Trial day 13 of 28 · Thursday · Commonwealth case

August 13, 2026

Three State Police forensic and investigative witnesses on the Surface Pro, the iPhone and the scene — and a cross-examination that left the Commonwealth's own witnesses unable to say who was behind either device.

Coverage: reported. Multiple outlets described this day's proceedings. This is a summary of press reporting, not a transcript and not a record of what anyone said. All trial days · This day at clancytrial.org

What mattered

Key points 18

THE COMMONWEALTH'S OWN FORENSIC WITNESSES COULD NOT PUT EITHER DEVICE IN HER HANDS. Pavao told Sprague on direct that he can identify only what data was accessed, not who accessed it, and repeated on cross that he does not know who was sitting behind the computer. Chiappini, asked whether the searches Reddington put to him came from the defendant's phone, said he could not confirm it. Both concessions came from prosecution witnesses, and both cut at the inference the Commonwealth needs the digital record to carry.
THE SUICIDE-METHODS PAGE WAS ON HER HUSBAND'S DEVICE, REACHED FROM A COUNTRY SONG. The Surface Pro belonged to Patrick Clancy and was found in his office; it was signed into his Google account; his email address had been used to sign in to his wife's Facebook page that morning; the chain to the suicide methods page ran through a Spotify search for Tom Hall and a link on Hall's Wikipedia page about his self-inflicted gunshot wound; Patrick Clancy testified earlier in this trial that he was the one who looked up how Hall died; and Pavao did not know Patrick played guitar or liked Hall's music. The defense also placed the defendant out of the house at a pediatric appointment during the twenty-minute window in which it all happened.
NO SEARCHES FOR WAYS TO KILL WERE FOUND ON THAT DEVICE. Pavao said flatly that there were none. boston.com notes that a search in those terms is something authorities have alleged the defendant made — WPRI's coverage links back to its own 2023 report of the charging documents. This is the single most direct collision on this date between the trial record and the case as it was first publicly described.
THE MENTAL-ILLNESS SEARCHES CAME IN THROUGH THE DEFENSE, NOT THE PROSECUTION. CT Insider notes explicitly that while Chiappini testified for the Commonwealth, none of the searches for schizophrenia, psychosis, insomnia or the medications was asked about or discussed on direct. The whole body of it — page after page of queries about bipolar disorder, psychosis, hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, postpartum depression and the drugs she was prescribed — was extracted on cross-examination from the Commonwealth's own examiner. The same is true of the December 2022 cluster about overprescribing, mania, detox and ketamine on the Surface Pro.
A SECOND EXTRACTION OF THE SAME PHONE DID NOT MATCH THIS ONE. East Idaho News records Reddington putting to Chiappini that his Advanced Logical extraction of January 30 and a Full File Extraction by another trooper — rendered as Trooper Rabbit — did not match. The outlet does not record Chiappini's answer and no other outlet read carries the exchange. This is the only appearance in the coverage of a mismatch between the two extractions, and the case reference lists a Lt. Joseph Rabbitt among the people it cannot place on a date. Recorded in the evidence file rather than resolved here.
THREE SEARCHES THE EXAMINER DID NOT FIND, AND THE OUTLETS DISAGREE ABOUT WHAT FOLLOWED. Reddington asked about searches for where the carotid artery is, for how to slit one's throat to die, and for turning off a Kia Sorento's airbags. Chiappini did not recall any of them. CBS Boston and WPRI report that he had simply not located them in his analysis; the Boston Globe reports that he read them out once shown the records; East Idaho News reports him saying he could not confirm they came from her phone. All three are searches about self-harm on the defense's account, and a sidebar followed immediately.
A NOTE ABOUT MEDICATION, LAST MODIFIED THE DAY BEFORE THE KILLINGS, IS REPORTED BY CNN ALONE. CNN describes a note created in late December 2022 and last modified on January 23, 2023 in which the defendant wrote that prescription medication had stolen her motherhood and her life and taken her from her own body, and traced the decline from a touch of postpartum anxiety through Zoloft, a dose increase, sleeplessness, and Ativan and Benadryl for sleep. None of the six live blogs read for this date mentions it. It is the single most direct piece of first-person support for the over-medication theory in the record, and it rests on one outlet.
THE DATE OF THE LONG PARENTING NOTE IS NOT SETTLED, AND THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE NOTE. Boston 25, CBS Boston and boston.com date it October 25, 2022; AP and WPRI say October 2022; CNN says a note in these terms was last modified in early November 2022; CT Insider says the note was last updated December 26, 2022; East Idaho News says it was created in December 2022 and modified in January 2023. The last two may be describing the medication note rather than the parenting note. Recorded in the evidence file.
THE JANUARY 24 TIMELINE MOVED AGAIN. East Idaho News's minute-by-minute list has an Apple Maps search for 3V at 4:13 p.m., MiraLAX at 4:46, the CVS website at 4:47 and a call to the store at 4:48, a call to Patrick at 4:53, the 3V menu and Pedialyte at 5:06 with more than one tab open, calls of 11 and 47 seconds at 5:09 and 5:10, Pedialax at 5:13 and a text about it at 5:15, Patrick's call at 5:33 and her fourteen-second call back at 5:34. Boston 25's account of the same evidence puts the menu search at 4:43 and her call at 5:35. Two of East Idaho News's times — the 4:13 p.m. Apple Maps search and the 5:13 p.m. Pedialax search — line up with the 16:13 and 17:13 entries in the case reference's Whiffin timeline, which supports the two-laxative-searches reading of the earlier conflict without settling the MiraLAX time. The previous version of this entry recorded the menu search at 4:43 p.m. on Boston 25's account alone; both accounts are now recorded and neither is treated as settled.
A CORRECTION TO THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THIS ENTRY. It placed the 9:48 a.m. last computer search on the morning of January 24, 2023, under Chiappini's phone evidence. Every outlet read for this date places 9:48 a.m. on August 23, 2022, on Patrick Clancy's Surface Pro, as the click through to the Grafton Bridge page — it is Pavao's evidence, not Chiappini's, and it has nothing to do with the day of the killings.
A SECOND CORRECTION. The previous version of this entry suggested that Kyle Carney, listed as unidentified in the case reference, might be a garbling of Sgt. Kyle Pavao. The evidence file has since recorded that they are different people — Carney is a college friend of Patrick Clancy — and the suggestion has been removed.
THE NIGHTSTAND DRAWER CAME BACK, FROM THE OTHER SIDE. On August 3 the defense used an unsearched nightstand drawer to attack the thoroughness of the investigation. On this date the Commonwealth used the same drawer against the defense: Sprague drew from McKelligan that Patrick Clancy found further medication in it while walking the house with Reddington, gave it to Reddington rather than to the police, never said why, and never turned the pills or bottles in. Reddington's answer, on a cross of a few minutes, was that he had called the district attorney's office and offered them for collection — which McKelligan said he did not know. Neither side's account has been tested against the other.
THE STRANGULATION ESTIMATE CAME IN THROUGH AN INVESTIGATOR, NOT THE MEDICAL EXAMINER. Dr. Barbara Olson gave the autopsy evidence the previous day and was not cross-examined. On this date Sprague had McKelligan repeat what Olson told him in interview — that after loss of consciousness it would take several more minutes of constant pressure for a person to die. A defense objection and a sidebar preceded it, no ruling is reported, and the evidence came in through a witness who could not be cross-examined on the underlying medicine.
THE MUSEUM VIDEO CUTS BOTH WAYS. The Commonwealth played sixteen-day-old footage of the family at the Museum of Science; every outlet that describes it describes an engaged mother at an exhibit with her children, one of them carried on her body. NBC Boston notes the footage had not been shown in court before. The Boston Globe's caption and East Idaho News both record the defendant reacting as it played.
THE VISITOR-LOG RULING SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE, AND IT IS THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE DAY ON DR. ZEIZEL. On August 12 the defense used a State Police sergeant to put the theory that Zeizel coached the defendant into saying she heard voices, and had it called speculation with no investigative basis. On August 13 the Commonwealth asked for the courthouse security logs of his visits, arguing potential bias if he testifies. The judge allowed the logs as to Zeizel and refused as to Father Bob. Zeizel testified for the defense on August 19.
WITNESS COUNT. CBS Boston reports that seventy witnesses had testified by the end of this day as the prosecution neared the end of its list. East Idaho News numbers this day's three witnesses 68, 69 and 70, which agrees with that total but overlaps its own August 12 numbering, where Dr. Olson is witness 68. See the witness-numbering entry in the evidence file; the sequence has not been renumbered here.
OUTLET DAY NUMBERING AGREES WITH OURS ON THIS DATE. Boston 25, CBS Boston, East Idaho News, NBC Boston and CT Insider all call August 13 day 13, matching this file's ordinal. CT Insider's live blog attributes Pavao's Surface Pro evidence about Tom Hall to Chiappini in one entry; the attribution is wrong on every other account read.
NAME AND PLACE VARIANTS ON THIS DATE. The singer is Tom T. Hall to the Boston Globe and Tom Hall everywhere else. The restaurant is ThreeV, Three V and 3V. The device is a Surface Pro laptop (CBS Boston, WPRI, East Idaho News), a laptop (Boston Globe, NBC Boston), a computer (Boston 25) and a shared tablet (boston.com), found in the basement in WPRI's opening and in Patrick Clancy's office in the testimony. The defendant's parents are Paula and Mike Musgrove to the Boston Globe and boston.com and Paul and Mike Musgrove to CT Insider. The medical examiner is Barbara Olson to boston.com and Barbara Vidal Olson to East Idaho News. CT Insider dates the suicide-methods visit to August 22, 2022; every other outlet gives August 23.

On the stand

Witnesses 3

Kyle Pavao

Commonwealth

Role: Sergeant, Massachusetts State Police. At the time of the children's deaths he was a trooper in the State Police cybercrime unit working on cellphone and computer extractions and certified in Cellebrite data (Boston 25). East Idaho News describes him as a forensic computer examiner and numbers him Commonwealth witness 68; see the witness-numbering entry in the evidence file.
Direct: Sprague
Cross: Reddington
Time: 09:42

Testimony, as reported:

WHAT HE EXAMINED. An extraction from a Microsoft Surface Pro seized from the Clancy house. Accounts of where it was found differ: WPRI's opening paragraph puts it in the basement, while Pavao's own evidence as reported by the Boston Globe and WPRI places the device in Patrick Clancy's office. boston.com describes it throughout as a shared tablet rather than a laptop.
HOW HE WORKED. He never saw the machine itself — he was given forensic images of it, together with a search warrant listing terms to look for. He could not recall the specific terms, agreeing only that suicide would have been one (East Idaho News, WPRI). The Boston Globe reports that he analyzed the data in October 2025 and prepared a report; East Idaho News records Reddington putting to him that he prepared a further, more detailed report in July 2026.
ON DIRECT. Sprague asked whether his initial review of the extraction showed a visit to a website titled suicide methods on August 23, 2022. He agreed it did (CBS Boston).
THE CHAIN OF CLICKS. He traced the route to that page. At 9:40 a.m. on August 23, 2022 the device visited a Facebook page for a user whose handle partly spelled out the defendant's first name; boston.com gives the handle. Minutes later the user searched Spotify for the country singer Tom Hall and played one of his songs, which boston.com names. A Google search for Hall followed at 9:44 a.m., then his Wikipedia page.
Pavao said the Wikipedia address carried an anchor taking the user straight to the section on Hall's death, and that the reference there to his self-inflicted gunshot wound was itself a link to a Wikipedia page on suicide methods. From that page the user clicked through to a Wikipedia page on the Grafton Bridge in New Zealand, once a well-known suicide site. WPRI records that the Grafton Bridge link sat within the section on jumping as a method.
THE TIMESTAMPS DO NOT AGREE. boston.com puts the click through to the Grafton Bridge page at 9:48 a.m.; East Idaho News puts arrival at the suicide methods page itself at 9:54 a.m., which would place it after the click it is supposed to have produced. On redirect Sprague fixed the Grafton Bridge visit at 9:48 a.m., and Boston 25 records the last activity on the machine that morning at 9:48 a.m. See the aug23-click-times entry in the evidence file.
WHAT HE COULD NOT SAY. Sprague asked whether he could tell how long the suicide methods page had been open. He could not (Boston Globe, WPRI). She also had him confirm, on direct, that he cannot identify who was using the device — only what data was accessed (boston.com, WPRI).
ON CROSS, THE OPENING. Reddington began incredulously, asking whether that was the whole of the testimony and whether a search involving Tom Hall was the reason the witness had been called. The Commonwealth objected and the objection was sustained; see the ruling track.
THE DEVICE WAS PATRICK CLANCY'S. Reddington established that the Surface Pro belonged to the defendant's husband at the time and was found in his office (Boston 25, Boston Globe, WPRI), and, per boston.com, that it was signed into Patrick's Google account before the August 23 activity. Pavao agreed he did not know that Patrick's email address had been used to sign in to his wife's Facebook page that morning (Boston Globe, CT Insider).
THE DEFENSE'S ALTERNATIVE READING OF THE SEQUENCE. Reddington put it to him that the search was for Tom Hall's music rather than for methods of suicide, that the suicide page was reached from the Hall link, and that he does not know it was the defendant who used the machine to search for Hall. Pavao answered that he does not know who was sitting behind the computer (CBS Boston, WPRI, East Idaho News).
HE DID NOT KNOW WHOSE TASTE IN MUSIC IT WAS. He agreed he did not know that Patrick Clancy plays guitar or that he enjoyed Hall's music (Boston 25, Boston Globe, East Idaho News, CT Insider). The Boston Globe notes that Patrick Clancy testified earlier in the trial that he was the one who searched the details of Hall's death after learning he had died by suicide.
NO SEARCHES FOR WAYS TO KILL. Asked directly whether there were any searches on that machine for ways to kill, Pavao said there were not, and that he had not come across anything of the kind. boston.com notes that a search in those terms is something authorities have alleged the defendant made.
WHERE THE DEFENDANT WAS THAT MORNING. Reddington put that she was out of the house, having taken the couple's middle child Dawson, then two, to a doctor to be rechecked for an ear complaint. Pavao said he was not privy to those facts. The reported appointment time varies: boston.com and East Idaho News give 10:15 a.m.; CT Insider, reporting the calendar entries Chiappini read later the same day, gives Dawson at 9:45 a.m. and Callan at 10 a.m. East Idaho News records the calendar entry itself, made on August 14, 2022, as a 10 a.m. vaccination for Callan and a 9:45 a.m. ear check for Dawson.
THE DECEMBER SEARCHES, DRAWN OUT BY THE DEFENSE. At Reddington's prompting Pavao confirmed further searches on the same device in December 2022 about psychiatric care and medication: what to do when a psychiatrist overprescribes; whether bipolar disorder can be temporary; whether benzodiazepines can reveal bipolar disorder; how long detox programs run; what dialectical behavior therapy is; what mania is; ketamine for benzodiazepine withdrawal; and ketamine therapy. Boston 25 dates this cluster to December 5, 2022 and includes benzodiazepine withdrawal in it; boston.com and East Idaho News give the list without a date. The Boston Globe records him agreeing that in December 2022 and January 2023 the machine was used for queries about bipolar disorder, mania and medications.
ON REDIRECT. Sprague established that everything he had described came from August 23, 2022, put the Grafton Bridge visit at 9:48 a.m., and drew out that the drive from the Duxbury house to the doctor's office in Kingston takes about four minutes. boston.com records Reddington answering that getting a young child out of the house is a much longer business than the drive. Boston 25 reports the two sides disputing whether the appointment was at 10 or 10:15.
HE STEPPED DOWN at about 10:25 (Boston Globe). CBS Boston puts it just before 10:30, after a redirect and a recross-examination.

Timothy Chiappini

Commonwealth

Role: Massachusetts State Police cellphone forensics examiner. In 2023 he was assigned to the State Police detective unit attached to the Plymouth County District Attorney's office and has specialized training in cellphone forensics; at the time of trial he was unit commander of the critical incident technical investigations team (CBS Boston, NBC Boston). East Idaho News numbers him Commonwealth witness 69. His rank is given as sergeant by East Idaho News, NBC Boston and WPRI, as a former detective by CBS Boston, and as a trooper by the Boston Globe and CT Insider.
Direct: Sprague
Cross: Reddington
Time: 10:27

Testimony, as reported:

WHAT HE EXAMINED. He was asked to carry out a forensic analysis of the defendant's iPhone and produced a report setting out dates and times, who was called or texted, what the phone was used for, what was downloaded and what was searched (CT Insider).
A SECOND EXTRACTION THAT DID NOT MATCH HIS. On cross he agreed his own extraction, an Advanced Logical extraction, was carried out on January 30. East Idaho News records Reddington putting to him that a Trooper Rabbit also performed a Full File Extraction of the same phone and that the two did not match. East Idaho News does not record his answer, and no other outlet read carries the exchange. The case reference lists a Lt. Joseph Rabbitt among the people it cannot place on a confirmed date. See the two-extractions entry in the evidence file.
SCALE. The examination produced roughly 180,000 pages, including more than 700 pages of text messages; East Idaho News gives 768 pages of texts (also NBC Boston).
THE LONG NOTE. He read out a long note written in the phone's notes application. Its date is not settled: Boston 25, CBS Boston and boston.com date it October 25, 2022; AP and WPRI place it in October 2022; East Idaho News says it was created in December 2022 and modified in January 2023; CT Insider says it was last updated December 26, 2022; CNN describes a note in these terms as last modified in early November 2022. See the phone-note-dates entry in the evidence file.
WHAT THE NOTE SAID, IN SUMMARY. She was sad and depressed because she could not parent her third child as she had parented her first, and wanted to treat all of her babies the way she had treated Cora while knowing that was not a feasible possibility. She was sad that she had stopped breastfeeding and felt less connected to Callan. She thought she somewhat resented her older children because they prevented her from treating Callan as she had her first, and knew that was not fair to them.
She wrote that she had been so depressed one evening when Cora and Dawson came home from school that it carried over to them and made for a rough evening, and that she wanted to feel love and connection with all three children.
She described an internal conflict about family size: she had wanted a large family her whole life, still did not want Callan to be the last, and had a great deal to work out before another. Callan had been very much planned and wanted, and she wanted to give him all the love he deserved; being a third child was not unique to him and she thought he would be all right, but it was hard for her, and she hated that he had to put himself to sleep. She was sad about no longer breastfeeding but believed, deep down, that these were the right choices.
Further passages, as reported by boston.com, East Idaho News and CNN: the stress of pumping enough milk and of getting enough rest with three children; feeling slightly traumatized by sleep training, a feeling she said was really only present when she was severely sleep deprived and paranoid, while maintaining that what they did was right; needing to be able to leave Callan with someone and to be present for her other children; wanting a fourth child but needing a really good therapist first; having had some depression after Cora was born, which getting up and out with her had helped; and being on the fence about starting a new medication for anxiety and depression.
She wrote that she wanted to feel happy — and that it would be nice to feel authentically happy rather than fake — and that she wanted to be able to relax, take care of her children, and after they were in bed relax deeply with her husband and sleep.
THE PASSAGE ABOUT HER CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT. She wrote that she was terrified of something happening to her children or of doing something wrong that would affect their development; that her generation is inundated with information about every aspect of parenting and everything that can go wrong; and that for five years she had filled her mind with parenting and it was unhealthy (AP, WPRI, boston.com).
THE AFFIRMATIONS AND GRATITUDES. The same notes recorded affirmations — that she is strong, that she is brave, that she will get over this, that she will overcome postpartum anxiety and depression, that she is a great mom, that she loves her kids — and a list of things she was grateful for, including her husband for picking up the slack while she had been feeling so low (Boston Globe, boston.com, WPRI, CNN).
A SECOND NOTE, REPORTED ONLY BY CNN. CNN reports a further note briefly displayed in court on this date, created in late December 2022 and last modified on January 23, 2023 — the day before the killings — in which she wrote that prescription medication had stolen her motherhood and her life and had taken her from her own body; that she had been the healthiest and happiest of mothers, working out every morning, meditating and looking after herself so as to be at her best for her children, until medication took that away; that it began with a touch of postpartum anxiety; that she asked a psychiatrist for Zoloft; that after increasing the dose on instruction she could not sleep at all; that she was told to stop the Zoloft and to use Ativan and Benadryl for sleep; and that this was the point at which everything started going downhill and she became dependent on medication to fall asleep. No live blog read for this date carries this note. This file's August 17 entry records a note in these terms displayed by Reddington during his cross-examination of Ian Whiffin.
THE NOTES WERE NOT CONTESTED. CNN reports that Reddington did not challenge the authenticity of the notes or question who wrote them on cross-examination.
THE MODIFIED PHOTOGRAPHS. Photographs of the children on the phone were accessed and modified during the evening hours of January 23, 2023, the night before the killings. He testified that modification could mean several things, including cropping or reducing a live photo to a single still. East Idaho News adds an image of the baby captured on November 2, 2022 that had been created and modified.
THE SOCIOPATH SEARCH. On January 20, 2023 the phone was used to search whether a sociopath can be treated. Boston 25 timestamps it at 8:28 p.m.; boston.com places it in the evening; CNN notes the prosecution singled it out as having been made four days before the children were killed.
McLEAN AND A MEDICAL LEAVE FORM. On December 21, 2022 the phone was used to text another woman about McLean Hospital, the psychiatric facility where she was treated in early January, and around the same time a request for medical leave form was downloaded to it (Boston Globe, CT Insider). NBC Boston renders the McLean message as being about a general mental health program there.
THE JANUARY 24 TIMELINE. East Idaho News records a timeline report covering 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on January 24, 2023: an Apple Maps search for 3V at 4:13 p.m.; a search for children's MiraLAX at 4:46 p.m.; a visit to the CVS website at 4:47 p.m.; an outgoing call to a CVS store at 4:48 p.m.; an outgoing call to Patrick at 4:53 p.m.; texts to Patrick about him picking up takeout, his reply, her asking him to check the menu, and his asking whether Callan had just woken; her reply at 5:06 p.m. that it was a short nap; a 3V menu search and a Pedialyte search at 5:06 p.m. with more than one tab open; calls of eleven seconds at 5:09 p.m. and forty-seven seconds at 5:10 p.m.; a Pedialax search at 5:13 p.m.; a message to Patrick about Pedialax at 5:15 p.m.; a call from Patrick at 5:33 p.m.; and a fourteen-second call from her to Patrick at 5:34 p.m.
THE SAME TIMELINE, DIFFERENTLY TIMED. Boston 25 reports the 3V menu search at 4:43 p.m., the children's MiraLAX search at 4:46 p.m., texts to Patrick from 4:53 p.m. about takeout and the menu and Callan's short nap, an unanswered call from Patrick's phone at 5:33 p.m. and a fourteen-second call from her at 5:35 p.m. The Boston Globe gives 4:13 p.m. for the Apple Maps search for ThreeV, a CVS website search around the time of the laxative search and a call to the store late in the afternoon, texts shortly after 4:50 p.m. about takeout and the menu and Callan's nap, and the laxative and menu searches shortly after 5 p.m. with the witness suggesting more than one tab was open, and a text about the laxative at 5:15 p.m. See the jan24-times entry in the evidence file.
WHY THE MAPS SEARCH MATTERED TO THE COMMONWEALTH. The Boston Globe reports the prosecution's allegation that she deliberately sent her husband to ThreeV because it was far enough from the house to give her time; WPRI reports Chiappini testifying that the search would have supplied the length of the trip there and back. NBC Boston places the restaurant in Plymouth.
THE CALLS AFTER 5 P.M. CBS Boston reports two calls from Patrick that she did not answer and one from her lasting about fourteen seconds. CT Insider notes that Sprague entered the phone data into evidence without giving a time for the last unanswered call.
ON CROSS, THE CALENDAR. He agreed he had also examined calendar entries: medical appointments for the children in August 2022, and an entry made on August 14, 2022 for August 23, 2022 — a 10 a.m. vaccination for Callan and a 9:45 a.m. ear check for Dawson. He said Patrick Clancy's email address had been used to sign in to his wife's Facebook account; the Boston Globe reports him spelling the address out but saying he could not confirm it belonged to Patrick, and East Idaho News records him saying he could not confirm that Patrick signed in.
THE SEARCHES HE DID NOT FIND. Reddington asked whether he had come across searches for where the carotid artery is, for how to slit one's throat to die, and for whether the airbags on a Kia Sorento can be turned off. Chiappini did not recall any of them and said he was not aware she drove a Kia Sorento. The outlets differ on what happened next: CBS Boston and WPRI report Reddington telling him the searches were made and Chiappini simply not having located them; the Boston Globe reports Chiappini reading the searches out once Reddington showed him the records; CT Insider reports Reddington stating the records show the phone made them. East Idaho News records Chiappini saying he could not confirm the searches came from the defendant's phone. A sidebar followed.
PAGE AFTER PAGE OF MENTAL-ILLNESS AND MEDICATION SEARCHES. He agreed he recalled page after page of Google searches about particular medications. Reddington then took him through the record. East Idaho News's list, with the dates Reddington put to him: schizophrenia on January 15; psychosis, as both a keyword and a Google search, on January 20; Seroquel; suicide and sleep on December 29; trazodone and Zoloft on December 31; benzodiazepine withdrawals on January 20; Wellbutrin on January 16; McLean Hospital on December 29; insomnia on December 31; ketamine on January 20; Lamictal on January 16; postpartum and postpartum depression in January 2023; benzodiazepines from December 6 through January 20; bipolar disorder on December 29; Ativan and amitriptyline on January 20; intrusive thoughts on January 23; and hallucinations.
THE SAME MATERIAL, DATED DIFFERENTLY ELSEWHERE. boston.com reports the schizophrenia search on January 19, with a psychosis search the following day and a separate search about feeling unable to hold a conversation on Seroquel; the Boston Globe reports Reddington asking about the term intrusive on January 20 and headlines the hallucinations search as five days before the killings, which is January 19; CT Insider reports bipolar searches on December 29, 2022 and January 13, 2023 and hallucinations on January 19; NBC Boston adds Klonopin under its generic name to the list. See the search-date-variants entry in the evidence file.
WHAT ELSE WAS ON THE PHONE. Reddington also had him read searches about the children: a child with a bloated belly and lethargy, children's Tylenol, organic baby food and infant formula, MiraLAX for kids, child urinary tract infection symptoms, best children's movies, a free unicorn coloring picture, a Paw Patrol query, a fluffy slime recipe, premade goody bags in December 2022, the Cape Codder Resort and, per CNN, trampolines. The Boston Globe, CT Insider, NBC Boston and East Idaho News all carry versions of the list; boston.com summarizes it as suggesting she was still trying to focus on parenting.
THE TEXTS WITH HER MOTHER. Reddington had him read a run of January 2023 messages with a contact saved as Mommy, which Chiappini identified as the defendant's mother. East Idaho News's transcription: on January 3 at 8:35 a.m. she wrote that she was all right but anxious about meeting the whole psychiatry team, and that she was worried they would not send her home soon — she was at McLean Hospital at the time; on January 8 her mother asked whether she had slept well and she said she actually had; on January 10 her mother asked how she was and she said she was at the gym with the children and, asked whether she felt any better during the day, that so far it was a little bit; on January 12 her mother asked whether she was still feeling a little better and she said a little bit; on January 14 she wrote that she was about the same, hanging in there and waiting for the day she woke up feeling like herself; on January 16 that an outing had been fun and that Cora and Dawson had enjoyed it; and on January 18, asked whether she was starting a new medication, that she had two nights earlier.
THE JANUARY 24 TEXTS WITH PATRICK. East Idaho News's transcription: a photograph of the children with a snowman sent at 8:19 a.m.; at 8:36 a.m. she liked an image; at 8:42 a.m. he asked how it was going; she said good, and that one child's urine looked good so there was nothing wrong with her kidneys; he answered with relief and told her she was a good mother; she asked whether he wanted takeout from 3V because she had not cooked; he agreed with a smiley emoji. CT Insider and AP describe the exchange as including emoji, AP recording her reply as a heart and a smile. The Boston Globe's 12:38 p.m. entry has Chiappini saying he did not recall a reply from her husband calling her a good mom, and its 12:55 p.m. entry reports the good mama text; East Idaho News likewise records him not recalling that text when Reddington put it to him.
PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE HOUSE. Asked whether he was aware that photographs of the children hung in virtually every room of the family home, he said he was not; he had not been part of the search of the house (Boston Globe, East Idaho News, NBC Boston).
ON REDIRECT. The Commonwealth established that the January 19, 2023 search was specifically for psychosis symptoms; East Idaho News records Reddington then getting him to agree it could have been a person looking up symptoms and that it was a keyword search. Asked whether a January 19 text between the defendant and her mother indicated a visit, Chiappini said that was an inference. He agreed that on January 22, a Sunday, her mother wrote that she had enjoyed seeing everyone and that it was nice to see her doing better.
A RECROSS AND A SIDEBAR. East Idaho News records a further passage in which the prosecutor identified texts between the defendant and Patrick and between the defendant and her mother-in-law, followed by a sidebar. The outlet labels the prosecutor's questioning as both redirect and recross; the sequence of examinations at the end of his evidence is not clearly reported.
HE STEPPED DOWN after the 12:57 p.m. sidebar and the jury went to lunch at about 1:01 p.m. (Boston Globe, Boston 25). CBS Boston puts the end of his evidence just after 1 p.m.

Joshua McKelligan

Commonwealth

Role: Trooper, Massachusetts State Police; case officer for the Clancy investigation. CBS Boston describes him as the lead investigator for the State Police homicide unit on the case. The Boston Globe gives his rank as sergeant and describes him as the lead investigator, a Canton native who graduated from the State Police Academy in 2014, citing the Journal Sun. East Idaho News numbers him Commonwealth witness 70.
Direct: Sprague
Cross: Reddington
Time: 14:14

Testimony, as reported:

THE ROLE. He explained that a case officer organizes and coordinates the evidence collected by the investigating team (NBC Boston, CT Insider). He learned he would be case officer at the Duxbury police station and went to the house to see what the scene looked like while other investigators worked (NBC Boston, boston.com).
WHEN HE ARRIVED. Boston 25 reports him first hearing of the incident at 6:45 p.m. on January 24, 2023 and reaching the house between 3 and 4 a.m.; East Idaho News gives the same 3 to 4 a.m. window on January 25. The Boston Globe describes him responding in the predawn hours.
THE BEDROOM VIDEO. He recorded a walkthrough video of the second-floor master bedroom, which was played for the jury and which he narrated. East Idaho News catalogs what it shows: blood droplets on the floor near the door and more inside the room, a pool of blood around the bed, blood on a nightstand and at its base, blood smears on the windowsill and on the window curtain, a chef's knife on the nightstand and a phone on the bed. Boston 25 reports the courtroom completely silent while it played and notes the video was shot hours after the killings. The Boston Globe records him saying he remembered blood on the floor.
NO BLOOD ON THE WALLS. Sprague drew out that he saw no blood on the walls and that the video shows none; boston.com describes her pointing out the lack of significant blood spatter there. He agreed (East Idaho News, CT Insider).
THE EXTERIOR. Photographs of the outside of the house were displayed showing red-brown staining on the shingles between the second-floor and first-floor windows and on the window ledge (Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News). Boston 25 records him placing his observation of them in the early hours of January 25.
WHAT HE KNEW ABOUT THE MEDICATIONS, AND WHAT HE DID NOT. He testified that Patrick Clancy told investigators before the search that his wife was taking psychiatric medications, and that he included that in the search warrant for the house (CBS Boston, boston.com). He did not know at the time that she had crushed pills and taken them as part of her suicide attempt.
THE BAG OF PILLS FROM THE CAR. Patrick Clancy later handed investigators a bag of his wife's medications that he had been keeping in his car. boston.com notes Patrick's earlier evidence that the bag held discontinued prescriptions he had been told to discard.
THE NIGHTSTAND DRAWER. Patrick also told investigators that he had found further medication in a nightstand drawer while walking through the house with Reddington, and had given it to Reddington rather than to the police. Sprague asked whether he had said why. McKelligan said he had not, and agreed that neither those pills nor the bottles were ever turned in to the State Police. See the nightstand thread in the evidence file.
THE MEDICAL EXAMINER'S ESTIMATE. Sprague asked about his interview with Dr. Barbara Olson, the medical examiner who autopsied the two older children. A defense objection interrupted the questioning and drew a brief sidebar. He then testified that Olson told him that after a person loses consciousness it would take several more minutes of strangulation for them to die. boston.com adds that Sprague had him confirm Olson said constant pressure would be needed to kill someone by strangulation even after they were unconscious. Boston 25's account of the same passage is that a doctor from the medical examiner's office told him it would take several more minutes.
THE MUSEUM VIDEO. Surveillance footage of the family at the Museum of Science in Boston on January 8, 2023 was played; Boston 25 reports that McKelligan had collected the footage and NBC Boston that it had not been shown in court before. He pointed the family out on the paused screen. Descriptions of what it shows differ: boston.com has the defendant engaging hands-on with all three children at an exhibit; East Idaho News has her carrying Callan in a body carrier and talking to the children; NBC Boston has Cora playing with an exhibit while the rest of the family looks on; WPRI has Dawson at the exhibit with the defendant, holding Callan, and Patrick supervising; the Boston Globe simply has the family looking at an exhibit. The Boston Globe's photo caption and East Idaho News both record the defendant reacting as the footage played.
THE PILLS HE DID NOT KNOW ABOUT. On a cross of a few minutes Reddington asked whether he knew that the first thing Reddington did after taking the medication was to contact the Plymouth County District Attorney's office and tell them they could come and collect it for review and processing. East Idaho News records McKelligan answering that he did not know what Reddington had said; boston.com and the Boston Globe report him saying he was not aware of the contact. Reddington had no further questions.
HE STEPPED DOWN and the lawyers were called back to sidebar before the jury was sent home (Boston Globe). CBS Boston puts his whole evidence at about twenty minutes.

From the bench

Rulings 2

10:04OBJECTION SUSTAINED AT THE OPENING OF PAVAO'S CROSS-EXAMINATION. Reddington began incredulously, asking whether that was the whole of the witness's testimony and whether a search involving Tom Hall was the reason he had been called that day. ARGUED: the Commonwealth objected; no outlet read records the stated ground. RULED: Judge Sullivan sustained the objection, and boston.com reports Reddington apologizing for the question. East Idaho News records the objection without the ruling; the Boston Globe and WPRI carry the question without either.
14:40COMMONWEALTH ALLOWED THE COURTHOUSE SECURITY LOGS AS TO DR. ZEIZEL, REFUSED AS TO THE PRIEST. ARGUED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH: Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said that she and Sprague had noticed people other than counsel and nursing staff meeting the defendant in the back room at the courthouse, said explicitly that she was not suggesting anything improper, and argued the log would matter if any of those visitors ended up testifying. She named Dr. Paul Zeizel, a forensic psychologist working with the defense, and an unnamed priest, and said the defense witness list had been evolving and had not been furnished. NBC Boston reports the prosecutor adding that the doctor's presence in the back room could pose a potential bias. ARGUED FOR THE DEFENSE: the Boston Globe reports Reddington saying he did not object to the government learning how many times Zeizel had visited. He identified the priest as Father Bob, a Roman Catholic priest who baptized the Clancy children and has supported the defendant since. East Idaho News records the exchange turning sharp — Reddington referring back to the previous day's proceedings, the judge telling him to stay focused, Reddington saying he was, and telling the Commonwealth that if it wanted the witness list it could walk over to the defense table and pick it up. RULED: Judge Sullivan allowed the Commonwealth the security logs as to Dr. Zeizel only and declined as to the priest. boston.com reports him saying he was struggling with that part of the request; NBC Boston describes him as incredulous at the idea of disclosing the priest's name, which Reddington then supplied anyway. The Boston Globe frames the ruling as allowing prosecutors to obtain information about Zeizel's visits with the defendant in a back room at the courthouse.

In sequence

Procedural 22

09:20The parties entered without the jury. The Boston Globe puts it at about 9:20 and East Idaho News at 9:25, with Judge Sullivan greeting the defendant and counsel and the defendant returning the greeting. East Idaho News notes that after the previous day's breakdowns she appeared composed and attentive.
09:25Judge Sullivan called the lawyers to sidebar before the jury came in.
09:40Jury in. The Boston Globe reports Judge Sullivan running through his standard list of questions to confirm the jurors had seen no coverage of the case and thanking them for their patience.
09:41SCHEDULING FROM THE BENCH. The judge told the jury the day might end early, that a number of witnesses were expected, and that there would be no court on Friday. NBC Boston records him joking that they did not have to come in Friday, that they could if they wanted and that his suggestion would be not to, which drew laughter, and telling them testimony would resume Monday at 9 a.m. with mostly full days.
09:42Kyle Pavao called as the Commonwealth's first witness of the day. East Idaho News timestamps it 9:42, the Boston Globe 9:43, and Boston 25 and CBS Boston 9:45.
10:04Reddington began the cross-examination of Pavao; CBS Boston puts it just after 10 a.m.
10:16Sidebar during or at the close of Pavao's cross-examination. East Idaho News records Judge Sullivan calling it at 10:16; the Boston Globe reports a sidebar conference beginning at about 10:21 after Reddington said he was done questioning the witness.
10:23Redirect examination of Pavao by Sprague; CBS Boston records a recross after it.
10:27Timothy Chiappini called. Boston 25 timestamps it 10:26, East Idaho News 10:27 and the Boston Globe 10:28.
11:16Before the morning break the Commonwealth admitted reports from the defendant's cellphone covering her calendar and the January 2023 text messages with her mother (East Idaho News). NBC Boston puts the end of the direct examination at about 11:18.
11:17Morning break. Boston 25 timestamps it 11:17; the Boston Globe reports the jury sent out at around 11:15 and the parties returning shortly after 11:50.
11:56Court back in session; Reddington began his cross-examination of Chiappini.
12:06Sidebar after the questions about searches for the carotid artery, for how to slit one's throat to die and for turning off a Kia Sorento's airbags. East Idaho News timestamps it 12:06; the Boston Globe reports the lawyers coming to sidebar after the same passage at about 12:12.
12:57Sidebar after the Commonwealth objected to a defense request to admit further phone data as an exhibit (Boston Globe). East Idaho News records a sidebar at the end of the prosecutor's final questioning of Chiappini about texts with Patrick Clancy and with the defendant's mother-in-law. NBC Boston reports Reddington raising a separate piece of evidentiary housekeeping about records from South Shore Hospital before the recess. No ruling on the phone-data request is reported.
13:01Chiappini stepped down after the sidebar and the jury was sent out for lunch, to return at 2 p.m. Boston 25 timestamps it 1:01 and the Boston Globe 1:02.
14:13Court back in session after lunch (East Idaho News).
14:14Joshua McKelligan called as the last witness of the day. East Idaho News and Boston 25 timestamp it 2:14 and the Boston Globe 2:15. NBC Boston notes he was the last name on the prosecution's list for the day.
14:27Defense objection and brief sidebar during Sprague's questions about McKelligan's interview with the medical examiner. East Idaho News records the objection and NBC Boston the sidebar that followed it. No outlet read reports how it was ruled; the question was put again and answered, so no ruling is recorded in the ruling track.
14:31The lawyers were called to a sidebar after the Museum of Science footage had played (Boston Globe).
14:35McKelligan stepped down and the lawyers came back to a sidebar before the jury was sent home (Boston Globe).
14:37Jury excused for the day and told to return Monday at 9 a.m. Boston 25 timestamps it 2:36, East Idaho News 2:37 and the Boston Globe 2:38. Judge Sullivan reminded the jurors not to discuss the case with anyone over the weekend and to keep an open mind as the evidence continues; NBC Boston describes a longer reminder than usual not to research the case, and CBS Boston reports him telling them to take the next couple of days and rest up after a long couple of weeks.
14:53Court in recess until Monday at 9 a.m., with no proceedings Friday (East Idaho News). Boston 25's closing dispatch is timestamped 2:53 p.m. and boston.com's account of the visitor-log argument is stamped 3:15 p.m.

In evidence

Exhibits 12

Forensic images and extraction data from a Microsoft Surface Pro seized from the Clancy house, with Pavao's October 2025 report and, per East Idaho News, a further report prepared in July 2026. No exhibit number reported.
Browsing records for August 23, 2022 showing the Facebook visit, the Spotify search and song, the Google search for Tom Hall, his Wikipedia page, the Wikipedia page on suicide methods and the Grafton Bridge page. Displayed on screen; the Boston Globe's pool caption shows Reddington and Pavao examining internet search records together.
Chiappini's forensic report on the defendant's iPhone — roughly 180,000 pages, including more than 700 pages of text messages.
Reports drawn from the cellphone covering the defendant's calendar and her January 2023 text messages with her mother, admitted at about 11:16 before the morning break.
A timeline report of phone activity between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on January 24, 2023.
Notes extracted from the phone, read aloud in court, including the long note about parenting, the affirmations and gratitudes, and — per CNN — a note last modified on January 23, 2023 about prescription medication.
Reddington's compilation of the January 24, 2023 text messages between the defendant and Patrick Clancy, read into the record and submitted as an exhibit (NBC Boston).
A further defense request to admit more phone data as an exhibit, objected to by the Commonwealth at about 12:57; no ruling reported.
Crime-scene walkthrough video of the second-floor master bedroom, recorded and narrated by McKelligan.
Photographs of the exterior of the house showing red-brown staining on the shingles below the master bedroom window.
Surveillance video of the Clancy family at the Museum of Science in Boston, January 8, 2023.
No outlet read for this date gives an exhibit number for anything admitted.

As reported

Account

Three State Police witnesses on the digital record, and the day the defense turned the Commonwealth's forensic case back on itself. Court opened at about 09:25 with Judge Sullivan greeting the defendant and counsel and calling the lawyers to sidebar; East Idaho News noted that after the previous day's breakdowns she appeared composed and attentive. The jury came in at about 09:40, and the judge told them the day might end early and there would be no session Friday, joking that they did not have to come in and that his suggestion would be not to. Sgt. Kyle Pavao of the State Police cybercrime unit, East Idaho News's witness 68, took the stand at about 09:42 to describe an extraction from a Microsoft Surface Pro seized from the Clancy house. On direct, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague had him confirm a visit to a website on suicide methods on August 23, 2022, and walk the jury through how the machine got there: a Facebook page whose handle partly spelled out the defendant's first name at 9:40 a.m., a Spotify search for the country singer Tom Hall and one of his songs, a Google search for Hall at 9:44 a.m., his Wikipedia page opened at an anchor pointing to the section on his death, a link from the reference to his self-inflicted gunshot wound through to a Wikipedia page on suicide methods, and from there a click to a page on the Grafton Bridge in New Zealand, a jumping site. Pavao could not say how long the page had been open and told Sprague he could not say who was using the machine. Reddington's cross took that apart. He opened by asking incredulously whether that was the whole of the testimony and whether a search about Tom Hall was why the witness had been called; the Commonwealth objected, Judge Sullivan sustained it, and Reddington apologized. He then established that the device belonged to Patrick Clancy and was found in his office, that it had been signed into Patrick's Google account, that Patrick's email address had been used to sign in to his wife's Facebook page, that Patrick played guitar and was a fan of Hall's music — the Globe noting Patrick's own earlier testimony that he was the one who looked up how Hall died — and that the defendant was out of the house that morning taking their middle child to a doctor. Asked whether the machine held any search for ways to kill, a search boston.com notes authorities have alleged she made, Pavao said there were none. Reddington then had him confirm a cluster of December 2022 searches on the same device about psychiatric care: what to do when a psychiatrist overprescribes, whether bipolar disorder can be temporary, whether benzodiazepines can reveal bipolar disorder, how long detox programs run, what dialectical behavior therapy is, what mania is, ketamine for benzodiazepine withdrawal, and ketamine therapy. On redirect Sprague fixed everything to August 23, 2022, put the Grafton Bridge visit at 9:48 a.m., and established that the drive from the house to the doctor's office in Kingston takes about four minutes; Reddington answered that getting a small child out of the house takes longer than the drive. Pavao stepped down at about 10:25. Sgt. Timothy Chiappini, witness 69, followed at about 10:27 on the extraction of the defendant's iPhone. He read a long note from the phone in which she wrote that she was sad and depressed because she could not parent her third child as she had her first, that she was sad she had stopped breastfeeding and felt less connected to Callan, that she thought she resented her older children for standing between her and that kind of attention to the baby and knew it was not fair to them, that she was terrified of doing something wrong that would affect her children's development, and that she wanted to feel happy — authentically happy rather than fake. The same notes carried affirmations and gratitudes. He testified to a search on January 20, 2023 asking whether a sociopath can be treated, to a December 21, 2022 text about McLean Hospital and a medical leave form downloaded around the same time, to photographs of the children accessed and modified on the evening of January 23, and to a minute-by-minute timeline of the phone between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on January 24 — an Apple Maps search for the ThreeV restaurant, a children's laxative search, the CVS website and a call to the store, texts to Patrick about takeout and about Callan's short nap, a menu search and a Pedialyte search with more than one tab open, two short calls, a further laxative search and text, an unanswered call from Patrick and a fourteen-second call back from her. Reddington's cross ran from about 11:56 to about 12:57 and was the substance of the day. He established that the examination produced roughly 180,000 pages including more than 700 pages of texts; that his was an Advanced Logical extraction done on January 30 and that a full file extraction by another trooper did not match it; that Chiappini did not recall searches for where the carotid artery is, for how to slit one's throat to die, or for whether the airbags on a Kia Sorento can be turned off, and could not confirm the searches came from her phone at all. He then took the witness through page after page of searches about schizophrenia, psychosis, hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, postpartum depression, insomnia, sleep, suicide, bipolar disorder and a long list of the medications she had been prescribed, alongside searches about children's illnesses, foods, movies and activities; and through January 2023 texts with her mother in which she wrote that she was anxious about meeting the psychiatry team, worried they would not send her home soon, and waiting for the day she woke up feeling like herself. On the day of the killings the same phone sent a photograph of the children with a snowman at 8:19 a.m. and a message that one child's urine was fine, and Patrick replied that she was a good mother. On redirect the Commonwealth fixed the psychosis search to January 19 and put in her mother's January 22 message that it was nice to see her doing better. Trooper Joshua McKelligan, the case officer and witness 70, testified for about twenty minutes after lunch. His walkthrough video of the second-floor bedroom was played — blood droplets by the door, a pool by the bed, blood on the nightstand, smears on the windowsill and curtain, a chef's knife and a phone — and Sprague drew out that there was none on the walls. Exterior photographs showed staining on the shingles below the window. He said he knew from Patrick before the search that she was taking psychiatric medications and put it in the warrant, but did not know she had crushed and swallowed pills; that Patrick handed over a bag of her medications from his car; and that Patrick told investigators he had found further medication in a nightstand drawer while walking the house with Reddington and had given it to Reddington rather than the police, without saying why, and that it was never turned in. Over a defense objection and a brief sidebar, McKelligan said Dr. Barbara Olson had told him that after a person loses consciousness it would take several more minutes of strangulation for them to die. Surveillance footage of the family at the Museum of Science on January 8, 2023 was played for the first time in the trial. On a cross of a few minutes Reddington asked whether he knew that the first thing Reddington did with the pills was call the district attorney's office and offer them for collection; McKelligan did not. The jury was excused at about 14:37 until Monday at 9 a.m. With the jury gone, Buckingham asked for the courthouse security logs of who has been meeting the defendant in the back room, naming Dr. Paul Zeizel and a priest; Judge Sullivan allowed the logs as to Zeizel only and declined as to the priest, whom Reddington identified as Father Bob, the Roman Catholic priest who baptized the Clancy children. Court recessed at about 14:53. CBS Boston reported that seventy witnesses had testified by the end of the day.

Index terms

Topics 61

digital forensics
Cellebrite
Surface Pro
cellphone extraction
web searches
browsing history
Facebook
Spotify
Wikipedia
suicide methods
Grafton Bridge
Tom Hall
ways to kill
device attribution
search warrant
journal entries
phone notes
affirmations
over-medication
Zoloft
Ativan
Seroquel
trazodone
Wellbutrin
Lamictal
ketamine
benzodiazepine withdrawal
amitriptyline
insomnia
sleep deprivation
postpartum depression
postpartum psychosis
psychosis symptoms
hallucinations
intrusive thoughts
schizophrenia
bipolar disorder
McLean Hospital
medical leave
text messages
January 24 events
ThreeV
MiraLAX
Pedialax
CVS
Apple Maps
crime scene
blood spatter
nightstand
chain of custody
prescription bottles
Museum of Science
surveillance video
strangulation
medical examiner interview
case officer
sidebar
objection
security logs
Dr. Paul Zeizel
clergy

Reporting relied on

Sources 11

Sources: globe-day-13, b25-day13, cbs-day-13, boston-0813, eastidaho-day-13, nbc-day-13, cnn-day-13, wpri-day-13, ctinsider-day-13, ap-day-13, eastidaho-day-13-insider

Identifiers are the archive's own source keys; each links to the report it names where the archive gives a web address.

Mirror of the public trial reference at clancytrial.org, reproduced with its cautions intact. Nothing here is a conclusion about guilt or responsibility; the defendant is presumed innocent. Corrections: [email protected].