Officials said Thursday that a 42-year-old man shot and killed himself after killing his wife, his five children, and his mother-in-law inside their House in rural Utah this week.
According to authorities, the evidence points to Michael Haight’s murder of the other seven family members before he committed himself inside the family’s Enoch City, approximately 250 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, home.
After Mr. Haight’s wife, Tausha Haight, 40, missed an appointment with someone who then alerted the Police, all eight deaths were found on Wednesday, according to authorities.
The mayor of Enoch City, Geoffrey Chesnut, stated at a news conference on Thursday that Ms. Haight had filed for divorce from Mr. Haight on December 21 and that her mother, Gail Earl, 78, who was also deceased, had been “giving assistance through the challenges that they were having.”
A 17-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl, a 7-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old boy were among the five kids that died; their names were not released.
Mr. Chesnut, who described the shock and destruction of Enoch City, which has around 8,000 residents, talked while crying.
He claimed that the Heights and his family had shared a neighboring home and that their youngest children had played in his yard with his kids.
