Patrick Clancy spent four days in a hospital holding his eight-month-old son Callan's hand, typing one-handed tributes to his other two children — five-year-old Cora and three-year-old Dawson — who were already dead. Callan died in his arms on the fourth day. "Just give me one," Patrick remembered thinking. "Just give me one kid. And I would raise him as best I could."
Then he asked his wife why she did it. She said it was "like a dream."
Lindsay Clancy, 36, strangled all three of her children with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023. She then attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window and cutting her wrists. She survived. Cora and Dawson did not survive the day. Callan was airlifted to a Boston hospital, where doctors re-established a heartbeat, but he died days later in the hospital.
Patrick Clancy broke his silence on CBS's 60 Minutes Sunday night, sitting alongside his new wife, Dr. Rachel Danis, in his first televised interview since Lindsay's murder trial ended in an 11-1 mistrial on September 4. Patrick revealed what Lindsay told him when he finally asked if she remembered killing their children. "She said it was like a dream," Patrick told the interviewer. "And she remembered it much in the way you would remember a dream after waking up."
For Patrick, it confirmed what he already believed. "I believed that it was her mental illness that caused that," he said. He forgave Lindsay without being asked. When the interviewer pressed on whether she ever requested his forgiveness, his answer was five words: "No. But I gave it to her."
For the eleven jurors who voted to acquit Lindsay Clancy of first-degree murder, postpartum psychosis was apparently explanation enough. The defense, led by attorney Kevin Reddington, admitted Lindsay killed her children but argued she shouldn't be held criminally responsible because she was overmedicated and suffering from a psychotic break. Reddington was confident enough after the mistrial to taunt prosecutors publicly: "If I was Tim Cruz, I would probably say I don't think I want to do a retrial because he's going to lose."
One juror disagreed. One out of twelve looked at the evidence — a woman who took her daughter to a doctor's appointment that morning, built a snowman with her kids in the afternoon, appeared by her husband's own testimony to be "having one of her best days" — and concluded that strangling three children with exercise bands in the basement required something more than a fugue state.
Patrick himself described the day as normal. Lindsay had seemed fine. She'd been engaged with the children. Nothing in her behavior that afternoon signaled what was coming. The prosecution argued she planned the killings and understood right from wrong when she carried them out. The defense said a voice commanded her to do it.
Eleven jurors chose the voice.
The media response to Patrick's 60 Minutes interview has followed its predictable arc: grief, forgiveness, healing, a new family on the way. Patrick and Rachel married in April 2026 after meeting in a Central Park running club. They're expecting a child. Patrick built a memorial playground in Duxbury with elements representing each of his three children. He moved to New York City seeking anonymity after online conspiracy theorists — who blamed him for the children's deaths — made public life in a town of 16,000 unbearable. "It's deeply harmful to the legacy of my children," he said of the conspiracy theories. "It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health."
Patrick deserves every measure of the peace he's found. His account of holding Callan — "I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live" — and watching the doctor's face tell him the prognosis before she said a word is the kind of grief that rewires a person permanently. He has every right to forgive whoever he wants and build whatever life he can.
But Patrick's forgiveness is personal. It is not a legal verdict. And it should not be confused with justice for three children who can't speak for themselves.
You can watch more of Patrick's interview here
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Patrick is right that the conspiracy theories are garbage. Whether "perinatal mental health" is what really matters here — when three children were strangled with exercise bands by a woman who spent the afternoon building them a snowman — is a question the justice system still hasn't answered. "I saw headlines that say 'killer mom' and 'baby murderer monster' and none of them were accurate," Patrick told 60 Minutes. The headlines that called Lindsay a victim of mental illness weren't checked for accuracy at all.
Lindsay Clancy told her husband that killing their three children felt like a dream. Cora was five. Dawson was three. Callan was eight months old. They don't get to wake up.