
Clancy with her husband Patrick Clancy and two oldest children Cora, five, and Dawson, three
Sitting inside the courtroom, the 911 call made for painful, heartbreaking listening during a day where jurors were also shown the tiny pajamas the children were wearing that night and the three colored exercise bands used to strangle them.
Judge William Sullivan agreed to Patrick's request that the recording never be released publicly, ruling it could cause lasting emotional harm to him and his family.
After hearing it inside court, it was easy to understand why.
The call began shortly after 6pm with Patrick's frantic voice after finding his wife on the lawn.
'My wife tried to commit suicide,' he told the dispatcher. The panic was audible as Patrick repeatedly urged his wife: 'Stay awake, stay awake.'
When asked if she was responding normally when speaking, Patrick told the dispatcher: 'No - not normally… a little bit.'
At points, Clancy could be heard moaning, wailing and mumbling in the background.
While the audio played inside the courtroom, the defendant turned her head away from the jury and the public gallery, hunching over in her wheelchair so her long dark hair hid her face.
In the audio, Patrick frantically tried to comfort his wife and keep her conscious, telling her to 'open your eyes' and 'say my name, say my name.'
His concern for his former wife was clear from the audio.
But as Patrick waited beside Clancy for first responders, he had no idea that the children were dead inside.
He could be heard asking Clancy about the kids' whereabouts, to which she responded: 'In the basement.'
Assistant DA Jennifer Sprague holds up as evidence the pajamas that Callan Clancy was wearing the night of his death
Jurors were also shown the exercise bands that were used to strangle the three little children
In the 911 call, Patrick could be heard asking Clancy about the kids' whereabouts, to which she responded: 'In the basement'
Soon, the sound of approaching sirens could be heard.
'I need you to stay here while I go check on my kids,' Patrick told the first responders as they began caring for Clancy.
Still on the call, the court then heard the sound of heavy footsteps as Patrick rushed inside the home and down the stairs into the basement to find little Cora, Dawson and Callan.
That was when the bloodcurdling screams began.
As the wails grew louder, the dispatcher asked: 'What is he screaming about.'
The high-pitched screams continued before he finally cried out the words that changed everything.
'She killed the kids!' he screamed.
'She killed the kids? Holy s**t!' the dispatcher responded.
The 911 call took center stage during the second day of testimony in a trial that has raised complex questions about postpartum mental illness and criminal responsibility.
Moments before the recording was played, prosecutors displayed the children's pajamas, including Callan's red Mickey Mouse onesie.
Jurors were then shown three colored exercise bands prosecutors say were used to strangle the children.
The stairs leading down to the basement of the Clancy home where the children were found
The back of the Clancy home including the bedroom window (top right) from which Lindsay Clancy jumped
Clancy turned away and gripped her attorney's hand while her father wiped away tears.
Patrick, who has since moved to New York City and remarried but has publicly supported his ex-wife, was excused before the evidence was shown in court, sparing him additional agony.
The first day of the trial had marked the very first time he and Clancy had seen each other since that tragic day.
When the 38-year-old tech executive returned to the witness stand on Wednesday morning, he seemed to glance in her direction upon entering the room.
He testified that on the evening of January 24, 2023, Clancy had asked him to collect medicine for Cora from CVS and pick up dinner before he returned.
When he couldn't find the medicine at CVS, he called Clancy. She didn't reply but called back one minute later.
During the call, Patrick said Clancy seemed 'pretty quiet' and seemed preoccupied with something.
'It sounded like she was busy,' he testified. 'I thought she was giving baths or something.'
During the second day, the court heard the devastating 911 call from that day in January 2023
Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington clutched her hand for comfort as her former husband testified about the day their children died.
After picking up the takeout, he drove home to find the house 'really quiet.'
He called out to his family but got no answer. Then he opened the door leading down to the basement and called down.
Taking deep breaths on the stand, he recalled going upstairs and finding the couple's bedroom door locked.
'And that's when I knew something was wrong,' he testified.
Patrick trembled as he revealed how he managed to enter the room to find 'blood everywhere' and the window open.
There was a 'huge puddle' of blood on the floor and 'spray over every surface.' 'I remember it was on the doorknob,' he sighed.
Patrick said he ran downstairs and out the back door to find his wife lying face up in the yard. When he asked her, 'what happened?' she responded: 'I tried to kill myself.'
Clancy kept her head bowed and turned away from her ex-husband as he recounted the awful moment when he found the children.
His descriptions were brief – each word heavy in the air and clearly painful.
'I saw Cora.'
'She had a band around her neck.'
'She was face down.'
Patrick rubbed his face as he testified that he immediately ran over and took the band off but found his little girl unresponsive.
Photos of the children are shown inside the home where the family-of-five lived in Duxbury
The takeout order from ThreeV and the CVS bag containing medicine for Cora lay on the bench
He then noticed Callan face down and with a band around his neck, next to Cora.
After removing that band, he looked for Dawson – finding him separately in his basement office. 'I knew he was gone,' he said of the three-year-old.
The children were rushed to hospital where Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead. Callan died a few days later.
Days after the killings, Patrick said he got a call from Clancy in the hospital where she told him she had heard a voice telling her to kill the children – and that it was her 'last chance.'
Rubbing his face and struggling to contain his tears, Patrick said: 'She didn't talk about our kids. She spoke about what she went through.'
During a brief sidebar between the legal teams, Patrick covered his eyes with his hand and silently began weeping. He was then excused from the courtroom.
When he returned for cross-examination, Patrick testified his wife was a 'very dedicated mother' who loved the children 'very much.'
He described how Clancy's mental health had deteriorated in the months leading up to the killings – and how she repeatedly sought psychiatric help and was given more and more medications.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of first-degree murder because she was suffering from severe postpartum mental illness. Prosecutors argue that she planned the murders and was of sound mind at the time.
If convicted, Clancy will be sentenced to life without parole. If acquitted on the insanity defense, she will be committed to a state psychiatric hospital, where she will continue to be evaluated and could be released if found to no longer pose a threat.
