Two tragic struggles led New Hampshire murder-suicide mum to slaughter her family

A tormented mum who shot dead her husband and two of their three young children before ending her own life was struggling to cope with both her partner's cancer diagnosis and her job, it is reported.

The bodies of Emily Long, her spouse Ryan and their eight-year-old son Parker and six-year-old daughter, also called Ryan, were found beside a gun at their family home on Monday night. The deaths have left their youngest child - a three-year-old boy - an orphan as he was not shot at the address in Madbury, New Hampshire.

It has now emerged Emily, 34, had just left her job helping run a small chicken wings chain because she was dissatisfied with it. This, coupled with Ryan's brain cancer diagnosis, reportedly became huge struggles for the mum of three, and led to the couple's harrowing decision.

A family friend said: "She had also left her job but was unhappy with her career and they were obviously struggling with money and at risk of losing the house. Emily had a network of friends around her who knew what she was going through and even so were still shocked and caught off guard."

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After killing her two older children each with single bullets, Emily blasted Ryan multiple times before she turned the handgun on herself. The toddler was found wandering around the home by police who arrived at the address three hours after the shootings.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the family friend in Madbury added: "Ryan was bedridden, from what I gather he was undergoing chemotherapy. He was just weak and sick... Emily had been fairly open about struggling with severe depression and not knowing how to explain to the kids that they were going to lose their father."

But it remains a mystery why Emily let her youngest child survive. The little boy is, for now, being cared for by Emily's parents, it is thought. Investigators are probing the circumstances of the shootings.

In the police's latest update, Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati said: "I think the big thing is to not speculate one reason why something like this would happen.

"Homicide and suicide is usually much, much more complex than just one reason. There's still more information we're trying to gather to narrow down different things."

The tragedy has left friends, family and the entire community in utter disbelief asthey mourn the loss of the "beautiful" family. Someone claiming to be a friend of Emily's yesterday expressed their shock as they paid tribute to the couple, calling them "incredible people and parents". They wrote online: "I've known Emily for many years and no one that knows her or Ryan could have ever suspected this would have happened to this beautiful family. They were incredible people and parents, which I know will be difficult for people to understand right now."

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