Where to Watch Livestream as Prosecutors Are Expected to Rest Their Case

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury mother accused of killing her three young children in January 2023, entered its 14th day of testimony Monday in Plymouth Superior Court, with Judge William Sullivan telling jurors that prosecutors are expected to formally rest their case during the session.

“It’s anticipated that the Commonwealth will close their portion of the evidence today,” Sullivan told jurors Monday morning, according to court reporting. “Then at that point, the defendant has the opportunity, if they want to, to present witnesses and evidence if they want to.”

The trial has generated intense public interest and has been livestreamed throughout its run, with coverage available through several Massachusetts news outlets including Boston 25 News, CBS Boston and ABC7, all of which have provided ongoing livestream access and real-time updates from inside the courtroom. Journalists and members of the public have packed the courtroom itself throughout the proceedings, while online audiences have closely followed developments as the case has unfolded.

Clancy, 36, faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — who died at the family’s Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023. Clancy has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys do not dispute that she killed the children, but argue she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and believed she was hearing voices instructing her to take the children’s lives and her own.

Prosecutors have presented a different account, arguing that Clancy acted with intent and premeditation. According to prosecutors, Clancy arranged to have her husband, Patrick, leave the house to pick up takeout food and visit a pharmacy on the day of the killings, then strangled the children with resistance exercise bands while he was away. Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham has urged jurors to evaluate the case on its facts rather than as a broader referendum on mental health treatment, telling the court the trial should not be viewed as “a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women.”

The trial’s 13th day of testimony, held Thursday, included Massachusetts State Police investigators walking jurors through forensic analysis of Clancy’s cellphone, part of the prosecution’s broader effort to establish a timeline and pattern of behavior leading up to the killings. During cross-examination that day, defense attorney Kevin Reddington highlighted internet search history from a family computer, including searches related to psychiatric medication and mental health terms conducted in the weeks before the killings, though ownership and authorship of some searches remained disputed between the two sides during testimony.

The trial’s proceedings the day before, on Wednesday, were described as particularly difficult, with jurors shown autopsy photographs and hearing graphic testimony regarding injuries suffered by Clancy’s two oldest children. That testimony reportedly prompted Clancy to become emotional in the courtroom, at one point telling the court, “I can’t do this,” according to reporting from the trial.

A legal analyst who has followed the proceedings has suggested that Clancy’s emotional reactions during testimony could influence how jurors ultimately perceive her state of mind, both at the time of the killings and throughout the trial itself, a factor that may play into the jury’s eventual determination regarding her criminal responsibility.

Prosecutors have sought throughout the trial to demonstrate that Clancy had access to a range of mental health resources and treatment options but did not consistently follow medical guidance, including discontinuing certain prescribed medications. Several of Clancy’s treating medical providers have testified for the prosecution, telling jurors that Clancy never discussed having a specific plan to harm herself or her children during their sessions with her, and that she did not display outward signs consistent with psychosis or mania, despite having reported experiencing suicidal thoughts to some providers.

The defense, led by Reddington, has maintained since early in the case that Clancy had been prescribed as many as a dozen different medications following the birth of her third child and that resulting over-medication, which Reddington has previously described as “horrific,” significantly contributed to her mental state at the time of the killings. The defense has argued this amounted to postpartum psychosis severe enough that Clancy should not be held criminally responsible for her actions under Massachusetts law.

According to prosecutors’ account presented at Clancy’s initial arraignment, after the killings, Clancy attempted to take her own life by cutting her wrist and neck before jumping from a second-story window of the family home. She survived but sustained injuries that left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down. She has remained hospitalized, primarily at Tewksbury Hospital, throughout much of the period since her arrest and has appeared at various pretrial hearings via video conference due to her medical condition.

Clancy’s case has drawn extensive pretrial litigation over the more than three years since the killings, including disputes over medical records, expert witness materials and reporting notes from a New Yorker journalist who had interviewed Patrick Clancy regarding his wife’s mental health prior to the killings. The trial itself was postponed multiple times before ultimately beginning this summer.

Clancy’s parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove of Wallingford, Connecticut, have continued to publicly support their daughter throughout the legal proceedings. “She’s a loving mother, always has been,” Paula Musgrove told reporters outside the courtroom during an earlier hearing, while her husband added, “We love our daughter very much, and we’re here just to support her any way we possibly can.”

With prosecutors expected to conclude their case Monday, attention now turns to whether the defense will call its own witnesses, including any mental health experts expected to testify regarding Clancy’s psychiatric state at the time of the killings. No timeline has been announced for how long the defense’s portion of the trial might take, and Judge Sullivan has not indicated when the case might ultimately go to the jury for deliberation.

This story involves themes of suicide, mental illness and violence toward children, which can be difficult to read about. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, thoughts of suicide, or postpartum depression or psychosis, you can call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org, available 24/7.