UT - Family of 8 found dead in home by gunshot in Enoch, Jan 2023




A family of three adults and five children were found shot to death Wednesday inside a home in rural southwest Utah, officials said.

Officers learned of the shooting deaths after responding to a welfare check at a home in Enoch City, which is about 245 miles south of Salt Lake City, according to a news release from Enoch City officials. All of the bodies were found inside the home, the release noted.
What a huge tragedy :(
 
I suppose a troubled son or male relative could have carried out this horror - not necessarily the dad. Statistically, I'll rule out the mom/daughter/female relative.

If red flags were missed/ignored, I truly hope that this horrible tragedy will encourage LE, LDS and others to closely examine how they identify and respond to domestic violence.

For all interested in this issue of domestic violence overall, I read a book No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder that had so many useful insights. And yes, the book addresses family annihilators, because murder is part of the continuum of domestic violence. I won't link: y'all can google and read detailed reviews; it won numerous awards.
 
I'm guessing it's going to be a parent of one of the adult couple, a sibling of one of the adult couple, or a friend of the married couple. It's possible that someone lived with them, or that one spouse felt safer with a friend or relative staying over, or needed help with the children, if the other spouse had moved out.

I guess another possibility is that it's a new partner of one of the adult couple, but until we get more information that suggests that the couple had been separated for a while or there had been infidelity, I'm less inclined to go that way. It's not impossible, but if - for example - the husband had been kicked out and the wife had moved her new partner in, in a heavily Mormon community that small? It would be all anybody would have been talking about. All the reporters would have been dished that tea already (except not tea, because Mormons don't drink that, so, pick your noncaffeinated bevvy of choice). It's possible if that is the case, it's all over social media, but I don't do that. I just hang out here. It's nicer. *blows kisses to the mods*

MOO
I initially presumed adult child. Our family was also LDS and a lot of our extended family and people in their wards - especially Utah families in rural areas where homeschooling is prevalent - end up with kids living at home well into their 20s.

- Edit, but yes it does turn out that the third adult was the wife's mother:

 
Last edited:
I initially presumed adult child. Our family was also LDS and a lot of our extended family and people in their wards - especially Utah families in rural areas where homeschooling is prevalent - end up with kids living at home well into their 20s.

- Edit, but yes it does turn out that the third adult was the wife's mother:

Wife filed for divorce just before Christmas.

And this:

a family friend told FOX 13 News that the 42-year-old had left the company within the last week.

IMHO that shows he planned this and there was a period of premeditation of at least a week, and this was not a sudden, impulsive act done in the heat of an argument, for example (though both are 100% equally premeditated murder, just a shorter interval between choice and action).
 
Wife filed for divorce just before Christmas.
And this:

a family friend told FOX 13 News that the 42-year-old had left the company within the last week.

IMHO that shows he planned this and there was a period of premeditation of at least a week, and this was not a sudden, impulsive act done in the heat of an argument, for example (though both are 100% equally premeditated murder, just a shorter interval between choice and action).

Yes, I understood that the person responsible was the father of the family and the probable motives - I was just commenting on the relationship of the third adult in the home. Apologies for any confusion.
 
Yes, I understood that the person responsible was the father of the family and the probable motives - I was just commenting on the relationship of the third adult in the home. Apologies for any confusion.
There wasn't any confusion! I was just commenting on other aspects of the article. What you said was fine!
 
Wife filed for divorce just before Christmas.

And this:

a family friend told FOX 13 News that the 42-year-old had left the company within the last week.

IMHO that shows he planned this and there was a period of premeditation of at least a week, and this was not a sudden, impulsive act done in the heat of an argument, for example (though both are 100% equally premeditated murder, just a shorter interval between choice and action).
bbm
Hmmm...
Another small-minded man who could not handle perceived rejection ?
Depression issues ?
No matter the cause, get professional help and do not hurt your precious family !
Ugh.

Rest in gentle peace to the innocent victims !
 
Wife filed for divorce just before Christmas.

And this:

a family friend told FOX 13 News that the 42-year-old had left the company within the last week.

IMHO that shows he planned this and there was a period of premeditation of at least a week, and this was not a sudden, impulsive act done in the heat of an argument, for example (though both are 100% equally premeditated murder, just a shorter interval between choice and action).

also worth noting from link

"Enoch City police chief Jackson Ames said his department was "familiar" with the family and had been "involved in some investigations with the family a couple years prior," but did not elaborate on the reason. Ames added that there had been no recent interactions with the family."

speculation... ongoing dv. the perfect family pix pointed me that way too... although i know LDS families focus on fam it just resembled too many other cases like this

tausha's fb - Log in or sign up to view
 
Contrary to what many people might believe, DV (and child abuse) are not uncommon in LDS households, at all.
that is not what i said. i know it is. i was more commented on a previous poster's observation growing up LDS that they hugely focus on the family unit. I was saying the perfect family pix she posted also reminded me of so many DV victims perfect family pix.

organized religion is not my thing and super religious ppl are offputting to me so i dont doubt your assertions at all.
 
My own personal experience with DV families is almost always that nobody was surprised. Sometimes there was some "After I thought about it......" but usually, it's not hard to read between the lines even if it wasn't obvious.

People can certainly abuse their families in other ways too, often financially.

Anecdote: Many years ago, I worked with a man who was getting divorced after a >20 year marriage, and one allegation his STBX was making was that he had physically abused her. Someone who worked there was good friends with one of his kids (actually, stepkids; she had been widowed when the kids were very young and he married her a few years later and raised them as is own) and the kids said there was no way their dad ever did anything like that. There were also several women there who had been in abusive relationships, not necessarily married, and all of them flat out said, "He didn't do this."
 
Does anyone here think he may also have been abusing the children, and she found out about it?
Not sure I would jump to that. Of course it's possible, but there are so many other cases where the husband/boyfriend thought of their spouse and children as 'possessions' that they owned and deserved. They couldn't handle that the world didn't revolve around them.
 
I'm stumbling here. We have 7 people murdered by a family member. Yet 4 young adults murdered by a stranger in Idaho capture our attention to many hundreds of magnitudes in comparison. I'm not saying it shouldn't (I am devastated by those senseless, vicious murders), but we write off domestic violence like it's nothing. I guess that's because we believe that domestic violence can't happen to us if we have 'good lives' yet stranger violence COULD happen to us so it's more random and shocking.

My point is that every life lost to violence matters equally. But we don't treat them as such.
(And don't get me going on indigenous lives!!! or lives of people who live high risk lifestyles!)

Thank you for reading my rant. I just needed to get that out of my system. My apologies.
 

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