SALT LAKE CITY (SONNA) — A Utah man who fatally shot his wife, her mother, and the couple’s five kids after he was investigated for child abuse left a suicide note saying he “would rather rot in hell” than continue enduring what he called controlling behavior by his wife, investigators wrote in a report released on Friday.
The claims in the suicide note left by Michael Haight, 42, stand in stark contract to conclusions by investigators in the 57-page report that overwhelmingly portray Haight, and not his wife, as controlling and abusive. The report cites the family’s communications before the killings and interviews from community members conducted after the January tragedy.
“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,” Michael Haight, 42, wrote in the note included in the report released by the city of Enoch.
“I would rather rot in hell than to put up with another day of this 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 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.
It paints a picture of Haight as a volatile husband concerned about maintaining a facade of perfection throughout the southern Utah community in which the family lived, where the majority of residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The report also details how bedding was laid over all but one of his children’s bodies in bedrooms throughout the home. Body camera footage released along with the report shows a tidy home.
Investigators also interviewed a neighbor who said she was awakened on the night before the eight bodies were discovered when she heard multiple “bangs” that she assumed were fireworks.
The report describes the circumstances leading up to the killings, which took place two weeks after Haight’s wife, Tausha Haight, filed for divorce.
People close to the Haights interviewed by investigators whose names were redacted in the report said that Michael Haight had lost his job at Allstate Insurance in nearby Cedar City, Utah and was seeking to start an independent agency.
Source: AP
