A Disturbing New Detail About Lindsay Clancy’s Psychiatric Treatment

The psychiatrist treating Lindsay Clancy in the months before she drowned her three kids had never once been in the same room as her.

Every one of Dr. Jennifer Tufts’ 14 appointments with Lindsay Clancy between September 2022 and January 2023 happened over video. She testified Monday in Plymouth Superior Court that she’d never seen her patient in person until the trial itself.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the January 2023 deaths of her children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. Her defense argues she was suffering postpartum psychosis at the time.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington pressed Tufts on what she could and couldn’t observe through a screen. She said she couldn’t see Clancy’s legs but knew her patient was under stress, per Court TV.

Tufts diagnosed Clancy with generalized anxiety disorder and an adjustment disorder with depressed mood, recommending therapy and an antidepressant. She had an appointment with Clancy on January 23, the day before the children died, and testified the mother showed no signs she would harm them.

A second psychiatrist, Dr. Alia Goodheart, treated Clancy after she checked into McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, on New Year’s Day and was discharged January 5. Goodheart also testified she saw no signs of psychosis, though she acknowledged she’d never treated a patient with postpartum psychosis before.

If convicted, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not criminally responsible, she’d be committed to a state mental health facility. The trial is expected to run four to eight weeks.

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