Lindsay Clancy trial consumes tight-knit Massachusetts town where degrees of separation are slim
The sensational Lindsay Clancy murder trial has been the talk of the town of postcard-perfect Plymouth, Mass., where locals say everyone knows someone connected to the case.
Even locals with firsthand familiarity with the people and places mentioned at the closely watched triple-murder trial, which has attracted throngs of out-of-town supporters, said they were turning to TikTok to follow reactions and theories as the captivating case unfolded.
“I knew people on the stand,” a 27-year-old receptionist at the Hilton Garden Inn told The Post.
The Plymouth native, who asked to remain anonymous, said her father has been a paramedic in the area for 30 years and that she recognized several places and people discussed during testimony.
“One of the ER doctors, Kelly McDonough, I met twice,” she said. “The Kingsbury Club, where she [Lindsay] went to the gym, I used to work there in the kids club, so I knew exactly what they were talking about,” she added.
Following the closing arguments on Thursday, the waterfront where the Mayflower II resides buzzed as residents flocked to taverns and ice cream parlors.
Teenage girls working the registers at souvenir shops in the tight-knit New England community with a population of just over 65,000 told The Post they had been following every detail of the case, and several were sharing the experience with their mother.
Stella McCabe, a 19-year-old criminal justice major born and raised in Plymouth, said she has followed the case with her mother since 2023, who was similarly engrossed in the Karen Read trial.
McCabe said her father also has friends who ride motorcycles with Clancy defense attorney Kevin Reddington.
“Very tight-knit community; at times it feels a little cliquey,” McCabe said of Plymouth.
For her, what stands out is her description of law enforcement as a brotherhood.
“This case and Karen Read — the police are very disconcerting.”
Julia Wronski, 17, of nearby Kingston, said the CVS — where Patrick Clancy picked up his kids’ medicine just before returning home to find them murdered in the basement — is the same one her family uses.
“My mom and I drive by it every day,” she said, adding that her mother especially has been following the trial closely.
Wronski said some of her friends have become engrossed in the case, while others view it more starkly. Her own opinion has shifted as the trial has unfolded.
“I feel like the more that comes out, the more it just doesn’t point to her,” she said, referencing the culpability of Patrick Clancy. “He’s not innocent in my mind — she was crying for help.”
Others focused less on the competing theories and more on Lindsay Clancy’s mental-health care.
“All the women in my family have been following the Clancy trial,” Joann Dean, told The Post. “My nieces and my kids, several [work] in mental health care, and they all feel like she was let down.”
Dean said she believed Clancy had been desperately seeking help before the killings.
The Attleboro native pointed to a cast on her wrist where she had a torn ligament and likened her struggle to find how she hadn’t been able to find proper care for it through Medicaid to Clancy’s experience.
“There are a lot of things that don’t make sense, and they did not investigate it fairly enough for what it’s worth,” she added.
Jurors have been deliberating Clancy’s fate since Thursday.
If found guilty of murder, she faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole — but jurors can also find her not guilty by reason of insanity. If the latter, she would be committed to a psychiatric facility and released when she’s deemed no longer a threat to herself or others.