RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from ABC News — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 6 sources
Shows Good Morning America ShopGMA Interest Successfully Added We'll notify you here with news about Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Off On Stream on News Psychiatrists testify that Lindsay Clancy did not show signs of psychosis Lindsay Clancy's psychiatrist to testify in murder trial Greg Derr/Pool via Reuters By Peter Charalambous and Mason Leib August 7, 2026, 5:06 PM Two psychiatrists who treated Lindsay Clancy in the months before she strangled her three children to death told jurors on Friday that Clancy did not show signs of psychosis prior to the killings.
"I did not have any concerns about her safety or her risk for anybody else," psychiatrist Alia Goodheart, who treated Clancy during a brief inpatient stay in early January 2023, testified on the stand.
Speaking to Clancy's alleged suicidal thoughts prior to the killings, Goodheart recalled Clancy saying her family -- namely her children and her mother -- was the main reason she did not want to harm herself.
Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges in connection with the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and infant son Callan at her family's home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has argued she had postpartum psychosis and severe mental illness, and that she attempted to take her own life after strangling her children.
Postpartum psychosis is a rare but serious medical emergency characterized by severe, rapid onset psychiatric episodes such as mania, depression or hallucinations. It can have rapid onset in the days or weeks after birth, research shows.
Prosecutors have attempted to cast doubt on Clancy's claim that she was not properly treated for her mental health issues, arguing that she was not serious about treating her condition and alleging she changed doctors and medications frequently.
Prosecutors say Clancy's medical team is not to blame for her actions.
While Goodheart testified on Friday that she did not see signs of psychosis, she acknowledged on cross examination that she never treated a patient with postpartum psychosis, a mental health condition that is far less common than postpartum depression.
Postpartum psychosis -- symptoms of which can include delusions or hallucinations and may include suicidal or homicidal action -- affects roughly 1 to 2 mothers per 1,000 childbirths, according to estimates from a 2017 systematic review in the journal BMC Psychiatry .
Goodheart said in her testimony that sleep deprivation -- one of the major reasons Clancy opted for inpatient treatment -- could contribute to a manic episode. She said Clancy had reported feeling "numb" and that she wanted to further observe her sleep when she checked out of the facility.
"She was future-orientated. She was clearly invested in her children. She was a caring mother," Goodheart recalled. "She had family support. We ensured that she would have outpatient psychiatric care for follow-up."
Jennifer Tufts, a psychiatrist who treated Clancy beginning in September 2022, told jurors that she began treating Clancy after she came in with concerns about her anxiety.
She said Clancy raised concerns at that time about side effects from her medications.
Court records suggest that Clancy was prescribed more than a dozen psychiatric medications ahead of the killings.
Tufts is at the center of civil lawsuits filed earlier this year by Clancy and her ex-husband Patrick Clancy, who allege her doctors overmedicated and failed to properly diagnose her following her youngest son's birth.
"She recognized something was wrong with her. She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to hospitals," Lindsay Clancy's civil lawsuit states. "And still, the medical system failed her completely."
Tufts, as well as her affiliated health system, have denied liability, arguing in an April court filing that the Clancy children's deaths "were not reasonably foreseeable."
Earlier in the week, on Thursday, jurors heard from a longtime friend of Lindsay Clancy's, Amy Bevins, who testified that Lindsay Clancy had told her she was "taking a medication that caused her to have some dark thoughts, but that she was going to, or had been weaning, like tapering off that medication" in the months before the killings.
Another of Clancy's friends, Bethany DeCollibus, told jurors that Clancy told her she had been struggling with sleeping and felt like "a zombie" at the time.
Christopher Clancy, the grandfather of Lindsay Clancy's three children, also testified in court Thursday, recounting how happy his daughter-in-law had appeared in December 2022, just weeks before the killings.
"She was very, very good. She fed them great. She did a lot of things with them …like the all-American family," he told jurors.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org . Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are not on your own.
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.