LINDSAY Clancy can battle back from the devastating effects of her mental illness – but two leading experts have told The U.S. Sun the horrifying consequences of killing her three children could haunt her forever.
The will now look ahead to September 29, when her next legal steps will be discussed following a in her bombshell murder case last Friday.
Clancy, 36, admitted to strangling her three young children to death in January 2023.
Her defense team, however, argued that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, ᴀsserting over that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.
Dr. Kenneth Spielvogel, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who has practiced for more than 30 years and delivered more than 15,000 babies, said the mental illness is not necessarily permanent.
“Someone can recover from postpartum psychosis,” Spielvogel, Senior Medical Officer at , told The U.S. Sun.
“Just like anyone who has bipolar disease or bipolar with psycH๏τic features, schizophrenia with psycH๏τic features, with proper treatment and medication, people can live healthy, productive lives.
“That’s not to say that there aren’t going to be challenges along the way in adjustments to treatment, but absolutely, it’s not a terminal illness type diagnosis.”
The doctor said he has often encountered women struggling with similar issues, although Clancy’s are radically different from those of someone recovering from an isolated episode of psychosis.
Spielvogel said the consequences of her actions, her physical disability and the deaths of her children could see her stuck in a permanent state of hell.
“I cannot imagine the prison that she’s living in when she’s outside of that psycH๏τic dissociated state,” he said.
“She’s now wheelchair bound. Her three children are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at her hands. Beyond, like the loss of relationship and everything else and her freedom. So that in and of itself is its own prison.”
Spielvogel predicts her treatment plan could last a “lifetime” and involve a combination of therapy, medications and other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy.
Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is most commonly used for severe mental health conditions, particularly major depression that has not responded adequately to other treatments.
During ECT, a controlled electrical current is pᴀssed through the brain while the patient is under general anesthesia, intentionally producing a brief seizure.
Treatments are typically given several times over a few weeks under careful medical supervision.
Experts say it can be highly effective, especially for severe depression, depression with psycH๏τic symptoms or situations in which rapid improvement is needed, such as when someone is at high risk of suicide.
“My experience and seeing patients who are frankly psycH๏τic and major depression with a plan to commit suicide, they have dramatic results in the aftermath,” Spielvogel continued, “and, having continued maintenance counseling, obviously medication adjustment, go on to lead very healthy, functional lives.
“But there’s absolutely treatments, whether it’s proper medication, even things like ECT which has become more in vogue lately and the technique has improved and the results are impressive. There are options.”
Nicole Kumi, CEO of a maternal mental-health and wellness organization, , who specializes in training in perinatal mental health, also stressed that psychosis is not necessarily permanent.
It’s the pain and anguish of confronting her tragic actions that could become too tough to bear.
“From the clinical lens, we talk about recovery from mental health disorders specifically for her with postpartum psychosis, recovery is absolutely possible for individuals because psychosis is not a state, a permanent state that one is in,” Kumi said.
“So I think what’s really important for us to understand here is even if she is not actively psycH๏τic, she is not in the state permanently. Recovery is possible.”
Overcoming the tragic deaths of her children, however, is a separate question.
“Recovering from that alongside mental health conditions kind of puts things in a different perspective,” she said.
“That is where the clinical teams really are going to come in and ᴀssess her comprehensive risk ᴀssessments, evaluation, mental state, risk for harm, self harm.”
While the jury of nine women and three men failed to reach a unanimous verdict at Plymouth Superior Court, mental health experts have begun to chart out the next steps for the former delivery nurse.
, who had been suffering mentally and was reportedly on 13 separate medications, was found outside her Duxbury, Mᴀssachusetts, home after throwing herself out of a window in a failed suicide attempt following the killings.
She has since been remanded to Tewksbury State Hospital, where she returned following the latest court proceedings and is expected to remain for the foreseeable future.
The heartbreakingly brutal case has been widely dubbed “America’s saddest trial” – but experts say the worldwide attention has also shone a fresh spotlight on the devastating issue of postpartum psychosis.
Clancy told that, after the killings, she heard a male voice commanding her to kill the children and herself.
Defense experts characterized the voice as a “command hallucination,” which they said indicated psychosis.
Even if the condition that experts say overwhelmed Clancy has resolved, clinicians say she could face years, or potentially a lifetime, of psychiatric treatment – along with the devastating consequences of what happened.
Ahead of a potential second trial later this year, Clancy will already be well aware of the possible outcomes.
A not-guilty verdict would not necessarily mean an immediate release from psychiatric care.
“I don’t see it in a case where she’s going to be released immediately,” Kumi said.
“I see this maybe taking months again if she’s found not guilty, months of strong evaluation, safety precautions, protections put in place to ensure her safety and well-being outside of the insтιтution she’s in.
“She is at high risk for suicide. We’re seeing that now because of her being on a suicide watch where she’s currently being housed.”
A guilty charge, meanwhile, would arguably see a far worse level of care in a prison.
“Anyone who pretends that wouldn’t be the case isn’t living in reality,” said Spielvogel.
Rather than ᴀssuming Clancy has recovered simply because she is no longer actively psycH๏τic, clinicians would need to establish what her current baseline looks like and build treatment around it.
“We know that the psychosis happened in a specific period of time,” Kumi said.
“She’s not actively psycH๏τic. So now they have to evaluate what does her baseline look like.
“And then a treatment plan would be developed from that, probably including individual therapy if daily if not weekly group programming, other guidelines that might be imposed upon her, again depending upon her mental health state.”
That treatment could change over time, particularly around emotionally difficult dates.
“There will be times and places for increased intensive supports, and then there may be times where they can pull back a little bit and have her in more of a generalized setting,” said Kumi.
“There’s fluidity within this. She may need more support around the children’s birthdays, around the anniversaries of of their deaths.”
If she were eventually considered safe enough to leave an insтιтution, Kumi said she could move through different levels of care.
Treatment teams ordinarily take stock the situation after three months and then make any necessary adjustments.
“If she is found not guilty and she is released, I wouldn’t ᴀssume there would be step down procedures,” she said.
“There’s levels of treatment. So they’re inpatient. There’s intensive outpatient programs. “
For Spielvogel, one of the most troubling possibilities is what could happen if Clancy eventually emerges fully from the psycH๏τic and dissociated state described by experts.
Becoming mentally well enough to understand what happened, he said, could itself be devastating.
“Guilty. Not guilty. She’s going to be imprisoned forever,” Spielvogel said.
“It’s almost like when you think about it is the cruelest of cruel because her moving to a non-psycH๏τic, non-dissociated state is going to allow her to have insight into what she’s actually done. And I cannot imagine what a mother, how a mother could live with that.”
Kumi similarly believes Clancy’s recovery would involve constructing a new life rather than simply returning to who she was before the psychosis.
“She will never return to the person she was,” Kumi said. “There is no version of her that can exist in this post-trial outcome.”
“Her recovery is going to be based solely on reestablishing who she is as a person now, with all of this behind her at some point.”
Kumi cautioned against imagining recovery as a dramatic transformation. It could instead involve small, incremental improvements.
“It’s easy to say recovery would be that she’s, you know, moving around better and she’s smiling and she seems healthy. Maybe recovery is that she hasn’t thought about suicide today, and maybe she’s sleeping better through the night and a medication regimen is working for her.”
“I think it’s going to be much smaller than we as a society think.”
Both experts said Clancy’s case also raises questions about whether more could have been done before the tragedy, and the level of attention she received.
Spielvogel said postpartum psychosis can be difficult to identify during routine medical appointments.
“You can’t tell me in a 10 or 15 minute visit, face to face with someone, that you’re going to be able to screen them properly for the potential of postpartum psychosis, which is a very different affectation from postpartum depression,” he said.
Kumi argued that mothers should not be expected to carry the responsibility for identifying and treating their own mental-health crises.
“We can’t keep putting the responsibility on moms to get this help, to speak up when we have given birth and we’re taking care of our babies,” she said.
“We’re desperate. We’re asking, we’re researching, we’re going to a bunch of different systems, and I think it’s time that the health care system wraps themselves around mothers and families during this period of time.”
She believes Clancy’s case exposed missed opportunities but hopes the attention the case has generated can ultimately lead to systemic change.
“We can’t keep prepping for the birth of the baby and not prepping for the birth of the mom,” Kumi said.
“That’s happening simultaneously. I think we have a lot of the right people in the right places to make a systemic change that will be felt for generations.”
“This is such a difficult case,” concluded Spielvogel. “It’s very difficult for the lay public and for most people to understand what it means to be completely dissociated from one sense of self.
“What it’s like to have command, hallucinations, literal voices in your head that are pushing you towards the horror of strangling your own children and then committing suicide.
“It’s a tragedy all the way around. Guilty or not guilty, she’s going to be imprisoned forever.”
💔 STELLA PARTON BREAKS HER SILENCE — What She Said About Dolly’s Health Has Fans Looking Back
Dolly Parton’s Sister Breaks Silence What Really Happened - GMT - G1
Stella Parton was born May 4, 1949, the sixth of twelve children raised by Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton in Sevierville, Tennessee — a household defined by noise, limited money, and almost no privacy, the kind of environment that produced strong, determined personalities.
Stella was one of them.
By seven, she was appearing alongside her older sister Dolly on a Knoxville television program; by her teens, she was writing her own songs, though marriage and motherhood pulled music to the margins of her life for a stretch.
The dream never fully disappeared.
In 1967, she recorded a gospel album with her mother and sisters, and later worked clubs in Washington, D.C., before founding her own record label in 1975 and releasing “I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight,” which climbed to number nine on the country charts.
Long before any of that commercial success, Stella had already shown a willingness to take positions others avoided.
At 26, amid backlash against Australian singer Olivia Newton-John for winning recognition in country music, Stella recorded “Ode to Olivia” in her defense — a stand that offered her no career benefit and real risk of criticism, but one she took anyway simply because she believed staying silent was the wrong choice.
That instinct defined the rest of her career: hits like “The Danger of a Stranger” and “Steady as the Rain” (written by Dolly) built a genuine, independent following, including in the U.K., while Stella also worked in New York theater and spoke openly, often controversially, about poverty, domestic violence, and the treatment of women in the music industry.
She was named the Christian Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year in 2004.
Through all of it, she remained defined publicly, more often than not, as simply “Dolly’s little sister” — a label she spent five decades quietly proving didn’t tell the full story.
That same directness is why her comments in the fall of 2025 carried real weight.
Stella had never positioned herself as the family’s image manager or spokesperson; she was, by reputation, someone who believed difficult truths shouldn’t stay hidden indefinitely.
What she described wasn’t dramatic or accusatory — it was a portrait of a woman who had spent years prioritizing everyone else’s needs over her own.
The context mattered.
Carl Dean, Dolly’s husband of nearly sixty years, died in March 2025 at 82, after a long illness during which Dolly had devoted herself almost entirely to his care.
She later acknowledged that in the process, she’d neglected her own health significantly.
The loss reverberated through the whole extended family — the Partons had lost three brothers in the years surrounding this period, compounding grief that, for a family that had once crowded twelve children into a single small home, meant losing pieces of a shared childhood one after another.
Stella herself went seven years without releasing new music during this stretch, later describing the period simply as one shaped by sorrow, while still speaking about the importance of finding moments of laughter within it.
Looking back, one moment reads very differently in hindsight than it did at the time: in late September 2025, Dolly postponed her planned Las Vegas residency, citing health challenges — a rare cancellation for a performer whose six-decade career had included very few of them.
At the time, most fans treated it as a minor, temporary setback.
Stella’s later reflections suggested the signs had actually been building for some time, visible to family in ways the public smile made easy to miss.
That concern crystallized publicly not long after, when Dolly’s younger sister Frieda posted a simple request on Facebook asking fans to pray for Dolly.
What looked at first like an ordinary, well-meaning gesture spread rapidly, sparking widespread speculation about how serious Dolly’s condition actually was.
Dolly herself responded directly within days, appearing in a video from a Grand Ole Opry commercial shoot, insisting with her familiar humor that she wasn’t finished yet — the now widely remembered “I ain’t dead yet” moment that briefly quieted public concern.
In the months that followed, the pattern repeated: reassuring updates about kidney stones, dehydration, and treatment, paired with continued work on new projects, right up until Dolly Parton’s death on August 25, 2026, at 80.
Looking back across that full timeline — the postponed residency, the family’s public worry, Stella’s own account of a sister who consistently deprioritized her own wellbeing — it becomes easier to see what the people closest to Dolly understood well before the rest of the world did: that the warmth and resilience the public saw every time she appeared on camera came at a real, largely invisible cost.
