Lindsay Clancy’s husband sues mental health providers, accuses them of overmedicating Duxbury mother prior to killings

Crime

If Lindsay Clancy had received adequate care, the suit alleges, “it is more likely than not that Patrick and Lindsay’s children would still be alive today.”

By Abby Patkin

January 22, 2026 | 10:31 AM

4 minutes to read

Lindsay Clancy’s husband has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against some of his wife’s health care providers, alleging they overmedicated the Duxbury mother and failed to recognize her rapidly deteriorating mental health before she allegedly killed their three children. 

Patrick Clancy filed the lawsuit in Norfolk Superior Court Tuesday, nearly three years after Lindsay Clancy allegedly strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan to death at the family’s home. 

The lawsuit alleges Lindsay Clancy’s providers misprescribed a “bevy of diverse and powerful medications” and failed to appropriately monitor her, exacerbating the anxiety and mental health struggles she experienced following the birth of her third child. 

Clancy deteriorated to the point of expressing suicidal thoughts, and she ultimately sought in-patient care at a psychiatric hospital in early January 2023. Just weeks later, she allegedly strangled her children and attempted to kill herself while her husband was running errands. 

Yet while prosecutors allege Lindsay Clancy was in her right mind at the time, Patrick Clancy’s lawsuit blames his wife’s mental health care. 

“If Defendants had not acted negligently, and rather had provided adequate care, it is more likely than not that Patrick and Lindsay’s children would still be alive today,” the complaint alleges.

The named defendants include psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer A. Tufts, nurse practitioner Rebecca H. Jollotta, and their respective facilities: Aster Mental Health and South Shore Health. Neither Aster nor South Shore Health immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday. 

Clancy was prescribed a slew of medications, lawsuit says

“Life was idyllic for the Clancys” shortly after Callan’s birth in May 2022, according to the lawsuit. However, as Lindsay Clancy neared the end of her maternity leave that fall, she purportedly decided to seek psychiatric treatment and extend her leave as she experienced stress and anxiety.

Tufts, who began treating Clancy in September 2022, “prescribed Lindsay a variety of different medications but failed to monitor her reactions to those medications or attend to her worsening psychiatric condition,” the lawsuit alleges.

Shortly after she began taking the Zoloft Tufts prescribed, Clancy reported insomnia, mental fog, and increased anxiety and depression, according to the complaint. As her condition deteriorated through the fall, Tufts allegedly tried to treat Clancy’s symptoms by adding medications. 

According to the complaint, Clancy later sought help from South Shore Health’s Perinatal Behavioral Health Program and was prescribed Prozac, Ambien, Remeron, and Klonopin, to no avail. On Nov. 29, 2022, she began seeing Jollotta, who reportedly prescribed her Seroquel. 

When Jollotta later asked Clancy if she was having thoughts of harming herself or her children, Clancy purportedly denied having thoughts of harm but reported “[f]eeling afraid as if something awful might happen” almost every day, the lawsuit states.

Upon hearing of Clancy’s worsening symptoms, Jollotta prescribed Valium, according to the complaint. Clancy continued to experience suicidal thoughts throughout December 2022 and sought help through Jollotta, her therapist, the emergency department at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Tufts, the lawsuit states. 

Tufts allegedly prescribed an additional medication, Lamictal. 

When Clancy sought help from Women & Infants Hospital in Rhode Island, providers there “determined that Lindsay’s mental health issues were likely due to overmedication and misdiagnosis and that its day program was therefore not appropriate for her,” according to the lawsuit. 

The hospital reached out to Jollotta to discuss Clancy’s care, but the nurse allegedly failed to respond. Clancy admitted herself to McLean Hospital in Belmont Jan. 1, 2023, and returned to treatment with Tufts after she was released Jan. 5. 

Meeting with Clancy just one day before the killings, Tufts purportedly noted the Duxbury mother’s flat affect and poor medication efficacy. 

Husband seeking more than $1M

According to medical records, Clancy allegedly strangled her children because she “started hearing a compelling and unrecognizable singular male voice that told her ‘this is your last chance’ and that she had to ‘take them with [her].’ She also reported that ‘the voice indicated to her that she should die, that this is her last chance, and that her children would suffer if she was gone,’” the lawsuit states.

Patrick Clancy is accusing Tufts and Jollotta of failing to coordinate Lindsay Clancy’s care and prescriptions, and failing to investigate why she was having adverse reactions to early, low dosages of the various drugs. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, both providers “added and accelerated medications in an ad hoc manner.” 

In addition to wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering, Patrick Clancy has also accused South Shore Health of violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPPA. According to the complaint, the health care system recently disclosed that a South Shore Health employee had inappropriately accessed the Clancy family’s medical records. 

Patrick Clancy’s lawsuit is seeking more than $1 million in damages. 

Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of murder and strangulation, and her lawyer has indicated she plans to pursue an insanity defense. Her trial is scheduled to begin July 20. 

Read the wrongful death lawsuit:

Patrick Clancy wrongful death lawsuit

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.