A toddler has been orphaned in a tragic quadruple murder-suicide that shocked neighbours and shattered the illusion of a “perfect family”. The little boy was found unharmed alongside the unresponsive bodies of his father and mother, Ryan and Emily Young, his eight-year-old brother Parker and his six-year-old sister, also called Ryan, at their home in Madbury, New Hampshire, on Monday.
An autopsy ruled that 48-year-old Ryan and his two children died by homicide and 34-year-old Emily by suicide, after a gun was reportedly discovered at the scene. Amid reports that the incident was linked to Ryan’s brain cancer diagnosis, police have urged against speculation that it was caused by “a single reason or stressor”. Bev Ketel, who lived next to the Youngs, said: “It was a perfect family as far as we knew. [Ryan] certainly touched a lot of lives.” She told WBZ-TV: “He was part of the fabric of our community and his family goes along with it. It’s just shocking. We didn’t see it coming.”
Emily, 34, had been open about her husband’s glioblastoma journey on TikTok. In a video dated May 11, the mum-of-three wrote: “Want to watch someone actually fall apart before your very eyes? I swear, this cancer will be the thing that breaks me.”
In her last social media update, she told followers that she was struggling to “get out of a rut”. She said: “I put makeup on and real clothes for the first time … in God only knows how long.
“I’m trying to get myself out of this rut. I know I’ve said this before, but our kids are definitely struggling.”
She also described becoming “depressed and reclusive” and trying to fight the instincts and “become more social again”.
The youngest of her children has now been put in the care of relatives by social services in Madbury.
Investigations into the incident are ongoing and reports suggest there were “various issues going on inside the household at the time of the killings”.
“One of the biggest questions they have is motive,” New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati told WCAX. “I think that’s probably one of the more difficult things that they are trying to grasp, to understand.”
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