A person shot and killed his household of seven, together with 5 youngsters, then turned the gun on himself after his spouse filed for divorce, US officers mentioned Thursday.

Police within the small Utah settlement of Enoch City discovered eight our bodies — one of them that of a four-year-old — after being referred to as by pals and kin who have been involved for the household.

A spokesman mentioned officers had found three adults and 5 youngsters at a single-family house on Wednesday, all lifeless from what gave the impression to be gunshot wounds.

“Evidence means that the suspect took his personal life after killing seven others within the house,” a statement from the city said, naming him as 42-year-old Michael Haight.

The dead were his wife, her mother, and the couple’s five children — three girls and two boys aged between four and 17.

Enoch Mayor Geoffrey Chesnut mentioned the taking pictures got here after an obvious marital breakdown.

“It appears, according to court documents, that (a divorce petition) was filed on the 21st of December and it was filed by the wife,” he advised reporters.

Chesnut mentioned Enoch was a small, close-knit group the place folks knew one another.

“The Haights have been my neighbors,” he said.

“Their youngest children played in my yard with my sons.”

An investigation into the a number of killings was below means however police mentioned they weren’t trying for anybody else in reference to the crime.

Chief Jackson Ames mentioned officers have been conversant in the household.

“We had been concerned in some investigations with this household a pair of years prior,” he said, declining to give further details.

Enoch is a rural city of around 7,500 people in the southwest of Utah. It sits about three-and-a-half hours’ drive from Salt Lake City.

The state is known as the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members are popularly known as Mormons, a conservative Christian sect that places strong emphasis on family, but which historically encouraged polygamy.

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