Lindsay Clancy's co-worker recalls haunting reaction she had when working with alleged killer
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse and suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A former co-worker of Lindsay Clancy has recalled how she felt when working next to the woman who is accused of murdering her three children.
Margaret Hamp, a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, had worked with Clancy when she was also a nurse.
Hamp because the defense's first witness on August 17, weeks before the Clancy trial would conclude as a mistrial due to one holdout juror refusing to give a not guilty verdict.
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According to Hamp, who spoke on the stand at Plymouth Superior Court, revealed how she felt whilst working with Clancy.
At the time, they had been talking about Andrea Yates, a woman from Texas who drowned her five children in a bathtub at home in 2001 and had her conviction overturned by reason of insanity.
According to Hamp, the pair started talking about it after a pregnant woman was being treated at their unit and was planning to harm herself.
According to Hamp, Clancy was beside herself when told details of the case.
She said to the court: "I asked [Clancy] if she had ever heard of the Andrea Yates case and she hadn't.
"I explained that to her and she cried, and she said: 'How could a mother hurt her children?'"
Hamp went on to reveal that she's still 'friendly' with Clancy, who was on trial for the murders of her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months.
However, Hamp has since spoken out again about her time with Clancy, but this time it was on Oprah Winfrey's podcast on September 10.
She revealed that Clancy would become emotional during the births of their patients.
“I often remember looking up after a baby was born, and Lindsay was my second nurse in the delivery, and just looking over at the mother and Lindsay with tears in her eyes because birth was just so emotional for her,” Hamp said. “She felt that for so many other women — not just her friends or her family."
She also expanded on the Yates story back at the hospital.
Hamp told Winfrey. “We had a patient on the unit that was suffering from some mental-health challenges, and there was just a lot of question around that, Lindsay being a new nurse, and there was another new nurse on the floor at that time, and I just asked [Clancy] if she had ever heard of the Andrea Yates case, and she said she hadn’t.
“It seems like such a big case in the maternal health world, but Lindsay was at that age where she probably hadn’t lived through that – I’m a little bit older than Lindsay,” Hamp said.
“I had a phone call from a colleague. We weren’t 100% sure what had happened, but the address was hitting the news, and I knew her address, so I knew something had happened,” Hamp said of the moment she found out about the murders.
“She loved her children,” she added. “She lived for her children, she did everything for them. She wanted all the parenting tips. It wasn’t possible in my mind that this was a person who could murder her three children.”
As Clancy now faces the possibility of a retrial, she said: “I think mental health can affect anyone. It can affect the person who goes to their dream college, meets the man of their dreams, decides to have a family, buys a house, buys another house as their family grows.
“It doesn’t matter where you are in life or how many boxes on your life’s bucket list you’re checking off as you go, it can impact anyone regardless of where you are in your life, and this has been very eye-opening that someone like Lindsay who was checking off those boxes on her life’s bucket list, that this could happen to her.”
The murders occurred at their home in Massachusetts in January 2023, which her defense says was caused by her severe bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
Clancy's mother, Paula Musgrove, had admitted that Clancy revealed her state of mind in December 2022.
"She told us she had thoughts of harming the children," she said, noting that her husband, Patrick, was there too.
Clancy's sister, Allison Ozga, said similar things, and described her sister and being suicidal.
Timeline of Lindsay Clancy case
May 2022
Lindsay gives birth to her third child, Callan.
She’s open about her postpartum struggles with her other two kids on social media. Six weeks after Callan’s birth, she posts that she’s feeling ‘dialed in’ while focusing on exercise, nutrition, and mindset, and ‘it has made all the difference’.
September 2022
As the end of her maternity leave nears, Lindsay, who works as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, starts to experience anxiety about returning to work.
She visits two different psychiatrists and receives a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder.
Lindsay is prescribed several different psychiatric medications.
October 2022
According to court docs, she writes in a note on her phone: “I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby. And I know that’s not fair to them. I know that. I was feeling so depressed last evening when Cora and Dawson came home from school, I know it runs off on them, so we had a pretty rough evening, I want to feel love and connection with all my kids.”
December 2022
Lindsay undergoes an evaluation at the Women and Infants Hospital Center for Women’s Behavioral Health. She is not diagnosed with postpartum depression, prosecutors say.
Lindsay’s husband Patrick tells police she is having suicidal thoughts and thoughts of harming their children, according to his testimony in court.
1-5 January, 2023
Lindsay admits herself to McLean Hospital for psychiatric treatment. She is discharged after five days as clinicians do not believe she poses an imminent danger to herself or others, prosecutors say.
22 January, 2023
Lindsay, Patrick, Cora and Dawson have dinner at family friend Kyle Carney’s home. Kyle later tells police that Lindsay ‘seemed fairly normal’.
23 January, 2023
According to prosecutors, Lindsay pens a note on her phone which says she has ‘a touch of postpartum anxiety’ about going back to work.
24 January, 2023
Prosecutors allege the following took place this day:
Morning: Lindsay takes Cora to a scheduled pediatrician appointment. After returning home, they play in the snow with Dawson. She sends photos of the kids to Patrick and her mom.
4:02pm: Lindsay searches for ‘kids Miralax’ (a laxative) on her phone, and 11 minutes later looks up ‘take out 3v’, referring to restaurant ThreeV in Plymouth. She uses Apple Maps to calculate how long it would take to drive from the family’s home to ThreeV.
4:47pm: Lindsay rings a CVS in Kingston to ask if they have any Miralax in stock. A manager tells her they don’t, but they do have similar medications.
The manager later tells authorities that she did not slur her words or sound impaired during the call.
4:35pm: Lindsay texts Patrick, who is working from home: “Any chance you want to do takeout from 3V … I didn’t cook anything … It’s been a long day.”
Patrick says yes, and Lindsay asks him to ‘check the menu when you can’.
5:10pm: Lindsay calls ThreeV to place the order.
5:15pm: Lindsay allegedly texts Patrick: “Pedialax liquid stool softener.” He then leaves to pick up the medication.
5:33pm: When Patrick arrives at CVS, he rings Lindsay, but she doesn’t pick up. She rings back one minute later and confirms the medication.
5:54pm: Patrick gets to ThreeV, pays for the food and leaves.
6:09pm: Patrick returns home. “The first thing he noticed was the silence,” prosecutors say. “He did not see or hear the defendant or the children.”
Patrick calls for his wife but gets no response. He discovers their second-floor bedroom is locked. Patrick eventually manages to get in the room but sees blood on the floor. He runs outside and finds Lindsay lying on the ground, according to prosecutors.
6:11pm: Prosecutors say that Patrick rings 911 and Lindsay is saying: “I tried to kill myself.”
He is then said to ask Lindsay: “Where are the kids?” She responds: “In the basement.”
While on the call, Patrick goes down to the basement and is heard ‘screaming in agony’,
Cora and Callan are discovered on the floor of the den. Dawson is found in his dad’s home office.
When officers arrive at the scene, Patrick alleges: “She killed the kids.”
Lindsay is taken to hospital, where she is treated for injuries that leave her paralysed below the waist. The three children are also rushed to hospital.
7:28pm: Cora and Dawson are pronounced dead. Callan is medically flown to another children’s hospital.
25 January, 2023
Police issue Lindsay an arrest warrant, charging her with two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation or suffocation, and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
27 January, 2023
Callan is pronounced dead at 11.18am.
According to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague, Lindsay later wakes up and uses a whiteboard to ask: “Do I need an attorney?”
6 February, 2023
While in the presence of a psychologist hired by her lawyer, Lindsay calls Patrick and tells him she had a ‘moment of psychosis’ and heard ‘a man’s voice telling her to kill the kids and kill herself’ after he left on January 24.
7 February, 2023
On the day of her arraignment, Lindsay’s attorney says that she’s still suicidal. She pleads not guilty to three counts of murder.
October 2024
Patrick asks the public to forgive Lindsay, telling The New Yorker: “I wasn’t married to a monster - I was married to someone who got sick.”
January 2026
Lindsay and Patrick file a civil lawsuit, accusing medical providers of not properly diagnosing, treating and monitoring her for a ‘severe postpartum psychiatric condition’.
9 July, 2026
The Plymouth County District Attorney's Office says the three counts of strangulation would be subsumed into the murder charges.
27 July, 2026
Lindsay’s murder trial begins.
Topics: Lindsay Clancy, Crime, US News
Britt Jones