By Ashley Robinson Patrick Clancy has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against several healthcare providers who treated his former wife, Lindsay Clancy, before the deaths of their three children in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The case was filed in Norfolk Superior Court in January 2026.
Patrick brought the lawsuit on behalf of the estates of Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy. Cora was 5 years old, Dawson was 3, and Callan was 8 months old when they died in January 2023. Lindsay Clancy is facing criminal charges in the deaths and has pleaded not guilty, arguing that she was not criminally responsible because of severe mental illness.
The civil lawsuit is separate from the criminal case. Its allegations have not been proven, and no defendant has been found liable.
Who is named as a defendant
Patrick’s lawsuit names psychiatrist Jennifer Tufts, psychiatric nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta and their employers, Aster Mental Health Inc. and South Shore Health System. The complaint accuses the providers of negligence and medical malpractice in their treatment and monitoring of Lindsay.
The case concerns the care Lindsay received after the birth of her third child. According to the lawsuit, she began seeking professional help in September 2022 as she experienced increasing anxiety, depression, insomnia and other troubling symptoms.
The lawsuit says her symptoms continued to worsen over the following months, even as she saw more than one provider and received several prescriptions.
Allegations about medication and diagnosis
A central claim is that Lindsay was prescribed multiple psychiatric medications without adequate coordination, testing or monitoring. The complaint says the medications included sertraline, fluoxetine, trazodone, zolpidem, mirtazapine, clonazepam, quetiapine and other drugs.
Patrick’s lawsuit alleges that Lindsay reported feeling worse after beginning treatment. It says she experienced severe insomnia, increased anxiety, depression, disconnection from her body and suicidal thoughts. The complaint claims the providers should have investigated whether the medications were causing harmful reactions and should have considered other diagnoses, including bipolar disorder or mania.
The lawsuit also alleges that no appropriate blood testing was performed to determine how Lindsay was processing some of the medications. It claims that the providers failed to recognize warning signs and did not adequately coordinate her care.
Claims about warning signs and follow-up care
The complaint describes Lindsay’s treatment at outpatient programs and hospitals during December 2022 and January 2023. It alleges that she repeatedly sought help while reporting a serious decline in her mental state.
The lawsuit claims that providers failed to arrange appropriate follow-up care after treatment programs and did not take sufficient steps when Lindsay’s condition was described as deteriorating. It also alleges that the providers did not properly assess whether she posed a danger to herself or her children.
According to the complaint, Lindsay later experienced hallucinations and believed she was receiving commands connected to her own death and the deaths of her children. Patrick argues that better diagnosis, supervision and treatment could have prevented the tragedy. Those claims will need to be supported with medical evidence and expert testimony.
What the providers have said
The healthcare providers and organizations named in the case have not accepted responsibility for the deaths. South Shore Health has said that it cares deeply about patients and families and maintains a commitment to quality mental-health care, but it cannot discuss specific allegations because the matter is in litigation.
Other providers and hospitals have also cited patient-privacy rules or declined to comment on the details. Their legal defenses may address whether the treatment met professional standards, whether the children’s deaths were legally foreseeable and whether the providers had a duty under Massachusetts law to protect third parties from a patient’s conduct.
The criminal case may also affect how the parties present evidence, but the civil court will separately decide whether the providers can be held responsible under negligence and wrongful-death laws.
How the lawsuit relates to the criminal case
Lindsay Clancy’s criminal trial concerns whether she is legally responsible for the deaths of her children. Prosecutors have argued that the killings were intentional and planned. Her defense has said that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and other serious mental-health conditions that affected her ability to understand her actions.
Patrick’s civil lawsuit does not decide Lindsay’s criminal responsibility. Instead, it argues that medical providers failed to properly identify and respond to the condition that preceded the deaths. The two cases may discuss similar medical records and events, but they involve different legal questions and different defendants.
The civil case is still developing. The defendants may challenge the complaint or dispute the allegations during discovery. Patrick is seeking damages and other relief allowed under Massachusetts law, but no settlement or public claim form is available. The lawsuit remains a set of allegations, and this article is for general information rather than legal advice.