A New Hampshire family of four was found dead inside their Madbury home in what officials believe was a murder-suicide, leaving a three-year-old child as the sole survivor.
Ryan Long, 48, his wife Emily Long, 34, and their children Parker, 8, and Ryan, 6, were discovered Monday night after a 911 call reported multiple deaths at the residence, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
The couple’s three-year-old child was found alive and unharmed and is now in the care of relatives.
Neighbors described the family as close and seemingly happy. “It was shocking,” said Bevy Ketel to WBZ-TV. “It was a perfect family as far as we knew. It’s just shocking. We didn’t see it coming.”
Authorities said the victims appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene. A firearm was recovered near the bodies.
Investigators are treating the case as a possible murder-suicide while awaiting autopsy results. “One of the biggest questions they have right now is motive, why?” Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati told WCAX. “And I think that’s probably one of the more difficult things that they are trying to grasp to understand how this came to be.”
Emily Long, who worked as director of operations at the restaurant chain Wing-Itz, frequently posted online about her personal struggles as her husband battled terminal cancer. Ryan Long, a school psychologist at Oyster River Middle School in Durham, had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
In a TikTok video shared two days before the discovery, Emily spoke to her nearly 8,000 followers about the difficulties her family faced. She said her children were “definitely struggling” and admitted she had been “really depressed” while trying to maintain healthy routines at home.
“I am determined to create normalcy,” Emily said in the video. “I have been struggling so much and really depressed and just have really become reclusive, and just wanted to be with my kids and my husband. That being said, I’m making a change and it is starting today … And I’m making a point to get out my depression and do this for my family.”
The investigation into the deaths remains ongoing.
