A suburban Massachusetts mother has been charged with the murder of her two young children, authorities confirmed. Janette MacAusland, a 49-year-old acupuncturist, was arrested as a fugitive in Vermont on Saturday, following the discovery of her children’s bodies in Wellesley, an affluent Boston suburb often ranked among the safest cities in the United States.
Police found 7-year-old Kai and 6-year-old Ella deceased inside their home after Vermont’s Bennington Police Department requested a welfare check around 9:30 p.m. on Friday. The causes of death have not yet been released. MacAusland is being held in a Vermont jail pending a court appearance scheduled for Monday.
Court records indicate 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 subsequently filed a counterclaim for custody and the family home. The children attended Schofield Elementary School, where Kai was in second grade and Ella in kindergarten. Superintendent David Lussier announced that counselors would be available at the school on Monday to support students and staff, describing the incident as “an unimaginable loss.”
Cale Darrah, a former babysitter for the family who worked with them until June 2024, told the Boston Globe that the children appeared happy and well cared for. “Never did I enter the house and feel like there was anything that was extremely off,” she said. In another interview with Boston 25 News, Darrah added: “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 described MacAusland as a doting and detail-oriented mother but noted that she seemed to bear most of the childcare and household responsibilities.
MacAusland was listed as an acupuncturist with New England Integrated Health, which has since removed her bio from its website. Her profile indicated she also worked at Mass General Hospital and founded Boston Acupuncture Trauma Relief in response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Wellesley, located about 15 miles west of Boston, has a population of approximately 30,000 and an average home value of $1.5 million. A 2023 report ranked the college town among the safest in America due to its extremely low crime rate.
