Early in January 2023, Patrick Clancy returned to his Massachusetts home to find his three children strangled in the basement. His then-wife, Lindsay, lay paralyzed outside after jumping from an upstairs window in an attempted suicide.
In the years since, Clancy has dealt with battles both in courtrooms and within his own head.
Clancy spoke publicly about his grief Sunday for the first time since the murder trial surrounding the incident was declared a mistrial. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Clancy described what he felt when he lost his children, and how he has dealt with the grief since.
Clancy reflects on the days immediately after the incident, hoping his youngest child would survive
When Clancy discovered his children, Cora and Dawson, 5 and 3 years old, respectively, were dead. The youngest child, 8-month-old Callan was in perilous condition yet was still alive and airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital to receive critical care.
Clancy said he “didn’t have all the details of Callan’s condition” but “knew that they got a heartbeat back,” which gave him hope.
“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” Clancy said. “I remember just thinking, ‘Just gimme one. Just gimme one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could. I’d tell him about his brother and sister.’”
Clancy was “holdin’ out hope,” but was quickly crushed when he returned to the hospital.
“When I got to the hospital, I saw the doctor. I saw the look on her face,” Clancy said, “and I knew that it, it wasn’t gonna be a good prognosis.”
Callan’s heart kept beating for four days in the hospital, during which Clancy said he talked with Callan.
“I’m so grateful for those four days that I had with him,” Clancy said. “And I’m so grateful he hung on.”
“I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him. And he died in my arms.”
Clancy talks about learning to forgive
Throughout the heated trial, Clancy, though devastated, came to Lindsay’s defense.
“I think when it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get there, I would be eaten up inside forever,” Clancy said.
“I saw headlines that said, you know, ‘Killer Mom,’ and ‘Baby Murderer,’ ‘Monster.’ And none of ‘em were accurate. I believe that it was her mental illness that caused that,” Clancy said.
When asked if Lindsay ever asked for his forgiveness, Clancy said she did not. “But I gave it to her,” he continued.
Clancy keeps the memory of his children alive despite overwhelming grief
Clancy said his life after the horror of his children’s deaths “came to a screeching halt.”
Clancy described driving by his kids’ school and saw his kids’ friends getting dropped off.
“And I was just, I couldn’t be there anymore,” he said, describing the moment.
“There was a time where I, I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday,” Clancy said, describing his own bout with suicidal thoughts. “And I was completely fine with it.”
After emptying his house in Duxbury, Clancy moved to New York City.
“Five weeks after I moved to New York, on May 26, I had to figure out how I’m gonna celebrate Callan’s first birthday,” Clancy recalled. “And how do you celebrate your son’s first birthday months after he’s passed away?”
Clancy went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“I light a candle, and I say, ‘I love you, buddy.’ And I walk out on Fifth Avenue and I start crying my eyes out,” Clancy said. “And nobody cared.”
“I thought, ‘This is where I need to be. I can grieve.’”
Clancy’s apartment in Manhattan now has small reminders of his children: Cora’s baby sloth that she carried with her everywhere. Dawson’s well-loved toy helicopter. A photo of baby Callan wearing a bowtie.
Clancy said he thinks about his children “all the time.” Their memory lives on in the tributes he wrote to each of them while sitting with Callan in the hospital.
Clancy and his new wife, Rachel Danis, plan to start a family together. Clancy said he “can’t wait to tell (their kids) about their brothers and sister.”