Lindsay Clancy Trial: Forensic Scientist Testifies to Swabbing Her Fingernails at the Hospital

She spent the morning swabbing a basement floor, a knife, and three exercise bands. Then the defense got her to agree that a stain could be almost anything, including bat guano. This is Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury Mom trial. Lindsay Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months old, at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts on January 24, 2023. She has pleaded not guilty. The defense does not dispute what happened inside that house; it argues she was in postpartum psychosis and not criminally responsible. She is presumed innocent, and nothing here has been decided by a jury. Maureen Hartnett is a forensic scientist two in the criminalistics unit and the crime scene response unit at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory. This release is her complete testimony, from sworn in to excused, with the morning recess removed. She is the Commonwealth's evidence-collection witness, the one who actually processed 47 Summer Street the night of the killings. On direct she walks the jury through what she physically touched: red-brown stains on the basement floor, swabs taken from underneath Lindsay Clancy's own fingernails at the hospital, a knife recovered from the home, and three exercise bands pulled from the house and swabbed at both ends. Then the cross-examination turns the same evidence collection into a different kind of testimony entirely. The defense walks her stain by stain through the difference between a screening test and a confirmatory one, and gets her to agree, again and again, that a positive screen does not mean confirmed human blood. On one exterior stain she agrees it could be almost anything, in her own words, it would almost be like bat guano for that matter, we don't know what it is. She is not backing off her work. She is describing exactly what a presumptive test can and cannot tell a jury, and the defense wants that limit on the record in her own voice. This is the same tension that runs through every forensic witness in this case: what was actually confirmed in a lab, and what was only ever screened. --- KEY MOMENTS 0:04 - Sworn in as a forensic scientist two, criminalistics and crime scene response, MSP Crime Lab 6:00 - Responds to 47 Summer Street the night of the killings 9:00 - Examines and swabs red-brown stains on the basement floor 15:30 - Collects swabs from underneath Lindsay Clancy's own fingernails at the hospital 22:00 - Direct examination breaks for the morning recess 24:23 - Court resumes, same witness recalled to continue direct 26:30 - A knife recovered from the home is cut up and preserved for the DNA unit 30:00 - Swabs three exercise bands recovered from the home, ends and center of each 40:00 - Cross-examination opens on screening versus confirmatory testing 46:16 - Agrees an exterior stain could be almost anything, even bat guano 48:00 - Confirms the shingles were collected in January and steps down --- COMPLETE CASE COVERAGE justiceisaprocess.com SUBSCRIBE for daily trial coverage and hit the notification bell so you never miss testimony. JOIN to unlock the Case Notebook powered by NotebookLM, where you can chat with the evidence, ask questions about testimony, and go deeper than any comment section allows. CASE BACKGROUND REPORT: https://justiceisaprocess.com/ma-v-cl... Complete case overview: the charges, the timeline, the people at the center, the McHoul standard, and the legal analysis behind Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Lindsay Clancy. PLAYLISTS AND RESOURCES Website: https://justiceisaprocess.com/coverag... Full Trial Live Broadcasts:    • Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy: Full Trial...   No Breaks Edition:    • Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy: No Breaks ...   Trial Analysis Podcast:    • Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy: Case Story...   Key Moments and Testimony:    • Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy: Key Moment...   Subscribe for Daily Coverage:    / @justiceisaprocess   FAIR USE AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE This content is produced under Fair Use (17 U.S.C. 107) for news reporting, criticism, and educational purposes. We provide transformative commentary on public court proceedings, advancing public understanding of the judicial process through timestamps, analysis, and educational context. #JusticeIsAProcess #DuxburyMomTrial #LindsayClancy