Lindsay Clancy is on trial for first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children: 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan. The trial opened on Tuesday, August 12, 2026, with a dispute over witness testimony rooted in a TikTok video.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington requested that former McLean Hospital clinical social worker Emily Thorndike be added to the witness list. Thorndike had publicly accused witnesses of spreading "lies and misrepresentations" about the psychiatric facility where Clancy was treated weeks before the deaths. Reddington argued that Thorndike’s experience working on the same short-term unit could counter what he described as a misleading portrayal of McLean as a "five-star" hospital overflowing with treatment options that Clancy allegedly refused.

"Her involvement in this case came about after one of the prosecutors — I don't recall which — made it out on direct examination that McLean is some kind of a five-star institution where the doctors, the psychiatrists, the psychotherapists, and the counselors were all banging into each other in the hallway trying to interview Miss Clancy, who was just blithely refusing care and treatment, which is not the case," Reddington said. He added that the jury was left with the impression that McLean’s affiliation with Harvard made it a top-tier hospital.

Prosecutors countered that Thorndike had left McLean about a year before Clancy’s stay, had no firsthand knowledge of her treatment, and had been following the trial online before posting her opinions.

Before the witness list dispute, jurors heard a series of messages Clancy sent in late 2022 to her psychiatric nurse practitioner, Rebecca Jollotta. In these messages, Clancy described worsening depression, insomnia, medication changes, and intrusive thoughts. She told Jollotta she was "not at the point of being suicidal" but added, "I’m really feeling as if I can’t go on like this," and expressed feeling "completely hopeless and unmotivated to do anything at all."

Clancy also reported starting to have "very intrusive thoughts that I never had before" and expressed a desire to change her medication plan.

The judge overseeing the case, William Sullivan, cautioned that the court proceedings were not a platform for public opinion sites, referencing that this was "not Tripadvisor."

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Lindsay Clancy, McLean Hospital, Kevin Reddington, Emily Thorndike, Rebecca Jollotta, Judge William Sullivan, Patriot Ledger, Greg Derr, Tripadvisor, United States