Eight dead in Utah murder-suicide after wife sought divorce
ENOCH, Utah — A Utah man fatally shot his five children, his mother-in-law and his wife and then killed himself two weeks after the woman had filed for divorce, according to authorities and public records.
Police also revealed during a Thursday news conference that officers investigated the 42-yearold man and his family a “couple of years prior,” suggesting possible earlier problems inside the household. Enoch Police Chief Jackson Ames did not elaborate.
Investigators were aware of the divorce petition but didn’t know if it was the motivation behind
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A massive Pacific storm unleashed high winds, torrential rains and heavy snow across California for a second day on Thursday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and threatening much of the state with flash flooding and mudslides.
At least two fatalities have been reported since Wednesday. The deadly storm was powered by two overlapping phenomena — an immense airborne stream of dense moisture from the ocean called an atmospheric river, and a sprawling, hurricane-force lowpressure system known as a bomb cyclone.
The blast of extreme winter weather marked the third and strongest atmospheric river to strike California since early last week, with at least two more back-to-back storms forecast over the next several days.
■ the killings, Mayor Geoffrey Chesnut said.
The killings rocked the small town of Enoch in southern Utah about halfway between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. It’s in one of the fastest-growing areas of the country, and communities of new homes on big lots are made up primarily of large families that belong, like most in Utah, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, known widely as the Mormon church.
Many residents work and do business in nearby Cedar City, a city of about 35,000 that serves as a commercial hub for Enoch, which doesn’t have its own downtown.
The deceased were members of the faith and well known in town. Many residents served in church alongside members of the slain family or went to school with the children, city officials said. ■