SOUTH COAST A Florida woman who runs true crime accounts on social media has been charged with unlawful wiretapping in Hingham District Court, accused of posting on Instagram a secret recording of Patrick Clancy's father, made during the murder trial of Patrick Clancy's former wife, Lindsay Clancy, according to the police report and court records cited by Boston 25 News and Fox News Digital.
Shawna Gramkow faces one count of unlawful wiretapping, which Fox News Digital reported was filed as a felony on Oct. 20. She has been summoned to appear for arraignment Friday, Nov. 20, Boston 25 News reported, citing court records. Florida officials confirmed she has not been arrested, Fox News Digital reported.
What police say happened
The charge grew out of a complaint by Christopher Clancy, Patrick Clancy's father, who told investigators he believed a recording posted to the public Instagram account "saltylunatics" captured his voice, Boston 25 News reported. Christopher Clancy told police that while driving in Scituate around Aug. 6, the day he testified in the trial, he got a call from a number he did not recognize and believes he answered it by accident instead of declining it.
"Mr. Clancy recalls while driving in the Town of Scituate sometime around August 6th, 2026 he received a phone call from a telephone number he did not recognize," police wrote in the report, as quoted by Fox News Digital. The open line let the unknown caller record his comments "without his knowledge or consent," the report says.
Police said Gramkow posted a video to Instagram on Aug. 30 about someone calling a number she said belonged to Patrick Clancy, after Lindsay Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, read the number aloud during the trial, Fox News Digital reported. Police quoted her as saying in the video: "So, you guys voted and Patrick said yes. So, at the trial Kevin Reddington released Patrick's phone number and one of y'all decided to give him a call. Now on this particular call, Patrick's dad was still on the line, he was kind of mumbling still on the phone, I guess he didn't know that the phone was still going."
A detective wrote that an adult man can be heard speaking in the video but that the detective could not make out the words, Fox News Digital reported. Police said a search warrant served on Meta Platforms produced records identifying Gramkow as the account holder, and an investigator matched her driver's license photo to the woman introducing the recording in the video, according to Boston 25 News.
Christopher Clancy reported the recording to police on Sept. 4, the same day Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial, Boston 25 News reported.
Her response
In a Facebook video that did not address the charge directly, Gramkow said the "allegations are false. And easy to prove," Fox News Digital reported. Boston 25 News reported it was not clear whether she had a lawyer or had entered a plea. Gramkow is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Where the Clancy case stands
Lindsay Clancy is charged with murder in the deaths of her three children at the family's Duxbury home in January 2023. Her first trial ended in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. On Monday, Sullivan took under advisement her motion to dismiss the murder indictments and continued the case to Nov. 16 for a status hearing and possible trial date. She has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. Read our story on Monday's hearing.
Gramkow's case is separate from the murder case. Under the state wiretap law, Chapter 272, Section 99, secretly recording the contents of a phone call without prior authority from everyone on it counts as an interception. Committing an interception, or trying to, is punishable by up to five years in state prison. Knowingly disclosing what was said in an intercepted call is a separate offense, a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in a jail or house of correction.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
No court or police record in this case is online yet, so every fact about the charge and the investigation comes from two newsrooms that each cite the Scituate police report and court records: Boston 25 News and Fox News Digital, both Oct. 30, read in full Nov. 2. Quotations from the report and from Gramkow are as those newsrooms printed them. The Clancy case background comes from our own coverage of Monday's hearing, and the definition and penalty from Chapter 272, Section 99 of the General Laws. We left out a family member named in the report and other personal details. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Gramkow has no lawyer named in the reports we read; her only public response is the video quoted above. Any statement from her, the Scituate Police Department or the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office will be added.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (4)
- Influencer accused of wiretapping over alleged secret recording of Lindsay Clancy's ex-father-in-lawBoston 25 News, Oct. 30, 2026, 4:08 p.m. Court records and the Scituate police report: one count in Hingham District Court, Nov. 20 arraignment summons, the complaint, the Aug. 6 call, the Meta search warrant, the Aug. 30 post and the Sept. 4 report. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
- Clancy father targeted in alleged wiretap as medical lawsuits hint at strategy split: copsFox News Digital, Oct. 30, 2026, 10:57 a.m. The police incident report: felony charge Oct. 20, the report's words on the call, the detective's note, Florida officials on no arrest, and Gramkow's Facebook video. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
- General Laws, Chapter 272, Section 99: Interception of wire and oral communicationsMassachusetts Legislature. Section B.4, the definition of interception; Sections C.1 and C.3, the penalties for interception and for disclosure. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
- Judge takes Lindsay Clancy's bid to dismiss murder indictments under advisementSouth Coast 360, Nov. 2, 2026. Monday hearing and the Nov. 16 status date. Read Nov. 2, 2026.