LINDSAY CLANCY CASE TAKES A STUNNING TURN AS FINAL PROSECUTION PSYCHIATRIST ADMITS STATE’S OWN OPENING “MINIMIZES” HER mєntal HEALTH STRUGGLES — BUT HIS OTHER TESTIMONY COULD STILL HAUNT THE DEFENSE AS JURORS PREPARE TO DECIDE HER FATE

closed out her captivating murder trial by getting the final witness to make a stunning admission about the prosecution’s case.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff, who was called to testify by the Plymouth County, Mass. District Attorney’s Office, acknowledged the opening statement by prosecutor Shanan Buckingham “really minimizes” the struggles that the 36-year-old postpartum mom went through before she strangled her three kids.

Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, read a lengthy excerpt from Buckingham’s July 27 remarks to the jury, claiming Clancy “manipulated” her healthcare providers who treated her as she desperately sought help for crippling insomnia, depression, anxiety and horrible intrusive thoughts about sᩚuᩚiᩚcide.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff resumes his testimony about the mєntal state of Lindsay Clancy during Clancy’s murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court.Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP

“Would you agree that the evidence in your opinion supports that contention, sir,” Reddington asked after reading Buckingham’s statement.

“Well, there is a lot in that,” Saathoff said.

“Yeah, there is,” the defense attorney said. “Do you agree that it would support your contention sir, or it would not?”

“I think that statement that you read really minimizes what [Clancy] was going through.”

Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial continues with final witnesses and arguments at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

“Alright, thank you,” Reddington said, wrapping up his cross-examination.

Reddington read the portion of Buckingham’s statement that said: “Lindsay made a calculated decision. She was a woman who no longer liked the life she thought she wanted. It was getting harder and harder for her to control and when she saw the opportunity to escape, she made the selfish choice to take it and to take Cora, Dawson and Callan first before attempting to take her own life. She chose to manipulate her providers, seek out a quick and easy fix when she was feeling depressed and anxious and when she didn’t get what she expected, she chose the alternate route.

Attorney Kevin Reddington holds up a display board of a text message Clancy sent her mother Paula asking for help during Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts on August 26, 2026.via REUTERS

“She would seek a different doctor, she would change medications after days, she disengaged from treatment when she didn’t like the plan. After only four months in treatment, she made a choice, a deliberate and intentional decision, that she did not want to try anymore. And because no one could take care of her kids the way she wanted them to, she had to take them with her too.”

Clancy is seeking to be found not guilty by reason of insanity based on her claim that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and hallucinated a man’s voice telling her to carry out the horrific crimes.

But Saathoff said he believes Clancy is criminally responsible because she was “methodical, quite controlled and organized” on Jan. 24, 2023, when she carried out the killings.

Lindsay Clancy listens to the testimony of Dr. Gregory Saathoff during her murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court on August 26, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass.Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP
He also testified there were “inconsistencies” in Clancy’s account of when the male voice first came to her and in her and her then-husband’s telling of the sequence of events that day.

Saathoff, who has decades of experience and has worked with thousands of patients with psychosis, also said it was unusual that Clancy only ever heard the voice during the killings — not ever before and never again after.

In all, roughly 85 witnesses, including 10 defense witnesses, testified over the course of the grueling trial.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham reads from evidence during Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial.via REUTERS

Jurors heard testimony that Clancy — a former labor and delivery nurse — spent four months before the slayings trying to get help for her mєntal health struggles.

During that time, she began seeing a psychiatrist, she called a sᩚuᩚiᩚcide hotline twice, she checked herself into a mєntal institution for five days, and she sought help from two perinatal clinics, jurors learned.

It was well documented in medical records that Clancy repeatedly had suicidal thoughts and she’d opened up to her mom and husband twice about even having thoughts of harming the kids.

Michael Musgrove, the father of Lindsay Clancy, listens to testimony in his daughter’s murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. on August 26, 2026.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Clancy’s providers gave her 30 prescriptions for 13 powerful psychiatric medications during that time, according to testimony.

After the murders, Clancy cut her wrist and neck, downed pills from six different medications she was prescribed and threw herself from a window on the second floor of her home.

She became paraplegic from the spinal injuries she sustained in the fall and is now wheelchair bound.

The jury is expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberations on Thursday.

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