In Madbury, New Hampshire, a serene Monday evening was shattered by a devastating discovery that has left the community reeling. On August 18, 2025, shortly after 8:20 p.m., New Hampshire State Police responded to a chilling 911 call from a home on Moharimet Drive, a peaceful residential street in this small town just 15 miles northwest of Portsmouth. The caller’s report was grim: several people were deceased inside the residence. What troopers found upon entering the home was a scene of unimaginable loss—a family of four, gunned down in what investigators now believe was a tragic murder-suicide. Amid the heartbreak, a lone toddler was found alive, miraculously unharmed, offering a flicker of hope in an otherwise dark moment.

The victims, identified by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday, August 19, were Emily Long, 34, and Ryan Long, 48, along with their two children, 8-year-old Parker Long and 6-year-old Ryan Long. Each of the deceased bore gunshot wounds, their lives extinguished in the very place meant to be their sanctuary. Pronounced dead at the scene, their deaths have sent shockwaves through Madbury, a town unaccustomed to such violence, located just a short drive from the University of New Hampshire in Durham and about 90 minutes north of Boston. The surviving toddler, whose identity has not been disclosed, is now safely in the care of relatives, a small mercy in the wake of this tragedy.

Attorney General John M. Formella, alongside New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall and Madbury Police Chief Joseph McGann, addressed the public in a somber statement, confirming the grim details. The investigation, still active, points to a potential murder-suicide, though authorities are grappling with the question that haunts every such case: why? “I think investigators still have probably more questions than they have answers,” said Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati. “One of the biggest questions they have right now is motive. Why? And to understand what the sequence of events was like inside that house.” Autopsies, scheduled for Wednesday, August 20, at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Concord, are expected to shed light on the precise cause and manner of death, potentially offering clues to the events that unfolded.

Ryan Long, the father, was a well-known figure in the Madbury community, woven into its fabric through his work as a school psychologist at Oyster River Middle School in nearby Durham and as an adjunct professor at Plymouth State University. A 2017 profile in the Oyster River High School magazine painted a picture of a man who had lived a varied life—graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a communications degree, working in marketing for Sony Pictures in Hollywood, and later returning to his roots in New Hampshire. There, he earned a master’s in mental health counseling from UNH in 2007 and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern Maine in 2015. His career in education began in the Shaker Regional School District in Belmont before he joined Moharimet Elementary School in 2016. To neighbors, he was a familiar and respected presence, a man whose family seemed, to all outward appearances, “perfect.”

“It was shocking,” said Bevy Ketel, a neighbor, in an interview with WBZ-TV. Her voice trembled as she recalled her daughter giving an American Girl doll to 6-year-old Ryan Long, a gesture that now carries the weight of loss. “It’s so sad to think that that little girl is gone,” Ketel said, her words echoing the disbelief felt by many. Ryan Long, she noted, “certainly touched a lot of lives.” Another neighbor, speaking to The Boston Globe, described the visceral pain of witnessing the aftermath—a mother, whose children knew the Long family, shaking with grief as the reality of the tragedy sank in. “Just watching that… I was sick to my stomach,” he said. “I think I still am.”

As police vehicles with flashing lights sealed off Moharimet Drive, the community stood frozen, grappling with the incomprehensible. The New Hampshire State Police and Attorney General’s Office have assured residents there is no ongoing threat to the public, but the heavy police presence lingered into Tuesday, a stark reminder of the investigation’s urgency. Authorities have remained tight-lipped about prior interactions with the family or any history of emergency calls to the home, citing the ongoing probe. The focus now turns to the autopsies, which may provide critical answers to the questions swirling around this tragedy.

In the wake of such loss, officials have urged those struggling with mental health challenges to seek help, emphasizing resources like the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, accessible by calling or texting 988 for free, confidential support from trained counselors. For Madbury, a town where such violence feels like an intrusion from another world, the pain is raw and the healing process only beginning. The loss of Emily, Ryan, Parker, and young Ryan Long has left a void that will not soon be filled, their memory now carried by a grieving community and a toddler who, against all odds, survived.