The Lindsay Clancy trial has reached one of its most important moments. The witnesses are finished, both sides have made their closing arguments, and now twelve jurors are left to decide what happened inside that home on January 24, 2023, and whether Lindsay was criminally responsible when Cora, Dawson, and Callan died. In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m taking you through the final stretch of testimony without making you sit through every minute of psychiatrists and psychologists arguing over diagnoses. Because, y’all, even I recorded that version, and decided I wasn’t going to do that to you. Instead, I want to focus on what actually matters. The Commonwealth brought in its final three experts, and while none of them suggested Lindsay was well or that her suicide attempt wasn’t real, they disagreed with the defense over two critical issues: whether she was psychotic and whether she still had the capacity to understand that what she was doing was wrong. We’ll also talk about the moment religion entered the testimony and the defense asked for a mistrial, what happened during closing arguments, and the five possible decisions the jury can reach for each child, including what a finding of lack of criminal responsibility would actually mean. As a forensic nurse death investigator, I keep coming back to something I learned working scenes: evidence doesn’t narrate itself. Phones, medications, searches, timelines, medical records and witness statements give us pieces. It’s investigators, experts, attorneys, and ultimately jurors, who have to determine what those pieces mean. And that is exactly where this case now sits. The jury doesn’t have to decide whether Lindsay suffered. Every expert agreed that she did. Their job is to determine whether the Commonwealth proved criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. And while we talk about mental illness, diagnoses, criminal responsibility and everything surrounding this trial, I don’t want us to lose sight of the reason that courtroom exists in the first place: Cora, Dawson, and Callan. I’ll continue following the case and bring you an update when something moves. Content Note: This episode discusses the deaths of children, strangulation, suicide, self-harm, and serious mental illness. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 00:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I’m your host, Julie Mattson. 00:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine-tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner. 00:24 Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey, guys, it’s Julie with Pushing Up Lilies. I wanted to tell y’all that I actually went to the North Texas Overdose Awareness Day last night. 00:41 I love that people were getting together and discussing, like, their history of abuse and recovery, and it was just heartwarming to hear their stories. 00:56 And there were a lot of recovery facilities there to provide support. 01:02 And I had a couple of stickers made for the event, and these are gonna be available on my website, but this one is like a Narcan sticker, and this one is overdose awareness, and those are gonna be available on the website. 01:16 I have a ton of cute stickers, y’all. I’m super excited because I designed them all, and so most of them have our website on them. I only have one that have a QR code, but they’re just fun. 01:30 They’re fun. And then also, I don’t know if y’all have seen the tumblers. I’ve got so much stuff on my desk here. The tumblers. So, these super cute Pushing Up Lilies tumblers. 01:41 I believe they’re 16 ounce and lots of fun. Those are also available. 01:47 Now, these are in my store at the Mercantile in Crumb, but they’re also gonna be available at the Murder Mystery Dinner, which again is October 10th at Studio 141 in Crumb, catered by Our Blended Table, my friend Tiana. 02:05 And it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be exciting. It’s put on by murdermysterytexas.com. So, I’m looking forward to the actors being there. Very interactive, great meal. 02:18 You’ll get to visit with Jan Bonham. Again, she’s the mother of Kelly Ann Cox, who is the UNT student that was abducted back in 1997 and found murdered in the Houston area. 02:29 So, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s gonna be a fun night, and we’ll get to talk with Jan, and she has been gracious enough to come down from Houston to be my guest. 02:41 And looking forward to that and looking forward to meeting her. Also, I will be at the Day of the Dead Festival, October 24th, as a vendor, and all my merch will be there. 02:52 I will have the comic books. I’ll have all the stickers. I’ll have the T-shirts, and I have a special giveaway sticker. I only have 200 of them, so get to my booth quick. 03:01 But it is a Day of the Dead sticker that I had designed, so I think y’all will love it. Also, I am attending as an exhibitor the Texas EMS Conference. 03:14 Gonna be in Fort Worth in the end of July, at the Omni Hotel. I think I missed out on getting a hotel room at the Omni, which is not good, but I’m not happy about that. But anyway, I’ll get one close by. 03:26 We’ll figure it out. But lots of events coming up. I’m just already looking forward to and looking for events for 2027, and I feel like 2027 we’re gonna blow up, y’all. 03:41 So, if you will share this podcast with your friends, I would so appreciate it. I am so stinking close to 100,000 downloads. 03:50 Like, it’s amazing, and never ever would I have thought that I would be there. I mean, it’s just, it’s nuts to me. I love it, though. I absolutely love it. Also, I’m just trying to think. 04:03 I feel like there’s something else
