American man murders wife, mother-in-law, 5 children before committing suicide
An American father who killed himself after murdering his five kids, wife, and mother-in-law left a suicide note in which he confessed that he’d rather “rot in hell” than deal with a “manipulative” wife.
Michael Haight, 42, fatally shot his wife, her mother, and the couple’s five kids on January 4 after he was investigated for child abuse. In the suicide note Haight left, he claimed his wife Tausha had driven him to violence, saying, “This is nonsense and I can’t handle it for one more day. We will not be a burden on society. I kept asking for help and you wouldn’t listen. I would rather rot in hell than to put up with another day of this manipulation and control over me”.
Despite investigations showing he was the abuser in the family and his wife was the victim, Haight blamed his wife in the note, even though she had planned to file for divorce from her controlling husband when he exterminated her and the rest of their family.
Also murdered by Haight were his daughters Macie, Briley, Sienna, and sons Ammon and Gavin, as well as Tausha’s mother Gail Early, 78.
Haight’s attorney, Matt Munson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The report builds off documents released after the murder-suicide that detailed how Haight removed firearms from the home, was investigated on suspicion of child abuse, and searched online for “gunshot in a house” in the lead-up to the shootings.
Caseworkers were at the Haight house in the small town of Enoch on Dec. 19, two weeks before Michael Haight fatally shot his wife, their five children, and his wife’s mother before killing himself, show the Utah Division of Child and Family Services case documents obtained by the Deseret News through a public records request.
The agency had opened the investigation 11 days earlier based on abuse of the couple’s oldest daughter that had occurred in previous years.
The latest alleged abuse happened just days before the visit when Haight was accused of throwing his 7-year-old son to the ground after he got upset with him.
His wife, Tausha Haight, told a caseworker that she was concerned about the tone her husband had used and “how he looks when he is angry,” the report revealed.
She asked caseworkers not to interview her husband until after she filed for divorce, which happened Dec. 21. She told caseworkers that her husband had threatened to take his own life or “make her life hell” if she left him.
Caseworkers never interviewed Michael Haight.
They were not waiting for the wife’s approval to do the interview, but rather gauging the next steps in the investigation, said Department of Child and Family Services spokesperson Miranda Fisher in a statement to the Deseret News.
“Unfortunately, this tragic incident occurred prior to further intervention,” the agency’s summary report said.
Previously released records showed that authorities had investigated Haight for child abuse in 2020 but that police and prosecutors decided not to charge him.
The newly released report documents detail several reports of abuse, including an incident in 2021 when Haight suddenly slammed on the brakes on the highway.
It scared the family and left red marks from the seat belts on their bodies. In another incident, Haight grabbed his oldest daughter’s head and threw her into the hard part of the couch.
The daughter, Macie, told caseworkers that her dad would tower over her and her siblings and get close to make them feel intimidated.
“Dad jumps to react to anything he doesn’t like,” said Macie, the records.
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