Before killing her kids, Lindsay Clancy searched about hallucinations, psychosis and ways to die

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Lindsay Clancy searched online about hallucinations, psychosis and the side effects of several drugs she was prescribed in the weeks before she strangled her three young children in January 2023, according to an analysis of her phone data presented at Thursday's murder trial in Massachusetts.

Clancy looked up suicide methods, bipolar disorder and insomnia at the end of December 2022 and, in January, went in search of information on postpartum depression. She also wrote a detailed note in October 2022 expressing doubts about her parenting choices, second-guessing her decision to stop breastfeeding her 8-month-old, and reconsidering plans for a fourth child.

The defense says she was in the grip of bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that can alter a woman’s sense of reality after childbirth. A forensic psychiatrist diagnosed Clancy with those conditions following the killings.

In her note, the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse seemed most concerned with not being able to give her youngest child the same attention as her first two, ages 3 and 5.

“I’m terrified of something happening to my kids or doing something wrong to mess up their development,” Clancy’s note read. “Our generation is inundated with information about every aspect of parenting. ... It’s insane. For the last five years, I’ve just filled my mind with all things parenting and it’s just unhealthy.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy. Their father found the children in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, south of Boston. Their mother was lying in the yard after jumping out a second-story window, and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Text messages with her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, show them juggling the routines of parenthood. Massachusetts State Police cellphone forensics expert Tim Chiappini read aloud texts between them from the day of the killings. They checked in on each other and Lindsay Clancy expressed relief that one of their children's kidneys were OK. There were also photos of the children.

“You're a good mamma,” Patrick Clancy texted, prompting Lindsay Clancy to respond with a heart and smile emoji.

Clancy's livestreamed trial has generated intense public interest, with journalists and spectators packing the courtroom as online audiences pore over the details of the tragedy.

Clancy’s attorneys do not dispute that she killed the children. But they say the jury should not hold her criminally responsible because she was mentally ill, believing she heard voices ordering her to take their lives and her own.

Prosecutors argue she was an intentional killer who contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to get takeout and to the pharmacy on Jan. 24, 2023, then strangled the children with exercise bands.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham has urged jurors not to view the trial as “a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women.”

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

Her attorneys say Clancy did everything she could to seek help: She turned to multiple outpatient providers, tried various drugs they prescribed, called a suicide hotline, went to an emergency room, and approached but wasn’t accepted into a hospital-based, full-day treatment program for women with postpregnancy mental health problems. Clancy even checked herself into a psychiatric hospital for several days.

Rather than improving, her condition worsened on the ever-remixed cocktail of psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients, her attorneys and family say.

Prosecutors aim to show that Clancy had access to a range of mental health services but sometimes ignored doctors' advice and stopped taking certain medications. They've brought several of her medical providers who testified she never talked about having a plan to harm herself or her children. They say she never showed signs of psychosis or mania, although she did say she was having suicidal thoughts.

Lindsay Clancy, center, and her lawyer Kevin Reddington, right, listen during testimony during Clancy's murder trial, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026., in Plymouth, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, Pool)

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Joshua McKelligan points to the Clancy family on a video of a family outing to a museum during the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026., in Plymouth, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, Pool)

Paula Musgrove, center and Mike Musgrove, right, parents of Lindsay Clancy react to testimony during Clancy's murder trial, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026., in Plymouth, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, Pool)

REMOVES REFERENCE TO PAVAO- Lindsay Clancy, left, reacts to the reading of her diary entries during testimony as her lawyer Kevin Reddington looks on, during her murder trial, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026., in Plymouth, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, Pool)

Lindsay Clancy, during during her murder trial, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026., in Plymouth, Mass. Josh Reynolds/Pool (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, Pool)

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty as early as Friday in the federal case accusing him of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that Mangione could change his mind. If he follows through, it would be a stunning development in a case that rattled business leaders while galvanizing their critics.

Mangione’s lawyers, and spokespeople for the Justice Department and Manhattan federal prosecutors, declined to comment.

Mangione is accused of traveling to New York City to ambush Thompson, 50, then shooting him outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, as the executive walked to UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference.

Mangione is due in court on Friday for a hastily scheduled hearing in the federal case, which involves two counts of stalking. It wasn’t clear what charge or charges Mangione is expected to plead guilty to. The hearing, in Manhattan federal court, comes as his lawyers have been talking with federal prosecutors about a possible resolution to one of two criminal cases against Mangione in Thompson’s death. Previous talks in June broke down.

Mangione, 28, has been charged in both federal and state court in New York and still faces the possibility of a trial in his unresolved state case. Mangione’s state murder trial is set to begin Sept. 8. Both sets of charges carried the possibility of a life sentence.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty and has spoken out publicly against the prospect of two trials, telling a judge in February: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

Under New York law, a state prosecution could be barred if the federal case is resolved first, but it isn’t automatic.

The state’s double jeopardy protections kick in if a jury has been sworn in a prior prosecution, such as a federal case, or if that prosecution ends in a guilty plea. Mangione’s cases involve different charges arising from the same course of conduct.

Once Mangione pleads guilty, his lawyers could then ask the judge in the state case to throw out those charges on double jeopardy grounds. State prosecutors argue their case is distinct and double jeopardy shouldn't apply.

Mangione’s federal charges allege that he traveled across state lines by bus to stalk and kill Thompson and that he used means such as a cellphone, the internet, interstate highways and staying at a hostel that serves out-of-state customers while planning and carrying out the attack. The state charges pertain to the killing itself, as well as firearms offenses.

In a letter last month, state prosecutors objected to the possibility of a guilty plea in the federal case wiping out the state case.

“Obviously, any guilty pleas in these matters must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, the loss of an innocent life, the impact of those crimes on the victim’s family, and the other state interests that are implicated, including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote.

Mangione’s decision to plead guilty comes after a series of setbacks for his defense.

In January, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett took the death penalty off the table but ruled that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him.

They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.

In June, Mangione’s lawyers said they would pursue a psychiatric defense in the state case but reversed course a day later. The defense, involving claims that he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the killing, isn’t allowed in federal court.

Surveillance video of the killing showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

He has become a cause célèbre for people upset with the health insurance industry.

An online fundraiser for his legal defense fund raised more than $1.5 million, and several dozen supporters have shown up to his court appearances, some wearing green clothing — the color worn by the Mario Bros. video game character Luigi — and “FREE LUIGI” T-shirts.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington.

Luigi Mangione appears for a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Luigi Mangione appears for a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Barry Williams/The Daily News via AP, Pool)

Luigi Mangione attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (David Dee Delgado/Pool Photo via AP)