Tragedy hit early in the year with back-to-back slayings that are on a painstaking march through the court system. A mother is accused of killing her three young children; a husband is charged with dismembering his wife.

The opioid epidemic and the first responders who must confront it daily were omnipresent on the news pages. When the sirens blare, the Herald goes digging. Here are the top crime and public safety stories you read the most last year:

1.) Kids, ‘drugs, sex toys,’ dead man in South Boston apartment: ‘Sickening.’ Four children living in squalid conditions while being hidden from first responders were found in an apartment filled with “alcohol, drugs, sex toys” and a dead man. That was a shocking story that still reverberates today as an example of public housing neglect, lack of respect for first responders, and the politics of pointing fingers instead of fixing the problem.

2.) Massachusetts State Police find body of missing Lynn man who called police from LYFT ride. This story is for all of us who rely on ride-sharing apps and the possible dangers that lurk in those cars.

3.) After active shooter reported at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts State Police determines that it was a hoax. File this in the swatting category, where hoax calls waste vital resources.

4.) Lindsay Clancy’s husband cried: ‘SHE KILLED THE KIDS’. One of the saddest stories of the year was when a Duxbury mom allegedly strangled her three children with exercise bands and told her panicked husband the kids were in the basement, where he “begged them to breathe” after discovering their bodies, the DA said. “She killed the kids,” husband Patrick Clancy cried out to first responders the evening of Jan. 24.

5.) New Jersey-bound Delta flight returns to Boston after passenger threat reported: Massachusetts State Police. Traveling is usually a grind and this just made it worse.

6.) Newton man remembers wife, whose body parts may have been sold in Harvard Medical School scandal. “This is disgusting and this is why there should be a severe punishment,” the husband told the Herald. It didn’t go unnoticed that this is linked to Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gifts program.

7.) Duxbury mother Lindsay Clancy’s arrest warrant made public. The warrant shows that the Plymouth District Attorney’s office is charging Clancy with eight counts: two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation or suffocation and three counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. A third murder charge was later added.

8.) Death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe takes dramatic turn in new motion. The Herald was on this case long before the now-jailed Turtleboy blogger glommed on.

9.) Boston Police: No threat at the Snowport. Another hoax that tied up resources.

10.) Katherine Clark’s daughter accused of assaulting Boston police officer at protest. Before the arrest, 23-year-old Jared “Riley” Dowell from Melrose had been seen defacing the Boston Common monument with spray paint, according to police. The tagging read “NO COP CITY” and “ACAB” (All Cops Are Ba******). Dowell agreed to write a letter of apology to the officer and do community service in lieu of jail time.

Honorable mention) The saga of missing Cohasset mom Ana Walshe. While no one story dominated reader metrics, Herald readers have followed the legal case against husband Brian Walshe, accused of the murder and dismemberment of his wife on New Year’s Day.

Must mention:

Ex-FBI agent John ‘Zip’ Connolly remains a free man indefinitely … ‘Turtleboy’ jailed, bail revoked, pleads not guilty on new charges … Charlie Baker’s son, Andrew ‘A.J.’ Baker, arrested and charged with drunk driving: Mass State Police … Maine killer Robert Card found at recycling center, left note to loved one.

Screengrab of Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury mom accused of strangling her three children to death, arraigned from her hospital bed on Feb. 7. (Herald file photo)

Jack Porter holds his wedding photo featuring his late wife, Dr. Raya Porter, whose organs may have been sold in the Harvard medical scandal. (Paul Connors/Boston Herald)