In the ongoing murder trial of Lindsay Clancy in Plymouth Superior Court, Massachusetts, the testimony of psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts has drawn intense focus. Tufts, who treated the 35-year-old Duxbury mother in the months before she strangled her three children—Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months—on January 24, 2023, described a course of care marked by telehealth appointments, shifting medications, and no observed signs of psychosis. Clancy has admitted to the killings and is mounting an insanity defense centered on postpartum psychosis.
Tufts, now 36, began seeing Clancy in September 2022 after the mother sought help online for postpartum anxiety following the birth of her youngest child. Working at Aster Mental Health in Braintree (and later Peabody), Tufts diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder with depressed mood. All of their roughly 14 sessions were conducted by video, lasting about 25 to 30 minutes each. She never met Clancy in person and testified that she saw no indications of mania, hallucinations, or intent to harm the children or herself—though Clancy sometimes reported feeling close to suicidal.
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Background, Care, and Civil Lawsuits
Dr. Jennifer Tufts completed her psychiatric residency at Boston Medical Center in July 2022 and joined Aster Mental Health the following month, receiving board certification around the time of Clancy’s intake. Her online biography highlighted a particular interest in women’s mental health and perinatal psychiatry. During cross-examination, defense attorney Kevin Reddington pressed her on limited independent experience treating postpartum patients at Aster—she estimated “maybe a couple”—while noting specialized training and roughly 50 postpartum cases during residency. Tufts maintained she provided necessary care and denied negligence.
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington questioned Dr. Jennifer Tufts, Clancy’s former psychiatrist, on her notes while she was on the stand, saying Tufts had written “not hyper, pressured speech.”
Pressured speech can be a sign of mania. Tufts said she meant “not… pic.twitter.com/ngoZz27ciF
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 11, 2026
Clancy and her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, have each filed medical malpractice lawsuits naming Tufts, Aster Mental Health, and other providers. The suits allege misdiagnosis, overmedication, and failure to recognize emerging bipolar disorder or postpartum psychosis as Clancy’s symptoms worsened despite multiple prescriptions, including Zoloft, Ativan, Buspirone, and Amitriptyline. Tufts has denied the allegations and sought review by a medical malpractice tribunal; those matters remain pending. She told the jury she would have been “very concerned” had Clancy disclosed thoughts of harming the children, information the defense says was shared with her husband but not with Tufts.
Cross-Examination Highlights and Courtroom Impact
Over two days of testimony ending August 10, 2026, Reddington subjected Dr. Jennifer Tufts to pointed questioning about short video sessions, computerized notes, medication side effects (including insomnia linked to Zoloft, one of Clancy’s chief complaints), and the timing of her independent practice. Tufts acknowledged she could not fully observe Clancy’s body language via video and that Clancy repeatedly attributed worsening symptoms to the drugs themselves. On the final appointment, January 23, 2023—the day before the deaths—Tufts found Clancy depressed and flat but without suicidal or homicidal ideation or psychosis, and she adjusted medications rather than seeking hospitalization.
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Prosecutors used redirect to underscore Tufts’s residency experience with psychosis and perinatal care. The intense cross-examination underscored the defense strategy of highlighting gaps in Clancy’s mental health treatment while Tufts stood by her assessments. As the trial continues, her testimony remains central to questions about Clancy’s state of mind and the adequacy of the care she received in the critical months leading to the tragedy.
