An exhausted mom whose husband was dying of cancer said she was ‘withering away’ during a tragic downward spiral in the days before killing her family in a murder suicide.
Emily Long, 34, shot her two eldest children, eight-year-old Parker and six-year-old Ryan, dead in the early hours of Monday morning inside their stunning New Hampshire home.
She also fired several fatal shots at her husband Ryan, 48, before ultimately turning the gun on herself. The couple’s youngest child, aged three, was unharmed.
In the family’s final days, Emily discussed their rapidly deteriorating situation on her TikTok channel, admitting she ‘knew that [she] needed to’ seek therapy after others had encouraged it.
Her husband was battling glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer with a median survival rate of just 12 to 15 months post-diagnosis.
‘I feel very, very lonely. I feel so anxious… I know that I need to see a therapist, I know that I need to ask for help… but I’m not ready to acknowledge that, I think,’ she confessed in a video shared just two weeks ago.
‘I feel so guilty that I’m not ready to get help yet, but… it is what it is, right? I know that I will one day, and I hope that I make the decision before I feel that it’s too late.’
Emily said in the same video that she could ‘feel [herself] withering away’ with the knowledge that ‘this isn’t going away, this is only going to get worse.’
And as her husband’s condition worsened, Emily opened up about the realization that she could one day become a single parent to three traumatized children.
‘I’m doing all the bed times and by the time I’m saying goodnight to my third kid it hits me that this is going to be every single night at some point for the rest of my life,’ she said.
‘Where I’m doing all three bedtimes alone, and then I shut the door to the final kid and I’m totally by myself and I have no one to talk about my day with.’
Emily said despite trying to remain positive, she also had to ‘plan to be a widow, and plan to support your family on one income and to be a single parent of three kids and juggle all the things that come with that.
‘I’m mourning my husband, I’m mourning my marriage and it’s still there. It’s very confusing and it’s very overwhelming.’
In her last video, shared just two days before their deaths, Emily explained that she and her children had been struggling with her husband’s diagnosis, but that she was committed to improving her mental health.
‘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.
‘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,’ she added.
‘I am determined to create normalcy.’
After days of speculation about the manner of deaths, autopsy findings released on Wednesday night confirmed that Emily fired the fatal shots.
She died by a single gunshot wound to the head, determined to be suicide.
Her two children each died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head, ruled by the medical examiner as homicides.
Emily’s husband suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and his death has also been ruled a homicide.
The medical examiner told the Daily Mail ‘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.
‘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.’
Authorities had received a 911 call reporting multiple deaths inside the home. When they arrived about 8.21pm, they found the three-year-old child inside the home, unharmed.
The surviving child is now in the custody of family as the investigation continues.
Long was a psychologist at Oyster River Middle School in Durham, while Emily worked as director of operations at restaurant chain Wing-Itz.
One of Long’s friends shared a moving tribute to the late father on Wednesday, writing: ‘As a psychologist, Ryan had a remarkable ability to understand and connect with people, offering wisdom and support to those in need.
‘His sense of humor brought joy to everyone around him, making even the toughest days a little brighter.
If you or someone you know needs support, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.