Toxicology results show a cocktail of sedative-like drugs may have played a part in the strangulation deaths of two Massachusetts children allegedly killed by their own mother in what is yet another case of a mom charged with the homicides of her own defenseless kids.
Janette MacAusland, 49, has been indicted by a Norfolk County grand jury on two counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of her children Ella MacAusland, 6, and Kai Macusland, 7, in their home in the Boston suburb of Wellesley in April.
Cause of death for 2 young children allegedly killed by acupuncturist mom Janette MacAusland revealed https://t.co/RpW8IzMgtt pic.twitter.com/dcKyy1XHfK
— New York Post (@nypost) October 22, 2026
Now, according to results released by the county medical examiner two days after the indictment, autopsies revealed the deaths were not only by "mechanical asphyxia" but also the "combined effects of substances including zolpidem, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and lorazepam," the Boston Globe reported this week.
Two of the drugs are common, over-the-counter pain killers branded as Advil and Tylenol. But Zolpidem, known by the brand name Ambien, is a prescription sleep medication, while Lorazepam, known as Ativan, is used to treat anxiety.
It was not revealed why the children were apparently given the drugs. However, one possibility is that MacAusland, who worked as an acupuncturist, was trying to reduce the emotional impact of the homicides on children by drugging them until they were unconscious or seriously impaired before they were strangled.
Prosecutors allege that the Massachusetts mother killed the children "on or about" April 22 before fleeing to her aunt's house in Bennington, Vermont, showing up "distraught" and confessing that she had murdered the children, the Globe reported.
Two days later, police discovered the kids deceased in a bed inside the family's house after they were alerted by Vermont authorities and did a welfare check.
According to the Globe's report:
MacAusland allegedly told investigators she strangled the children and tried to kill herself, hoping they could all "go to God together but it didn't work." When authorities took her into custody in Vermont, MacAusland had a large gash on her throat and had attempted suicide. She also told police she had driven to the Quechee Gorge Bridge in central Vermont and tried to jump but couldn't bring herself to do it, according to the report.
MacAusland was going through a contentious divorce with the children's father at the time of the killings. Her husband filed for divorce in October 2025, seeking full custody of the children and control of the family's Wellesley home, court records show.
MacAusland allegedly admitted to the killings when cops were called to the Bennington residence, the New York Post reported, citing court documents.
"I strangled them and then I tried to kill myself," she allegedly told police.
As Breitbart News has been reporting, the MacAusland indictment is yet another in a series of domestic violence cases coming to light in 2026 that involve mothers, many of them millennials, inflicting fatal violence against their own children.
The most publicized has been the televised trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy who admitted to killing her three children by strangulation and blamed postpartum depression; the proceeding ended in a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous decision.
A parent killing their own child is known to criminologists as "filicide."
More than a half dozen cases of mothers across the U.S. committing violence against their own kids, some of them fatally, have emerged in national news outlets, which Breitbart columnist John Nolte has labeled "Lindsay Clancy Social Contagion."
Whether it is an actual trend in criminal pathology or cases are just being found and publicized nationally to garner clicks and capitalize on the massive national interest in the Clancy case remains to be analyzed and determined by criminologists.
The MacAusland case bears eerie similarities to the Clancy homicides which had occurred two years earlier in January of 2023. Both are Massachusetts mothers. Both were accused of strangling the children. Both allegedly attempted suicide by cutting themselves afterwards. Clancy jumped from a second story window in her purported suicide attempt. MacAusland couldn’t bring herself to jump from the bridge.
MacAusland has entered pleas of not guilty to two counts of murder in Dedham District Court and is being held without bail.
Her arraignment in Norfolk County Superior Court is scheduled for Nov. 3.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
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