Lindsay Clancy Wrote She Was 'Horrified' After Killing Children, Asked For Attorney

Jhilam Biswas is a forensic psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where she evaluated Lindsay Clancy after Clancy killed her children on Jan. 24, 2023. Biswas testified in Clancy's murder trial today (Monday, August 3, day 5) in Plymouth County Superior Court. 02:48 "She was intubated. So it was difficult for her to really answer a lot, a range of questions, and so she gestured. She gestured to me to be able to write, and so we knew that she was really exhausted and anxious from the the entire experience and the evaluation. And so we didn't ask her all of the questions around orientation." 03:25 "When you asked her certain questions, was she able to answer those questions by writing the answers on the paper?" "She was." 03:34 "And did you ask her about her mood that day?" "I did ask her her mood." "And what did she write?" "She wrote 'horrified.'" "And what was her affect during this interaction?" "At the time that I saw her, she was intubated, and that in and of itself is very uncomfortable. And so, she seemed very anxious." 04:05 "the entire evaluation was done through writing because she couldn't speak" 04:14 "So, we asked her, you know, how how are you feeling? Horrified, and then she wrote down, "Do I have an attorney?" 06:21 "what she's asking: Do I have an attorney? Are my legs straight? Is my body broken? Those all made sense given the situation she was in. Correct?" "They were relevant answers and questions she was asking." 06:37 "And are you familiar with the characteristics of psychosis?" "Yes." "Okay. And what are the typical signs or symptoms of someone who is in psychosis?" "It really depends, and it ranges across a spectrum of symptoms. So we have a whole category of different types of symptoms that we look at for psychosis, and they are different for everyone." 08:30 "it's very difficult for our patients to be able to articulate what they're hearing. They may have perceptual disturbances like hallucinations or auditory hallucinations, and maybe hearing voices. When it's really active, we often see those individuals interacting with those voices. I didn't see that in that particular moment." 09:08 "And you didn't see any of that present with Ms. Clancy?" "Correct." 10:37 "Did you have any assessment professionally of the the responses and awareness that she had?" "Yes, at that time, I was trying to assess. You know, is she confused or oriented? Is she completely disorganized? Is she so anxious that she won't be able to sleep? I was assessing suicidality mostly. I was being called into the room for that, and so there were a lot of things that I was assessing all at the same time before the surgical intervention that was going to happen." 12:00 cross by defense attorney Kevin Reddington 12:41 "A large amount of people that you've treated over the years that have suffered from command hallucinations, hearing voices, delusions, things of that nature. Right?" "In my career, yes." 14:28 " And in the 20 minutes or so that you had when you're dealing with with Lindsay, were you aware of her prior medical and psychiatric history?" "When we get consulted on a case, we...." "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'm asking: Were you aware of her medical and psychiatric history?" "I was aware of the portion that was in the medical record before I saw her." 15:32 "Now, were you aware of her history of documented postpartum depression?" "I was aware of mostly the the postpartum anxiety that was on the in the record, yes." 15:55 "Did she have did she have insomnia prior to seeing you for 20 minutes?" "Yes." 16:00 "And and do you recall the length of time that she would be suffering from insomnia? Was it like a week, a day, a month, or what?" "I don't recall the timing exactly." 16:59 "I did know about the suicidal ideation, yes." 17:15 "you know that she was insomnia. You know that there was a significant period of time that she was suffering from insomnia. Knew that she was expressing suicidal ideation. How about homicidal ideation? Did she express that?" "Not from my review of the records." 18:36 "Hypomania is sort of the gradual increase towards mania. The symptoms that we see in somebody who might have bipolar disorder, and with bipolar disorder, we see mixed depression, and we see mania, and we see symptoms that kind of gradually increase to mania, and we call that period hypomania." 21:01 "was she in pain?" "Yes, I'm sure she was." 23:35 "Did the suicidal ideation that you were concerned about continue the time that she was in Brigham and Women's Hospital for a month?" "I saw her one time." 24:48 "Did you know that she couldn't even have visitors in the sense that the police would not even let her mother or father visit with her?" "I can't recall." 25:31 re-direct 26:42 "One of the first things on her mind is, "Do I have a lawyer? Correct?"