Paula and Michael Musgrove were ready for retirement when their world turned upside down on Jan. 24, 2023. Michael, 70, a school pH๏τographer in the last semester of his career, and Paula, 73, who had worked at Weight Watchers, learned in a phone call that their oldest daughter, Lindsay Clancy, 36, had been hospitalized after attempting suicide and that two of their grandchildren—Cora, 5, and Dawson, 3—were ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and another, Callan, 8 months, was then on life support. The couple immediately drove from their home in Wallingford, Conn., to their daughter’s side at a Boston hospital and, on Feb. 3, joined her husband, Patrick Clancy, 38, at the funeral for the three children at St. Mary of the Nativity in Scituate, Mᴀss. Instead of planning for retirement, they spent the next months grieving and preparing for Lindsay’s triple murder trial in Plymouth. Says Brandee Mulligan, who launched a GoFundMe for the couple: “They love their daughter, and they’re living through the unimaginable. They’re doing what parents do—you show up for your kid.”

Millions watched as the family’s nightmare was presented in detail at Lindsay’s five-week trial for murder in the deaths of her three children. The dramatic court proceedings spawned heated debate about postpartum mental health and the treatment of women in psychiatric crises as well as who was to blame for the tragic deaths. Lindsay, who pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility and now uses a wheelchair because of injuries from jumping out of her bedroom window, cried as lawyers argued her fate, exclaiming during autopsy testimony, “I can’t do this!”

As jurors deliberated whether she suffered from postpartum psychosis and was not responsible for her actions, one trial observer expressed hope that, whatever the verdict, society would not lose sight of all the lives shattered by the tragedy. Says Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, a Case Western Reserve University professor of psychiatry and editor of Family Murder: “With postpartum depression, it absolutely affects the whole family.”

Patrick Clancy’s mother, Susan, 64, a nurse, was the first member of the immediate family to meet Lindsay, when they both worked at South Shore Hospital in 2013. Eventually introduced by Patrick’s sister and a cousin, the couple married in 2016. Patrick, an executive at Microsoft, and Lindsay, who landed a job at Mᴀss General Hospital, had three children and settled into what seemed like an idyllic life in a new home in Duxbury, Mᴀss. The couple prioritized time with both sides of their family. In 2022 they spent Christmas morning at church with Susan, then drove to the Musgroves’ house in Connecticut for the rest of the holiday.

That fall, Lindsay had developed anxiety and depression after the birth of the couple’s youngest child, Callan. On Oct. 20 Lindsay texted her mother: “Mom will you please come up and stay with me for a bit. I’m really sick.” Paula traveled to Mᴀssachusetts to help out. “She was afraid to be alone, and she actually asked if she could sleep with me,” Paula testified on Aug. 17 while recalling her daughter’s mental outlook. Paula would make more than a half dozen trips to be with Lindsay as her mental health deteriorated.

Susan was also gravely concerned about her daughter-in-law’s health. She went to the ER at South Shore Hospital when Lindsay sought treatment there on Nov. 16 and often did the family’s shopping. On Thanksgiving 2022, “I approached and asked her how she was doing,” Susan testified on Aug. 18. “She said, ‘I’m trying hard to get better. I’m still working at it.’ ” After leaving the stand, Susan nodded sympathetically to Lindsay.

Just before Lindsay’s birthday in 2023, Patrick was in contact with Lindsay’s parents when Michael called to tell him that Lindsay, then hospitalized at Tewksbury Hospital, was not doing well. Patrick called her, and Lindsay, who had previously told him she’d heard a voice telling her to kill Cora, Dawson and Callan, said she desperately missed the kids and was despondent. By then he had already released a statement forgiving Lindsay, saying, “I took so much pride in being Lindsay’s husband and a dad.” Within a year he had filed for divorce, started a new position in New York and was dating a Brooklyn fertility specialist, Dr. Rachel Danis, 37, whom he married in 2026.

As the first witness at Lindsay’s trial, Patrick tearfully described her spiral into mental illness and his efforts to help her seek treatment. After two days on the stand, he returned to his new life in New York and seemed resolved to move on from his devastating loss. In recent days he has been pH๏τographed with a real estate agent while apartment hunting and lounging with his new wife on the roof deck of their building in Manhattan. On Aug. 31, as jurors continued to weigh the trial’s possible outcomes, he was not in the courtroom. According to her lawyer, Lindsay has already accepted her fate. “She knows that she killed these children,” Reddington said at the beginning of the trial. “She’s living her own hell.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, or just needs to talk, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.