On 4 January 2023 Michael Haight killed seven members of his family – his wife, his mother in law, and his five children, before killing himself. Having been investigated for domestic abuse previously, his wife Tausha had initiated divorce proceedings just two weeks before the killing, Michael exerted his one final act of control over his whole family. The facade of happiness, maintained by Michael Haight before he committed the unthinkable, starkly contrasts with the suffering endured by his family, a chilling revelation about the power dynamics and hidden strife within their home.
This is the story of Tausha, Macie, Briley, Sienna, Ammon and Gavin Haight and Gail Earl.
On 4 January 2023 Michael Haight killed seven members of his family – his wife, his mother in law, and his five children, before killing himself. Having been investigated for domestic abuse previously, his wife Tausha had initiated divorce proceedings just two weeks before the killing, Michael exerted his one final act of control over his whole family. The facade of happiness, maintained by Michael Haight before he committed the unthinkable, starkly contrasts with the suffering endured by his family, a chilling revelation about the power dynamics and hidden strife within their home.
This is the story of Tausha, Macie, Briley, Sienna, Ammon and Gavin Haight and Gail Earl.
Hi there and welcome to Killer and the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Before we delve into this week's episode, I wondered how you all found last week's episode. For me, bringing together all the stories so far that we've talked about on the podcast really solidified some of those key themes. When you bring them all together, feel so obvious. I really hope that you enjoyed the episode as well and let me know what you think on socials at Killer and the Family pod. Also, don't forget that I'm going to start giving out shoutouts to anyone who gives the podcast a five star review. Reviews really help others find the podcast and therefore raise awareness of co-est control and familiar side, so I'd be really grateful for all of them. Please do get reviewing on Apple Podcasts and thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed so far. So let's get to this week's episode, the first episode of 2024, speaking about a sort of new story. And here we go. It is going to be a tough lesson.
Speaker 1:
On the 4th of January 2023, just over a year ago, michael Haight killed seven members of his family his wife, his mother-in-law and his five children before killing himself. Having been investigated for domestic abuse and child abuse previously, his wife Tasha had initiated divorce proceedings just two weeks before the killing. Michael decided to then exert his one final act of control over his whole family. This is the story of Tasha Macy Riley, sienna Amon and Gavin Haight and Gayle Earle. Murder of Tasha Macy Riley, sienna Amon, gavin and Gayle hit place relatively recently, like I said, just over a year ago, in early January 2023. I remember reading about it when it happened and looking at the response to it Some of the very shocking media response, which I'll talk about later. It was just so sad and again we've talked about how, around Christmas and New Year seems to be a time when men do decide that they're going to kill their whole families, and last year was no exception Because it happened so recently.
Speaker 1:
This episode uses a lot of news reports and a couple of podcast episodes too, for reference, and all the references are in the episode notes. So Tasha Earle was born on the 19th of January 1982 for parents Boyd and Gayle Earle, in Enoch, utah, a state that's in the west of America. The population of Enoch in 2018 was approximately 7,000 people, and it's about seven miles northeast of Cedar City. Well, cedar City, not sure how you pronounce it. Maybe some of my American listeners can let me know.
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Utah is a relatively religious state, with 56% of its population being Mormons or Latter-day Saints or LDS. More on that later. Tasha graduated from Moapa Valley High School in 1999 and from SUU with a bachelor's degree in child development studies in 2004. Tasha was just 40 years old when she was killed. Now there isn't loads of information out there about how Tasha met Michael Hate, but they were both members of the Latter-day Saints religion and married on May 16th 2003 in the St George Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple. Michael Hate was born in 1980 to parents Robin and Brenda, in Cedar City. His father, robin, was a dentist and a Latter-day Saint missionary, and Michael had three siblings. When he took his own life, michael was an insurance agent at Allstate in Utah. Michael and Tasha were sort of brought up in very religious families and they created their own family as a very religious family as well. Following the Latter-day Saints religion in Utah, tasha and Michael made their home in Cedar City and went on to have five children. Now Tasha's Facebook page was filled with photos of her children and family and it is so clear the love that she felt for them and how she loved being a mother as well. In fact, tasha's obituary said quate. She was an incredible mother who constantly sacrificed everything for her children.
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Macy Lynn was the eldest child of Tasha and Michael and she was 17 years old when she was killed. When Macy was killed, she was about to graduate high school and had plans to go to Southern Newtile University, suu, to study digital marketing. Like James Mockery, who we talked about in an earlier episode, she was on the cusp of her adult life and I'm just so sure that she was excited about what was coming next for her and sort of new independence as well. Macy also sometimes helped her mum with looking after her younger siblings, seeing as there were four of them. So Brylee Ann was 12 years old when she was killed. She was very musically talented and played piano and cello very well. She was described in one newspaper report as quite a kind, thoughtful and tender-hearted person that was always thinking of others.
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And the next children that came along were twins, amon, michael and Sienna Bell. They were both aged just seven when they were killed. Apparently, amon loved Lego and was quote extremely imaginative, curious and loved to learn about anything that moved. Sienna was a bit more studious and quote loved to take pictures with her camera, apply funny filters to them. She was studious with her schoolwork and enjoyed playing with friends and family. And then came youngest of the family, gavin Drew. He was aged just four years old when he was killed by his father. Apparently, he always wanted to be involved in whatever fun was happening and his smile quote made everyone's world light up. So this was the hate family deeply religious, involved in the LDS faith, doing well at work and school, and a happy, happy family. Also, it seemed In 2020, nearly three years before Michael Haight killed his whole family in cold blood.
Speaker 1:
Police actually attended the Haight household to investigate allegations of domestic abuse and child abuse. All was not well in the family. Everyone thought was so happy. Macy, the couple's eldest daughter and then age 14, told police that her father had assaulted her many times. She said that she was scared he was going to kill her and one time, when he was choking her, that he was going to stop her breathing. And apparently, macy told the police that the physical abuse had been going on for three years, since Macy was just 11 years old and Michael was interviewed by the police and said that Macy was malady and that he had trouble with his eldest child.
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It wasn't only Macy that was experiencing abuse at the hands of Michael, though. According to the Crime Salad podcast episode, riley messaged a friend saying that her father had emptied the bank accounts of all the kids to stop them from spending money on things he didn't approve of. Economic abuse, as we know, is a key behaviour associated with coercive control. At this point as well, police were also told about how Michael monitored Tasha's phone and iPad and sometimes confiscated them, depending on what she was saying about him and the family. Let's not forget that monitoring of devices is also key behaviour associated with coercive control and, according to the Crime Salad podcast episode, michael also apparently called Tasha fan ugly and that he was embarrassed to be married to her, also complained when she lost way he would monitor how much she was spending on grayseries and punished her like she was one of his children. All behaviours that are coercively controlling and so dangerous.
Speaker 1:
Now, upon this police report of domestic abuse, tasha said she didn't want to take in further by the police and hoped that it would be a wake-up call for Michael to change his behaviour. And, looking to the allegations of child abuse from Macy, the police stated that there wasn't enough evidence to take the allegations any further and no action at all was taken against Michael. Sorry, sorry, not no action. A police officer told Michael his behaviour was close to assaultive. So you know, obviously really hoping that that will make him change. And it won't surprise regular listeners that the police report released months after the murders stated that Michael was actually someone who was obsessed with his image and had a manipulative, controlling and violent relationship with his family. He was obsessed with what his family were saying about him and he clearly tried to control what Macy and Tasha said. Now I find the fact that the police took no action in 2020 really, really difficult.
Speaker 1:
Macy had the courage when she was 14 to tell authorities about years of physical abuse that she had experienced at the hands of her father, and the police did nothing. Macy had the courage to tell authorities that she was scared that her father was going to kill her, and the police did nothing. They didn't investigate, apart from an interview with Michael. Then they dropped the whole thing. Macy and the whole family here were badly let down by police and it came out later that, although the local attorney's office declined to file child abuse charges, that the reports and interviews from the incident were never actually sent to his office by police, so they had clearly decided that they didn't want this to go any further as soon as they'd attended the incident. As a total side note, there has been now a bill passed in Utah which mandates all police agencies in the state to use a protocol questionnaire on domestic abuse and which identifies key risk factors on any domestic abuse incident that's attended, so it tries to understand the risk that women and children might be funders.
Speaker 1:
There has been speculation that because the police in Cedar City had many Latter-day Saints in it, that they were looking out for their fellow Latter-day Saint Michael, by making these allegations disappear, there is a progressive Mormon commentator called Meg Conley who wrote on Twitter at the time quote Two years ago, his then-14-year-old daughter told police he was going to kill her and the police did nothing. How many of them were LDS? How many of them were taught? The witness of women isn't as powerful as the witness of men. He did kill her and everyone else. Funnily enough, even though the police hoped the allegations would disappear, the abuse clearly did not stop.
Speaker 1:
On 21st December 2022, tasha Haight filed for divorce from Michael and on the 27th December, michael received those divorce papers, it's said that not only did the abuse continue, but it also escalated and with their seven-year-old child, ammon, starting to imitate his father's abusive behaviors. At this point, tasha also filed for a domestic violence protection order. Unbeknownst to his family at this time, michael would actually lost his job at the end of 2022 due to financial irregularities and was told that he wouldn't be getting his bonus either. A few days later, everything would change for the family and community, as their protector turned into a perpetrator of the worst kind of violence. So here is what happened. It's going to be a tough lesson.
Speaker 1:
From the 27th of December, when Michael received those divorce papers, he forced Tasha to leave the family home immediately and leave the children, as he assumed he would have full custody of them. Tasha did leave, but took all the children with her and went to stay with her mother, gayle Earle. Michael came to try and get her the next day to try and put away Tasha to come home. She didn't, but a few days before the murders, tasha did move back into the family home with her children, but she brought her mother, gayle, with her for safety. Apparently, gayle stayed in Tasha's bedroom with her. At this point, tasha also noticed that all the guns had been removed from the house by Michael. He said it was to protect himself from her.
Speaker 1:
So around 4pm on the 4th of January 2023, just over a year ago police conducted a welfare check on the Haight family home. One of Tasha's friends was getting concerned about her as she'd missed a couple of appointments that day and requested that welfare check. Now there were a couple of reports that the police had already done a welfare check but didn't go any further. After finding the door locked, they just left a card and then a friend went into the house, found the family and asked the police to come back. So here we are, at 4 o'clock on the 4th of January and police enter the house. There is body-worn camera footage of the police entering and searching the house and this has been released. It has been heavily redacted but has been published and is there for public consumption.
Speaker 1:
What the police found in that house, I am sure will haunt them forever Eight bodies all dead, five children all dead. Michael had shot his wife, her mother and his five children multiple times, each in the head and face. The first three people to be found were Tasha, her mum Gail and four-year-old Gavin. They were always sleeping in the master bed when Michael shot and killed them all. Tasha was shot clearly in the eye. Then Sienna was found in her bed, shot and killed, partially covered by her blankey. Then Amon was found. He was shot in his room but was on his floor, not in his bed. Clearly he had been woken up by the shots and got up to see what was going on. Macy and Bryley were then found in their rooms. According to the Crime Salad podcast, they were both also shot in the eye.
Speaker 1:
Up close and personal Michael was then speculated that this was Michael's way of saying like an eye for an eye with Tasha, macy and Bryley. Michael then turned the gun on himself in a basement room. Before he killed his whole family, michael googled things like how loud is a gunshot from a house? Can you hear gunshots from a basement? So he was very clearly planning something and was worried about someone stopping him in his plan. Michael had actually written a suicide note as well, which, unsurprisingly, blamed what he had done on his family Classic.
Speaker 1:
Now I don't really want to read too much from it here, but here's an extract. This is a huge case of poor me syndrome, as Laura Richards of Crime Analyst podcast would call it. It takes no accountability and zero responsibility for him killing his whole family. Police also found videos that Michael recorded on his phone before he killed his whole family, so we're mostly videos asking Tasha to reconsider her decision to leave him and start divorce proceedings. Before she was killed, tasha shared worries with her friends and family that Michael might try and kill her and was actually so worried about it that the day before the murders she sent all the children to go and stay with their friends overnight. When her and Michael talked that evening and that evening was actually the day that Michael had planned to kill this family, but he delayed it because the children weren't there that, you know, just makes me feel so just horrified and sad, because Tasha was trying to protect her family. But he had his plan. He was going to exert his act of control and nothing she did could have stopped it. And what makes this murder especially distressing is that Tasha's children were so full of hope and happiness that their mum was divorcing their dad. Macy and Brylee in particular were so ready to leave their abusive father and from their mum to get the life that she deserved.
Speaker 1:
Michael Hay was an abusive and controlling man who killed his whole family in cold blood. He carefully managed his image and reputation externally using his networks and relationships with fellow Latter-day Saints, internally and in the home, using power and control. The murders shocked the whole community and saw an outpouring of grief not just for Tasha, gail, macy, brylee, amon, sienna and Gavin, also for Michael. More on that later, the Iron County School District, where the five hate children went to school, released a statement on its website. It said, quote it is with deep regret that we inform you about a tragic loss to our school community this afternoon on the January, on January 4th, eight members of a family residing in Enoch, with five students in our schools, tragically passed away. This loss is sure to raise many emotions, concerns and questions for entire school district, especially our students.
Speaker 1:
Interesting how it talked about eight people tragically passing away rather than seven women and children being killed by their father. So the first time, I think, in any of our episodes, there was actually a statement from the White House in response to this familiar side. I don't think we've had that before. So President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered their condolences and a statement. Red quote the president of First Lady are mourning with the Enoch City, utah community in the wake of a tragic shooting that has reportedly claimed the lives of five children and multiple adults in their family home.
Speaker 1:
Too many Americans have lost loved ones or had their lives forever changed due to gun violence, and gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children in America. Less than one month after we marked ten years since the Sandy Hook tragedy, another mass shooting has claimed the lives of five more children in Enoch City. Again, it's so interesting that the statements equates the murder of a family with a school shooting and gun violence. They were killed in shot, they were killed by gun violence, but they didn't mention that all of the victims of the shooting were Michael's family, and then they were all killed by their husband or father. I feel like the victims are completely lost in the statement and like really disappointed.
Speaker 1:
To be honest, I'm continuing to look at the media response to this horrific act. Just six days after Michael Haidt killed his whole family, a falling and positive obituary of him appeared in a Utah newspaper mourning his death and making no mention whatsoever of him killing his whole family. The obituary has been taken down now, but was screenshotted by advocate and campaigner, sharon Watts, on Twitter. I really I don't want to read it all through, but it paints a picture of him as basically a saint a latter-day saint which makes me feel sick. But one of the most just clawing quotes was this one quote Michael made a point to spend quality time with each and every one of his children. Michael enjoyed making memories with the family. No mention of the reason that he was dead was because he killed his whole family and in response to the obituary before it was taken down, lots of people commented online about how nice and friendly Michael was and how he's a great guy. Now, if you were reading that obituary without knowing what had actually happened, I can understand how those comments were made and you might think that he just passed away tragically, sort of unexpectedly. Needless to say, this media response does not surprise me in the least, but it does frustrate me and I really hope by talking about familiar side more and raising awareness of what is actually going on in these families, we can help turn the tide of media victim blaming on perpetrator Justifiak.
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Now, as I've sort of talked about before, some of the response to the murders has been linked with the LDS religion and power and control that they try and keep by protecting their own. Susan Madston, founder and director of Utah Women and Leadership Project at Utah State University, said quote power imbalance between men and women can make it particularly difficult for abused women to obtain support in religious and conservative societies like Utah. And also the Mormon LGBT advocate, calvin Burke, tweeted quote my fellow Latter-day Saints, if you believe that it isn't your place to judge the actions of a member of our church who murdered his entire family, including his five children, repent now or you will go to how and you will deserve it. The funeral of Tasha Macy Riley, sienna Amon, gavin Haight and Gail Earle was held in Leverkin in January 2023. 850 people turned up to pay their respects and say goodbye to seven women and children who were taken too soon. This episode is dedicated to Tasha Macy Riley, sienna Amon and Gavin Haight and Gail Earle, the memories of who they were and the possibilities of who they could have grown up to be.
Speaker 1:
This has been Killer in the Family podcast written and produced by me, clare Laxton, with music from the brilliant Tom Box and Pixabay. I'll be back next week with another episode. Next week's episode is a real, real tough lesson, by the way, so please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'll also be giving shout outs to any five-star reviews, so please do leave me a review on Apple Podcasts and follow me on social at Killer in the Family pod. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Until then, I've been Clare Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care.