By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-31 21:52:15 | Updated at 2026-08-01 13:04:30
15 hours ago
It was a bright, sunny day in the South Shore of Massachusetts - typical of late July when visitors and locals flock to the picturesque coastal towns for summer vacations.
But the weather contrasted with the mood as the 18 men and women with the grueling task of deciding Lindsay Clancy's fate were taken to the scene where she strangled her three young children.
Clancy is accused of murdering Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months old, inside the family home in the affluent suburb of Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023.
The former delivery nurse strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement then tried to kill herself - cutting her wrists and neck before jumping from the second-floor bedroom window.
It is a case where postpartum mental illness and criminal responsibility have taken center stage.
Prosecutors allege she murdered her children, planning the crime when she was of sound mind.
Meanwhile Clancy's defense argues she is not guilty by reason of insanity, because she was suffering severe postpartum depression and psychosis at the time.
Over the course of a highly emotional first week, jurors heard devastating testimony from Clancy's ex-husband Patrick Clancy as well his gut-wrenching 911 call from the moment that he returned home to find his wife injured and his three children dead.
Lindsay Clancy is on trial charged with the murders of her children Cora, Dawson and Callan (pictured in court on Friday)
Clancy jumped out of the top far right window on the evening of January 24, 2023, trying to kill herself
On Friday, the jury retraced his footsteps as they were taken to tour the Clancy family's former home.
The blue-painted two-story house was once a place where Cora, Dawson and Callan played, laughed and marked childhood milestones.
Heartbreaking images shown in court revealed how the children's drawings and family photos once decorated the home.
It then became the place where they took their last breaths.
More than three years on, a new family now lives there and the inside of the home looks different.
The three-bedroom property was quietly sold to a local attorney in 2024, when Patrick relocated to New York City to try to rebuild his life after the tragedy.
At around 9.30am, the jurors - 12 women and six men - traipsed onto a large coach outside the courthouse and set off on the route to visit the scene.
As reporters piled into cars to follow the route, a motorcade of Massachusetts State Police motorbikes - with blue flashing lights - left the court.
The tour involved the jurors somewhat retracing the footsteps taken by Patrick that tragic evening.
On the evening of the killings, Clancy had called ThreeV Restaurant in Plymouth and placed a takeout order for a Mediterranean power bowl for herself and a scallop and pork belly risotto for Patrick.
Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan were strangled at the family home in January 2023
The stairs leading down to the basement of the Clancy home where the children were found
Crime scene photos show the inside of the basement where the children were found strangled
She asked Patrick to drive and collect the order and stop at the local CVS to pick up medication for Cora.
Patrick left the home sometime after 5pm, last seeing Dawson eating chicken nuggets on the couch and his wife standing in the living room by the doorway that led down to the basement, he testified.
First, he went to CVS where, unable to find the right medication, he briefly called Clancy. She didn't pick up but called back one minute later at 5.34pm. She sounded like she was 'busy' in the middle of something, he said.
He then drove to 3V and picked up their takeout order before arriving home just after 6pm and finding the place 'really quiet.'
After searching for his family upstairs, he found Clancy injured in the backyard and called 911. When emergency responders arrived, he went inside to find his three children dead in the basement, strangled with colored exercise bands.
Retracing the events of that tragic evening, the jurors drove by 3V restaurant and CVS before arriving at the house around 25 minutes later - just before 10am.
The timeline is a key factor in the state's case against Clancy.
Prosecutors are arguing that Clancy intentionally sent Patrick out of the home, that she checked how long the drive would take him, and picked a restaurant far away - that they had never ordered from before.
Jurors were able to tour the outside of the home as well as the first and second floors - as well as the basement
Clancy speaks to her attorney inside Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts on Friday
Along the route to 3V, there are several other restaurants that they could have ordered takeout from. Meanwhile, the CVS is just a roughly five minutes' drive from the home.
It's an argument that prosecutors are using to push their claim that the killings were planned and premeditated - meaning she was of sound mind at the time.
Yet, experts say that women in the throes of postpartum psychosis are still able to plan.
After a brief drive-by 3V and CVS - where they did not disembark the bus - jurors drove to the home.
Before the police cordon was set up outside the home, reporters walked down the road.
A man drove past and shouted out the window: 'She's innocent!'
The media was then kept back at a far distance - seemingly further than the 100 yards stipulated in the court order - by a heavy police presence.
The family home is on a busy forked T-junction - with all three roads blocked off. There were police blockades, flashing blue light Duxbury Police cars and Massachusetts State Troopers on motorbikes and foot.
One thing that stood out was how terrible the signal was - an issue that Patrick mentioned during his testimony. The father-of-three told the court that it took him a few minutes to call 911 when he found his wife injured because of the spotty signal and WiFi.
An exercise band used to strangle Dawson is seen on the floor in Patrick's office in the basement
The snow on the ground in the backyard of the Clancy home. The mom-of-three was paralyzed after landing on the ground
The bedroom window from which Clancy jumped. Jurors were able to view the height for themselves during the tour
A floor plan shows the family's basement, including the living room area and office where the children's bodies were found
The jury bus arrived at the home just before 10am, staying in total around 40 minutes - leaving just after 10.40am. The jurors went inside in groups of six - spending around 10 minutes each on the property, touring the outside of the home, including the backyard where Clancy was found that evening.
From the backyard, they had a clear view of the second-floor bedroom window from which she had jumped - giving them a better sense of the distance she fell.
They were also able to tour inside the home, viewing each room on the first and second floors. That way they could see the inside of the bedroom and the window she jumped from.
The jurors could also see inside the basement where Cora, Dawson and Callan died.
Crime scene photos presented in court previously revealed the layout with the basement stairs leading to a living room area on the left - where Cora and Callan were found - and Patrick's office on the right - where Dawson was found.
While they could view the space, the jury could not open closet doors or touch any items inside the home.
The jury bus on the scene outside Lindsay Clancy's home in Duxbury during a visit on Friday
The jury bus outside 3V restaurant where Patrick went to pick up a takeout order for them that night
Jurors also drove by the CVS store where Patrick went to pick up medicine for Cora at Clancy's request
The three-bedroom home in the wealthy suburb of Duxbury is now owned by a local attorney and his family
Despite their objections that the property no longer looks the same as it did in January 2023, the current owner had been ordered to grant access for a view involving the jury, defense attorneys, prosecutors, the judge, necessary court staff - and Clancy herself.
Clancy, who is wheelchair-bound after the jump from the window left her paralyzed from the waist down, chose not to attend.
Due to the trial's length and distressing nature, Judge William Sullivan seated 18 jurors including six alternates to hear the case.
They will decide whether Clancy is guilty of three counts of first-degree murder or is not guilty by reason of insanity.
The trial continues.
