This episode covers multiple crime stories, beginning with the Massachusetts trial of Lindsey Clancy, who admitted to killing her three children in 2023. The defense argues she suffered from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis and was over-medicated, calling witnesses like her coworkers and family to show her compassionate nature and desperate pleas for help. Her mother testified about Lindsey’s suicidal thoughts and fears, including a chilling admission of harming thoughts toward her kids. Next, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges for shooting Brian Thompson, admitting details of his planning, including posing as an investor and using a 3D-printed gun. His defense filed a double jeopardy motion to dismiss state murder charges, citing New York’s broad protections, though prosecutors argue the crimes differ. In the roundup, Alec Murdaugh’s retrial progresses with venue changes and testimony rulings, while Mario Fernandez Saldana’s trial for Jared Bridegan’s murder features emotional testimony from the widow, who identified the suspects. Finally, retired ATF agent Derek Plezins explains ghost guns—privately made firearms without serial numbers that are hard to trace but can still be linked via ballistic evidence. The episode highlights legal complexities, mental health defenses, and investigative challenges.
It's the start of another work day for the Dateline team here at 30 Rockefeller Center. Then you've got this jailhouse informant, he that I overheard him, he told me everything. Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news around the country, swapping tips and story ideas. We're on a custom of hearing something, but that's where it gets murky. By sunrise he's dead, it was a huge story. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning, it's August 20th and here's what's on our docket. In Manhattan, United Healthcare CEO Shooter Luigi Mangione makes us stunning admission. We heard from Mangione in his own words actually describe the events leading up to the shooting in December 2024. In Dateline Roundup, the Alec Murdoch saga continues in South Carolina with some major rulings. When the first of three people charged in the murder of Microsoft employee Jared Bridegan is now on trial, Jared's widow takes the stand. She was immediately emotional. Plus, ghost guns, police found one in Luigi Mangione's backpack, what exactly are they? And why do they make investigations so difficult? When you have a firearm that doesn't have a serial number on it, it isn't able to be effectively traced in the traditional method. But before all that, we're heading to Massachusetts for the trial of a former labor and delivery nurse accused of murdering her three young children. And a warning, some of what we'll be discussing is upsetting and involves mentions of suicide. After three weeks of testimony, prosecutors rested their case against Lindsey Clancy. The 36-year-old mother they believe was of sound mind, the night of January 24th, 2023. And she killed her three young children, Kora, Kallen, and Dawson. Prosecutors called about 70 witnesses, including the children's father, Patrick Clancy, the psychiatrist who treated Lindsey, and the first responders dispatched to the horrifying scene. Jurors won't have to decide who killed the children, Lindsey already admitted to that. The question is, why did she do it? Lindsey says she was over-medicated and suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis at the time. On Monday, the defense began calling witnesses. And jurors got to hear from those who knew Lindsey best. Here to walk us through their testimony is Nate Eaton of East Idaho News and host of the podcast, Court Room Insider. Nate, welcome back. Thank you, Andrea. Good to see you. Yeah, you too. So, Nate, the first witness that defense called was Margaret Hemp. She is a nurse who worked with Lindsey at the Labor and Delivery Unit at Mass General Hospital. Yeah, they worked together for about seven years. That described Lindsey as a very compassionate nurse. She was kind. She really related well to the patients. She actually get emotional often helping patients. When they were giving birth, it really touched Lindsey. She would cry and she went to say that was so beautiful. You can just tell that she really loved being in that setting. And she went on to talk about how the two worked the night shift together and Lindsey would often ask for parenting advice from her co-workers, things like, how do I find the right daycare to, how do I monogram my lunch box? She was a really involved mother. Wow. So, Margaret Hemp also described an instance where a patient arrived at the unit with plans to harm herself while she was pregnant. And she said, this happened the summer Lindsey started working at Mass General. She recalled talking to Lindsey about mental health in pregnancy and postpartum. Right. And she actually asked her specifically if she had heard about the Andrea Yates case. Lindsey had not heard of it. Andrea Yates was the mother who confessed to drowning her five children back in 2001. She claimed she suffered severe postpartum depression. She was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity. Hemp described Lindsey's reaction to learning about the Yates case and says that Lindsey cried. And she said, how could a mother hurt her children? Lindsey's sister and mother were also among the first few defense witnesses. They described how Lindsey's mental state was deteriorating in the months before the children were killed. Here is her sister, Alison Asga, recalling how Lindsey was around Christmas time, 2022. She was reporting her mood was worsening as she described as depression. She was having more suicidal thoughts. She was insomnia continued to be an issue. She was really not feeling like herself. Alison went on to say that Lindsey told her she had suicidal ideations every single day that month. Lindsey's mother Paula Musgrove, she was asked about a text message Lindsey sent to her around that time a little bit earlier than that Christmas. Yeah. And Lindsey's defense attorney Kevin Reddington presented that text message, a message that Lindsey sent on October 20th. She had Lindsey's mother read that to the jurors. Mom. You please come up and stay with me for a bit. I'm really sick, something is wrong. I had horrible insomnia all night and I just don't know how I'm going to get through the day. I started taking the medicine, my doctor prescribed for anxiety. And I think it's made things worse. It's just really scary and I don't want to be alone. Lindsey's mother went on to say that she stayed with her daughter for about a week after receiving that message, she testified that she stayed with Lindsey several other times in the months leading up to her children's death to help her daughter. And she said that Lindsey was so afraid to be alone that she even once asked her mom if she could sleep beside her, which she did. Lindsey also told her mom that she believed all the medications she was taking were destroying her mind. She said that she couldn't remember anything. She said, this isn't me, I just want to feel better and I'm enjoying my kids again. Well, so Paula, her mom, told jurors that by Christmas, Lindsey was in a terrible state. And she remembered something else that was disturbing that Lindsey told her and Lindsey's then husband, Patrick Clancy. This is the first time we heard this, Andrea. Lindsey's mom described how Lindsey was very nervous when she told her mother and Patrick, I just have to tell you guys something. She told us that she had thoughts of harming the children. This is all very hard to hear, Nate. This is such a tough trial. How did Lindsey's mom appear on the stand? How painful for her to have to get up there in this courtroom of this very public trial and have to be talking about all this about her daughter? Yeah, I mean, she's testifying it. Her daughter's murder trial. It was an extremely emotional experience for her. Also she's talking about the deaths of her grandchildren, whom she loved very much. She was a very involved grandmother. She became the most emotional talking about her three grandkids. I love my grandchildren with all my heart. You never know what it's like to love a grandchild, and she told you to become a grandmother. And it was the most beautiful thing I love them with all my heart. So painful. Lindsey's mother wasn't the only grandmother to testify. Her former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, also took the stand. Yeah, now remember, these are defense witnesses. So these are the witnesses backing Lindsey up. This is Patrick Clancy's mother, Susan. And Patrick Clancy was married to Lindsey and the father to their children. He's also standing beside her. He's already testified in the trial. In fact, he was the first witness they called by the prosecution. So it's interesting now to see the mother testifying about how Lindsey reached out to her for help as well. Susan Clancy was a former labor and delivery nurse herself for 38 years. And she talks about referring Lindsey to a clinic at South Shore Hospital for women struggling with postpartum. Right, Lindsey went to her mother-in-law and said, I need some help. And this is where I got kind of interesting. When the commonwealth was presenting its case, they were certainly trying to paint Lindsey as a patient who didn't take her medications as had been prescribed. But Lindsey's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, asked Susan about this. She's answering both as a health care professional and as a grandmother here. Did you find that Lindsey was interested at all times? I didn't mean to get better and see doctors. Very much so. Did you find at all, you have an opinion with your observations of Lindsey as to whether or not she was offered help, you could just spurn it, not see doctors, or not have treatment? She was begging for help. Nate, before we go, our local affiliate NBC10 in Boston, they've been in the courtroom and they've observed that more than half of the 18 jurors in this trial skew older, maybe in their 50s or above. Some may even be grandparents. It's an interesting demographic for a trial like this, right? Yeah, it is an interesting thing. But also think about the people that are involved in this case. You have Kevin Reddington, Lindsey's attorney, he's 75 years old, no nonsense local guy who's done dozens, hundreds of trials over the years. He's held onto Lindsey's hand when she has sobbed during difficult testimony, kind of like in a grandfather or a fatherly kind of way. And you have the prosecutors, both women, younger, noticeably younger than Reddington, one often wears bows in her hair. And there's been multiple studies, Andrea, on how the age of jurors can impact
deliberations. Those studies have found that older jurors are significantly more likely to convict versus younger jurors, but it's an interesting dynamic to see how this is unfolding every day and we'll see if age really did play a factor at all or if it's more of a human type of connection or how these jurors ultimately reach their decision. And I know just as a mother of six, the more time that separates you from when you gave birth to your children, the more you start to forget how hard things can be. Absolutely. If you're going through this last year or within the past two years, you're going to remember far more clearer than if you were raising kids decades ago when the circumstances surrounding postpartum and mental illness weren't discussed as openly as they are now. Really good point, Nate. Well, we will keep an eye on this as the defense keeps calling witnesses. And of course, a lot of people are waiting to see if Lindsey herself will testify. It feels like a tricky decision, but when she will have to make, Nate, thank you for these updates. Thanks, Andrea. Coming up, Luigi Mangione's double jeopardy battle and what's next after his plea. On Friday, correction officers escorted Luigi Mangione into a lower Manhattan federal courthouse. He was wearing tan prison scrubs with his leg shackled. It will be two years this December, since United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown. Mangione had something to tell the judge. He pleaded guilty to two federal stocking charges, admitting he shot Thompson that chilly morning. But Mangione's saga is far from over. Less than an hour after the hearing ended, his defense team filed a motion asking to dismiss the eight charges he's facing in state court, including second-degree murder. He is still pleading not guilty to those charges. And now his upcoming state trial has been postponed indefinitely. NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett is here to break it all down and tell us what this means for Mangione. Laura, thank you for being here. So happy to join you. So we have both been covering this case for a while now since the day of the shooting in December of 2024. There was the manhunt and then eventually the arrest of Luigi Mangione and a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. And so much has happened since then. But throughout it all, Mangione has maintained his innocence, Laura. Now here we are with him taking this plea. It is really big in this case. It's a really remarkable moment given just how aggressive and zealous this legal team has been. And even despite this guilty play, my inbox is flooded with people saying he's not guilty, free Mangione. And so to have this moment where he finally, in his own words, had to admit that he was in fact guilty, it's just kind of stunning. Karen Agnifalo, one of Mangione's attorneys, she spoke outside of court after the plea hearing. Let's take a listen to what she had to say. Despite this being a single isolated event, Mr. Mangione has been unfairly treated since the outset in every way, fighting at the same time two simultaneous prosecutions in two jurisdictions who are trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct. Before we get to the actual plea, Laura, can you just give us a breakdown of what Mangione was charged with in both federal and state court? Yeah. Sometimes you see these sort of dual prosecutions going on parallel tracks. In this case, the feds came out swinging with a whole bunch of charges. They then, as a result of a bunch of defense motions, got whittled down to stalking. That's on the federal side. Then on the state side, he faces a charge of second-degree murder, as well as a number of gun charges. It's something that his attorneys, Andrea, have talked about double jeopardy as this principle of not being tried twice since the very beginning of this case, when he was facing charges in Pennsylvania and in New York and on the federal and state level. And almost immediately, everyone sort of just brushed it aside as like, yeah, yeah, whatever, you can be tried in different jurisdictions. And only now in this moment just weeks away from trial, does the whole prospect of double jeopardy really take on some salience because he is now, in fact, pled guilty and set to be convicted in federal court. This is like a game of legal chess. I feel like we're dealing with here. It's like a law school exam. This entire Mangione case is a law school exam. All right. So back to federal court, just sort of give us some color in the courtroom. Who showed up to this hearing? So Brian Thompson's ex-wife and mother were there. We believe this is likely the first time they've actually been in the same room and confronted Mangione. They were emotional, as you might imagine, listening to him admit an open court to what he did. We did not see or have any reporting to suggest that anyone from Mangione's family was there. The judge asked Mangione to stand his own words why he believed he was guilty of the charges. So for the first time, we heard from Mangione in his own words actually describe the events leading up to the shooting. In December of 2024, we heard him describe how he was in severe pain. He had back pain. He was navigating the health insurance industry. But we also learned, Andrea, that he actually reaches out to executives at United Health Care to learn the location of the investor conference where Brian Thompson was supposed to be in Manhattan. And he actually posed as an investor and he said that he was managing over 50 billion in assets. And so he was requesting information about the conference for that reason. He talks about traveling to New York. He talks about how he got there. He talks about using the 3D printer to make the gun. Again, all of these little bits and pieces he's giving us, of course, as reporters, we want more. But they also are intentional, Andrea, because every time he talks about the gun, he's not just talking about it for fun and to add detail. He's mentioning the gun because he's facing weapon charges in state court. So he wants to make sure he gets in all of the details so that he can encapsulate everything that could possibly come his way in state court to say, "Hey, look, see, I admitted everything in medical court." And we should be clear, Mangy only wasn't offered anything in exchange for this plea that we know of, correct? No. So this is what's known as an open plea. And the prosecutors really wanted to emphasize this because when we think about a deal, you think about like a tit for tat, someone got one thing, someone else got something else. Prosecutors want to emphasize, we got a guilty plea on the exact thing that we charge in with the indictment. The state trial was set to go for it in just a few weeks and that's why the timing of all this was so critical and so sensitive for him to get the federal piece of this buttoned up. Now that he has pled guilty in federal court and he has a sentencing date there, now we see in state court the judge postponing the state case because the defense is saying, well, he's now pled guilty. He cannot be tried twice for the same offenses, the same act, the same criminal transaction. Thankfully, New York law does not permit a person to be prosecuted and punished twice for the exact same crime under a statute that governs successive prosecutions. And we just filed our motion in state court explaining why the state charges must be dismissed under New York's double jeopardy protections. Laura, could something like this actually work? Yes. I think that there's actually a chance that reason why Andrea is because New York law on this issue of being tried twice is very favorable to defendants and it's it's it's much more all-encompassing than even the US Constitution is when it comes to double jeopardy. The New York law says as long as it's all part of the same criminal transaction, then that person cannot be tried twice. What is the prosecution's response to this? And I'm talking about prosecutors in state court. Yes. So prosecutors in state court believe that this case should still go for it. They are going to fight her hard on this. Prosecutors basic line will be this is not the same crime. This has different elements. So there's a stalking charge in federal court, which has a different element than a second-degree murder charge in in state court for instance stalking and murder address different harms. And therefore you cannot see these two as as the same for the purposes of double jeopardy. And he is still pleading not guilty to those state charges. That has not changed. As of this moment, he has still on record in state court having pled not guilty, but only saying that he believes the state charges should now go away entirely. Okay, so as for his admission in federal court, federal guidelines for stalking suggest a sentence of 24 to 30 years, but the judge is not bound by that. So Mangioni could actually face a much harsher sentence in prison. Laura, when will that sentenceing take place? That will move forward to sentencing on December 18th. On December 10th, at the same time, the judge in state court is going to hear arguments from both sides about whether or not that case should still go forward. And so there's going to be a whole lot of paper flying in December around the holidays. Yeah, this is going to be a big month for all of this.
Laura, thank you for splendidly breaking this down for us because it is very complicated and for those of us who are not attorneys, you're definitely making it a lot easier for us to understand. We appreciate that. Thanks. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. Alec Murdock is back in court ahead of his upcoming retrial and one of the three people charged with murdering 33-year-old Jared Brightigan faces a jury. Plus, after Luigi Mangioni's admission, we had questions about homemade firearms. A retired ATF Special Agent joins us to talk about Ghost Guns. Welcome back. Joining me for this week's Roundup is Dateline producer Carol Gabel. Hey, Carol. Hey. How are you doing? Up first, Carol, we are talking about former attorney Alec Murdock. He was back in a South Carolina courthouse for his second pretrial hearing since his double murder convictions were overturned. And Carol, this is Asaga you've been following from the very beginning. Remind us about the first murder trial and why Murdock was granted a new one. So just to recap, Alec Murdock went on trial in 2023 for the murders of his wife Maggie and his youngest son Paul. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to two life sentences soon after that conviction his events seemed filed and appeal for a new trial. His appeal was denied, but eventually it made its way to the South Carolina Supreme Court and this past May, the Justice's rule that Murdock would get a new trial. Carol, what was the point of this pretrial hearing? So on the agenda on this day was the all important change of venue, both sides agreed to change the venue. What they didn't do is come to an agreement on where that new trial should be held. The judge said in this most recent hearing that she would decide and let them know where the trial will be held. Carol, one of the things as well for this hearing was whether or not Alec Murdock's testimony from his first trial could be admissible in his second trial. And that was a huge, huge win for the prosecution. The judge said that portions of his previous testimony would be allowed in this new trial. And then it sets up another problem for the defense because should he decide to testify again, you know the immediate question is going to be, were you telling the truth then? Are you telling the truth now? Okay, we'll keep an eye on that one for sure. Next up we are turning to Florida where the trial is underway for the first of three defendants accused of murdering 33-year-old Jared Bridegan, who was shot and killed in Jacksonville Beach in February 2022. He got out of his car to move a tire blocking the road when he was shot. His two-year-old daughter sadly was in the back seat. Prosecutors alleged that Bridegan's ex-wife, Shanna Gardner and her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana hired a man named Henry Tenon to ambush Bridegan and carry out the killing. All three defendants in this case have been charged with several crimes including murder. They have all pled not guilty. So Carol, first of all just remind us what prosecutors say the motive was here. So prosecutors say this really goes back to this long bitter custody battle between Jared and his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, over the twins they shared. Jared had actually just dropped the twins off at Shanna's house right before he was killed. Now the prosecutors believe Shanna and her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, came up with that plan to get Jared out of the picture because of the ongoing disputes. Tenon is set to go on trial next year, Shanna Gardner's trial is coming up next month. The trial of her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, got underway on Monday. In opening statements, prosecutors told jurors they will hear evidence that Saldana helped orchestrate Jared's murder and hired Henry Tenon to carry it out. The defense says Tenon acted alone and there is no evidence tying Saldana to the killing. Carol, tell us about some of the testimony that we've heard so far. Yes, the first person the prosecution called was a woman named Janelle Cruz. She described the moment she and her husband spotted Bridegan's car that night. The most gripping part of her testimony came when she described finding Jared's two-year-old daughter, Baxley, still inside the car. Baxley is one of the two children, Bridegan shared with his second wife, Kirsten, Janelle described talking to Baxley. She was shaking, she was like panting as if she's been crying. She was telling us that her dad is her underground along those lines and asking if the police were going to help her daddy. One of the biggest moments came when prosecutors called Jared's widow, Kirsten, Bridegan. Yes, Andrea, when she took the stand, she was immediately emotional. Are you the widow of the deceased victim in this case, Jared Bridegan? I am. Where are you originally from? I was born in California, but raised most of my life in the Seattle, Washington area. Yeah, and we actually interviewed Kirsten here on the podcast. Now here she is on the stand. Prosecutor spent a lot of time asking her about that custody battle. Kirsten described that co-parenting relationship between yourself and Jared and Shana and Fernandez Saldana as pretty terrible. She said there had been repeated disputes involving the twins. It was very tense, you could just feel the tension. And Kirsten testified that after she learned Jared had been shot and killed, she pointed investigators toward two people. And who were those individuals? Mario Fernandez and Shana Gardner. Why was she so sure that this was Jared's ex and her new husband? Kirsten said that as far as she knew, the only people who had an ongoing conflict with him were Shana, and Fernandez Saldana. The defense kept its cross pretty brief. Well, very brief. The defense questioned Kirsten on the custody battle and how active it really was at the time of Jared's murder. They also got Kirsten to acknowledge that despite all the tension, she wasn't aware of Shana or Mario ever directly threatening Jared. Okay, Carol. And this trial is just getting started. We will be following it. Thank you for bringing us around up this week. Well, thanks for having me. For our final story this week, we want to take a closer look at something we mentioned earlier that played a big role in the Luigi Mangione case, Ghost Guns. When Mangione was arrested, police found a partially assembled 3D printed pistol in his backpack that he used to shoot CEO Brian Thompson. We alleged he then took out a 9mm 3D printed Ghost Gun, equipped with a 3D printed suppressor and shot him once in the back and once in the leg. We don't often hear about 3D printed guns in our dateline cases. So what exactly is a Ghost Gun and how do they affect investigations? Here to help us understand is Derek Plezins, a retired special agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Welcome to the podcast, Derek. So yeah, I'm happy to be here. Derek, what are Ghost Guns? Just explain it to all of us who have heard about them, but maybe don't know exactly what they are. No, a Ghost Gun is a colloquial term for a privately manufactured firearm that doesn't have the ability to be effectively traced by law enforcement, hence the term being a Ghost Gun. Okay. So they are not produced by a licensed manufacturer, which is something that law enforcement wants, obviously, right? Because there's a record of it. There's a serial number, you know, there's a way to trace a gun if it's purchased properly. Correct. Correct. So the term we use is crime gun intelligence. Firearms are a tool that are used by the criminal element in the course of their business. It is also one of their key weaknesses. So through crime gun intelligence, we're able to trace a firearm from its point of manufacturer to its entry into commerce, where it's actually sold in its critical. And so even though law enforcement obviously would prefer that everyone have a serial number and properly purchase their firearms, people are still allowed to have these Ghost Guns. Correct. So the reality is American citizens under the Second Amendment are allowed to build their own firearm for their personal use, and they don't have a requirement to mark it with serial number. Okay. So my seven year old son is obsessed with 3D printers. He thinks it's really cool. He has all these little toys, but 3D printers are how people are making these Ghost Guns, right? Not entirely. Most of these firearms that are referred to as Ghost Guns are technically privately manufactured.
firearms. I haven't seen any detailed evidence on the mangyoney case. However, I have seen some photos that are purported to be the weapon that was used. It appears to be a privately manufactured firearm built from a kit with additional components. So some of the parts of mangyoney's gun were 3D printed is what I understand. I haven't seen the weapon in question definitively, but the photos that I have seen indicate that it is the lower receiver, the firearm portion of it is a polymer. And it appears to be consistent appearance with other privately manufactured firearms. They are 3D printed at some point in time in their manufacturing process. How easy is it to build one of these guns? They're not particularly difficult. You need to have some basic tools, drill bits, a fight. But if you have basic skills and know how to use hand tools and you have some patience, you can build a privately manufactured firearm. How hard is it for police to investigate a ghost gun that has no serial number? I mean, it's it's so tricky. It can be functionally impossible to put it bluntly. It can be functionally impossible. The investigators have to be able to find in that human contact trail of how that firearm moved from hand to hand and ended up used in that crime. Even though the gun that mangyoney used to kill Brian Thompson did not have a serial number, investigators were able to match the shell casings found at the crime scene to his gun. So a ghost gun, it sounds entirely anonymous, but it's really not. No, yeah, that's correct. So it's a tool. It's a tool today that we can't effectively trace without extra effort. However, it is still a tool that expels a projectile by means of explosive. That's going to be tool marks. And what happens then, especially as semi-automatic pistol where it ejects the cartridge, those markings are unique to the firearm that produces it. So we can recover fired cartridge casings from the scene and we can recover the weapon. We can physically link those two items to the crime scene and to the weapon that was recovered. In mangyoney's case, a silencer was also allegedly used in the killing. You don't hear about too many cases with silencers. You think of the mob or something like contract killings. How do they silencers come in to these crimes? Yes. So the use of a silencer in a violent crime is exceptionally rare. It is very, very rare to actually see that happen. However, a silencer isn't itself considered a firearm by the United States government. The National Firearms Act currently requires that a silencer be registered in the National Firearms registration and transfer record. And if you use a unregistered silencer in a crime of violence, you do expose yourself to crease punishments, you increase charges. In fact, if you use a silencer or NFA weapon in a crime of violence, results in death, your potential exposure is up to light without parole. We should say, Derek, that while any federal charges against mangyoney relating to a silencer have been dismissed, he still faces state firearm charges that he has pleaded not guilty to. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your knowledge on this topic that we just don't hear too much about, but you've shot a lot of light on it. Thank you for having me on. That's it for this episode of "Dateline True Crime Weekly." Don't forget to check out the latest season of the Webby Award-winning podcast "Dateline Missing in America." Josh Mancoot's investigates six new stories. The first four episodes are out now wherever you get your podcasts. And to get early access to new episodes and listen ad-free, subscribe to "Dateline Premium." Coming up this Friday on "Dateline," Dennis Murphy is back, and he's bringing us the latest in an intriguing case everyone is talking about. When a California woman received threatening messages, all signs pointed to her husband's former fiance, but a trail of emails and craiglist ads eventually led investigators in a different and disturbing direction. "Diabolical is something evil. It's something that the devil might do." Watch "Diabolical" Friday at 10/9 central on "Dateline" on NBC. Thanks for listening. "Dateline True Crime Weekly" is produced by Carson Cummins, Caroline Casey, and Keane Reed. Our associate producers are Ellery Gladstone-Groff and Ariya Young. Our senior producer is Sharmie and Ling. Production in fact, checking help by Yana Johnson. Veronica Mosaic is our digital producer. Rick Juan is our sound designer, original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of "Dateline." Thanks very much. See you. [Music]
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The trial of Lindsey Clancy, a former nurse accused of murdering her three children, continues with defense witnesses describing her deteriorating mental health and struggles with postpartum psychosis.
Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while his legal team filed a motion to dismiss state charges based on double jeopardy.
In the Alec Murdaugh case, a pretrial hearing addressed venue change and allowed portions of his prior testimony into the retrial.
The trial of Mario Fernandez Saldana began for the murder of Jared Bridegan, with testimony from witnesses and Bridegan’s widow, Kirsten.
Ghost guns, including the 3D-printed firearm used by Mangione, are privately manufactured weapons without serial numbers, complicating police tracing but not eliminating forensic links.
Summary:
This episode covers multiple crime stories, beginning with the Massachusetts trial of Lindsey Clancy, who admitted to killing her three children in 2023. The defense argues she suffered from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis and was over-medicated, calling witnesses like her coworkers and family to show her compassionate nature and desperate pleas for help. Her mother testified about Lindsey’s suicidal thoughts and fears, including a chilling admission of harming thoughts toward her kids.
Next, Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges for shooting Brian Thompson, admitting details of his planning, including posing as an investor and using a 3D-printed gun. His defense filed a double jeopardy motion to dismiss state murder charges, citing New York’s broad protections, though prosecutors argue the crimes differ. In the roundup, Alec Murdaugh’s retrial progresses with venue changes and testimony rulings, while Mario Fernandez Saldana’s trial for Jared Bridegan’s murder features emotional testimony from the widow, who identified the suspects.
Finally, retired ATF agent Derek Plezins explains ghost guns—privately made firearms without serial numbers that are hard to trace but can still be linked via ballistic evidence. The episode highlights legal complexities, mental health defenses, and investigative challenges.
FAQs
The central question is why Lindsey Clancy killed her three young children, as she has already admitted to the killings. Her defense argues she was over-medicated and suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis at the time.
Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to two federal stalking charges, admitting he shot United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. He entered an open plea with no deal in exchange.
His defense team filed a motion to dismiss his state charges, including second-degree murder, arguing double jeopardy. They claim New York law prohibits prosecution twice for the same criminal transaction, especially after his federal guilty plea.
A ghost gun is a privately manufactured firearm without a serial number, making it functionally impossible to trace through traditional methods. They can be built from kits or 3D-printed components and are legal for personal use under the Second Amendment.
Prosecutors allege Saldana helped orchestrate the murder of Jared Bridegan and hired Henry Tenon to carry it out. The defense argues Tenon acted alone and there is no evidence tying Saldana to the killing.
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Alec Murdock would get a new trial after his double murder convictions were overturned. A pretrial hearing addressed a change of venue and allowed portions of his previous testimony to be admissible in the retrial.
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