I DO NOT KNOW A BETTER MOTHER THAN LINDSAY CLANCY — HEARTBREAKING SUPPORT LETTERS REVEAL THE WOMAN FRIENDS SAY THEY KNEW BEFORE HER THREE CHILDREN DI-ED, BUT ONE HAUNTING QUESTION REMAINS
HEARTBREAKING letters from people who knew Lindsay Clancy long before her three children died reveal a woman they remembered as a devoted mom, star student and deeply caring nurse.
Friends, former classmates, co-workers and even patients wrote in support of Clancy after the January 2023 killings, sharing personal memories of her childhood, career and dreams of raising a big family.
Clancy killed her three children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan, at the family’s home in Duxbury, Mᴀssachusetts, on January 24, 2023.
The former labor and delivery nurse is now on trial on three counts of first-degree murder, with her lawyers arguing she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible.
But years before jurors were asked to decide her fate, dozens of letters sent to defense attorney Kevin Reddington offered an intimate look at the life those closest to Clancy said they knew.
Longtime friend Brittany J. Barbuto wrote one of the most detailed personal letters included in the filing.
Brittany had known Clancy since sixth grade, remembered a girl who stood out long before she became a nurse and mother.
“A top-of-the-class student, talented athlete, a caring nurse, a pᴀssionate teacher,” the friend wrote, adding that Clancy had an “admirable drive” to succeed.
But motherhood, the friend said, eventually became Clancy’s “joy, pᴀssion, pride, and purpose.”
Michelle DaConto, who said she had known Clancy since first grade, recalled just how closely her nursing background followed her into motherhood after daughter Cora was born.
“When Cora was born her mommy nursing skills took over and she would check Cora’s vitals at home just to make sure she was okay,” DaConto wrote.
That desire for children apparently went back years.
Former Mᴀssachusetts General Hospital nurse Erika Sevieri described a colleague whose life appeared to revolve around her young family.
“I do not know a better mother than Lindsay Clancy,” Sevieri wrote.
“She lived and breathed for her children.”
Another former co-worker, Margaret Hamp, recalled Clancy talking about motherhood even before she married husband Patrick.
Hamp wrote that Clancy once said she wanted to have a “baseball team of children.”
She also remembered Clancy checking a baby monitor while working overnight shifts so she could keep an eye on her sleeping children from work.
Clancy’s nursing career also featured heavily in the letters.
Another Mᴀssachusetts General Hospital nurse, Heather Fraser, remembered hearing an equally ambitious number.
“She would often tell us at work that she wanted six children,” Fraser wrote, saying she felt privileged to watch Clancy eventually become a mother.
Laura Sanders, who worked night shifts alongside her at Mᴀssachusetts General Hospital for seven years, described her as kind, compᴀssionate, patient and empathetic.
Sanders wrote that it would be difficult to hear anything other than positive remarks from people who knew their “dear sweet Lindsay.”
Fellow nurse Grace McNulty similarly called Clancy “a compᴀssionate, supportive & excellent nurse.”
McNulty said there was nothing Clancy loved more than Cora, Dawson, Callan and Patrick, adding, “I am proud to stand beside her.”
Kendra Keefe, another nurse who worked with Clancy, said she “lived to be a mother” and proudly drew on her own experience when educating new parents at work.
Jenni Hennessey met Clancy when both were graduate nurses and later helped care for her when Callan was born.
Hennessey recalled seeing what she described as joy on Clancy’s face as the newborn rested on her chest, and wrote that the deaths were completely out of character for the woman she knew.
One former patient, Shelby Oster, also wrote to the court about having Clancy at her side during a difficult delivery in 2021.
Oster called her “the best nurse I’ve ever had” and said Clancy remained calm through stressful moments before an emergency C-section.
The letters stretched further back into Clancy’s life.
Stacey Kabat, a postpartum nurse and lactation consultant whom Clancy had shadowed as a nursing student, said she believed the tragedy could have been prevented.
“Please know that if our Lindsay had proper treatment this family would still be together,” Kabat wrote.
Longtime friend Amy Bevins also wrote that Clancy always put her children first and wanted them to feel loved, safe and happy.
Bevins said she trusted Clancy with her own child and believed watching her children grow had been her friend’s greatest joy.
Bevins would later take the witness stand at Clancy’s murder trial and tell jurors the pair had been friends for nearly three decades.
She testified that just days before the killings, Clancy told her a medication had caused “dark thoughts,” although she did not explain what those thoughts involved.
One of the starkest letters came from fellow nurse Susan Davison, who drew a connection between Clancy’s struggles and those faced by other women.
“I could have been Lindsay. Anyone of us could have been,” Davison wrote.
The supportive portrait has become especially striking as prosecutors and Clancy’s lawyers have spent weeks presenting sharply different accounts of her state of mind on the day the children died.
Prosecutors say Clancy was mentally ill but still knew right from wrong and deliberately created an opportunity to kill the children while Patrick was out of the house.
Her defense does not dispute that she strangled Cora, Dawson and Callan, but says she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and heard a voice commanding her to kill the children and herself.
Clancy attempted suicide after the killings and was left paralyzed.
Her fate now remains unresolved after jurors told Judge William Sullivan on Tuesday morning that they had been unable to reach a unanimous decision.
Sullivan sent the nine women and three men back to continue deliberating after roughly 17-and-a-half hours of discussions over four days.
