Phone calls reveal Utah mother had safety concerns before husband killed family

ENOCH, Utah — Recordings of phone calls to Cedar City dispatch reveal Tausha Haight had expressed safety concerns to her therapist days before her husband killed the entire family.

On Jan. 4, Tausha Haight was supposed to meet with her therapist, whose name was redacted by police. When she did not attend the appointment, her therapist got worried and called dispatch, asking for a welfare check on Tausha Haight.

“She doesn’t ever miss appointments,” the therapist said, calling less than an hour after the missed meeting. The therapist said she tried contacting Tausha Haight but had not heard back from her and was concerned.

In the phone call, the therapist explained that Tausha Haight was going through a divorce and that Tausha and her kids had been out of town visiting her parents. They were supposed to return to the Haight home the night before to finish some paperwork that would force her husband out of the house as he was refusing to leave, the therapist said.

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“I know that she was a little bit concerned for her safety,” the therapist said about Taush Haight returning home. “I had some concerns just from talking to her, too. I was encouraging her not to do that. I’m not sure what she decided, but I know her plan was to go home.”

About a month before filing for divorce, Tausha Haight had talked to the police department about the upcoming divorce “just because she didn’t really trust him,” the therapist said in the dispatch call.

Haight’s husband has anger issues and has displayed violent tendencies in the past, the therapist said. She said she knew there were firearms present in the house that she believed Tausha Haight’s husband would have access to, which also was a cause for concern, she said in the call.

Just hours later, Tausha Haight, 40; Haight’s mother, Gail Earl, 78; and Haight’s children — Macie Lynn Haight, 17; Briley Ann Haight, 12; Sienna Belle Haight, 7; Ammon Haight, 7; and Gavin Drew Haight, 4 — were found shot to death. Police believe Tausha’s husband, 42-year-old Michael Orwin Haight, killed them all and then took his own life. The bodies were found inside their home at 4923 N. Albert Drive.

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The bodies were discovered by the Haights’ neighbors who entered the home on Jan. 4 to conduct a welfare check. Upon discovery of the bodies, police were called.

A haunting recording of radio traffic from that day follows the officers as they searched the home.

At first, an officer finds two bodies on a bed and proceeds to clear the scene. He comes back on the radio later saying there are multiple bodies and asking for the on-call medical examiner.

A previously released police report from two years earlier outlined the father’s violent and controlling behavior. In 2020, Enoch police investigated reports of possible physical and emotional abuse by Michael Haight against his eldest daughter, but criminal charges were never filed as Tausha Haight told police she hoped her husband was on the road to change and that criminal charges wouldn’t be appropriate at that time.

In a Lethality Assessment Protocol document from the 2020 investigation of Michael Haight, Tausha Haight said she did not think Michael would kill her or her children. She said he had never threatened her with a weapon or left threatening messages. Tausha Haight said he was not controlling of her daily activities and that he did not spy on her.

In the police report, however, Michael Haight admitted to police he had taken Tausha’s phone and took her iPad to work with him for “several days to look at her texts and messages.”

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When asked if there was anything else that worried Tausha about her safety in the lethality assessment, she replied “I don’t think so. I have a backbone.” Tausha Haight was assessed as not in high danger, the document showed.

Police said they discovered the oldest daughter, Macie, had sent a text message to a friend the night before she was found deceased, “stating her dad came home, was acting strange, and she was worried.”

As police continued to investigate this tragedy, they found a chilling search history on the husband’s phone. According to an unsealed search warrant affidavit, police researching Michael Haight’s Google search history on his phone found searches that included:

• “How loud is a 9mm?”
• “How loud is a 40mm?”
• “Can you hear a gunshot in a house?”
• “Can neighbors hear gunshots?”

There were also additional searches related to those. These searches took place on Dec. 30, 2022, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., and five days prior to the murders-suicide, the warrant states.

While the details of this horrific incident are not fully clear yet, new knowledge is being discovered every day. Police and reporters are continually searching every means of information to discover the truth of what happened to the family.