Utah Man Who Killed His Family Faced Child Abuse Investigation in 2020

A person who fatally shot his spouse, their 5 kids and her mom earlier than killing himself earlier this month in Utah had been investigated in 2020 on youngster abuse allegations, however he was not charged due to inadequate proof, in response to officers and a police report launched this week.

The report from the Enoch Metropolis Police Division shed new mild on the person, Michael Haight, 42, who killed seven members of his household in early January, together with three women and two boys, leaving the small rural city aghast and in grief. It additionally confirmed that the police had beforehand investigated Mr. Haight and discovered from his daughter a couple of violent sample of habits.

The 2020 incident report from the police, which The Related Press wrote about on Tuesday, states that the authorities had investigated an allegation that Mr. Haight “might have assaulted” his eldest daughter, Macie Haight.

Macie instructed investigators in 2020 that her father had “develop into assaultive” together with her during the last three years, that she felt “terrified that he was going to harm” her extra, and that Mr. Haight had as soon as choked her, in response to the report.

“She said that she was very afraid that he was going to maintain her from respiration and kill her,” the report states.

The authorities additionally interviewed Mr. Haight on the time. He instructed them that he had by no means violently grabbed Macie, and that “if he had finished this stuff, it was not meant to be an assault,” the report states. He added that Macie was “mouthy,” inflicting him to really feel anger towards her, and that it had been a tricky yr for him due to the latest dying of his father, in response to the report.

The officer who interviewed Mr. Haight, whose title was redacted from the stories, wrote that he had “suggested Michael that his habits was very near assaultive.” Nonetheless, he instructed him he “didn’t intend to cost him with any crime” on the time.

His spouse, Tausha Haight, instructed the officer that she didn’t consider submitting legal costs was crucial, hoping that the entire expertise would function a “wake-up name” for Mr. Haight, in response to the report. The officer instructed her that there “was no indication that there can be any violent habits on Michael’s half,” the report states.

About two years later, on Dec. 21, 2022, Ms. Haight filed for divorce from Mr. Haight. In January, after Ms. Haight failed to indicate up for an appointment with somebody who then contacted the police, officers found her physique and the our bodies of her kids, husband and mom inside their dwelling.

The city of about 8,000 residents, and almost 250 miles southwest of Salt Lake Metropolis, was shocked. Officers cried at a information convention. Residents who knew the household, and whose kids had performed with the Haight kids, expressed shock. Throughout Enoch Metropolis, a questioned loomed: Why had this occurred?

However the brand new particulars from the police report this week raised questions on whether or not extra ought to have been finished with regard to the allegations towards the daddy.

The Utah Home Violence Coalition, which didn’t instantly reply to calls and an e mail in search of touch upon Wednesday, mentioned in a press release on Jan. 5 that the killings in Enoch Metropolis had underscored how murders in rural communities “are thrice as more likely to contain an intimate companion than in giant cities.”

“The connections between all these instantly concerned when home violence happens in smaller communities may be profound and overlapping,” the group mentioned.

Rob Dotson, the town supervisor, mentioned in an interview on Wednesday that the Enoch Metropolis Police Division had acted professionally through the 2020 youngster abuse investigation and had adopted “greatest practices.”

The Police Division had contacted the Iron County Lawyer’s Workplace by cellphone to assessment the small print of the investigation, Mr. Dotson mentioned. The prosecutor’s workplace mentioned in a press release that interview transcripts and the police report from the kid abuse investigation weren’t despatched to its workplace “for formal screening of costs.”

After listening to particulars in regards to the case by cellphone, the County Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned, it decided that there was “inadequate proof to pursue legal costs.” The workplace mentioned it takes “allegations of kid abuse very severely.”

Mr. Dotson mentioned that detectives had been nonetheless investigating what had occurred on the day of the killings, and that they’d been in contact with the victims’ household.

“In fact, all of us reside round right here — all of us knew him,” Mr. Dotson mentioned, referring to Mr. Haight. “That’s why it’s such a shock.”