WELLESLEY — The woman was distraught, arriving unexpectedly at her aunt’s house in southern Vermont with a bloody gash and a chilling revelation: She had killed her two young children in their Wellesley home before attempting suicide herself.
Janette MacAusland, 49, who allegedly told police she strangled the children, appeared in court in Vermont on Monday, where she agreed to be extradited back to Massachusetts to face murder charges.
A police report in Vermont and court documents reveal new details about the gruesome case, which stunned MacAusland’s community since the children’s bodies were discovered late Friday night, leaving parents of their classmates wondering how to explain an unimaginable tragedy to elementary schoolers.
After the killings, MacAusland allegedly drove to Bennington, and knocked on her aunt’s window. MacAusland then revealed that she’d killed her children, Ella and Kai, ages 7 and 6, according to the police report. She said she tried to kill herself, too, because she wanted the three of them “to go to God together but it didn’t work,” the police report says.
She had a large cut across her throat, according to police.
Many details about the case remain unclear, including an exact timeline of events. It’s also not known whether MacAusland has a history of mental illness.
She was going through a contentious divorce with the children’s father, Samuel MacAusland, who hasn’t made any public statement about the case.
“I don’t know anything about it. I found out yesterday,” said Deborah Whitman, Janette MacAusland’s mother, speaking to the Globe briefly via phone on Monday. “We are not allowed to talk to her. I don’t have anything to say. I’m just in shock.”
Another close relative declined to be interviewed, saying the family was grieving “a giant loss.”
By late Monday afternoon, a memorial was taking shape outside the MacAuslands’ house on Edgemoor Avenue, where people gathered and paid their respects. They laid flowers, stuffed animals and crayons under a tree. “We love you Ella and Kai,” a sign read.
Patti Curran, whose mother used to live down the street, added a heart figurine to the collection. She said she would see the kids riding bikes and drawing with sidewalk chalk when she visited the neighborhood.
“I’ve never been this close to something so tragic. They’re angels now and they’re together,” she said. “The kids at school are not going to understand. The father always had a big smile on his face, waved. It’s just horrible.”
Norfolk county prosecutors asked a court in Mass. Monday to impound the police report on the slayings until late October, according to legal filings. A judge allowed the motion.
In court in Rutland, Vt. MacAusland appeared virtually from jail, wearing a suicide prevention jumpsuit. She repeatedly answered “Yes sir,” to indicate she understood the judge’s statements. While signing court paperwork to waive extradition, she asked a jail staff member for Monday’s date. She also asked the judge to clarify that she was the defendant.
Until she’s extradited to Massachusetts, MacAusland is being held without bail at Marble Valley Correctional Facility following her arrest as a fugitive from justice.
According to the report filed by Bennington police, her aunt, Sandra Mattison, requested assistance Friday night after MacAusland showed up acting “hysterical.”
“Mattison advised that she did not recognize MacAusland at first, only seeing that a female was at her window who had a laceration to her neck,” the report said. “Mattison finally recognized her niece and brought her in the home.”
Mattison said she called police after learning that MacAusland had tried to kill herself, according to the report. While police were en route, MacAusland said she killed the children, the report says.
“After getting her to calm down, I checked her neck and could see that the blood on her was dried. Janette stated that she tried to kill herself,” Mattison wrote in her statement to police. “I asked where her husband was and she said he was at the lake. I asked her where her children were and she told me that she had killed them.”
MacAusland also told her aunt she drove to the Quechee Gorge Bridge in central Vermont and tried to jump, but she couldn’t do it, according to Mattison’s statement. The trip from Wellesley to the bridge and back south to Bennington is estimated to take over four hours.
After authorities arrived at Mattison’s house, MacAusland pulled out a holiday family photo of the two children and handed it to an officer. When the officer asked if the children were all right, the report said, MacAusland shook her head from side to side.
When officers asked her where the children were, McAusland stated, “’I strangled them and then I tried to kill myself,’” and left them in her bed, according to the police report.
Officers in Bennington requested a well-being check at the Wellesley home. When police arrived around 9:50 p.m., they located the siblings “deceased in a bed, corroborating MacAusland’s earlier statements,” the report said.
Court records show Samuel MacAusland filed for divorce in October and sought control of the Wellesley home. The couple married in February 2016 in Costa Rica.
Earlier this month, they agreed to have a court-appointed guardian look after the best interests of the children, with the appointment scheduled to take effect days before their deaths, records show.
“At this time, we don’t have sufficient information regarding the circumstances of what occurred,” said attorney Joana Stathi, who was representing Janette MacAusland in the divorce.
“During the period we have known Ms. MacAusland, she has been a loving, caring and deeply devoted mother,” Stathi said in a statement Monday. “Our hearts go out to the family during this profoundly difficult and tragic event.”
Attempts to reach Samuel MacAusland and other relatives were unsuccessful. His attorney in the divorce proceedings also didn’t respond.
Records show Samuel MacAusland comes from a large family with deep roots in New England. His father, William “Bill” MacAusland Jr., was a prominent orthopedic surgeon in the Boston area.
A 1989 Globe article referred to Samuel MacAusland as a local real estate developer.
Janette MacAusland was listed as an acupuncturist with New England Integrated Health; she previously worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. She founded Boston Acupuncture Trauma Relief in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. She’s also a licensed massage therapist in Massachusetts, records show.
During college, she spent a year in India studying yoga, meditation, and ayurvedic medicine, according to her bio on the Integrated Health website. She volunteered at a hospital there, working “in the physiotherapy unit with children suffering from extrapulmonary tuberculosis, polio, and cerebral palsy,” the bio says.
A friend from acupuncture school told the Globe that MacAusland had contacted him last summer “for advice on separating from her husband.”
“She said he was completely different than how he presented himself to be and that she felt trapped and was miserable,” said Eric Clark, 49, noting that he personally had been through a divorce previously. He said he met MacAusland at the New England School of Acupuncture and dated her briefly in 2012.
Clark said he advised her to “talk to her lawyer, and certainly it’s not worth staying in a marriage that wasn’t fulfilling her.”
He said he learned of her recent arrest through a mutual friend.
“It was a complete shock,” he said, noting how happy she looked in photos posted to social media.
He described MacAusland as friendly to everyone in school.
The MacAusland children were students at Schofield Elementary School.
“Today was an emotional day for our entire district as we grieved the loss of two of our young students,” school Superintendent David Lussier said in a statement Monday night. “By all accounts, Kai and Ella were shining lights, with close connections to children and adults that extended well beyond” their elementary school."
During dismissal Monday afternoon, children filed out of the building.
A police officer escorted some students to a waiting bus. Nearby, a line of parents remained in their cars for pickup, most declining to speak with a reporter. A babysitter was overheard gently telling the children in her care, “It’s so sad, but they’re in heaven.”
Travis Andersen, Shannon Larson and Jeremiah Manion of the Globe Staff and Globe correspondents Hannah Goeke, Nathan Metcalf, and Bryan Hecht contributed.
Paul Heintz can be reached at paul.heintz@globe.com. Follow him on X @paulheintz. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Jeremiah Manion can be reached at jeremiah@globe.com. Sarah Rahal can be reached at sarah.rahal@globe.com. Follow her on X @SarahRahal_ or Instagram @sarah.rahal. Lea Skene can be reached at lea.skene@globe.com. Follow her on X @lea_skene.