Police have released harrowing footage that shows heartbreaking conversations Michael Haight had with his family before he killed all of them.
It was in January when the father-of-five told his children that he loved them and that they would go sledding the following day.
But the next morning, Haight, his wife, their five children Sienna, Macie, Briley, and sons Gavin and Ammon, and his mother-in-law were found dead in bedrooms all around the family home.
In a video obtained by the Deseret News, Haight’s conversations with his family can be heard only hours before the murders.
The father recorded himself playing with his kids and talking to his wife Tausha about their impending divorce.
“We might go sledding again,” he told his children, aged 4, 7, 7, 12, and 17. “We don’t do that today, but we can go to the mountains, maybe tomorrow or the next day.”
In other videos, Haight can be heard talking to Tausha about child support payments and how she wanted him to move out.
“I am not safe with you,” she said at one point.
He then told his wife: “It makes it look like you’re, you’re abandoning your family and so that can be an argument used against a parent that leaves.”
She said that he needed a lawyer so that the family can move on from the rocky marriage, adding that she was willing to resort to legal avenues to get him out of the house.
“I’m a little curious why you’re so wanting me so aggressively to just move out of here too you know, and not let the system play out and why you’re feeling like you have to get some motion to remove me from here,” Haight asked.
Tausha replied: “We’re not able to, to relax, we’re still walking around on eggshells. I don’t know if you’re going to be good cop, bad cop. I don’t know if you’re going to be mean or angry or frustrated or get in my face or threatening to me or if you’re going to be nice and amicable.”
Haight broke down in tears and said: “I know that I’m the cause, I know, I have things to work on. I know it. I know I have so many good traits, too. And I know if I can work on these. I’m just I’m pleading.”
At 10 pm, Haight texted Tausha and asked if they could talk but she did not reply. Neighbors then heard gunshots at around 3:30 am.
The father reportedly left a note blaming his wife for being manipulative and controlling.
“This is nonsense and I can’t handle it for one more day. We will not be a burden on society. I kept asking for help and you wouldn’t listen. I would rather rot in hell than to put up with another day of this manipulation and control over me,” he wrote, according to The New York Post.
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