The organizer of a GoFundMe for Lindsay Clancy's parents said Sunday that boosting the fundraising goal to $3 million was meant to support the Connecticut couple for the long road ahead after their daughter's trial on charges she killed her three children ended Friday with a deadlocked jury.
"They're victims in this, too," Brandee Mulligan claimed of Mike and Paula Musgrove, who raised Lindsay and her sister in Wallingford. "Their family will never be the same."
The Musgroves have been fixtures at all of their daughter's court appearances since she was charged in January 2023 with the murders of her children -- Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months old -- at the Clancy home in Duxbury, Mass. Police and prosecutors have said she strangled the children with exercise bands while her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, was out picking up dinner and medication the evening of Jan. 24. Afterward, Lindsay Clancy jumped out of the couple's second-story bedroom window, leaving her paralyzed from the fall.
As of Sunday morning, about $1.2 million had been raised for the Musgroves. When Mulligan launched the fundraiser in mid-August, the Wisconsin resident, who says she is no relation to the Clancy or Musgrove families, said the money was meant to help the couple "rebuild the financial stability they have sacrificed over these past three years."
Prosecutors must decide whether they want to retry Clancy, 36, on the unresolved charges, negotiate a plea agreement or abandon the case. Outside the Massachusetts courthouse on Friday, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said he had not decided whether to seek a retrial.
Mulligan said Sunday that GoFundMe rules limit use of the money to supporting the Musgroves and cannot be used to pay their daughter's legal fees. A GoFundMe representative could not be reached immediately.
Mulligan has gained a wide audience through this effort and previous unrelated social media posts. She has described family moments on TikTok that attracted millions of viewers. Newsweek wrote about the popularity of a TikTok post in June 2024 in which Mulligan tearfully marked a milestone in her life with her 3-year-old son, Mayer, as the boy no longer responded to his nickname, "Babers."
In another TikTok post in April 2024 that attracted 3.7 million views in only a few days, Mulligan is shown sitting on the edge of a bathtub with her then-10-year-old daughter, Marley, with mother and daughter preparing to shave their legs.
"The stay-at-home mom explained she put her sons Miller, five, and Mayer, three, to bed before having a 'girls night' with Marley," Newsweek reported. "The pair put on face masks and then the 5th grade student asked if she could learn how to use a razor."
The mother of three has posted other TikTok videos expressing empathy with Lindsay Clancy, but The Musgrove Family Fund, she wrote in the narrative for the effort, is focused on the older couple.
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This article originally published at Organizer raises goal of GoFundMe for Lindsay Clancy's parents to $3 million after mistrial.