Why are people more sympathetic to Lindsay Clancy than Andrea Yates? (Child death mentioned)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clancy has my sympathy. She is a Labor & Delivery RN now midwife in 5 days a week outpatient treatment for postpartum depression—she was trying mightily to help herself as was her husband. Sounds like crossover to postpartum psychosis—she will be heartbroken at what she did under SEVERE mental illness. My sympathies to her children deceased, her infant, her husband and yes to her. A nightmare.

It could be psychosis or it could have just been the depression. Her depressed thoughts may have convinced her that not taking her children with her when she killed herself would be worse and cause them more pain than taking them with her. Depression can be severe and distort insight and judgement. She may have been in a state of mind where she knew killing was wrong but felt it was a better decision than leaving her children motherless or wanting to avoid them finding her body.

Clearly her mental illness contributed significantly to her state of mind at the time. Whether it reached a point that she is not criminally responsible will be a matter for psychiatrists and the courts.

[Anonymous]

Andrea Yates got both judgment and sympathy; I think people know more about PPD/PPP and maternal mental health generally -- perhaps in large part BECAUSE of the Yates case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

Really? I don't remember that being the case. I remember hearing that she was told not to not have more kids due to previous post partum depression. yet she still chose to have another child and it out her over the edge. I think she was judge pretty harshly for this.

Yates and her husband were not in the kind of relationship in which the wife gets to have any choices IIRC.

I haven’t heard anout this new case at all until this thread.

This.

+1. They had a Quiverfull type marriage, and her husband wanted as many kids as possible (which she was expected to care for on her own, because that's women's role), despite warning from medical professionals after she suffered PPD with previous children. She shouldn't have had more kids, but it wasn't a free choice on her part. It was a horrible tragedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I experienced PPD, Andrea Yates was a spectre that haunted me. My psychiatrist told me many women feel that way. I remember mixed reactions, horror and anger but also sorrow and yes, even sympathy. Also there were so many children and that she just kept going, one after another.... the details were chilling. And at least one child I recall fought for his life. Similar to one of the Watt's girls, that is a horrifying image.

Her doctors told her and her husband to stop having children and Andrea agreed and told her husband that she didn’t want to have any more. Yet he controlled the marriage and forced her off birth control and she got pregnant I think 7 weeks after her last stint in a psych ward. Her own MIL was shocked with her son’s laissez faire attitude of the diagnosis and treatment. The MIL was heavily supporting Andrea. Andrea was VERY sick. And her husband just wanted her to breed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel sympathy for both.

Nope not me

[Anonymous]

I know someone who had pregnancy psychosis and during both of her pregnancies she had to be hospitalized because she was a danger to herself. After giving birth she's fine. It's so peculiar but hormones are insane. This woman seemed like a good mother. I don't know how she's going to live with herself once she's out of this psychosis.

[Anonymous]

I mean, the reaction and discourse around Yates was different because it was 20 years ago and had the religious angle.

I am local to the area and it's just devastating as someone in the same season as life (30s, 2under2, even delivered at the hospital she was a L&D nurse at). I keep saying to myself, "there by the grace of god go I".

The husband's GFM is already at $375k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

Really? I don't remember that being the case. I remember hearing that she was told not to not have more kids due to previous post partum depression. yet she still chose to have another child and it out her over the edge. I think she was judge pretty harshly for this.

+1. She was harshly judged. It wasn't until later when a lot of the completely wackadoo details came out that there was some sympathy for her. Her first attorney was a family friend. The DA sought the death penalty, She plead not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted. She was sentenced to the max in TX (at the time) - 40 years with possibility of parole. The verdict was overturned because the prosecution's expert witness literally made up an episode of Law and Order, based on the facts of Yates' case, and told the jury he thought Yates might have been influenced by the non-existent episode (this is true, believe it or not). She was retried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. I don't have an exact timeline on when some of the details about her repulsive husband came out, but yes, she was told not to have more kids by a psychiatrist. And her husband was advised by the psychiatrist treating her at the time of the murders to never leave her alone with the children. Yet he did.

Other than the passage of time and more understanding about these cases, it appears that Clancy was known and had friends in the community. That was not really the case with Yates, IIRC. There weren't a lot of people coming out as her friends and saying they couldn't believe this happened because those people didn't exist for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel sympathy for both.

Nope not me

+1 But I also believe Rusty Yates should have been convicted as an accomplice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel sympathy for both.

Nope not me

Me either. What is this compulsion to have so many kids so close together? And yes 3 that close together is too many.

[Anonymous]

I was too young to remember the public sentiment after Andrea Yates. If there is a difference, its probably because of the number of children and that there is more information about mental health struggles than there was 20 years ago.

For Lindsay Clancy, I feel pity....but pity isn't enough to describe it. I cannot imagine the pain is felt and will feel when she knows her children are dead and she wasn't successful in killing herself. That is a darkness most of us will never know.

[Anonymous]

I hadn't heard of PPP until Yates's case. I think a lot of people were in the same spot; they didn't know that this was a thing that even existed. It's not even depression; women with PPP have delusions and hallucinations. They may become paranoid, their thoughts are disorganized and incoherent. They have thoughts of suicide or killing their babies, and they think that it's in the baby's best interest. They are literally not in their right mind, and medication and hospitalization are pretty much required to treat it, just like any other psychotic break. I had no idea that this was a thing that happened. While at the time, many people judged Yates, the case also brought a lot of attention to the problem.

It's also likely that the Yateses didn't have such strong community connections. IIRC, they moved a fair amount, and they had unusual religious beliefs that might have been off putting or made it difficult to develop connections. Andrea Yates suffered from PPD for years, including some stints in psychiatric facilities, which I'm sure wasn't conducive to making friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clancy has my sympathy. She is a Labor & Delivery RN now midwife in 5 days a week outpatient treatment for postpartum depression—she was trying mightily to help herself as was her husband. Sounds like crossover to postpartum psychosis—she will be heartbroken at what she did under SEVERE mental illness. My sympathies to her children deceased, her infant, her husband and yes to her. A nightmare.

The article posted doesn't say any of this. Why was someone in full time outpatient care caring for the children at all?

[Anonymous]

It is now being reported that the 8 month infant passed away as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clancy has my sympathy. She is a Labor & Delivery RN now midwife in 5 days a week outpatient treatment for postpartum depression—she was trying mightily to help herself as was her husband. Sounds like crossover to postpartum psychosis—she will be heartbroken at what she did under SEVERE mental illness. My sympathies to her children deceased, her infant, her husband and yes to her. A nightmare.

The article posted doesn't say any of this. Why was someone in full time outpatient care caring for the children at all?

The NYP is reporting that a local radio reporter states she was in IOP.
https://nypost.com/2023/01/27/lindsay-clancy-carried-out-shocking-attack-while-husband-picked-up-take-out-report/