A suburban Massachusetts mother is facing murder charges in the deaths of her two young children, police have said.
Janette MacAusland, a 49-year-old acupuncturist, was arrested Saturday as a fugitive in Vermont after her children, 7-year-old Kai and 6-year-old Ella, were found dead Friday in a home in Wellesley, an affluent Boston suburb that is considered one of the safest cities in America.
Local officers found the children after Vermont’s Bennington Police Department called in a welfare check on the address at around 9:30 p.m. Friday night. Their causes of death have not been disclosed.
MacAusland has been charged with two counts of murder and is being held in a Vermont jail before her scheduled court appearance Monday.
Court records show that MacAusland was seeking custody of Kai and Ella after her estranged husband, Samuel MacAusland, filed for divorce in October following nine years of marriage.
He made a counterclaim for custody and the family home.
The children were in kindergarten and second grade at Schofield Elementary School. In a statement Saturday night, Superintendent David Lussier said counselors will be at the school Monday to provide support to staff and students.
“This is an unimaginable loss that will be deeply felt not just at Schofield but across our entire community,” Lussier said.
The children’s former babysitter, Cale Darrah, told the Boston Globe that she worked for the family until June 2024. Darrash described the children as happy and well cared for.
“Never did I enter the house and feel like there was anything that was extremely off,” she said.
In a separate interview, Darrah told Boston 25 News: “They were two beautiful children who were full of life and laughter, and it pains me to think that the world should remember them only by the way their lives were tragically ended.”
Darrah added that MacAusland appeared to be a doting and detail-oriented mother, saying: “I kind of got the impression maybe that she felt like she was shouldering more of the stereotypical child rearing and housework kind of thing.”
MacAusland was listed as an acupuncturist with New England Integrated Health, which removed her bio from their website.
Her profile said she also worked at Mass General Hospital and founded Boston Acupuncture Trauma Relief in response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Wellesley’s census last year reports that homes average around $1.5 million, with a population of just 30,000 in the town, located about 15 miles west of Boston. A 2023 report ranked the college town among the safest cities in America, citing an extremely low crime rate.
The national domestic abuse helpline offers support for women on 0808 2000 247, or you can visit the Refuge website. There is a dedicated men’s advice line on 0808 8010 327. Those in the US can call the domestic violence hotline on 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
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