Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A psychologist testified for a second day Wednesday about what he described as Lindsay Clancy's deteriorating mental health in the months and days before the deaths of her three children.
Psychologist Paul Zeizel first met with Clancy 11 days after the January 2023 killings and has met with her roughly 60 times since. He testified that Clancy suffered from intrusive thoughts stemming from a combination of bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
"Intrusive thoughts are unrelenting. They don't stop," Zeizel said. "They keep interfering with your ability to get through the day. They were getting worse, and they were telling her to kill herself."
Zeizel testified that by Jan. 24, 2023 — the day Clancy's children were killed and she attempted suicide — she could no longer distinguish right from wrong.
He also described a phone call Clancy made to her husband from the hospital nearly two weeks after the killings.
"She had said that she heard a male voice ordering her," Zeizel testified. "Telling her that she didn't have any choice. But she had to kill her children and then kill herself."
Prosecutors have challenged that account, arguing Clancy acted intentionally and should be held criminally responsible for the deaths.
Her defense has focused heavily on her mental health and the psychiatric treatment she received before the killings. Clancy's attorneys contend she received improper care from multiple medical providers and was prescribed more than a dozen psychiatric medications in the months leading up to her children's deaths.
"What this really tells me with the various clinicians that she saw is just the fragmentation of psychiatric care that so many women face in this country," Zeizel said. "She wasn't getting what she wanted or what she needed from one provider. So then she went to another, really making a very confusing picture."
Clancy's mother and mother-in-law also testified for the defense earlier this week. Both said they had concerns about her medication, with her mother testifying that she believed it was destroying her daughter's mind.
The testimony goes to a central question in Clancy's trial: whether she was legally responsible for her actions when her three children were killed or whether her mental state prevented her from understanding that what she was doing was wrong.
READ MORE: 13wham.com/news/nation-world/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-continues-following-graphic-testimony-duxbury-mother-charged-in-death-of-children-aug-19-2026
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A psychologist testified for a second day Wednesday about what he described as Lindsay Clancy's deteriorating mental health in the months and days before the deaths of her three children.
Psychologist Paul Zeizel first met with Clancy 11 days after the January 2023 killings and has met with her roughly 60 times since. He testified that Clancy suffered from intrusive thoughts stemming from a combination of bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
"Intrusive thoughts are unrelenting. They don't stop," Zeizel said. "They keep interfering with your ability to get through the day. They were getting worse, and they were telling her to kill herself."
Zeizel testified that by Jan. 24, 2023 — the day Clancy's children were killed and she attempted suicide — she could no longer distinguish right from wrong.
He also described a phone call Clancy made to her husband from the hospital nearly two weeks after the killings.
"She had said that she heard a male voice ordering her," Zeizel testified. "Telling her that she didn't have any choice. But she had to kill her children and then kill herself."
Prosecutors have challenged that account, arguing Clancy acted intentionally and should be held criminally responsible for the deaths.
Her defense has focused heavily on her mental health and the psychiatric treatment she received before the killings. Clancy's attorneys contend she received improper care from multiple medical providers and was prescribed more than a dozen psychiatric medications in the months leading up to her children's deaths.
"What this really tells me with the various clinicians that she saw is just the fragmentation of psychiatric care that so many women face in this country," Zeizel said. "She wasn't getting what she wanted or what she needed from one provider. So then she went to another, really making a very confusing picture."
Clancy's mother and mother-in-law also testified for the defense earlier this week. Both said they had concerns about her medication, with her mother testifying that she believed it was destroying her daughter's mind.
The testimony goes to a central question in Clancy's trial: whether she was legally responsible for her actions when her three children were killed or whether her mental state prevented her from understanding that what she was doing was wrong.
READ MORE: 13wham.com/news/nation-world/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-continues-following-graphic-testimony-duxbury-mother-charged-in-death-of-children-aug-19-2026
_______________
Stay up to date with our social media:
13 WHAM on Facebook: facebook.com/13WHAM
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13WHAM on Instagram: instagram.com/13whamtv/?hl=en
13WHAM on TikTok: tiktok.com/@13wham?lang=en
13 WHAM Daily Local News Digest: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuTJB6tta5ar3Fu5CumAvlvVunEP6bc9A
For more information, visit 13wham.com
Have a news tip? Send it directly to us:
Email us: news@13wham.com
Call the Newsroom: (585) 334-8700
WHAM is a NY based station and a ABC Television affiliate owned and operated by Deerfield Media, Inc and receives certain services from an affiliation of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today.
#13WHAM #News #Rochester #NewYork
