A man who fatally shot his wife, their five children and her mother before killing himself earlier this month in Utah had been investigated in 2020 on child abuse allegations, but he was not charged because of insufficient evidence, according to officials and a police report released this week.
The report from the Enoch City Police Department shed new light on the man, Michael Haight, 42, who killed seven members of his family in early January, including three girls and two boys, leaving the small rural town aghast and in grief. It also showed that the police had previously investigated Mr. Haight and learned from his daughter about a violent pattern of behavior.
The 2020 incident report from the police, which The Associated Press wrote about on Tuesday, states that the authorities had investigated an allegation that Mr. Haight “may have assaulted” his eldest daughter, Macie Haight.
Macie told investigators in 2020 that her father had “become assaultive” with her over the last three years, that she felt “terrified that he was going to hurt” her more, and that Mr. Haight had once choked her, according to the report.
“She stated that she was very afraid that he was going to keep her from breathing and kill her,” the report states.
The authorities also interviewed Mr. Haight at the time. He told them that he had never violently grabbed Macie, and that “if he had done these things, it was not meant to be an assault,” the report states. He added that Macie was “mouthy,” causing him to feel anger toward her, and that it had been a tough year for him because of the recent death of his father, according to the report.
The officer who interviewed Mr. Haight, whose name was redacted from the reports, wrote that he had “advised Michael that his behavior was very close to assaultive.” Still, he told him he “did not intend to charge him with any crime” at the time.
His wife, Tausha Haight, told the officer that she did not believe filing criminal charges was necessary, hoping that the whole experience would serve as a “wake-up call” for Mr. Haight, according to the report. The officer told her that there “was no indication that there would be any violent behavior on Michael’s part,” 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 show up for an appointment with someone who then contacted the police, officers discovered her body and the bodies of her children, husband and mother inside their home.
The town of about 8,000 residents, and nearly 250 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, was stunned. Officials cried at a news conference. Residents who knew the family, and whose children had played with the Haight children, expressed shock. Across Enoch City, a questioned loomed: Why had this happened?
But the new details from the police report this week raised questions about whether more should have been done with regard to the allegations against the father.
The Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, which did not immediately respond to calls and an email seeking comment on Wednesday, said in a statement on Jan. 5 that the killings in Enoch City had underscored how murders in rural communities “are three times as likely to involve an intimate partner than in large cities.”
“The connections between all those directly involved when domestic violence occurs in smaller communities can be profound and overlapping,” the organization said.
Rob Dotson, the city manager, said in an interview on Wednesday that the Enoch City Police Department had acted professionally during the 2020 child abuse investigation and had followed “best practices.”
The Police Department had contacted the Iron County Attorney’s Office by phone to review the details of the investigation, Mr. Dotson said. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that interview transcripts and the police report from the child abuse investigation were not sent to its office “for formal screening of charges.”
After hearing details about the case by phone, the County Attorney’s Office said, it determined that there was “insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.” The office said it takes “allegations of child abuse very seriously.”
Mr. Dotson said that detectives were still investigating what had happened on the day of the killings, and that they had been in touch with the victims’ family.
“Of course, we all live around here — we all knew him,” Mr. Dotson said, referring to Mr. Haight. “That’s why it’s such a shock.”
