TWO DAYS AFTER THE CLANCY MISTRIAL, ANOTHER MASSACHUSETTS MOTHER ACCUSED OF KILLING HER CHILDREN ASKED FOR HER CASE TO BE DISMISSED. THE JUDGE SAID NO.
TWO DAYS AFTER THE CLANCY MISTRIAL, ANOTHER MASSACHUSETTS MOTHER ACCUSED OF KILLING HER CHILDREN ASKED FOR HER CASE TO BE DISMISSED. THE JUDGE SAID NO.
If you followed the Lindsay Clancy trial with me, you need to read this right now. Because just days after that jury deadlocked, another Massachusetts mother charged with killing her children was in court asking for her case to be dismissed. And her attorney is explicitly invoking the Clancy case in his arguments.
Let me give you the full background first.
On the night of April 24th, 2026, Janette MacAusland, 49, showed up at her aunt’s home in Bennington, Vermont. She was covered in blood and had a large, bloody gash on her throat. Her aunt initially did not even recognize her. When she finally calmed her niece down enough to get some information, Janette told her she had killed her children and tried to take her own life. She told her she’s hoped they could all go to God together but it did not work.
Bennington police contacted Wellesley, Massachusetts police and asked them to do a welfare check at the MacAusland family home. Officers arrived and found the bodies of Janette’s two children inside. Ella MacAusland was 6 years old. Kai MacAusland was 7 years old. The cause and manner of their deaths have not been publicly released.
Janette MacAusland was arrested in Vermont, where she had a visible wound on her neck that she told police was self-inflicted. She was extradited to Massachusetts and arraigned on May 6th, 2026, where she pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. She was held without bail. At the time of the killings, Janette and her husband were in the middle of a divorce and custody dispute.
Now here is the update that just happened today.
A probable cause hearing was held Thursday, September 10th, at Dedham District Court. But prosecutors told the court they are still waiting on the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s official findings on how Ella and Kai died. Nearly five months after those children were found dead, there is still no official cause or manner of death determination from the medical examiner.
MacAusland’s attorney Joseph Krowski Jr. called that delay a “pretty startling concession” from prosecutors. He asked the court to either dismiss the case entirely or release Janette on bail, arguing the prosecution cannot move forward without the medical examiner’s findings. The judge denied both requests. MacAusland will remain held without bail and is due back in court on October 29th.
Then Krowski said something outside the courthouse that I think is going to generate a lot of conversation. He told reporters that his client is “not Lindsay Clancy 2.0.” But then he added: “There’s been a discussion, a discourse opened up in this country about whether or not we want to criminalize mental illness. I’m hoping that this district attorney’s office, and the new district attorney-elect, takes a look at this, and takes a different approach in how we prosecute women suffering from profound mental health problems.”
He is not saying she did not do it. He is asking whether the criminal justice system should treat mothers who kill their children during mental health crises the same way it treats premeditated killers. That is the exact same question that the Lindsay Clancy jury just spent weeks wrestling with, and walked away from deadlocked.
The Lindsay Clancy trial ended in a mistrial on September 8th after the jury could not reach a verdict. Two days later, Janette MacAusland’s attorney is standing outside a Massachusetts courthouse invoking that deadlock in his arguments. These two cases are now explicitly connected in the public and legal conversation.
Ella was 6 years old. Kai was 7 years old
