I advocated for women with postpartum depression and even helped spearhead a peer-support program for struggling new moms at Women and Infants Day program in the early 2000’s. I understand the compassion for all of it. But watching people make Lindsay Clancy more of a victim than the three children she killed is infuriating and grotesque. Mental illness can explain behavior and affect legal culpability. But what she did was premeditated and monstrous. Walk out the door and never return, kill yourself even. But she one by one wrapped her hands around her little babies throats, and squeezed as hard as she could for over four minutes each while they probably screamed and cried, begging their mommy to stop. This is a thought that will never escape my brain. She didn’t stop after one. She didn’t stop after two. She stopped when those babies stopped breathing after their own mother sat over them inflicting her death grip on them. Yes, she was mentally ill. Yes there seemed to be a lot of negligence with her case. If doctors missed warning signs, investigate them. If she was improperly medicated, investigate that. If the mental-health system failed spectacularly, expose every failure and change it. And if somebody was negligent, hold them accountable too. But make no mistake about it, Lindsay Clancy is the one who murdered her children. One by one while they likely begged for their lives. If we do not hold that accountable, then we as a society have completely lost the plot. Cora. Dawson. Callan. They were the victims period.