Janette MacAusland
Charged, not convicted. Janette MacAusland has been indicted on two counts of first-degree murder and is presumed innocent. She remains held without bail.
Introduction
Janette R. MacAusland is a 49-year-old Wellesley, Massachusetts acupuncturist and massage therapist charged with murdering her two young children, seven-year-old Kai and six-year-old Ella, in the family’s home in April 2026 . On October 19, 2026, a Norfolk County grand jury indicted her on two counts of first-degree murder, the development that moved one of the Boston area’s most closely watched criminal cases from district court to the superior court docket . First-degree murder in Massachusetts carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole upon conviction, and MacAusland is presumed innocent .
Background Information
MacAusland lived on Edgemoor Avenue in Wellesley with her two children, both students at Schofield Elementary School β Kai a second grader, Ella a kindergartner . She worked as an acupuncturist and massage therapist, was affiliated with New England Integrated Health and Massachusetts General Hospital, and founded a group called Boston Acupuncture Trauma Relief after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing . She married the children’s father, Samuel MacAusland, in Costa Rica in February 2016; people who knew the family described her as an attentive parent .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The children were found dead in a bed in the family’s estimated $1.5 million Wellesley home on the night of April 24, 2026, with the charging documents dating the killings to “on or about” April 22 . At the time, MacAusland and Samuel MacAusland were in the middle of a contested divorce and custody dispute β he had filed for custody and control of the home in October 2025, she had counterclaimed, and a guardian ad litem had been appointed days before the children died . That night MacAusland drove to an aunt’s home in Bennington, Vermont, about three hours away, where she arrived bleeding from a gash across her throat and, in the words of the affidavit, “highly distraught,” and told her aunt she had killed the children; per the affidavit she said she “wanted the 3 of us to go to God together but it didn’t work” and had driven to the Quechee Gorge Bridge and tried to jump but could not . When Bennington police arrived, she told an officer: “I strangled them and then I tried to kill myself,” according to the documents, and Wellesley officers checking the home found Ella and Kai dead shortly before 10 p.m.
The case’s central open question was answered the week of the indictment: coroners determined the children died from mechanical asphyxia and the combined effects of substances including zolpidem, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and lorazepam, and their deaths were ruled a homicide β findings revealed Wednesday, two days after the grand jury indicted her . Earlier, at a May 2026 arraignment in Dedham District Court, a not-guilty plea was entered on her behalf, and on September 10 her lawyer, Joseph Krowski Jr., asked a judge to dismiss the charges or set bail β a complaint about the wait on the medical examiner, since bail is effectively unavailable on a first-degree murder charge β and was refused; Krowski raised the Lindsay Clancy case in arguing his client had a history of mental illness that prosecutors should weigh differently .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case drew sustained local and national coverage from April 2026 onward β the Globe, NBC Boston, CBS Boston, Boston 25 and other outlets have reported on it at each court date β amplified by the custody dispute that surrounded it and by the children’s ages . The family’s former babysitter, Cale Darrah, told reporters after the arrest: “Never could I have imagined that she would do something like this. She seemed to just deeply love her children like any other mother” . Her professional identity as a practitioner who founded a trauma-relief group after the Marathon bombing made the allegations against her a striking contrast that coverage has returned to .
Current Status
MacAusland was indicted on October 19, 2026 and remains held without bail at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee; her arraignment in Norfolk Superior Court is set for November 3, 2026, with a hearing also listed for October 29 . The charges are unadjudicated, and she is presumed innocent .
Impact on Their Career/Life
MacAusland’s acupuncture and massage practice and her hospital affiliation are effectively ended by her incarceration. A first-degree murder conviction in Massachusetts would carry a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole β the outcome prosecutors will seek across from a defense whose early filings have already previewed a mental-health dimension .