Add The New York Post on Google Lindsay Clancy’s stricken mom testified in disturbing detail Monday how her daughter told her a month before killing her three kids that she thought about harming them.
Paula Musgrove told the jury that one night in early- to mid-December 2022, Clancy admitted to Musgrove and Clancy’s then-husband, Patrick Clancy, that she had dark thoughts about hurting kids Cora, 5, Dawson, 3 and 8-month-old Callan.
Lindsay went on to fatally strangle the children with exercise bands at her and Patrick’s Duxbury, Mass., home Jan. 24, 2023, and then immediately tried to kill herself.
“I remember her being very nervous,” Musgrove told jurors in the horrific Plymouth, Mass., case, referring to the night her daughter told her and Patrick about her dark thoughts.
Musgrove said the three were in the family’s kitchen when Lindsday said, “I just have to tell you guys something.”
“She told us that she had thoughts of harming the children,” recalled Musgrove, the third witness to testify on Lindsay’s behalf, after prosecutors rested their case earlier Monday.
“I remember Pat asking her if she felt like she couldn’t be alone with the children, and she said, ‘No,’ ” Musgrove said.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague followed up by asking if Musgrove if she ever thought about having Lindsay committed to a mental institution.
Sprague said, “Were you concerned for the children’s safety at that point in time?”
“No, because I was there,” Musgrove said.
The mother and grandmother explained that as Lindsay’s mental health began deteriorating in the four months before the slayings, she started staying with her daughter for days at a time to help with the kids and to provide moral support.
On Oct. 20, 2022, Lindsay texted Musgrove, “Mom will you please come up and stay with me for a bit.
“I’m really sick. Something is wrong. I have horrible insomnia all night and I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the day,” Lindsay wrote.
“I started taking medicine my doctor prescribed for anxiety and I think it’s made things worse. It’s just really scared and I don’t want to be alone.”
Her mother responded, “Yes, I’ll come today.
Musgrove, who lived in Connecticut, drove up to Massachusetts that day and stayed until Oct. 24, kicking off a string of stays at the Duxbury home.
The grandma said she went “back and forth so many times” she could hardly keep track of the visits.
When Musgrove wasn’t with her daughter, she would text her daily to check in on her sleep, her mood and how she was handling her medications, the grandma told the jury, who were read a slew of those messages.
For example, on Jan. 19, 2023 — five days before the children’s deaths — Musgrove texted her daughter, “How are you feeling today?
“Can you tell if anything is different with the new medication.”
Lindsay responded she was OK and that the new medication could take weeks to really kick in.
Lindsay’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, wants a jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis made worse by a revolving door of powerful psychiatric medications. Reddington also claims Lindsay heard voices telling her to commit the horrific acts.
Jurors have heard testimony that Lindsay was given 30 prescriptions for 13 drugs by a handful of providers in the four months leading to the killings. She also did a five-day stint in a mental institution weeks before because of having intrusive suicidal thoughts.
Musgrove choked up when she spoke about her grandkids.
“I love my grandchildren with all my heart, and you will never know what it is like to love a grandchild until you become a grandmother,” Musgrove said, her voice breaking.
She also gushed about the type of mom that Lindsay was for the kids, saying she “was a very loving mother.
“She was dedicated to her children,” Musgrove said. “She was a fun mother. She was always doing things for her kids. She always wanted to be a mother and have many children. I felt it was the best thing to happen to her. She would do anything for her children.”
But during October through January, Musgrove said, she witnessed Lindsay’s decline, with her daughter so afraid to be alone she once asked her mom to sleep with her at night, which she did.
She said Lindsay was anxious, paranoid and didn’t even want to drive. So Musgrove would drive her daughter to pick the kids up from school.
The grandmother watched baby Callan when Lindsay threw Cora her birthday party Jan. 7, 2023, and when Lindsay went with Patrick, Dawson and Cora to their friends house days before the murders — all attempts to carry on with a normal life, Musgrove told the jury.
By January, “Lindsay had lost a lot of weight, had become paranoid about different things that really weren’t logical,” Musgrove said. “She would mention this wasn’t her mind. ‘This isn’t me. I have never been like this before,’ and I would agree.”
Later in January, Musgrove recalled Lindsay telling her about the side effects of her meds.
“She said she couldn’t remember anything. The medication was destroying her mind, and it wasn’t her,” Musgrove said.
Lindsay said, “‘I want to feel better and enjoy my kids again,'” the mom recounted.
Last week, a GoFundMe account was set up for Musgrove — a retired Weight Watchers employee — and her husband Mike Musgrove, a recently retired photographer.
The page has raised nearly $850,000 out of its $2 million goal.
It details how the parents were forced to spend their retirement money on traveling from their Connecticut home to Massachusetts in the two and a half years since Lindsay has been hospitalized pending her trial.
“The purpose of this fund is to help Mike and Paula rebuild the financial stability they have sacrificed over these past three years,” the site says. “Contributions will help cover the accumulated costs of travel, lodging, living expenses, and other family expenses arising from their continued support of Lindsay throughout her case.”
Lindsay has been in the hospital since she tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists and neck and throwing herself from the second-story of her home. She was left partially paralyzed and is now wheelchair-bound.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
