Eight dead in Utah murder-suicide
The Utah father who killed himself after murdering his five kids, wife and mother-in-law left his family a warped suicide note where he confessed he'd rather 'rot in hell' than deal with his wife another day.
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. Local police and the city of Enoch have also released the disturbing bodycam footage of the shooting, showing cops padding through the family's eerily silent home while their bodies lay inside.
But now Haight's twisted suicide note have emerged, where he claimed his wife Tausha had driven him to violence. Haight did so despite investigations showing he was the abuser in the family - and his wife was the victim.
'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,' Haight wrote. 'I would rather rot in hell than to put up with another day of this manipulation and control over me.'
Also murdered by Haight were his daughters Macie, Briley, Sienna, and sons Ammon and Gavin, as well as Tausha's mother Gail Early, 78. Tausha had planned to file for divorce from her controlling husband when he exterminated her and the rest of their family.
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.
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 show. 'He yells a lot and wants to make sure they know he is right.'
