A “perfect” family of four was found shot to death inside their New Hampshire home in what officials believe was a murder-suicide – that left a toddler orphaned as the massacre’s sole survivor.
Ryan Long, 48, his wife, Emily Long, 34, and their two young children, Parker, 8, and Ryan, 6, were discovered Monday night after authorities received a chilling 911 call reporting multiple deaths inside the family’s Madbury home, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said, WBZ-TV reported.
The couple’s three-year-old child was found alive and unharmed inside the house, and is now in the care of family.
“It was shocking,” neighbor Bevy Ketel told the outlet.
“It was a perfect family as far as we knew. It’s just shocking. We didn’t see it coming.”
Officials said the slain family members appeared to have suffered gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene, where a gun was found near their bodies.
The case is now being probed as a potential murder suicide as authorities await 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.”
While a motive remains unclear, the family’s matriarch — who worked as director of operations at the restaurant chain Wing-Itz, according to her LinkedIn — often posted on social media about her struggles and despair as she coped with her husband’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
Ryan, a school psychologist at Oyster River Middle School in Durham, was reportedly diagnosed with glioblastoma, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer.
In a TikTok posted just two days before police made the horrific discovery, Emily told her nearly 8,000 followers that her children were “definitely struggling” and she herself had been “really depressed” as she tried to restore health habits and normalcy in the home as her husband’s health declined.
“I am determined to create normalcy,” she said in her grim 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 tragedy remains under investigation.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
