Overview
- Janette MacAusland pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Dedham District Court to two counts of first-degree murder and was ordered held without bail.
- The judge approved a defense request to house her at the women’s correctional center in Chicopee, and she is due back in court July 13.
- Police say she went to her aunt’s home in Bennington on April 24 with a neck wound and said she had killed Ella, 6, and Kai, 7, which led to a welfare check in Wellesley.
- Wellesley officers found the children dead in a bed at the Edgemoor Avenue home, and a Vermont report says she told police she strangled them before trying to kill herself; authorities have not released the official cause or manner of death.
- Court records show an active divorce and a recent appointment of a guardian ad litem to review custody, adding family-court context to the criminal case.