Lindsay Clancy Trial: McLean Psychiatrist Admits She Never Tested Clancy for Depression

Dr. Alia Goodheart, a psychiatrist at McLean Hospital, took the stand today in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury, Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 7-month-old Callan — with exercise bands inside the family's Summer Street home on January 24, 2023. Clancy faces three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation. She has pleaded not guilty and is mounting an insanity defense, with attorney Kevin Reddington arguing she was in the grip of severe postpartum psychosis and psychiatric overmedication at the time of the killings.

Under defense cross-examination, Goodheart testified that Clancy's discharge plan amounted to a website and an insurance card — she told Clancy to check Psychology Today and her own coverage to find follow-up care. Goodheart also admitted she never reviewed prior records from the nurse practitioners and other providers who'd already treated Clancy, and she confirmed Clancy told her she was having intrusive thoughts of suicide. No blood work. No screening tools. Not even the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale — the standard test built for exactly this situation. On redirect, prosecutors tried to soften the blow, stressing that discharge instructions did tell Clancy to contact a personal provider. Whether that line survives what came before it is now the jury's problem.

Prosecutors are expected to argue Clancy understood the nature of her actions despite the defense's mental-health claims. After the killings, Clancy allegedly attempted to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Her husband, Patrick Clancy, was out of the home running errands at the time and has since relocated to Manhattan. The trial, underway in Plymouth Superior Court, is expected to last several weeks.

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