Patrick Clancy’s since-deleted Reddit history has offered a troubling glimpse into what was happening inside his family months before the tragic passing of his three children.
The posts, written while he tried to understand what was happening to his then-wife, Lindsay Clancy, showed he was looking for answers as her behavior changed dramatically.
Highlights
- Patrick Clancy’s deleted Reddit posts showed him seeking advice about Lindsay Clancy’s worsening health.
- His posts included questions about thoughts of hurting others.
- Lindsay’s mental health became central to her criminal trial.
At the time, he was asking strangers and medical professionals online about symptoms that were becoming increasingly difficult to explain.
The posts now offered another look at the months leading up to the January 2023 tragedy.
Patrick Clancy asked Reddit about Lindsay’s sudden changes after Zoloft
Patrick’s Reddit account was active from 2017 until last year, but posts from December 2022 have drawn particular attention.
On December 7, 2022, Patrick posted in the “Ask Docs” subreddit and explained that he was “posting for my wife.”
He said Lindsay had started taking Zoloft after becoming anxious about returning to work as a labor and delivery nurse following the birth of their third child.
According to Patrick, the change after starting the antidepressant was dramatic.
In one post, Lindsay reportedly said, “After a week of taking Zoloft, I developed severe insomnia.”
She added that she had gone 48 hours without sleeping at one point.
“For weeks I have been lucky to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night. Oddly, I don’t feel tired, but I know I need more sleep,” the post read.
Patrick also said Lindsay had lost 15 pounds in only two months, bringing her weight down to 115 pounds.
He wrote that he suspected the medication had never been necessary and said Zoloft had actually been his idea.
At the same time, he said Lindsay’s psychiatrist believed she was showing signs of bipolar disorder.
Patrick was already asking strangers about thoughts of hurting others
The Reddit posts became more alarming as December progressed.
On December 9, Patrick asked about a question that went far beyond ordinary medication side effects.
“Has your [medication] experience ever involved thoughts of hurting others, including loved ones?” he asked.
He also wanted to know whether people experiencing those thoughts had ever felt close to acting on them or whether they remained only thoughts.
The question came as Patrick was trying to understand Lindsay’s worsening condition.
In another December 6 post titled “I need another perspective,” he described her anxiety before she began taking medication as relatively mild.
“I can’t stress enough that her anxiety was very mild going into this,” he wrote.
Patrick said Lindsay had previously been eating well, sleeping normally, and socializing. She had also managed similar anxiety after the couple’s first two children with therapy and coping strategies.
“Was she overwhelmed with the kids? Definitely,” Patrick wrote.
However, he believed they could have handled it by giving Lindsay more time to herself, as they had done before.
That led him to ask psychiatrists online whether therapy could have helped her instead of medication.
The Reddit history also showed that Zoloft was not the only medication Lindsay received
Patrick said doctors later prescribed Ativan and other benzodiazepines and sleeping medication as they attempted to deal with what initially appeared to be severe insomnia.
She was also switched from Zoloft to Prozac.
But Lindsay’s condition continued to deteriorate.
By December 15, according to the information Patrick shared online, she was feeling “severely depressed, numb, don’t really care about anything” and had experienced s*icidal thoughts.
That same day, Patrick took her to the emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Her condition later led to further treatment.
On December 20, she was reportedly turned away from a postpartum treatment program in Rhode Island because doctors believed she needed more general psychiatric care.
She was then admitted to McLean Hospital on December 30 and remained there until January 5, according to testimony from her treating psychiatrists.
The sequence showed how quickly the family’s situation had escalated from concerns about returning to work to repeated psychiatric intervention.
After Lindsay was released from McLean Hospital, Patrick later testified that she appeared to be doing much better
In the final Reddit post before the passings, Patrick was no longer discussing Lindsay’s mental health. On January 23, he turned to a technology subreddit to ask for advice about creating an app for a real estate open house.
The next day, January 24, 2023, Lindsay sent him out to run errands.
While he was gone, she strangled their three children with exercise bands.
The victims were Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
Lindsay then cut her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-story bedroom window in a failed s*icide attempt.
Patrick’s Reddit history therefore ends just one day before the tragedy.
Lindsay’s psychiatric condition later became one of the central issues in her criminal trial
Medical experts on both sides discussed the possibility that she had bipolar disorder, while her defense argued that her condition progressed into postpartum psychosis when she slayed the children.
The prosecution took a different position and argued that Lindsay knew what she was doing and had planned the homicide.
The trial ultimately ended without a unanimous verdict.
After seven days of deliberations, the jury was deadlocked 11-1, with 11 jurors prepared to find Lindsay not guilty by reason of insanity and one male juror refusing to do so. Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial.
A female juror who later spoke anonymously said she had initially believed Lindsay was criminally responsible but eventually voted for acquittal after reviewing the evidence.
Meanwhile, the lone holdout juror, Michael Desronvil, said he believed the prosecution had presented enough evidence to show that Lindsay knew what she was doing and had planned the slaying.
The Reddit posts have resurfaced as Patrick has continued to speak publicly about the tragedy
In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Patrick, now 38, was asked whether he felt angry at himself or believed he had failed his children.
“I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time,” he said.
“I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.”
Patrick has since remarried and lives in New York. His new wife, Rachel Danis, appeared alongside him during the interview and described him as “the most selfless father and supportive partner.”
He has also spoken about his three children and the life they shared before their passing.
Lindsay’s case remains unresolved following the mistrial.
She is due back in court on September 29, when prosecutors are expected to address whether they will retry the case, pursue another resolution, or take a different legal route.
"I find him much of an odd person," wrote one netizen
