TikTok ‘brain cancer mom’ Emily Long’s ‘addiction’ revealed, and the only cure she said would be a ‘crime against humanity’

New reporting has revealed that Emily Long, the New Hampshire mother and TikTok creator at the center of an August murder-suicide, once told her employer she had a “shopping addiction” and that being on a budget was “a crime against humanity,” according to The Boston Globe.

Speaking with The Globe, Derek Fisher, owner of the Wing-Itz restaurant chain where Long worked as operations manager, said the comment struck him as emblematic of her financial troubles. “She did shop a lot,” Fisher told the outlet. “There was probably not a time that I didn’t come into my restaurant and have Amazon packages with her name on it. There was definitely that going on.”

The August triple-murder suicide

The remarks came to light just weeks after tragedy struck Long’s Madbury, New Hampshire, home. On August 18, police discovered the 34-year-old dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound alongside her husband, 48-year-old Ryan Long, and their two older children, Parker, 8, and Ryan Jr., 6. Authorities found their youngest child, a toddler, alive and unharmed.

Investigators have not publicly identified a definitive motive, but the case has drawn attention to Long’s financial struggles, mental health challenges, and her carefully curated online persona.

Long’s allegations of financial impropriety

Authorities say that in the weeks before the killings, Long was under investigation for allegedly embezzling about $660,000 from Wing-Itz over several years. On August 11, Fisher told police that Long had diverted company funds into her personal account and manipulated or supplied incomplete financial records. Just seven days later, the murder-suicide occurred.

Long had faced accusations of financial misconduct before. In 2016, while working at a Nantucket brewpub, authorities investigated her for roughly $11,000 in missing cash and alcohol. That case ended with forgery charges dropped after the restaurant closed.

Long’s TikTok account had earned her significant sympathy, where she shared videos about caring for her husband following his brain cancer diagnosis. In posts, she described the depression, anxiety, and loneliness she felt as a caregiver and spoke candidly about financial pressures. In the days leading up to the tragedy, she advertised household items for sale online and posted cryptic comments about not being able to ignore her troubles any longer.