Vigil held for two children strangled to death by their midwife mother before she jumped out window

A vigil was held Thursday night for two Massachusetts children, ages three and five, who were strangled to death by their mother before she attempted to kill her eight-month-old baby and jumped out of the top window of her Massachusetts home.

Midwife Lindsay Clancy, 32, and her eight-month-old baby both survived the apparent homicide-suicide attempt – but Cora, five, and Dawson, three, were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Witnesses said the baby had been given CPR at the scene.

Holy Family Church in Daxbury stood vigil for the family and show appreciation for the first responders who tended to the shocking aftermath of the incident. 

The Very Rev. Fr. Robert Deehan, who presided over the event, said ‘before this tragic event, they were a happy and loving family. Sadly, the struggle Lindsay had in trying to deal with mental illness became overwhelming which led to such devastating results.’ 

Sources told WBZ-TV Wednesday that investigators are looking at the possibility that Lindsay Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis. 

The vigil comes as Matthew Glaser – who described himself as an extended family member – started a GoFundMe page to try and raise money to help husband and father Patrick Clancy, 34, who returned home at around 6pm on Tuesday to find his wife had tried to kill herself and immediately called the police, pay for medical bills, funeral services and legal help.

Within 14 hours, the page had shot past its original goal of $250,000 and has now raised over $324,000, including a donation from Boston Bruins star defenseman Charlie McAvoy, according to the Boston Herald.  

‘This assistance is especially needed because Pat will be unable to work for the foreseeable future as he weathers this painful, life-altering tragedy,’ Glaser wrote. 

‘We all know Pat to be the most kind and genuine person. As someone who is always willing to support others, we sincerely thank you for offering yours.’

Christine Monaghan, who coached 5-year-old Cora Clancy’s youth soccer team, remembered a little girl whom she described as ‘happy, learning and having fun. 

‘She didn’t deserve this,’ she told the Patriot Ledger.  

Lindsay, who is under police custody, will be arraigned once she is released from hospital on charges including two counts of homicide and three each for strangulation and assault and battery with a deadly weapon for the deaths of her two children. 

Lindsay Clancy’s husband Patrick had ‘popped out for 25 minutes’ to collect a takeout order on Tuesday night – but he returned to find his wife unconscious. 

Friends of the family now claim that Patrick had started working from home to keep a watchful eye on his wife – who was also in an ‘intensive’ post-partum depression clinic five days a week. 

Local radio presenter John DePetro reported that friends of the depressed mother said: ‘Her husband was working from home instead of going in to work to be able to try and support her daily while she went to a program 5 days a week for PPD. 

‘And in the 25 minutes it took him to pick up take out, the unthinkable happened.’ 

Investigators are now looking into the possibility that Lindsay, 32, was suffering from postpartum psychosis. The mother-of-three had also previously shared online that she was struggling with postpartum anxiety. 

While Lindsay appeared to be a proud mother on Facebook, she shared about struggling with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her latest child.  

Last July, she wrote that six weeks after the child’s birth, she was feeling ‘dialed in’ and sought to focus on exercise, nutrition and her mindset, which she claimed ‘made all the difference.’ 

In 2020, she wrote online: ‘So unbelievably thankful for this family and life,’ along with doting images of her children, reports Boston Globe. 

Feelings of depression can be common after childbirth, but on rare occasions, they can lead to full postpartum psychosis. 

In this extreme form of PPD, a mother can suffer from severe depression and hallucinations, and can lead her to harm herself, her children, or both. 

The mother-of-three was on leave from her job as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Officers arrived at the family home on Tuesday after the frantic husband had discovered his wife unconscious on the ground below a second-floor window.

They discovered the three young children ‘unconscious’ upstairs ‘with obvious signs of trauma’. It appears they had all been strangled Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said. 

Five-year-old Cora and three-year-old Dawson were pronounced dead on arrival to hospital while the seven-month-old baby was flown to Boston’s Children’s Hospital where he is alive and being treated by medics. Witnesses said the baby had been given CPR at the scene. 

‘We’re all heartbroken right now,’ Lindsay Clancey’s father-in-law, Christopher Clancy, told the Boston Globe.  

On Wednesday, two Plymouth women, Donna Jesse, who identified herself as an aunt of the children, and Rita Musgrove, who said she was their great grandmother, left a bouquet of pink, red, and white roses outside the family’s home.  

‘They were beautiful, beautiful children,’ Jesse told the Boston Globe. Musgrove added: ‘It’s pretty shocking’.

John Sullivan, a neighbor whose yard is adjacent to the back yard at 47 Summer St., said he got a call Tuesday night from his son who told him a woman ‘was laying down in the backyard.’ 

He said he rushed to his neighbor’s property where he saw first responders performing CPR on a baby outside

‘Everybody is in a state of disbelief, it is tragic, the whole neighborhood is trying to process this whole thing,’ Sullivan told CBS Boston.

In a press conference Cruz said of the family: ‘I cannot begin to fathom the pain, the depths of pain they must be feeling.

‘This is an unimaginable, senseless tragedy, and it is an ongoing investigation.’

Cruz warned ‘nobody’s here to speculate’, adding ‘we’re well aware of the fact that anybody charged with a criminal crime is presumed innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt’.

He wrapped up the conference by saying: ‘Certainly our hearts and condolences go up to the Clancy family’.

Cruz said they will now conduct autopsies to determine how the children died. Findings will be made public when a death certificate is issued.

The hospital where Lindsay works said in a statement: ‘We are shocked and saddened to learn of this unthinkable tragedy. We extend our deepest sympathies to all those affected by these devastating events.’ 

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call the 24hr National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.