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An acupuncturist mother accused of killing her two young children at her Massachusetts home and fleeing to Vermont broke down in sobs as she was ordered held without bail.
Janette MacAusland, 49, nervously clasped her hands as she was arraigned on two charges of first-degree murder in Dedham District Court on Wednesday for killing her children, Kai, 7, and Ella, 6, last month, CBS Boston reported.
McAusland began to shed tears and appeared visibly shaken after a judge ordered her held without bail at a women’s correctional facility in Chicopee, Mass. A not guilty plea was entered on her behalf.
The alleged killer mom — wearing a gray sweatshirt, a messy bun and a scabbed-over cut on her neck — began sobbing as an officer escorted her out of the courtroom, according to footage provided by the outlet.
Prosecutors recounted in court that MacAusland showed up “hysterical” with a large gash on her throat at her aunt’s home in Bennington on April 24, roughly 140 miles away from her Wellsely manse.
After her aunt brought her inside, MacAusland allegedly told her aunt that she had tried to kill herself and admitted to killing her kids, prosecutors added.
A large scar from the cut was still visible on MacAusland’s neck in court on Wednesday.
When police arrived at the home, she confirmed to two officers that she murdered her children, authorities alleged in court.
Wellesley police then rushed to the family’s $1.5 million home and, upon arriving, found the bodies of the two kids. An officer noted there was “blood spatter everywhere” in the dispatch audio during the welfare check.
MacAusland, who was an acupuncturist with New England Integrated Health, had been fighting to get custody of the children after her husband filed for divorce last October after nine years of marriage.
The children’s father, Samuel MacAusland, was seeking custody of the couple’s children and home, court filings show.
That appeared to have come to a head in April when the parents filed a motion to have a third party make recommendations on custody – with a guardian being appointed on April 21, just three days before the slayings.
The children were in kindergarten and second grade at Schofield Elementary School.
The MacAuslands appeared to be a happy family in photos online, with people who knew them describing Janette as a “doting mom.”
Their former babysitter, Cale Darrah, told Boston25 the kids were well cared for and “full of life and laughter.”
McAusland will appear in court again on July 13.
English (US)