Marshfield Restaurant Cancels Booking Planned as Fundraiser for Lindsay Clancy

A Marshfield restaurant has canceled an event that was booked and promoted as a fundraiser for Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury mother who allegedly murdered her three children.

According to a Facebook post from Haddad’s Ocean Restaurant in Marshfield, the planned February 20 event – which was not being put on by the restaurant, but rather by a group that had booked the space – was canceled after the restaurant received further information as to the purpose of the event.

Multiple Reddit posts addressed the promotion of the event, sharing a screenshot of a post with the details of the planned fundraiser.

“In the spirit of compassion, please attend this dinner event. This is a mental health/women’s health/prescription drug tragedy. Everyone has the Constitutional right to defend themselves and present the truth,” the post reads. “Thanks to our food sponsors, 100 percent of ticket sales will go directly to her parents to pay for litigation defense and cost of expert witnesses.”

The event was planned for Monday, February 20 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a price of $40 per person, paid at the door. An email address was given to RSVP.

The post ends with the phrase, “Justice for Lindsay.”

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Just before 8 p.m. on Friday, February 10, Haddad’s posted a statement to its Facebook page stating the restaurant has canceled the event and giving its reasoning for doing so:

“In an effort to address the comments coming in nationwide from a thread on Reddit; we would like to make an official statement. Haddad's Ocean Cafe is not and never was hosting a benefit on behalf of the Clancy Family. Haddad's is not donating food, tickets or otherwise to legal funds or fundraising efforts on the part of Lindsay Clancy or her parents,” the restaurant posted.

According to the restaurant, the event had only just been booked earlier today.

“We had a call come in on Friday, Feb.10th from a Boston-based group asking to reserve space for a fundraiser to be held on the evening of Feb. 20th. The group had eight food donors offering to pay for the event,” it wrote. “In light of additional details, focus, and circumstances surrounding this event, we have made the decision to cancel the reservation. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”

WBSM contacted Haddad’s via Facebook seeking any further information. The restaurant referred us to its post and said it would have no further comment.

We also reached out to the email associated with the fundraiser. The person who replied wished to remain anonymous because they said they were already receiving threats.

"People wanted to organize something and because people can’t control their hate and anger and emotions, the restaurant canceled. I can’t say I blame them," the person wrote.

There was also a new GoFundMe that was started at around 6 p.m. on February 10 titled “Justice for Lindsay Clancy.” It featured much of the same language as the event post, again pointing out that the funds raised will “help Lindsay’s parents pay for the cost of litigation and expert witnesses.” That language was later changed following the publication of this article and the person responding to our emails said the money would go directly to Lindsay Clancy's parents.

Eventually the campaign was removed altogether.

GoFundMe's terms of service do not allow for fundraising on the platform for "the legal defense of alleged financial and violent crimes," but on Saturday afternoon, a GoFundMe representative confirmed to WBSM that it was actually the organizer of the campaign who turned off the donations.

The GoFundMe sought to raise $500,000, and in the first three hours had raised just under $2,000.

This comes on the heels of the original GoFundMe created for the Clancy family that has raised over $1 million. That campaign, organized by Matthew Glaser “on behalf of the extended Clancy family,” stated that GoFundMe was intended to help Patrick Clancy, husband of Lindsay Clancy and father of the three murdered children, “pay for medical bills, funeral services and legal help.”

Lindsay Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington later clarified that money from that original GoFundMe campaign that raised $1 million would not go to Clancy’s legal defense.

Clancy, 32, faces charges of murder in the strangulation deaths of her five-year-old daughter Cora and her three-year-old son Dawson. It is also expected she will be charged with the murder of seven-month-old son Callan, who originally survived the attack but died days later in the hospital.

Reddington outlined in an interview last week that he believes Clancy was overly medicated at the time of the murders, having been prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications between October 2022 and January 2023, and that those medications gave her homicidal and suicidal ideations. He also said postpartum depression may have also played a role.

The prosecution, however, has argued that Clancy planned out and “created the situation” in which she had the time and ability to murder the children. Clancy also attempted suicide by jumping out of a window of her home, and remains hospitalized.

She was arraigned Tuesday on two charges of murder in Plymouth District Court via Zoom. She also faces three counts each of strangulation and assault and battery with a deadly weapon in the deaths of her children.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The "Justice for Lindsay Clancy" GoFundMe campaign that was raising money for her parents was removed from the crowdfunding platform after the publishing of this story. Our reporting has been changed to reflect that.