Jeanne A. Seto

Jeanne A. Seto was a 36 year old woman from New Hampshire who became the subject of state and national news coverage not for a career or public role, but for the circumstances of her death in an encounter with police. Before October 2026 she was not a public figure. Reporting since her death has built a picture of a mother with a documented history of mental illness who had recently given birth and who was, at the time she died, without stable housing.

Less than two weeks after giving birth to a baby girl at Concord Hospital, Jeanne Seto, 36, was fatally shot by law enforcement in Bath on the evening of October 8, 2026, during a confrontation that involved a vehicle pursuit, and she died of multiple gunshot wounds.

She had been living without stable housing in Concord before her death.

Given her history of mental illness and the newborn's arrival on October 2, her mother, Sonja Kull, agreed to take Jeanne and the baby in temporarily after child protective services objected to Seto taking the infant to live on the streets.

Seto, her husband Ashton, and the baby moved into Kull's home in Bath on October 5.

A family dispute set the final sequence of events in motion.

Seto packed up and left Bath for Concord with her family, and Kull called the police once they had gone.

State and local police then responded to a report that Seto was armed and driving back toward Bath to confront a family member with whom she had a dispute, locating her vehicle on Route 112 at about 7 p.m.

Seto did not comply with commands to stop, and the pursuit ended after police deployed a spike strip just south of the intersection of Route 112 and Route 302.

When officers approached the vehicle, they allegedly found her armed with a handgun.

An autopsy by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Seto died of multiple gunshot wounds, and her manner of death was ruled a homicide.

No police officers were injured in the incident.

It took the New Hampshire Attorney General's office three weeks to publicly name the officers who fired, a step taken under the state's standard protocol for reviewing police use of deadly force.

The officers who discharged their firearms were New Hampshire State Police Trooper Brandyn Humberstone and Trooper Juan Vargas, along with Lincoln Police Sergeant Kris Lowe.

A report on whether the officers' use of deadly force was justified is expected once the investigation is complete.

Seto's mother has publicly challenged the official account, saying officers who already knew her daughter struggled with mental illness did too little to get her help earlier that day. Kull said officers who intercepted Seto in Concord gave her

no transfer to a hospital, no search of the vehicle for a firearm

, and instead

took the newborn, handed her to child protective services, and let Seto and her husband drive away

. She has said she believes the outcome might have been different

if law enforcement had acted differently, and if they had seen Seto as more than a woman living on the streets of Concord

. The investigation into the shooting remains open, and no findings on the justification of the officers' actions had been released as of late October 2026.