SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who fatally shot his wife, mother and the couple's five children after he was investigated for child abuse left a suicide note saying he “would rather rot in hell” than continue to endure what he called controlling his wife's behavior, investigators wrote. in a report released on Friday.
The claims in the suicide note left by Michael Haight, 42, stand in stark contrast to investigators' conclusions in the 57-page report that exaggeratedly portrayed Haight, and not his wife, as controlling and abusive. The report cites family communications prior to the killings and interviews from members of the public conducted after the January tragedy.
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“This is unreasonable and I can't handle it one more day. We are not going to be a burden on society. I keep asking for help and you won't listen,” Michael Haight, 42, wrote in a note included in the paper. report released by the city of Enoch.
“I would rather rot in hell than endure another day of manipulation and control over me,” Haight wrote.
Haight's attorney, Matt Munson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The report builds on documents released after the murder-suicide detailing how Haight removed a firearm from the home, was investigated for alleged child abuse, and searched online for “shots in a house” leading up to the shooting.
It paints a picture of Haight as a volatile husband who cares about maintaining an outward appearance of perfection throughout the southern Utah community where the family lives, where the majority of residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The report also detailed how the bed was placed over all but one of her children's bodies in bedrooms throughout the home. Body camera footage was released along with reports showing a tidy home.
Investigators also interviewed a neighbor who said he woke up the night before the eight bodies were found when he heard some “bangs” which he assumed were fireworks.
The report describes the circumstances leading up to the murders, which came two weeks after Haight's wife, Tausha Haight, filed for divorce.
People close to Haights who were interviewed by an investigator who identified himself as anonymous in the report said that Michael Haight had lost his job at Allstate Insurance near Cedar City, Utah and was trying to start an independent agency.
They said, despite his wife's wishes and the pursuit of a divorce, that he had remained in the family home until the tragedy with his wife, five children and mother-in-law, who was there because of safety concerns for her daughter.
The report also details how Haight, his wife, mother-in-law and five children were found in bedrooms throughout the family home on the afternoon of January 4 after a police officer described as a “friend of the family” walked in through an open door.
Police went to check on the Haights later in the day after concerns about their welfare were reported, but left without reporting any signs or observations of violence.
“No one answered the door. It seems no one was in the house as not a sound could be heard,” wrote one Enoch Police officer in a report summarizing his visit to the family home before the body was found.
Tausha Haight, his mother Gail Earl and their four-year-old son were found in the couple's first-floor bedroom lying on pillows, partially covered by a blanket and surrounded by blood. Other children were found in bedrooms throughout the house, all in bed except for the seven-year-old on the floor and Haight, who was found lying on the floor in a sleeping bag.
The homicide-suicide in southern Utah is among more than 30 mass family killings that have occurred in the United States over the last two years. They have occurred nearly every 3-1/2 weeks on average over the past two decades, according to a database compiled by USA Today, The Associated Press and Northeastern University of homicides in which four or more people have been killed, not including the perpetrator.