Funeral held for children allegedly killed by mother

A funeral was held Friday for Lindsay Clancy’s three children who police say were killed by the former Connecticut resident inside their Massachusetts home last month.

Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8month-old Callan were strangled in the apparent murdersuicide attempt on Jan. 24. Police said Lindsay Clancy survived a suicide attempt after jumping out of a window of the home.

The funeral on Friday was held at St. Mary of the Nativity in Scituate, Mass., a coastal town north of the family’s home in Duxbury and about 40 minutes south of Boston.

The eulogy was delivered by Rev. Bob Deehan, of Holy Family Church in Duxbury, according to WCVB, a Hearst TV station in Boston.

“It was a beautiful funeral Mass, but it’s very, very difficult,” he said.

The eulogy Deehan read was written by the children’s father, Patrick Clancy. Deehan said the eulogy showed “the beautiful relationship he had with each child and brought out their personality and the dynamic between himself and the child, and it was beautiful.”

“Beautiful and a privilege for me to read it for him, but not easy at the same time,” Deehan said.

Lindsay Clancy is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Plymouth District Court on murder charges from her Boston hospital bed.

Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General

Hospital in Boston, grew up in Wallingford, and graduated from Lyman Hall High School and Quinnipiac University.

Her defense attorney, Kevin J. Reddington, said his client was “overmedicated” at the time of the children’s deaths, which he said occurred in a 20-minute window when her husband was out picking up dinner and medication.

“In general, there’s no doubt that she was overmedicated with serious drugs,” Reddington said. He said the defense plans to argue his client was not criminally responsible for the children’s deaths because she was intoxicated at the time.

Medical experts have said Clancy was likely suffering from postpartum psychosis — an intense mental illness — when she allegedly strangled her three children to death before attempting suicide.

During an emergency hearing Friday in Plymouth District Court, a judge granted Reddington’s request to have a psychologist examine Clancy in the hospital.

Patrick Clancy has asked for people to forgive his wife in a GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $1 million for him.

“My family was the best thing that ever happened to me. I took so much pride in being Lindsay’s husband and a dad to Cora, Dawson, and Callan,” Patrick Clancy wrote last weekend on the crowdfunding page in his first public statement since the killings. “I always reminded myself that each day with them was a new gift.”

“I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have,” he wrote. “The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace.”

Anyone who has thoughts of harming themselves, or seeks access to free and confidential mental health support, can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 800-2738255 (en Español: 888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing dial 711 and then 988) or visit 988Lifeline.org.