A Wellesley woman accused of killing her two children before fleeing to Vermont earlier this year was indicted Monday by a Norfolk County grand jury on two counts of first-degree murder, according to court records.
Janette MacAusland, 49, is charged with killing her children, Ella, 6, and Kai, 7, in their Wellesley home. Police found the children dead on the night of April 24 after MacAusland arrived distraught and hysterical at her aunt’s house in southern Vermont, saying she’d killed them, authorities said.
The indictments allege that MacAusland killed the children “on or about” April 22.
The indictment moves the case from Dedham District Court to Norfolk Superior Court, where MacAusland could face life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. She has been held without bail since her arrest.
She is scheduled to be arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court on Nov. 3, according to prosecutors.
MacAusland was going through a contentious divorce with the children’s father at the time of the killings. Court records show her husband filed for divorce in October 2025, seeking full custody of the children and control of the Wellesley home.
The couple had agreed on April 16 to have a court-appointed guardian assigned to represent the children’s best interests, and they were due back in court May 5.
MacAusland appeared in a Vermont courtroom in April and agreed to be returned to Massachusetts to face charges. She was arraigned in Dedham District Court, where she pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.
When authorities in Vermont took MacAusland into custody, she had a large gash on her throat. She said she had tried to kill herself.
In a statement to police, her aunt said MacAusland told her she killed the children.
“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,” the aunt told investigators, according to a police report. “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 said she drove to the Quechee Gorge Bridge in central Vermont and tried to jump but couldn’t, according to the report.
Her aunt called the police, and after authorities arrived, MacAusland pulled out a holiday family photo and handed it to an officer. When the officer asked about the children, MacAusland shook her head from side to side, the report said.
She said she strangled them and tried to kill herself, hoping they could all “go to God together but it didn’t work,” police said.
Officers in Bennington then requested a well-being check at the Wellesley home. The first officer to arrive around 9:50 p.m. entered through an unlocked door and told a dispatcher, “there’s blood spatter,” according to police transmission recordings.
Officers found the siblings “deceased in a bed, corroborating MacAusland’s earlier statements,” police in Bennington wrote.
Material from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.