A Massachusetts mother was having "one of her best days." She was later accused of strangling her children.

By Julianne McShane and Elizabeth Chuck -

Before Lindsay Clancy was accused of killing her three children, she had had "one of her best days" after a long struggle with anxiety, her husband told authorities.

After his sons were strangled to death on Jan. 24 at the family's Massachusetts home, Patrick Clancy told police his wife had been "smiling" and "happy" earlier in the day, prosecutors revealed Tuesday in the court.

Lindsay Clancy has been charged in their deaths and appeared in Plymouth District Court on Tuesday.

She is hospitalized after a suicide attempt and appeared at the hearing by videoconference. 

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On the morning of the murders, she had taken her 5-year-old daughter Cora to the pediatrician for an appointment, where members of the medical staff noticed nothing out of the ordinary in Lindsay Clancy's behavior, the prosecutor told the court. Deputy Jennifer Sprague.

After returning home, he made a snowman with 3-year-old Cora and Dawson, sending photos to her mother and her husband.

But when Patrick Clancy left the house at his wife's request to collect the children's medicine and food, the day took a horrible turn.

He returned home to find his wife lying in the backyard after having attempted suicide.

A 911 call captured Patrick Clancy "screaming in agony and shock" as he found the couple's three young children in the basement strangled with exercise bands.

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Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead at a hospital the same night, and 8-month-old Callan died at the hospital three days later.

Lindsay Clancy, 32, is charged with two counts of murder and three counts of asphyxiation or strangulation.

On Tuesday she pleaded not guilty.

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Prosecutors requested Tuesday that she be held in jail without bail.

They rejected her attorney's claims that she was a “zombie” who had been overmedicated with antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs.

"She had to strangle each one of them and then make sure the gangs were squeezing their little necks for several minutes," Sprague said.

"She could have changed her mind at any point in time...and she didn't," she added.

A "horrible and tragic" case

The appearance marked Lindsay Clancy's first public appearance since the deaths of her children in a case that US District Judge John Canavan III described as "both horrific and tragic."

She attended virtually from the undisclosed Massachusetts hospital where she has been treated, and was wearing a face mask and neck brace. 

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington said his client is paralyzed below the waist due to a spinal cord injury and a broken back and ribs she suffered during the suicide attempt.

He said she remains on 24/7 suicide watch. 

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“It is extremely emotional.

However, he is unable, and has been unable, to express happiness or sadness or cry," Reddington said. 

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But their emotions were off even before the deaths.

Reddington said that a month or two ago, Lindsay Clancy had said, "I wish I could feel something." 

From her bed on Tuesday, Lindsay Clancy spoke only once to the judge, replying, "Yes, Your Honor," when asked if she could hear him.

She showed little emotion, save for when she closed her eyes and seemed to wipe away tears after Sprague described how the children died.

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The judge ordered her admitted without bail to the hospital for mental health treatment.

It is possible that his home confinement could be ordered, according to Canavan, adding that a hearing would be held before that happened. 

The next day you must appear in court is May 2.

A history of "bad thoughts"

Both Lindsay Clancy's attorney and the prosecutor said her parents and her husband were aware of what Reddington described as the mother's “worsening depression” and “bad thoughts” since the birth of their son Callan in May. 

But while Reddington maintains that she suffered from postpartum depression "and possibly postpartum psychosis" — a rare condition in which hallucinations and delusions can alter people's sense of reality after childbirth, sometimes leading them to harm themselves themselves or their children — Prosecutors said Lindsay Clancy was told she did not have postpartum depression or any symptoms when she was evaluated at the Women and Infant Hospital Center for Women's Behavioral Health in Providence, Rhode Island, last year.

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She was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.

The day before the murders, Lindsay Clancy wrote a note on her phone saying she was having a "touch of postpartum anxiety coming back to work," according to Sprague.

A representative for Massachusetts General Hospital previously confirmed to NBC Boston that Lindsay Clancy had been an employee. 

House of the Clancy family.Google Maps

Sprague said Lindsay Clancy never used the word "psychosis" to describe her symptoms until after she was arrested while talking to her husband on a mobile phone belonging to a forensic psychologist her lawyer arranged to examine her.

During that call, she told her husband that she had killed the children during "a moment of psychosis" when she heard a voice ordering her to.

Sprague pointed to a note from October in which Lindsay Clancy reportedly wrote: “I think I resent my other children because they keep me from treating [Callan] like my first baby.

And I know that's not fair to them, I know.

I was feeling so down last night when Cora and Dawson came home from school.

I know it rubs off on them, so we had a pretty rough night.

I want to feel love and connection with all my children.” 

She also wrote in the entry that she hopes to have more children, Sprague said. 

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The prosecutor also said that three days after the children's deaths, while intubated, Lindsay Clancy allegedly wrote a note asking, "Do I need a lawyer?"

It was one of the first questions he asked after regaining consciousness, Sprague added. 

“She knew that she had murdered her children, and she had the clarity, concentration and mental acumen to focus on protecting her own rights and interests,” he said.