In his 2020 interview with authorities as part of the investigation, Michael Haight denied assaulting his daughter and said the report was a misunderstanding. He said Macie was “mouthy” and admitted to getting angry, attributing some struggles to his father’s death and brother’s divorce.
The investigator’s notes also shed light on Haight’s treatment of his wife, Tausha. Macie told investigators that her father would often belittle her mother, a charge he denied. In his interview, however, Haight said he had taken his wife’s iPad and cellphone to surveil her text messages to check if she had spoken negatively about his family.
Tausha Haight told authorities she didn’t want criminal charges filed against her husband and hoped the incident would be “a wake-up call” for him.
Though an investigator told Haight that his behavior was “close to assaultive,” Enoch Police and the Iron County Attorney decided not to file criminal charges against him. They did not immediately respond to request for comment on Tuesday.
Matt Munson, the attorney representing Michael Haight’s family, was not immediately available to comment.
Police found the Haight family’s bodies after conducting a welfare check based on a call from a friend who said Tausha Haight had missed an appointment earlier in the week. The murder-suicide rocked Enoch, an 8,000-person, southern Utah town on the outskirts of Cedar City.
Officials said last week that law enforcement is continuing to investigate the Haight family deaths. The murder-suicide drew national attention and words of condolence from Utah officials and President Joe Biden. It underscored how family mass killings have become a disturbingly common tragedy across the United States, occurring on average every 3.5 weeks for the last two decades.
Sam Metz, The Associated Press
