A funeral service was held for siblings Ella and Kai on May 16 after their mother pleaded not guilty to murder on May 6
Credit: Janette Reber/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- A funeral service honoring two young children allegedly killed by their mom was held at a Massachusetts church on May 16
- The kids’ babysitter remembered their “tragically short lives” and detailed their personalities in an emotional interview with a local news outlet
- Janette MacAusland, 6-year-old Ella and 7-year-old Kai’s mother, pleaded not guilty to murder in court on May 6
A community is mourning the loss of two young children after they were allegedly killed by their own mother.
Janette MacAusland was arrested in Vermont in April, with authorities alleging she killed her kids, Ella, 6, and Kai, 7, in their home in Wellesley, Mass.
Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church held a funeral service for the young siblings on the afternoon of Saturday, May 16.
The emotional service and burial come after the Wellesley church held a vigil for the two young elementary school students — Kai was a second grader and Ella was a kindergartener, both at Schofield Elementary School — in April, according to NBC 10 Boston. Many community members turned out to honor the lives of the little ones, and some, including a former babysitter, also remembered them in an interview with the local outlet.
Cale Darrah, who once babysat for the young siblings, told NBC 10 Boston that Kai and Ella were “full of life” before they were allegedly killed by MacAusland, 49. Prior to their deaths, the pair were “very happy and healthy,” Darrah said, “and seemingly safe in their home.”
Credit: Janette Reber/Instagram
The Massachusetts babysitter also said that she worries the tragic circumstances of the siblings' deaths will overshadow their personalities, which she recalled in the interview.
“I think it's really important for people to remember that they aren't just names and faces and headlines, but they were full people, as little as they were, who had interests and personalities,” Darrah told NBC 10 Boston. “They were happy, healthy children.”
“I don't think anybody should be remembered first and foremost by something that's done to them, especially something so inconceivably tragic,” the babysitter continued, later adding of the siblings: “They were tragically short lives, but they had lives. They had friends.”
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Credit: Bennington Police Department
Darrah described Ella as “very outgoing,” and said the 6-year-old had “a lot of confidence” and maturity for her age. “She was very comfortable with things like the word no and was great at sharing with her brother, things like that,” the babysitter told NBC 10 Boston.
She also described the kindergarten student as a “girly girl” who “loved” the color purple. “And when I would try to braid her hair … she would love that,” Darrah remembered of Ella, adding that the little one would also be “fascinated by my eyeliner.”
As for Ella's older brother, Darrah told the outlet that Kai was more shy. “It took him a little bit longer to open up to me, but he was very sweet,” she said of the 7-year-old, adding that “once he got comfortable with me, his personality really kind of came through.”
“I remember he used to hide my shoes sometimes,” Darrah told the outlet of Kai. She said he also enjoyed reading “books about planes and trains and trucks and things like that.”
“They both also liked to be outside a lot,” she further said of the siblings. “They were always riding their scooters up and down the street.”
MacAusland appeared in court on Wednesday, May 6. She pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, according to The Boston Globe.
The court appearance took place after she allegedly said she killed her children, before attempting suicide by stabbing herself in the neck and intending to jump off a bridge, WFSB, WCVB and The Globe reported, citing police.
According to WFSB, the Massachusetts mother allegedly showed up to her aunt's house in Vermont with a neck wound, acting erratically. “I wanted the three of us to go to God together, but it didn't work,” she reportedly told her aunt.
MacAusland was engaged in a custody dispute with her estranged husband, Samuel, at the time of the alleged killings.
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