A Utah man who fatally shot his five children, mother-in-law and wife and then killed himself removed guns from the home just days before the murder-suicide, leaving the family “at risk,” a relative said Friday.
Michael “Mike” Haight, 42, took guns out of the house two weeks after his wife Tausha Haight, 40, filed for divorce she told the extended family, according to sister-in-law Jennie Earl.
Earl told The Associated Press that she didn’t know how Tausha felt about removing the guns, but said it “made the family vulnerable” because Tausha and her mother, Gail Earl, 78, are involved in gun safety and personal protection were trained.
Jennie Earl’s comments came after the Earl family issued a statement lamenting the tragedy and revealing guns had been removed.
The Haight family in June 2022 in the Kolob Canyons in Zion National Park in Utah
The Earl family issued a statement lamenting the tragedy and revealing that guns had been removed
“Protective weapons were intentionally removed from the home prior to the incident because all adults have been properly trained to protect human life,” the Earl family said in a statement Friday.
“That kind of loss will continue to occur in families, communities and this nation when protective weapons become inaccessible.”
Enoch town manager Rob Dotson said local law enforcement was not involved, adding in an emailed statement that police “never had a reason and never had to remove firearms”.
The revelation offers more insight into the days leading up to a shooting at a home in southern Utah, which took place after Tausha Haight filed for divorce from her 19-year-old husband on December 21.
The victims were found Wednesday as police conducted a social check at the residence, according to city officials in Enoch, a small town of about 8,000 people located 245 miles south of Salt Lake City.
The children were only identified as three daughters aged 17, 12 and 7 and two sons aged 7 and 4.
Online records show that Michael Haight worked as an insurance agent for Allstate and operated a financial services business out of the family home on North Albert Drive in Enoch.
The victims were found Wednesday when police conducted a social check at the Enoch, Utah home
It was revealed that Tausha filed for divorce from her husband Michael on December 21
Tausha’s mother, Gail Earl, 78, was also killed in the massacre and her husband Boyd died in 2020
Relative Jennie Earl (pictured) told the Associated Press that Michael Haight removed guns belonging to him and his wife days before the murder-suicide
Without knowing the details of how the shootings unfolded, it’s not clear whether having firearms in the home could have helped stop the bloodshed, Jennie Earl said.
However, if Tausha Haight or Gail Earl had had the opportunity to defend her family, they could have used the guns, she said.
“They could have done it because they had the skills to do it,” she said.
Matt Munson, the attorney representing Michael Haight’s family, did not respond to questions about the firearms in the home but sent a statement from his clients mourning the loss of the family and offering his condolences to the Earls.
The family revealed the information about the weapons removal in a statement released on Friday.
She also lamented the “unimaginable tragedy” and urged the media and public not to use the shooting to “advance political agendas.”
“We encourage sharing of the value of all human life, the great works of God that can produce a forgiving heart, how religion can heal and expand our capacity for love, and a return to the fundamental principles of Peace in our nation.” The Earl family wrote.
Enoch officials said they were aware of the divorce filing but did not know if that was the motive for the killings.
Enoch Police Chief Jackson Ames also said this week that officers had investigated the 42-year-old man and his family “a few years earlier,” suggesting possible previous problems in the household, but he would not elaborate.
The victims were found on Wednesday when police conducted a social check at the residence
Welfare checks usually take place when neighbors raise concerns or when people have not been seen for a long time
Officials said the family was known to law enforcement and they had previously been at the home for unknown reasons. None of these visits were recent
Enoch is a small town of 8,000 people 245 miles (394 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City
James Park, who represented Tausha Haight in the divorce case, said she had expressed no concern that her husband would physically harm her, but he declined to elaborate, citing the investigation into the murders.
Park said he’s only met her twice, mostly recently on Tuesday, and said she’s “an incredibly nice woman.”
Officials said the family was known to law enforcement and they had previously been at the home for unknown reasons. None of these visits were recent.
Neighbors of the family told KSL that they are active in the town’s Mormon community and described them as “very hospitable.”
Tausha’s Facebook page is littered with pictures of her family, the most recent showing her with her husband in June 2022.
Her mother Gail lived with the family. Her husband, Boyd Jay Earl, died in 2020 at the age of 77. He was a Desert Storm veteran and, according to his obituary, a Green Beret.
Tausha’s Facebook page is littered with pictures showing how her family has grown in recent years
Neighbors of the family told KSL that they are active in the town’s Mormon community and described them as “very hospitable.”
A neighbor, Tina Brown, told Fox Salt Lake City, “Tausha was the kindest and most generous person and she never said anything bad about anyone. She would give the shirt off her back for anyone and she has tirelessly served the people.
A neighbor, Tina Brown, told Fox Salt Lake City, “Tausha was the kindest and most generous person and she never said anything bad about anyone. She would give the shirt off her back for anyone and she has tirelessly served the people.
While another neighbor, Tom Deville, told the broadcaster: “I just feel awful, they were just really nice people and I mean it’s going to be one of those things that who knows.”
Local paper archives show that Haight’s first birthday was celebrated in 1981 with an announcement in the local paper, along with a smiling baby photo.
As a young boy he was in the Boy Scouts and received the Faith in God award as a fourth grader. Two years later, in 1992, another newspaper article revealed that he had won the Gospel in Action award from his church.
His picture reappeared in the newspaper in 1998 when he was a finalist for an academic award at the High School of Business and Marketing.
Five stuffed animals left by the Enoch Elementary School PTA are pictured at a makeshift memorial near police tape at a home where the family was killed in Enoch, Utah
A flower pot sits in front of the Utah home along with a police trailer
After high school, he served a church mission in Brazil and then married Tausha in a church temple in St. George in 2003. She was from Overton, Nevada, just two hours south of Cedar City, where he grew up.
City leaders in a small Utah town choked up this week as they expressed their shock after the murder-suicide of a church colleague killed eight people in their close-knit community, including five children who were their children’s classmates.
While shocking, mass murders of families are an all too common tragedy across the country. They’ve happened on average nearly every 3.5 weeks for the past two decades, according to a database compiled by USA Today, The Associated Press, and Northeastern University.
Enoch, Utah, is one of more than 30 communities rocked by a mass murder of families in the past two years, a list that includes communities of wealth and poverty and spares no race or class.
One family mass murder — in which four or more people were killed, not counting the perpetrator — has occurred in locations as large as Houston or as small as Casa Grande, Arizona, each of the past two years, the database shows.