By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
The Madbury woman who killed her husband and two of her three children before killing herself was being investigated for stealing $600,000 from her job.
Emily Long, 34, shot her husband, Ryan Long, 48, multiple times on Aug. 18, and shot her son Parker Long, 8, and daughter Ryan Long, 6, once each in the head, before she then turned the gun on herself in their home. The couple’s youngest child, a three-year-old boy, is currently staying with family, according to officials.
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Emily Long was out of work at the time of the murders after leaving her job at the Wing-Itz chicken wing chain this summer under a cloud of suspicion. Owner Derek Fisher had gone to Hampton Police on Aug. 11 to report his suspicions that Emily Long had been stealing from the business.
“I felt I had no other option than to go to law enforcement,” Derek Fisher, told WMUR. “We noticed there were a lot of handwritten checks being deposited into her bank account.”
Ryan Long, a nine-year school psychologist for the Oyster River Cooperative School District as well as a part-time adjunct instructor in Plymouth State University Graduate Programs since 2022, was suffering from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Ryan Long’s treatment left him irritable and suffering seizures as he worked through different medical options. Glioblastoma is nearly always fatal, and most people with that form of cancer die within a year of diagnosis even with treatment.
Emily Long had been posting videos to TikTok about her family’s struggles through her husband’s illness and treatment. She also spoke about her own depression in the videos. She indicated she was worried about her kids in the final video posted before the murders, titled “Making a Change.”
“I’m trying to get myself out of the rut,” she said. “Our kids are definitely struggling, and now I’m starting to notice some changes in our 3-year-old.”
Emily Long worked as the director of operations for Wingz-It since 2018, before she left this summer. Fisher started to notice a problem with his books in June, and his bookkeeper found numerous checks paid out to Emily Long. When confronted, she did not offer any explanation, Fisher said. He asked to see three months of bank statements, which she eventually provided on Aug. 5, but those records had been doctored and pages of information were missing, Fisher said.
It’s not clear how far back the thefts started, or what Emily Long did with the money, such as paying for cancer treatment for her husband. Fisher told WMUR he has no plans to try and get his money back from the Long estate.
“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. “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.”
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is still gathering facts in its investigation into the murders and the suicide. Whatever the final report says is not likely to change the horrific facts already known.
A TikTok page by EmilyLong41 described herself as a New Hampshire mother of three children whose husband was battling brain cancer. There are about 80 videos of Emily Long mostly talking about her husband’s illness, his treatments, how it affected him and the family and sometimes how it depressed her. She had several thousand followers who often commented and she appeared to consider them a support system.
InDepthNH.org reviewed many of the TikTok postings until it was inaccessible to the public, but Long didn’t appear to mention any immediate legal woes and spoke highly of her boss.
“NH Mom of 3 – Brain Cancer Wife My digital diary – it’s cheaper than therapy.” Long wrote on TikTok.
On April 23, she posted “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.”
One recent posting said it was: “The grand finale! 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.”
One of the last postings 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.”
Citizens in crisis are reminded that they can call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741, according to a prior news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
“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,” the release said.
The four bodies and the lone surviving toddler were found that night at about 8:20 p.m.
A GoFundMe page for the surviving Long child had raised almost $140,000 at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Nancy West contributed to this report.