Patrick Clancy describes holding his dying son — and being the focus of conspiracy theories during the Lindsay Clancy trial
Published at | Updated at
Elise Hammond and Rebekah Riess, CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) — Patrick Clancy said he thought he was doing the best he could in the months leading up to the day his then-wife Lindsay Clancy strangled their three children in their Massachusetts home.
Now, more than three years later, he’s trying to navigate a new level of public scrutiny and conspiracy theories after his ex-wife’s murder trial ended in a mistrial.
“I could piece together what it was like to be really, really anxious or depressed, but I didn’t know how to manage a postpartum illness. I think mental illness has this ability to be tragically deceptive,” he said, speaking in an interview that aired Sunday on “60 Minutes” with CBS correspondent Ross Douthat.
Patrick Clancy was the first witness to testify in the trial, where he spent two days talking about Lindsay Clancy’s downward spiral and postpartum mental health struggles that culminated in the deaths of their three children: Cora, Dawson and Callan.
RELATED | Defendant’s ex-husband takes the stand on Day 1 of Lindsay Clancy murder trial
Asked by Douthat whether he feels angry at himself, Patrick Clancy said: “I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome.”
“I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could,” he repeated.
The couple had been “on top of the world” prior to the killings, Lindsay Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington previously told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Patrick Clancy “went to the doctor’s appointments with her, stood by her, testified for her in this trial, and also forgave her, which is most important in her mind. That speaks volumes for that man.”
Patrick Clancy testified that his then-wife was “very dedicated” who loved her kids, but was grappling with stress, anxiety and other mental health issues that developed in the aftermath of childbirth.
From September 2022 to January 2023, Lindsay was prescribed numerous medications from several different doctors, “trying to get on the right medication,” he said.
Eventually, she “described thoughts of hurting the kids or them having some sort of ailment,” Patrick Clancy testified, adding he wasn’t concerned for their safety because she didn’t show “any intention” of harming them. When he came home from running an errand on January 24, 2023, he found the children strangled in the basement and Lindsay Clancy outside, lying face-up and bleeding in their backyard.
One of the children, 8-month-old Callan, was still alive when first responders arrived at the house, Patrick Clancy told CBS. He was airlifted to the hospital and was alive for another four days. Patrick said he stayed at his bedside, talking to him and hoping he would hang on and survive.
“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” he said. “I remember just thinking, ‘Just give me one, just give me one kid’ and I would raise him as best I could and I would give him the best life I possibly could,” he said.
He told Callan that he was sorry. He held him and he died in his arms, Patrick Clancy said.
Now that they are gone, Clancy said he still talks to his kids “all the time.”
As part of Patrick’s testimony, his harrowing 911 call the night of the incident was also played in court, but was not broadcast, in accordance with a court order. “It was one of the most gut wrenching, horrific things I’ve ever listened to,” Reddington told CNN. “It was just horrific, and I think, as I say, that speaks volumes for what this man went through.”
Patrick Clancy said he had a panic attack that day in court, just before they played the 911 call, which he said he “knew was going to be just horrific.”
“I went to a back room and I started having this massive, traumatic panic attack. My heart was pounding, and they put me in an ambulance. They offered me some medication, but I said, ‘I don’t want it because I want to go back and I want to finish this, so I can be done with this,’” he told CBS.
Lindsay Clancy has admitted to the killing of her three children from the very start.
Her own lawyers don’t deny she did it but say she should not be held criminally responsible for her actions, arguing that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness at the time.
His ex-wife told him that the incident “felt like a dream.” She never asked for his forgiveness, but Patrick Clancy said he gave it to her anyway.
He himself was suicidal for a point of time after the killings, as he grappled with the grief and the loss of his family, he said. Talking to experts helped him come to terms with what happened, he said.
“I believe that it was her mental illness that caused that,” he said. “I think when it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get there, I would be eaten up inside forever.”
Yet social media influencers and online sleuths dissecting evidence over the course of the trial have speculated that Patrick Clancy was involved, even while surveillance video showed he was not at home when prosecutors say the murders took place.
The online discourse is “painful to see” and makes it “difficult to be in public,” Patrick Clancy said, but more importantly, he said, it takes the focus away from the legacy of his children and the need for more perinatal mental health care.
Lawyers for Patrick Clancy recently announced they will take legal action to stop the barrage of online conspiracy theorists.
“Enough is enough – this spread of blatant and baseless falsehoods must stop. Those responsible should understand that there will be consequences, and every appropriate measure will be pursued to hold them accountable, including legally. Law enforcement has been notified,” Patrick Clancy’s attorney, Howard Cooper, said in a statement.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not said whether he will retry Lindsay Clancy, leaving online speculators’ thirst for resolution unquenched. A status hearing on the case is scheduled for Sept. 29.
After the stranglings, Patrick Clancy said he wanted to start over and be anonymous, so he moved to New York City. There he met Dr. Rachel Danis, a fertility doctor.
The two got married in April, CBS reported, and Danis also became the subject of unfounded conspiracy theories alongside her new husband.
“I don’t understand how this story has been so twisted,” she said, appearing next to Patrick Clancy in the interview. “But I would hope people know that Pat is, as I said before, the most selfless father and supportive partner, and I was just a girl that met a guy running in Central Park on a really cold Saturday, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
Patrick Clancy said he thinks Danis has helped him carry some of his grief. They are working on starting a family of their own.
“I think every parent can agree, you have different relationships with your kids, but they’re all your kids, and I can’t wait to tell them about their brothers and sister,” he said, referring to Callan, Dawson and Cora.