The trial of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children before attempting suicide in 2023, moved toward closing arguments on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. The prosecution’s final witness, FBI psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff, testified in Plymouth that he does not believe Clancy’s claim that she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children — five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan — as her defense team argues, attributing her actions to postpartum psychosis.

Dr. Saathoff stated that Clancy was methodical, controlled, and organized throughout the day she committed the killings and attempted suicide. He found the planning involved in the strangling of her children significant and expressed surprise that she was able to execute the killings without any instructions or plan, which he said undermines the defense’s assertion of psychosis-driven behavior.

When questioned by prosecutor Jennifer Sprague, Saathoff expressed skepticism that a voice directed Clancy on where, how, and in what order to kill the children. He also noted it was unusual that Clancy said the voice stopped after the killings, as in his experience, such hallucinations are typically constant and not resolved by committing an act.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Kevin Reddington, Saathoff acknowledged he had treated only two women with postpartum psychosis decades earlier, in the late 1980s and 1990s, during his time at a state hospital.

The central issue in the trial remains Clancy’s mental state at the time of the killings — whether she knowingly murdered her children or was legally not responsible due to a psychotic episode. Clancy has admitted to killing the children but denies the charge of murder.

Sources