Overview
- Janette MacAusland waived extradition in a Vermont courtroom Monday and remains held without bail as authorities prepare to return her to Massachusetts to face two murder charges.
- Police say a welfare check requested from Bennington, Vermont led Wellesley officers to find Ella, 6, and Kai, 7, dead inside their Edgemoor Avenue home around 9:50 p.m. Friday.
- A Bennington police report says MacAusland arrived at her aunt’s house highly distraught with a neck wound and told her and officers, "I strangled them and then I tried to kill myself," which Wellesley police later corroborated by finding the children in a bed.
- Court filings show a contentious divorce and custody fight, with a guardian ad litem appointed April 21 to investigate and advise the court on parenting and custody arrangements.
- Investigators have not released a cause of death or a motive, and a judge granted prosecutors’ request to impound the police report until late October as the multi-state investigation continues.