Harrowing 911 call reveals moment dad found wife had killed their three children

Details of a 911 call have revealed the devastating moment a dad discovered that his three children had been killed by their mother.

Lindsay Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder over the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.

On January 24, 2023, her then-husband, Patrick, returned from running an errand to find Lindsay lying injured on the floor outside their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

He then discovered his three children had been strangled with an exercise resistance band in the basement.

Lindsay’s defense team do not argue that she killed the children, but say she wasn’t criminally responsible because she was experiencing extreme postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that causes hallucinations, delusions, and extreme mood swings.

Prosecutors say Lindsay, a former labor and delivery nurse, acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths.

Testimony this week saw jurors told that when two police officers arrived at the scene they attended to Lindsay, who had jumped from the second-floor window of the family’s Massachusetts home.

Jurors then heard that they raced to the basement of the property after Patrick was heard screaming that all three of their children were dead. He was still on the phone to 911 when he discovered what had happened.

Details of the call given to jurors said that Patrick told officers, along with firefighters and paramedics at the scene, ‘I can’t wake them up – I can’t get them up.’

Patrick testified earlier this week that when he found Lindsay injured, she had told him that their children were in the basement, but did not tell him they were dead.

Lindsay claims that a voice told her, ‘This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,’ according to her lawyer.

Officers Stephen Hall and Brian Josephine testified on Thursday that they were dispatched separately to the house in Duxbury, finding Patrick calling for help from behind the property.

Josephine claimed that they heard Patrick’s screams in the basement and found Cora and Dawson dead, while Callan had a faint pulse. Callan was airlifted to hospital, where he died several days later.

As reported by The Guardian, Josephine testified: ‘Based on my training experience from previous incidents, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.’

PJ Hussey, a fire department supervisor, said that when they arrived, they saw Patrick unwrap an exercise band from his child’s neck.

Lindsay’s attorney has claimed that she had bipolar disorder, and that an antidepressant prescribed to Lindsay following Callan’s birth worsened her condition.

Patrick also testified about his wife’s deteriorating mental health leading up to the killings, saying that Lindsay had told him she had experienced thoughts of suicide as well as intrusive thoughts about hurting their children.

Lindsay sought help from specialists in postpartum mental health and was put on several medications before checking into a psychiatric hospital.

She was discharged from their care, and killed her children 19 days later.

Lindsay and Patrick have accused medical professionals of failing to properly diagnose, treat, and monitor her ahead of the deaths.

Prosecutors, however, allege that Lindsay deliberately sent Patrick out of their home on an errand to give her enough time to strangle the children to death with exercise resistance bands.

Patrick had been asked to collect children’s medicine and a takeaway after his wife said she’d had an exhausting day.

When he returned less than an hour later at around 6pm, he thought Lindsay was upstairs bathing the children.

The bedroom door was locked, and so Patrick had to force his way inside. Once inside the room, he found blood on the floor, a bloody knife on a bedside table, and an open window, Daily Mail reports.

Lindsay was lying barely conscious outside after reportedly cutting her wrists and neck and falling around 20ft onto frozen ground. The spinal injuries she suffered left her paralyzed and she now uses a wheelchair.

Patrick, who says he has forgiven his wife, has said he believes she didn’t send him out as part of a plan. He told The New Yorker that she described the killings as happening ‘like a snap of the fingers’.

The trial continues.