A psychiatric nurse practitioner who examined Lindsay Clancy months before she killed her three children took the stand Tuesday in the third week of the Massachusetts mother’s murder trial.
Rebecca Jollotta, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with South Shore Hospital’s perinatal behavioral health program, testified she had a telehealth visit with Clancy in November 2022. Clancy appeared anxious and was struggling to get a full night sleep. Still, she had no signs of mania or psychosis, and her thought process was “linear” and “goal-directed,” Jollotta testified.
The testimony comes three weeks into Clancy’s trial on three counts of murder in the killings of her children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. The trial has featured testimony about the lead-up to the killings and Clancy’s struggles with post-partum anxiety, depression and insomnia — and stoked a nationwide conversation about the issues.
Prosecutors have argued Clancy “acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly” when she fatally strangled her three children and attempted suicide at their Duxbury home on January 24, 2023.
Her defense attorneys have argued what’s known as the “insanity defense,” saying she is not criminally responsible because she was in the midst of a psychotic episode stemming from postpartum mental illness.
