Funeral services announced for Wellesley children whose mother is accused of killing them

A funeral service for two Wellesley children who prosecutors say were killed by their mother will be held on Saturday, according to a brief obituary.

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Kai and Ella MacAusland were students at Schofield Elementary School in Wellesley. Their mother, 49-year-old Janette MacAusland, is facing a pair of murder charges in connection with their deaths.

Kai was in second grade and Ella was in kindergarten, according to the obituary. A funeral service for the two children will be held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Wellesley at 2 p.m. on Saturday. A private burial will follow the funeral.

The service will be live-streamed on the church website.

In lieu of flowers, the obituary asks that “expressions of sympathy” be made in Kai and Ella’s memory to the Schofield Parent-Teacher Organization.

Janette MacAusland was arrested at her aunt’s home in Bennington, Vermont, on April 24. That day, police say, she arrived at the home just before 9 p.m. with a cut on her neck.

Police say MacAusland admitted to strangling her children, and said that she attempted to kill herself.

MacAusland told her aunt, “I wanted the 3 of us to go to God together but it didn’t work,” according to a police report.

The killings came as MacAusland and her husband were in the middle of a divorce and custody dispute over the children.

Janette MacAusland is listed as the director of clinical education for New England Integrated Health in Cambridge on her LinkedIn profile. She previously worked there as a full-time associate acupuncturist starting in July 2021.