A Massachusetts acupuncturist’s two young children were ordered to be removed from her and put into the custody of a court-appointed legal guardian just one day before she allegedly strangled them to death, according to court docs.
Janette MacAusland, 49, was in the middle of a messy divorce in which her estranged husband was requesting sole custody of 7-year-old Kai and 6-year-old Ella, as well as their $1.5 million home in the Boston suburb of Wellesley.
Probate and family court records reviewed by Masslive.com show that a judge appointed a psychologist as legal guardian for the kids last Tuesday.
MacAusland allegedly killed the kids the next day, according to cops.
Estranged husband Samuel MacAusland, 62, had been locked in a bitter divorce and custody battle that began when he filed for a divorce last October, citing an “irretrievable breakdown.”
Earlier this month, both parents requested that a court-appointed professional “investigate the issues of legal custody and parenting plan issues…in order to formulate recommendations and write a report for the court,” court docs reportedly showed.
An investigator spent roughly 35 hours reviewing the family situation and conducting interviews before submitting recommendations to the judge, who ultimately appointed Dr. Dante Spetter as guardian for the kids.
Circumstances surrounding the demise of the MacAusland’s nine-year marriage, and why neither of them were appointed custody, remain unclear.
Pictures from happier times in their marriage show the couple – who tied the knot in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, in February 2016 – posing together on “date night” and spending quality time with their kids.
In one Instagram post from June 20, 2021, MacAusland uploaded a sweet photo of her husband in bed with the kids, alongside the caption: “Happy Father’s Day to every dad that shows up. And this one, shows up BIGTIME!”
Samuel MacAusland did not respond to requests for comment.
Kai and Ella were dead by April 22 – days before Wellesley police found their bodies in a bed inside their home, according to court docs in the double-murder case against their mother.
Cops made the horrifying discovery after the disgraced acupuncturist – who fled to her aunt’s Bennington, Vermont, home on April 24 – reportedly confessed to authorities there that her kids were in her bed at home.
“I strangled them and then I tried to kill myself,” MacAusland also told Vermont cops who were called to her family member’s house.
The “hysterical” woman had shown up out of the blue to her aunt’s home – 140 miles away from where she allegedly killed her children – around 9:15 p.m., and banged on the windows until her startled relative, Sandra Mattison, finally recognized her niece and brought her inside – where MacAusland made a chilling admission, Mattison later told cops.
“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,” Mattison reportedly told police, adding that MacAusland had driven to Quechee Gorge “and tried to jump off the bridge but could not do it.”
Mattison told cops her niece, who had bloody wounds across her throat, told her: “I wanted the three of us to go to God together but it didn’t work.”
MacAusland, who was an acupuncturist with New England Integrated Health, is being held at Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Vermont, where she faces a fugitive from justice charge.
Authorities are seeking to extradite her to Massachusetts to answer to the murder charges, though no date has been set for her arraignment.
MacAusland “decided that the best thing is to get back to Massachusetts as soon as possible and address these charges,” her attorney, Jeff Rubin, reportedly said.
Her next court appearance in the Vermont case is May 11.