Massachusetts mother who strangled her 3 children to death was on a dozen prescription drugs

Last week, 32-year-old Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy was charged with murder for the deaths of her 3-year-old son Dawson, 5-year-old daughter Cora, and her 8-month-old son Callan, and her defense lawyer, Kevin J. Reddington, has come forward to claim she had suicidal and homicidal thoughts due to being overmedicated.

Speaking with the Boston Globe, Reddington said on Thursday, "One of the major issues here is the horrific overmedication of drugs that caused homicidal ideation, suicidal ideation."

Lindsay and her husband "went to doctors repeatedly saying 'Please help us.' This was turning her into a zombie ...the medications that were prescribed were over the top, absolutely over the top," the attorney added.

Clancy allegedly strangled her three children on January 24 and then jumped out of an upper story window at her Duxbury, Massachusetts home. 

First responders found the three children but Dawson and Cora were pronounced dead after being moved to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. After her youngest, Callan, later died at Boston Children's Hospital, the DA announced additional charges, including "murder, strangulation and assault and battery with a deadly weapon," reports local news.

According to Clancy's lawyer, between October of 2022 and January of this year, she was on 12 different prescription drugs and identified nine: Ambien, Klonopin, Valium, Prozac, Lamictil, Ativan, Remeron, Seroquel,  and trazodone.

According to the New York Post, "Several of the meds are prescribed for depression, panic attacks, anxiety, and other mood disorders."

Reddington said, "It’s over medication, absolutely over medications — possibly with a component of post-partum depression."

"She had medical care and treatment on a regular basis. And her husband was very proactive in trying to protect her and help her with the doctors' medication she was prescribed," Reddington said. "They went through hell — and they didn’t come back."

The Clancy's defense have hired a medical team, including toxicologists, to help build her defense and have noted that she had talked about her mental health struggles as a mother on social media.

Duxbury Police Chief Michael Carbone said Clancy "can’t get out of bed. She can’t walk. I don’t know what the medical prognosis is regarding that, but right now, she cannot walk."

Reddington said the defense strategy includes the possibility of pleading not guilty by reason of insanity and noted "The black letter law definition of lack of criminal responsibility in Massachusetts says that if a person suffers from a mental disease or defect," they can use that defense.