Lindsay Clancy begged her mother to sleep alongside her and sent her a harrowing message while in the depths of despair, her murder trial heard.  

The 36-year-old, who killed her three young children at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023, texted her mom three months earlier to plead for help.

‘Mom will you please come up and stay with me for a bit,’ said the text, which was reproduced at a court in Bedford, Massachusetts, on Monday as Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, took the stand.

‘I’m really sick. Something is wrong. I had horrible insomnia all night and I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the day,’ the message continued.

‘I started taking the medicine my doctor prescribed for anxiety and I think it’s made things worse. It’s just really scary and I don’t want to be alone.’ 

Musgrove replied after the text was sent to agree to her daughter’s request. 

Clancy broke down in tears Monday as Musgrove began giving evidence. Clancy’s mom told of how her daughter had asked her to sleep alongside her one night to try and calm her mental turmoil. 

The former nurse said the killings of Cora, five, Dawson, three and eight-month-old Callan were not murder because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled them with an exercise band. 

This is the text that Lindsay Clancy sent her mother, Paula Musgrove, three months before killing her three young children 

Paula Musgrove, Clancy’s mother, took the stand on Monday afternoon as the defense started calling witnesses on day 14 of her daughter’s murder trial

Clancy grew visibly emotional during her mother’s testimony 

Musgrove was one of the defense’s first witnesses on Monday afternoon as day 14 of her daughter’s trial continues. 

When asked by Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, about the relationship she shared with her grandchildren, Musgrove said: ‘I loved my grandchildren with all my heart, and you never know what it’s like to love a grandchild until you become a grandmother.’ 

‘It was the most beautiful thing. I loved them with all my heart,’ she added. 

Musgrove also noted that her daughter always dreamed of being a mother. 

‘I felt it was the best thing that ever happened to her, and she would do anything for her children. She was just a loving mother.’

As she did so, Clancy put her head in her hands and began quietly sobbing. 

Musgrove also detailed how she watched her daughter struggle before the deaths of her grandchildren.    

She also testified that her daughter previously told her and Patrick Clancy, her former son-in-law, that she had thoughts of harming the kids.

Her mom told the jury that in December 2022, just about a month before the murders, Clancy told her and Patrick that she had to confess something to them. 

Clancy is accused of murdering her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023

Reddington displayed a blown-up copy of a text message conversation between the mother and daughter, where Clancy asked Musgrove to stay with her at her home ‘for a bit’ because she was ‘really scared’

She was very nervous, she said. ‘She told us she had thoughts of harming the children,’ Musgrove testified. 

Musgrove said she began to notice a change in Clancy around October 2022. She added that Clancy did not appear to improve through November and December. 

Court broke for lunch and is expected to resume afterward, with the prosecution set to cross-examine Musgrove. 

Before Clancy’s mother took the stand, her sister, Allison Ozga, testified before the court. 

She said at Thanksgiving 2022, Clancy ‘did not look good, she didn’t seem very energized. It definitely seemed off from how I’d seen her in the past.’

By December, Ozga said, ‘She reported her mood was worsening, as she described it as depression, she was having more suicidal thoughts, insomnia continued to be an issue. She was really not feeling like herself.’

Ozga testified that at Cora’s birthday party in January it looked like Clancy was ‘going through the motions’ and ‘still struggling.’

On cross-examination, the prosecution asked Ozga, a licensed social worker and mandated reporter, whether she ever felt concerned enough to report Clancy.

Ozga said no.

Before calling witnesses, and after the prosecution rested their case, Reddington filed a motion asking that Clancy be found not guilty. 

Based on the evidence in the prosecution’s case, Reddington argued that the state’s evidence showed Lindsay Clancy was suffering from a mental defect and should be found not guilty. 

He also argued that the charges should be at least reduced to second-degree murder.

Reddington said the state’s case showed that the evidence is ‘overwhelming’ in showing that Clancy was ‘unequivocally suffering from a mental disease or defect’ at the time of the killings.

Clancy (pictured with Dawson, Cora and Patrick) has admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis, and is also suing her former healthcare providers for medical malpractice and negligence

The judge denied the motion. 

Clancy strangled her children with exercise bands and then allegedly attempted to kill herself, but she survived and has been left paralyzed and wheelchair-bound for life. 

She has admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis, and is also suing her former healthcare providers for medical malpractice and negligence.