Testimony concluded Wednesday in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, which has focused on whether postpartum mental illness drove the killings.
Lindsay Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility in the killing of her three children.
Prosecutors say Clancy planned the killings. They presented more than 70 witnesses, including her then husband. The defence called 10 witnesses, among them friends and relatives.
Dr Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist affiliated with the University of Virginia and the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, testified as a final rebuttal witness for the prosecution.
Saathoff said he did not believe Clancy’s account that a voice ordered her to kill the children. He told prosecutor Jennifer Sprague that the voice did not say where, how, what to use or in what order to kill.
Saathoff said it was surprising that Clancy could execute all those actions without any specific instructions or plan. He said she showed control over the sequence of events and acted quickly and methodically.
All three children, five year old Cora, three year old Dawson and eight month old Callan, were strangled with exercise bands in the family basement. Saathoff said the voice’s sudden end after the killings was unusual.
Saathoff testified Clancy had not previously reported hearing a voice to her medical providers. He also noted she gave different timelines to other evaluators about when the voice began that day.
Postpartum Mental Health And Legal Arguments
The defence has argued Clancy was suffering from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis. Her lawyers say the rare illness, linked to stress, sleep loss and hormonal changes after childbirth, made her not criminally responsible.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington questioned Saathoff’s specific expertise in postpartum psychosis and sought to portray him as aligned with law enforcement. Saathoff said he treated women with postpartum psychosis in the 1980s and 1990s.
Reddington pointed to Clancy’s online searches for postpartum depression, visits to multiple maternal and mental health providers, disclosures to her mother and husband that she was suicidal, and calls to a suicide hotline.
On cross examination, Reddington asked whether Saathoff believed Clancy made a selfish choice to manipulate providers for a quick fix. Saathoff replied that such a statement minimized what she was going through.
Clancy did not testify during the fifth weeklong trial. Closing arguments were expected to begin Thursday, after which a jury will deliberate. The case has drawn public attention to maternal mental health and postpartum conditions.
