Hospital Chaplain testifies Lindsay Clancy asked about her children

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — At the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, a chaplain testified that she met Lindsay Clancy at a Boston Hospital one week after the children were killed.

Chaplain Sheila Cavanaugh testified that Lindsay Clancy asked about her children.

Cavanaugh testified that after a breathing tube was removed from Lindsay’s mouth, she spoke about her children.

“She said to me, as I held her hand to comfort her. I am so glad my children are safe,” Cavanaugh testified. “I said, Lindsay, your children are safe. They are safe in heaven with God. And I held her hand throughout that conversation, and we prayed for them.”

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Lindsay Clancy is on trial for the strangulation deaths of her young children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy.

Her lawyer is mounting an insanity defense, claiming Lindsay was wrongly medicated and in the grip of postpartum psychosis and is not criminally responsible for their deaths.

Sheila Cavanaugh testified that one week after the children were killed, Lindsay Clancy told her a persistent male voice ordered her to kill the children and herself.

“And the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she didn’t follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe,” Cavanaugh testified.

Sheila Cavanaugh testified that over the years, she met with Lindsay more than 200 times.

And she said Lindsay mentioned the voice in several meetings.

But under cross-examination, prosecutor Jennifer Sprague challenged Cavanaugh, saying Cavanaugh never recorded in her notes Lindsay Clancy’s claim of hearing a voice.

“And in all of these notes that detail every time you interacted with her. You never once wrote that she told you she heard a voice or what that voice said, correct?” Sprague asked.

“Correct,” Cavanaugh answered.

It is expected that the defense will rest its case on Friday after calling one more witness.

Later, in a Charging Conference, Judge William Sullivan met with both sides to discuss the verdict slip that the jury will take with them into the deliberation room.

They discussed charges of First and Second Degree Murder.

Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington is asking that the jury be able to consider a lesser charge of Involuntary Manslaughter.

Judge Sullivan has not made a decision on the issue.

Testimony resumes Friday morning.

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