A man in Utah shot his entire family and then shot himself dead a short while after his wife filed for divorce.
Michael Haight, 42, gunned down his wife, their five children, and his mother-in-law. Law enforcement found gunshot wounds on each of the victims.
Residents of the small town of Enoch, Utah were shocked by the brutal crime. The town is a fast growing area made up mostly of large families belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon Church.
Rob Dotson, Enoch City Manager, said the family was well known in the area and that many residents have attended church with them, and their children went to school with the young victims.
Haight’s wife, Tausha Haight, 40, filed for divorce on December 21 and her husband was served with the divorce papers six days later, on December 27.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Tausha Haight’s sister-in-law, Jennie Earl, said that Tausha recently had told her family that her husband Michael had taken the guns out of the family home.
On Wednesday, January 4, someone called the police and told them that they were worried because Mrs. Haight had missed an appointment. Officers went to the family home to do a welfare check on Wednesday afternoon.
Police found all the victims and the gunman dead inside the house. The victims included the children – three girls and two boys between the ages of four and 17, Mrs. Haight, and her mother, 78-year-old Gail Earl.
Mrs. Haight’s lawyer, James Park, said he was shocked because his client had not expressed any fear that her husband would hurt her physically. He said he only met her twice, and that the most recent meeting was on Tuesday.
Haight and his wife were married for 20 years before the murder-suicide.
