Emily Thorndike, a licensed independent clinical social worker, previously worked at the same inpatient facility where Lindsay Clancy stayed shortly before she murdered her three children.
In a TikTok video that quickly gained widespread attention, Thorndike discussed her firsthand observations of staffing conditions at McLean Hospital and challenged how the prosecution portrayed the care Clancy received there. Lindsay Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, saw the video and asked whether Thorndike would testify for the defense; she agreed and participated in a voir dire proceeding on Aug. 19.
The judge acknowledged that he considered Thorndike a credible witness but ultimately ruled against letting her testify, citing the “limited materiality” of her testimony given that roughly a year separated her employment from Clancy’s stay at McLean. Thorndike left the hospital in December 2021, slightly more than a year before Clancy’s five-day inpatient admission.
Thorndike sat down exclusively with Oxygen to share her perspective on the high-profile trial. The jury ultimately could not reach a unanimous verdict, splitting 11 to one, which led the judge to declare a mistrial.
“My initial reaction to the mistrial, like the first emotion that comes to mind, is disappointment,” she said, “and I think primarily in the context of this one juror who was holding out.”
Although she felt let down by how the case concluded, Thorndike expressed optimism about the possibility of a retrial.
“I hold out hope,” she said. “In my opinion, this one juror, I wish he could have been literally excused from this; but in my mind, he’s excused.”
The mental health professional went on to say, “I’m hopeful that we can find a jury who will give a verdict under the law and using the facts.”
Thorndike also shared her belief that Lindsay, who faces charges for allegedly killing her three children with ex-husband Patrick Clancy, deserved a not guilty verdict.
“I don’t think it ended in the way that’s morally right, in my opinion,” she said. “I think she should have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.”
Oxygen contacted McLean Hospital for a statement. The prosecution also declined to comment when reached by Oxygen.
Photo: Credit Amanda Sabga Poolthe Boston Herald Via Ap
What Was Lindsay Clancy Accused Of?
Lindsay’s murder trial focused on the devastating events of Jan. 24, 2023, the day she admits to killing her and Patrick’s children,5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan,at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Patrick testified that on that evening, Lindsay asked him to drive to a nearby CVS pharmacy to pick up medication and then stop at a local restaurant to get takeout. When he came back home, he discovered Lindsay lying in the backyard after she had jumped from a second-story window in an attempt to end her own life. In the basement, he found Cora, Dawson, and Callan strangled with exercise bands; all three had died from the attack.
In their opening statement, prosecutors maintained that during the window when Patrick was away, Lindsay carried out the killings of her children with “deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis on Jan. 24, 2023,” Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told the jury. “This was a woman who acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal: to kill.”
“This was a woman who no longer liked the life she thought she wanted,” she continued. “It was getting harder and harder to control, and when she saw the opportunity to escape, she made the selfish choice to take it, and to take Cora, Dawson and Callan first before attempting to take her own life.”
On Aug. 20, jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial listened to testimony from a chaplain about Lindsay’s emotional state in the aftermath of killing her three children.
Photo: AP Photo: Josh Reynolds/POOL PHOTO
What Was Lindsay Clancy’s Defense?
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington never contested that Lindsay killed her children, but he argued that postpartum psychosis,rather than malice,drove her actions and that she consequently could not appreciate the wrongfulness of what she did.
“This is a woman that was suffering from psychosis at the time that she went down to that basement,” he told the jury in his opening statement. “She had no motive. She loved her children. She intended to kill herself. She didn’t fake that.”
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