Mom charged after 7 dead babies found
Print Edition
POLICE in Utah are questioning a mother and family members about the killings of seven babies whose bodies were found stuffed in cardboard boxes in a garage.
Megan Huntsman, 39, is accused of killing her babies after giving birth to the children between 1996 and 2006, investigators said.
She was booked on Sunday on six counts of murder. It wasn’t immediately clear if Huntsman has an attorney or why there were six counts and not seven.
Police declined to comment on a possible motive.
Her estranged husband made the discovery while cleaning out the garage after recently getting out of prison. Authorities do not believe he was aware of the killings.
Police Captain Michael Roberts said officers responded to a call from him on Saturday about a dead infant, and then they found the six other bodies.
Family and neighbors identified the estranged husband as Darren West, who has been in jail on drug-related charges.
Roberts said police believe West and Huntsman were together when the babies were born.
“We don’t believe he had any knowledge of the situation,” Roberts said.
Asked how West could not have known about the situation, Roberts said, “That’s the million-dollar question. Amazing.”
The babies’ bodies were sent to the Utah medical examiner’s office for tests, including one to determine the cause of death. DNA samples taken from the suspect and her husband will determine definitively whether the two are the parents.
Huntsman has three daughters, one teenager and two adults, who lived at the house.
Neighbors in the middle-class neighborhood 60 kilometers south of Salt Lake City say they were shocked by the accusations.
Police say West made the grisly discovery at the house owned by his parents in a city of about 35,000 people at the foot of snow-capped mountains.
West’s family issued a statement saying they were in a “state of shock and confusion.”
The family members seemed like nice people and good neighbors, said Aaron and Kathie Hawker, who lives next door.
Huntsman moved out several years ago, leaving her daughters to live alone, the Hawkers said.
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