As AFN reported, the trial is not a question of whether Clancy murdered her three young children, but the mental state she was in. She also attempted to take her own life after the fact, resulting in her now being a paraplegic.
Clancy’s defense argues she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis along with a combination of bipolar disorder, severe anxiety and depression, extreme insomnia and sleep deprivation. She was also taking a lengthy list of psychiatric medications, which her defense says only further complicated her mental state.
But online, a growing community of true-crime sleuths has spun a web of conspiracy theories — frequently accusing her grieving husband of foul play.
Talking about this on American Family Radio (AFR)'s "Jenna Ellis in the Morning" program, journalist and author Bethany Mandel warned that this online fixation has crossed a dangerous line into full-blown spectacle.
“It's really disturbing to me just, first of all, on the merit that women are treating the murder of three young children as entertainment,” Mandel says.
But in this particular case, she focuses specifically on Patrick Clancy, the husband and father.
“He walked in on anyone's worst nightmare,” Mandel states. “The TikTok fanatics who have been following this case have been harassing him and his new wife and have painted him as the perpetrator, when he is the biggest living victim in all of this.”
She argues that modern online culture — fed by therapeutic language — is stripping away individual accountability and blurring the lines between real-world tragedy and internet fiction.
“I don't know how we put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to personal responsibility,” Mandel says. “What's disturbing to me is watching this absolute denial of reality that they've created in real time... TikTok has spun so many women into believing that what is happening in this real world is not real — and that, to me, is next-level disturbing.”
