Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A New Hampshire mother, Emily Long, shared a series of troubling videos on social media before allegedly shooting her family members.
Authorities arrived at the scene in the rural town of Madbury on Monday (August 18) and found the 34-year-old had reportedly shot her terminally ill husband Ryan, 48, and their children, Parker, eight, and Ryan Jr., six. Another child was discovered unharmed at the location.
According to autopsy findings, the local medical examiner determined that Emily also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Leading up to this tragic event, Emily appeared to use social media to cope with her husband’s health decline; he was suffering from an aggressive brain tumor called glioblastoma.
Emily had been posting on TikTok in recent months, but the video is no longer available. She shared with her followers that the children were ‘definitely struggling’ and that she had been ‘depressed’ recently.
“All I want to do is hide under a blanket with my kids, but that isn’t healthy for them and it’s not healthy for me,” she said while wearing sunglasses.
“Today I decided I need to make a conscious effort to shift my mindset. I’m getting out of this depression whether I want to or not. I am determined to create normalcy.
“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.”
Emily, who was a director of operations for a restaurant chain, concluded: “And I’m making a point to get out of my depression and do this for my family.”
In earlier videos, the mother-of-three discussed the difficult task of explaining Ryan’s school psychologist diagnosis to their children.
“Want to watch someone actually fall apart before your very eyes? I swear, this cancer will be the thing that breaks me,” read one of her captions.
A spokesperson from the New Hampshire Department of Justice stated: “Based upon the information available at this time, it appears that in the early morning hours of Monday, August 18, 2025, Ms. Long took a handgun from the home and caused the deaths of Ryan Long and her two children, Parker and Ryan, and then took her own life immediately thereafter.”
As reported by the Daily Mail, authorities have noted that ‘while investigators are becoming aware of various concerns/issues ongoing in the household at the time of the event in question, people should avoid speculating that this event was caused by a single reason or stressor’.
New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati told WCAX: “One of the biggest questions they have right now is motive, why? 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.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.