A Massachusetts mother charged with killing her two young children was ordered to remain jailed without bail Thursday after a judge rejected defense requests to dismiss the case or release her pending trial.
Janette MacAusland, 49, appeared in court less than a week after a mistrial was declared in the high-profile case of Lindsay Clancy, another Massachusetts mother accused of killing her children. Prosecutors told the court they are still waiting on the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to formally determine the cause and manner of death for MacAusland’s children, according to WCVB.
Defense attorney Joseph Krowski argued that without that determination, the case should be dismissed or MacAusland should be granted bail. The judge denied both requests.
MacAusland is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of her 7-year-old son, Kai, and 6-year-old daughter, Ella. The children were found dead in April inside the family’s home in Wellesley, an affluent Boston suburb in Norfolk County, after police conducted a welfare check.
Arrest in Vermont
MacAusland was arrested in Bennington, Vermont, after arriving at a relative’s home with what police described as a bloody neck wound. Officers in Vermont grew concerned about the welfare of her children and alerted authorities in Wellesley, who then discovered Kai and Ella dead inside the family’s home.
An arrest affidavit previously obtained by Fox News Digital alleges MacAusland confessed to killing the children after arriving at her aunt’s home. According to the affidavit, she told her aunt she had wanted “the three of us to go to God together” before later telling police she had strangled the children and attempted to take her own life. The affidavit also states MacAusland told officers the children could be found in her bed at the family’s Massachusetts home.
Court records previously reviewed by Fox News Digital show that MacAusland’s husband had filed for divorce months before the killings, citing an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and seeking custody of the couple’s two children.
No insanity defense announced
Unlike the Clancy case, which centered on whether postpartum psychosis rendered the defendant legally insane, no such defense has been announced in MacAusland’s case, which remains in its early stages.
MacAusland remains held without bail as prosecutors await the medical examiner’s findings and the case moves forward.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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