Another "ripped from the headlines" episode based on recent cases of mothers suffering from, or allegedly suffering from, postpartum psychosis that wound up killing their own children. The most recent case in the headlines is that of Lindsay Clancy, a 34 year old woman from Duxbury, Massachusetts who was a registered nurse that worked in the maternity ward at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a mother of three children: a 5-year old girl named Cora, a 3-year old boy named Dawson and a 8-month old boy named Callan. On the evening of January 24, 2023 police and paramedics were called to Clancy's house after she had strangled all three of them to death, and then attempted suicide by jumping out of a second-story window, she survived the fall but broke her spinal column and is paralyzed from the waist down. Clancy had been suffering from postpartum depression, and had been receiving treatment in the form of therapy and medication from both a psychiatrist, and a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Mental health experts, hired by Clancy's attorney, believe she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare complication of postpartum depression, in part due to overmedication, as she had been prescribed 13 different antidepressants & anti-anxiety medications in the four months prior to the killings. She had also been admitted to the McLean Psychiatric Hospital three weeks prior to the killings due to suicidal thoughts, possibly due to medication interactions. The Plymouth County District Attorney's office has charged Clancy with three counts of strangulation, three counts of aggravated assault and battery, and two counts of murder in the first degree. If convicted of the murder charges she would face an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole; Clancy has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. In December of 2024 the court determined that Clancy had recovered sufficiently to be declared competent to stand trial, and a trial date was set for December 1, 2025.
