The shocking murder-suicide of a New Hampshire family earlier this month has left a community reeling and investigators piecing together the layers of turmoil that preceded the tragedy.
Emily Long, 34, was found dead inside her family’s home alongside her husband, Ryan Long, 48, and two of their children, eight-year-old Parker and six-year-old Ryan.
Their youngest child, just three years old, was discovered unharmed inside the house. The Independent reported that Emily shot her husband and children before turning the gun on herself.
Ryan, a respected psychologist and professor, had been battling glioblastoma (an aggressive brain cancer with a grim prognosis) for less than a year before his death.
In recent months, Emily had shared raw and emotional updates on TikTok, documenting the family’s struggle with his diagnosis and her own declining mental health. In her final video, posted two days before the killings, she admitted feeling consumed by depression but insisted she was determined to “create normalcy” for her children, per WCAX.
As investigators probed the family’s background, they uncovered another troubling detail: Emily was accused of embezzling more than $600,000 from her employer, a local chicken wing restaurant chain where she worked as Director of Operations. Her boss, Derek Fisher, told local outlets that he reported the alleged theft to police just one week before the family was found dead, according to the Daily Mail.
Fisher said he had noticed discrepancies in company finances, including handwritten checks deposited into Emily’s personal account. When confronted in June, Emily stalled for weeks before providing incomplete and allegedly doctored bank statements. On August 11, the day the two were supposed to meet at her bank, Emily abruptly resigned by text message and was not heard from again.
“She gave me three options; that she resign, continue remotely, or that I terminate her,” Fisher said. “I felt I had no other choice than to go to law enforcement.”
Following the deaths, Fisher stressed that he has no interest in recovering the missing money and instead hopes any remaining assets go to the couple’s surviving child. “Anything that’s left should go to that child; he deserves all of it,” he said.
The medical examiner later ruled Ryan and the two children’s deaths as homicides and Emily’s as suicide, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice. Investigators have since acknowledged both the family’s financial troubles and Ryan’s health crisis as possible stressors leading up to the tragedy, though they caution against pointing to a single motive.
“Homicide and suicide is usually much, much more complex than just one reason,” Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati said. “There’s still more information we’re trying to gather to narrow down different things.”
The case remains under investigation as loved ones and the broader community struggle to make sense of the devastating loss.