Mom In Murder-Suicide Accused of Embezzlement One Week Before Killing Husband, Kids and Herself

A man suffering from terminal brain cancer, 48-year-old Ryan Long, was found dead alongside his wife, 34-year-old Emily, and two of their children — son Parker Long, 8, and daughter Ryan Long, 6 — inside their Madbury, New Hampshire home on August 18. The couple’s third child, a 3-year-old, per a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Justice, was found alive and uninjured.

All four were pronounced dead at the scene, with autopsies leading authorities to the conclusion that Emily had shot and killed her family members before turning her gun on herself. On her TikTok page, Emily opened up about her life as a mother of three with a husband battling terminal brain cancer in the months before the incident.

The AG’s Office reported that Emily took a handgun and shot her husband multiple times, and her two oldest children once each in the head, before immediately killing herself. A gun was recovered nearby.

According to reports from The Boston Globe, WCVB and WMUR, Long’s boss, Derek Fisher, filed a police complaint against her on August 11 — one week before the murder-suicide. In it, he accused her of stealing around $600,000 from his business for about a year and a half — with funds missing even before her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

Long reportedly worked as the Director of Operations of Wing-Itz, a local chicken wing chain.

“There’s really no answer as far as I know. I don’t have any answers as far as where the money went, what she needed it for, what she spent it on,” Fisher said in the complaint. “But I do know that something was wrong. She did do what we’re suspecting her of doing because she’s the only one who had access to any of this money.”

Per the complaint, he and an accountant began noticing discrepancies, saying, “We noticed there were a lot of handwritten checks being deposited into her bank account.” He reportedly asked for three months of her bank statements, receiving them August 5, before being told by the bank that they had been manipulated and pages were missing. Long allegedly had no explanation for the discrepancies — and reportedly told Fisher she could resign or he could fire her.

“Given her circumstances with her husband, I was trying to be considerate and patient,” he added in the complaint, referring to Ryan’s health battle.

Fisher said he won’t be going after the money now — saying, per WCVB, “Anything that’s left should go to that child; he deserves all of it. It’s not fair to him; he didn’t make this happen, and he didn’t deserve this.”

“I don’t want to make this about me,” he added, per WMUR. “It’s about this little boy who has no family anymore. And that is this story right here.”

So far, no single motive has been identified in the murder-suicide.

On her TikTok page, Emily opened up about her life as a mother of three with a husband battling terminal brain cancer. There are approximately 80 videos on the page since April, which has since been marked private, where she discusses her husband’s treatments, as well as her own struggles with depression. She described the page as her “digital diary — it’s cheaper than therapy.”

In some of her recent videos, she discussed the treatments for Ryan’s cancer, as well as his seizures, increased irritability, and their struggles to find the right medicine regimen for him, according to the Globe. She also talked about her struggles with being depressed and her concern for how his illness was impacting their children.

Emily often interacted with her 5,666 followers, per InDepthNH.org, describing them as her support system. The outlet details a post where she thanks them: “This week has been SO hard. I am so beat, we are so beat. I can’t leave my husband alone right now so it’s been a lot. Thankful for every single one of you here for being my sounding board.”

In an April 23 post, Emily reportedly wrote, “Just me, figuring out how to navigate glioblastoma as a spouse and a mom; one brutal day at a time. Dark humor to be included — because if I don’t laugh, I will cry.”

On May 11, Emily’s video caption read, “Want to watch someone actually fall apart before your very eyes? I swear, this cancer will be the thing that breaks me.”

She spoke in separate videos about having to explain to her children what their father’s diagnosis being terminal meant, sharing that her two eldest children understood his condition, as well as the outcome, more so than their youngest, per The Daily Mail.

A recent post saw Emily express her worries about finances and becoming a single parent, per the Daily Democrat. She told her followers she could feel herself “withering away” and acknowledged she needed help and expressed her hopes that she would be ready to seek help before it was “too late.”

In the final post on the page, coming just two days before their deaths, Emily said, “Okay! I’m making strides to get better. 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. 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.”

In the video, which was filmed from inside her vehicle, Emily reportedly said that her children were “definitely struggling” and she’d been “really depressed” as she made strides to bring back healthy habits and normalcy to the family’s home.

“I’m trying to get myself out of the rut,” she said, per the Globe. “Our kids are definitely struggling, and now I’m starting to notice some changes in our 3-year-old.”

“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,” she said. “And I’m making a point to get out of my depression and do this for my family.”

If you or someone you know needs help, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.