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Patrick Clancy and his wife Rachel Danis are set to describe their experiences of the Massachusetts triple-murder trial of his former wife Lindsay Clancy, with Clancy telling 60 Minutes: “I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could.”
The couple will on Sunday night make their first public comments on the case. CBS has been trailing excerpts of the broadcast.
The interviews with the pair marks a second significant media “get” for 60 Minutes since it came under new leadership earlier this year. Last week, it secured an interview with a pilot who was rescued by special forces after being shot down over Iran.
The Clancy interviews come as Massachusetts prosecutors are set to decide later this month whether to retry Lindsay Clancy over the killings of the couple’s three children – Cora, five; Dawson, three; and Callan, eight months old – in January 2023. A hearing is slated for 29 September at Plymouth superior court.
A trial over the summer riveted public attention and ended in a mistrial when a single juror rejected the Clancy’s defense position that she had carried out the killings because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis that meant she could not be found criminally responsible for her actions.
The trial shed light on the little-understood mental health condition, and the resulting mistrial sharply divided public opinion. The single holdout juror, Michael Desronvil, came forward last week to say he thought enough physical evidence and key witness testimony presented at trial proved Clancy “knew exactly what she was doing and planned [it]”.
Patrick Clancy, who testified in the prosecution phase of the trial but has supported his former wife, has been subject to intense speculation outside the courtroom from online content creators and conspiracists.
Earlier this month, an attorney for Clancy threatened legal “consequences” over what he called a “relentless, escalating and destructive defamation campaign” targeting his client.
“Enough is enough – this spread of blatant and baseless falsehoods must stop,” attorney Howard Cooper said. “Those responsible should understand that there will be consequences, and every appropriate measure will be pursued to hold them accountable, including legally.”
According to excerpts of the 60 Minutes interviews released ahead of airtime, Patrick Clancy talks about his grief, his memories of his children, and conspiracy theories.
Clancy tells correspondent Ross Douthat he still talks to his kids “all the time” and asked them for help. Asked if they do, Clancy responds: “I like to believe they do. It’s a way I stay connected to them.”
Clancy, who discovered his three children after finding his injured wife lying in snow below a second floor window and is now paralyzed from the waist down, also told the news program: “I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome. I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could.”
The Clancys repeatedly sought psychiatric and mental care for the young mother in the months before the incident, and have since filed a civil lawsuit alleging negligence and over-prescription of medications on the the part of two health professionals and healthcare providers.
In the released interview excerpts, Danis, 37, discusses how she met Patrick, their marriage, and defends her husband against the theories that have appeared online.
“I don’t understand how the story’s been so twisted, but I would hope people know that Pat is, as I said before, the most selfless father and supportive partner,” Danis, an infertility specialist, tells the program.
The couple met while jogging and Patrick moved to New York and married earlier this year, she says. “I was just a girl that met a guy running in Central Park on a really cold Saturday, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
