Patrick Clancy obsession leads true crime creator to face felony charges

Plymouth, Massachusetts - The relentless public obsession with accused murderer Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, has now crossed the line from internet sleuthing into criminal liability, as a true crime influencer now faces felony wiretapping charges after targeting Patrick's family members.

A true crime content creator is facing felony wiretapping charges for allegedly recording and publishing a phone call with the father of Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband, Patrick Clancy.   © Collage: Screenshot/Instagram/saltylunatics | GREG DERR / POOL / AFP

As the public awaits Lindsay Clancy's next hearing on Monday, November 2, popular true crime content creator Shawna Gramkow, who runs the Instagram account @saltylunatics, is now facing felony charges for wiretapping, all stemming from an alleged incident that happened during the first murder trial.

Per a Scituate police report obtained by Los Angeles Magazine, Lindsay's lead defense attorney Kevin Reddington is said to have blurted out Patrick's personal cell phone number in open court. Instead of respecting Patrick's privacy, seeing as he's not the one who is accused of murder, Gramkow and other true crime sleuths attempted to call Patrick's number numerous times.

Despite Patrick and his attorney making public pleas to be left alone while denouncing "lie after lie" that was being spread about him surrounding the death of his and Lindsay's three young children, Gramkow allegedly didn't let up and is being accused of acquiring and publishing a phone conversation with Patrick's dad and later made insinuations about the Clancy family.

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Since Massachusetts is an all-party consent state, secretly recording and publishing audio (such as a phone call) without the consent of all parties violates state law.

According to Los Angeles Magazine, law enforcement officials tracked Meta account data back to Gramkow in Florida, where she resides, and issued a criminal complaint in Hingham District Court on October 20 for one felony charge of unlawful wiretapping.

The redacted police report confirms Gramkow published the video in August; however, it does not present explicit proof showing who originally placed and recorded the call. Gramkow has denied the allegations and claims she has "dirty deets," and insists the charges against her are false.

If convicted, Gramkow faces up to five years in prison.

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No other content creators have yet to face charges, but Gramkow's case is unique in that she is being accused of crossing the line between online speech and illegal recording.