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Lindsay Clancy case update: Patrick Clancy's deleted Reddit posts reveal her alarming struggles before children’s deaths
Patrick Clancy’s deleted Reddit posts offer a look at Lindsay Clancy’s mental health struggles and the couple’s life before the deaths of their three children.
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Before Lindsay Clancy killed her three children, Patrick Clancy had already been seeking help online over the changes in her behavior. His now-deleted Reddit account, which was active from 2017 until last year, details his concerns about her sleep, anxiety and mental health in the weeks before the killings, as per The Post.
The posts show that Lindsay Clancy's troubles grew after she was prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft. She had been feeling anxious about returning to work as a labor and delivery nurse after having the couple's third child. The medication quickly caused her to enter a manic state and she was sleeping only three to four hours a night but didn't feel tired, and at one point went 48 hours without sleep. She also lost weight very quickly.
What did Patrick Clancy write on Reddit?
“I suspect this medication was never needed in the first place (Zoloft was my own idea), but my psychiatrist is saying I'm exhibiting signs of bipolar disorder,” Patrick wrote in a December 7, 2022 post in the "Ask Docs" subreddit, titled “posting for my wife."
“After a week of taking Zoloft, I developed severe insomnia,” he wrote in another post while describing Lindsay’s experience. The post was shared seven weeks before Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, were killed. “At one point, I went 48 hours without sleeping.”
“For weeks I have been lucky to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night. Oddly, I don't feel tired, but I know I need more sleep,” he added. That post also mentioned Lindsay had lost 15 pounds within a couple of weeks, bringing her weight to 115 pounds, which the New York Post noted is a common sign of mania.
By December 9, Patrick asked: “Has your [medication] experience ever involved thoughts of hurting others, including loved ones? Did you ever feel like you came close to acting on them? Or were they just thoughts?”
Patrick also expressed regret that Lindsay had gone on medication at all. In a December 6, 2022 post titled “I need another perspective,” he wrote: “I can't stress enough that her anxiety was very mild going into this. She was eating well, sleeping great as usual, dancing at the wedding we went to and socializing.”
He added: “This happened with our previous two children and she was able to get through it fairly easy with some therapy and renewed coping skills. Was she overwhelmed with the kids? Definitely, but I believe we could have solved that by giving her more time to herself to decompress as we have in the past.”
Patrick's email address was included in one of the posts, the same email later mentioned in Plymouth court by cell phone forensics expert Timothy Chiappini during testimony, as per the New York Post.
Lindsay’s hospital treatment before the killings
On December 15, Lindsay was described as feeling "severely depressed, numb, don't really care about anything... even had suicidal thoughts," according to a Reddit post. Patrick took her to the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency room.
On December 20, she was turned away from a postpartum program in Rhode Island. She was later admitted to McLean Hospital from December 30 to January 5, according to testimony from her psychiatrists.
In his last Reddit post before the killings, on January 23, Patrick asked a tech subreddit for advice on creating an app for a real estate open house. He later testified that Lindsay seemed much better after leaving the hospital. He said he had no idea anything was wrong on January 24, when he ran errands while Lindsay strangled their three children with exercise bands. She then cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a bedroom window in a failed suicide attempt.
Patrick has since remarried. His new wife, Rachel Danis, confirmed that the couple, who got married in April, are starting a family.
What's next in court
At trial, eleven jurors agreed that Lindsay was not guilty by reason of insanity, but one holdout believed she was guilty of murder. The case ended in a mistrial earlier this month. Lindsay is currently receiving psychiatric treatment at Tewksbury State Hospital. She is due back in court on September 29, when prosecutors will likely reveal whether they plan to retry her case, downgrade the charges, offer a plea deal, or drop the case altogether.
