DEDHAM, Mass. (Court TV) — Prosecutors revealed new information in the case against a woman charged with killing her two children as they announced the defendant had been indicted on murder charges.
Janette MacAusland appears in court on May 6, 2026. (Court TV)
Janette MacAusland, 49, is expected to be arraigned on two charges of first-degree murder on Nov. 3. She previously pleaded not guilty through tears to two charges of murder in a lower court before the grand jury’s indictment.
Prosecutors previously revealed that MacAusland was arrested in Vermont after arriving at her aunt’s home, where she appeared “hysterical” while knocking on a window. The aunt reported to police that the defendant, who had a large cut to her throat, had confessed to killing her children. The aunt told police that MacAusland said, “I wanted the three of us to go to God together, but it didn’t work,” WCVB reported.
When police arrived, MacAusland allegedly repeated the confession, saying that she killed her daughter, Ella, 6, and son, Kai, 7. Officers asked Wellesley, Massachusetts, police to check on the children at MacAusland’s home. Wellesley officers reported finding the two children dead inside the home.
The children’s causes of death were not immediately released; at a September hearing in which MacAusland was denied bond, prosecutor Jennifer Hickman said the medical examiner had not yet been able to determine how the victims died. Hickman said the grand jury had already heard the case but would reconvene once the medical examiner’s report came in.
MacAusland’s indictment, reviewed by Court TV, alleges that the defendant “did assault and beat [both children], with intent to murder [them] and by such assault and beating did kill and murder [the children].”
In an interview with police after her arrest, MacAusland allegedly said, “I strangled them and tried to kill myself,” and said the children would be in her bed, which is where they were found, WBTS reported.
The children’s deaths came months after MacAusland’s estranged husband, the father of the children, had filed for divorce, citing an “irretrievable breakdown” in the marriage. In his filing, the children’s father requested custody of the kids. The children were killed just days after the court appointed someone to investigate the family’s custody situation, WBTS reported.
After hearing of the children’s deaths, the family’s babysitter told WBZ that she was shocked by the news. “She just seemed to deeply love her children, like any other mother that I’ve come across,” the babysitter said.
