In the quiet farming community of Farwell, Michigan, a horrific crime shattered the peace on a cold February day in 1982. Garnetta Haggard, a 22-year-old woman, was brutally murdered on February 16th, becoming one of seven victims in a senseless act of violence that would come to be known as the Rock Road massacre. The tragedy unfolded at her parents' farmhouse, a place that should have been a sanctuary.
The architect of this devastation was Robert Lee Haggart, Garnetta's 31-year-old estranged husband. The couple was in the midst of contentious divorce proceedings, and the day after the murders was scheduled for a court hearing to finalize their separation. Haggart, a livestock auctioneer, was reportedly concerned that Garnetta could provide testimony that would implicate him in other criminal activities. In what investigators believe was a calculated and cold-blooded act to eliminate any potential witnesses, Haggart went to the Post family farm armed with a shotgun and a handgun.
There, he systematically took the lives of Garnetta, her parents, George Post, 54, and Vaudrey Post, 43, her half-sister Helen Gaffney, 29, and three of Helen's young children: 10-year-old Angela, 7-year-old Thomas, and 4-year-old Amy. The only survivor was Helen's one-year-old daughter, who was found alive, shielded by her mother's body. The gruesome discovery was made by another of the Post's daughters and her husband when they arrived at the farmhouse to find a scene of unimaginable horror.
Following the murders, Robert Lee Haggart fled the state in an attempt to evade capture. His freedom, however, was short-lived. Two days later, on February 18, 1982, he was apprehended in Jasper, Tennessee, and subsequently extradited back to Michigan to face justice. His trial was a high-profile affair, moved to Midland County due to the extensive media coverage in Clare County. The evidence against him was overwhelming.
In October 1982, a jury found Robert Lee Haggart guilty of six counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Haggart would spend the remainder of his life behind bars, and on November 24, 2003, he died of natural causes at the Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Years after his conviction for the massacre, DNA evidence would also link him to the 1977 rape and murder of another woman, further cementing his legacy as a remorseless killer.
