South Shore gathers for vigil after Duxbury tragedy 

Local

Hundreds of people from all over the South Shore came to pray for the Clancy family.

The Holy Family Church in Duxbury was filled with hundreds of mourners from all over the South Shore Thursday night as friends and neighbors prayed for the Clancy family following the shocking tragedy of a mother allegedly killing two of her children and injuring a third.

32-year-old Massachusetts General Hospital nurse Lindsay Clancy allegedly strangled all three of her children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and her 7-month-old son — before apparently attempting suicide at her Duxbury home Tuesday night.

Cora and Dawson did not survive, and the baby is fighting for his life at a Boston trauma center. Clancy is still being treated at a hospital, but has been charged with Cora and Dawson’s murders.

“It’s incomprehensible that such a tragic thing would happen in a family anywhere, but here we are,” Rev. Bill Williams, of Holy Family Church, said during a candlelight vigil for the Clancy family.

Clancy’s husband came home Tuesday to discover the tragic scene just after 6 p.m. and immediately called police.

Clancy has been confirmed to have struggled with mental illness after her latest pregnancy, and there is speculation that she was suffering from post-partum psychosis at the time of the alleged killings.

Family, friends, and neighbors expressed shock and devastation at the loss.

“They were just beautiful, beautiful children,” family member Donna Jesse told WCVB outside the Clancy’s home on Summer Street. “They had a beautiful life. I can’t process it.”

“It’s sort of like, how can this happen around here? But you put yourself in the man’s place and can’t imagine how devastating that is,” Duxbury resident Tom McGrath told the news station at the vigil.

Harry Irving, who attended the vigil Thursday, told Boston 25 News that his wife is currently nine months pregnant with their first child.

“I think the hardest thing for us is knowing how devastating postpartum depression can be,” he said.

“I hope the family knows we’re all behind them,” Diane Monaghan told the news station.

Locals at the vigil also expressed concern for the first-responders who arrived at the scene and tried to revive Cora and Dawson.

“For us, it’s unimaginable. For those first-responders, they witnessed it, and they have to live with it for the rest of their lives,” Debbie Heath, mother of a Duxbury firefighter, told Boston 25 News.

Heath told the news station that her 25-year-old son was one of the first people to respond to the home, and has struggled to process what he experienced that day.

“I hope he never sees anything like this again. I hope this is the worst call he’ll ever be on,” she said. “You can’t get those visions out of your head.”

WBZ-TV reported that during the vigil, Rev. Williams prayed for peace for all of the Clancys.

“It’s a wonderful town, but you still don’t expect anything like this, that you’d be needed like this,” a woman told the news station.

Outside the Clancys’ home at 47 Summer Street, locals have created a memorial of flowers and stuffed animals that have grown ever larger over the last two days.