Lindsay Clancy’s former nanny described her as a “wonderful mom” when she took the stand Wednesday in Clancy’s triple murder trial.
Clancy strangled her three children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan, on Jan. 24, 2023 at their Duxbury home. Then, she jumped out of a second-story window, paralyzing herself.
The defense is arguing Clancy isn’t criminally responsible for the deaths because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.
Elaine Rossi, the nanny who worked in the Clancy home a few days a week from September to early December 2022, said Clancy confided in her about having postpartum depression.
Clancy told Rossi about her “issues,” including her insomnia. Rossi also said she knew Clancy was taking prescription medications.
Rossi had been hired by the Clancy family to primarily help with Callan. She started working in the fall to get acclimated to the household before Lindsay Clancy returned to her work as a labor and delivery nurse at Mass General Hospital.
The nanny generally described a normal, happy family who she enjoyed working for.
Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham asked Rossi to describe the children.
“Oh, Cora was a girly-girl, who loved her babies very much,” Rossi said, telling the court the oldest Clancy child loved to do arts and crafts and play with a pretend market. “She was very sweet.”
Although Rossi didn’t spend as much time with Dawson, she said he was silly and rambunctious in a sweet way. Cora and Dawson played well together, she said.
Callan “was the happiest, sweetest, easiest baby, he was just a love,” Rossi testified.
Buckingham played a video Rossi sent Clancy of the nanny giving Callan a bottle, despite an objection from Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington.
Clancy cried while it played.
Buckingham also brought out a yellow spiral notebook, with “Callan Clancy” and a heart drawn on the front.
Rossi explained that she often communicated with Clancy via the notebook for information on when the baby slept or ate, and instructions on meal prep and laundry.
In opening statements, the prosecution used the exactitude of the notebook as an example of Clancy’s controlling behavior.
But on cross examination, Reddington asked if Rossi found the notes “overbearing,” or “controlling?”
“Not at all,” Rossi replied. She described Clancy as a mother, “who loved her kids, she was very concerned with their safety, she was very concerned with Callan’s eating and sleeping.”
The nanny said she never had worries about Clancy taking care of the kids. “Not at all, she was a wonderful mom,” Rossi said.
The nanny stopped working for the Clancy family in early December, after Lindsay Clancy had decided she wouldn’t go back to work.
She left them on good terms, and even texted Clancy a Merry Christmas message later that month.
“I did love Lindsay,” Rossi said.
Clancy’s Toxicology report
Jurors also heard from a toxicologist hired by the DA’s office to drug test Clancy’s blood.
Dr. Justin Brower, from NMS Lab in Pennsylvania, testified that Clancy had several prescription drugs in her system on Jan. 24, 2023: Lamortigine, an anti-seizure and bipolar drug; Mirtazapine, an anti-depressant; Quetiapine, an anti-psychotic, also known by the brand name, Seroquel; and Trazodone, another anti-depressant.
A Mass State Police toxicologist also testified earlier that there were benzodiazepines in Clancy’s system, as well.
Brower testified that all the drugs he listed were found in concentrations within the “therapeutic range,” or the levels one would expect based on prescribed dosages.
The only drug that was higher than that was the Quetiapine, which was about double the therapeutic level. Brower described the drug as something that is prescribed when a patient is “not seeing reality, ‘like a normal person would.’”
Still, none of the concentrations were in the typical range for suicidal doses.
“Usually people take handfuls of pills when they are trying to harm themselves and take their own life, and this is not consistent with that,” Brower said, stipulating that if someone came into the ER with trouble breathing, the drugs could have been considered a factor.
The trial will resume Thursday morning with more testimony.
Original article
Comments