Utah Woman Arrested After 7 Dead Babies Found

PinkBlackZebra00 said:
Same here. That is terrible tradegy! I can't believe that is seven dead babies since 1996. But she has three daughters are still alive. So bizarre!
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My daughter was born in 1997 so one of the babies would have been 18 now. Poor thing
 
Reba said:
She had three living daughters, at least one of which was born during the period she was killing the other babies. I wonder if all the other babies were boys, and she wanted only girls? :dunno:
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That is an interesting question...guess we will find out sooner or later of the gender of the babies.
 
Reba said:
She had three living daughters, at least one of which was born during the period she was killing the other babies. I wonder if all the other babies were boys, and she wanted only girls? :dunno:
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I second that Shel90. That is good question. I bet the investigator is too overwhelming with 7 dead babies. :shock:
 
diehardbiker said:
The article mention waiting for DNA test result to show whos the parents, so is all 7 babies really hers? Too soon to tell but :(

Either she faked that it was pregnant, and got babies though kidnapping, or she was smart somehow to cover the pregnancy. That is two only explanations I could think of. If found guilty, I would love see her stuck in ADMAX 23/7 lockdown for rest of her life and ALONE 24/7/364.25.
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If she have diagnosed of mental illness,would be avoid death penalty and would be sentence to life in prison without parole.
 
How the hell did people not know she was pregnant?! Not to mention, how did she birth them with no assistance, no pain killers ( holy hell ) and nobody to stop the bleeding or just... I mean... I just can't wrap my mind around this! I know we used to have babies the old way but we still had assistance! For her to have that many babies with no assistance, I mean, she had to have had SOME ASSISTANCE! Something!?! This completely blows my mind! Wow, just wow... I'm with you Nih... some damn birth control or condoms or something if you didn't want to reproduce... I have a feeling they may not all be hers... just seems too weird.... Poor babies... so sad... :( Freaking sick woman!
 
Some people should not breed.... Very bizarre behavior of this woman. Poor fathers to be who had to go thru this agonizing emotions over this horrible crime.
 
That woman can you nightmares just by looking at her! I find it very odd that no one smelled anything strange in the garage .
 
Police: Utah mom admitted to killing her 6 babies

PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (AP) — Megan Huntsman was clear about what she did with six of her newborn babies.

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Huntsman, 39, told police she either strangled or suffocated them immediately after they were born. She wrapped their bodies in a towel or a shirt, put them in plastic bags and then packed them inside boxes in the garage of her home south of Salt Lake City.

What's not clear is why. A day after her arrest on charges of killing her six babies, investigators and her neighbors puzzled over the grisly discovery, including how she could have concealed a half-dozen pregnancies over a 10-year period.

"How can you have a baby and not have evidence and other people know?" asked neighbor SanDee Wall. "You can't plan when a baby is going to come. Just the thought of somebody putting a baby into a box is a heartbreaker."

Huntsman, who was arrested Sunday on six counts of murder, was ordered held on $6 million bail — $1 million for each baby. The remains of a seventh baby police found appears to have been stillborn, authorities said.

According to a probable cause statement released by police Monday, Huntsman said she gave birth to at least seven babies between 1996 and 2006 at her former home in Pleasant Grove, a leafy, sleepy town about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City.

All but one of the babies was born alive, she said. During the interview with police, she was unemotional and matter of fact, according to Pleasant Grove police Lt. Britt Smith.

Her estranged husband, Darren West, made the discovery Saturday with fellow family members while cleaning out the garage of the house, which is owned by his parents. He called Huntsman, who admitted to him it was her baby, according to court documents.

West called police, who then found the bodies in the garage.

Investigators believe Huntsman is the mother of them all based on what she has told them but have ordered DNA tests to make sure that's the case. They don't know who the babies' fathers are. It could take weeks to get the results, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said.

Huntsman's three daughters — one teenager and two young adults — also lived in the house.

View gallerycrime scene at a house in Pleasant Grove, Utah
Authorities investigate a crime scene at a house in Pleasant Grove, Utah, Sunday, April 13, 2014. Ac …
Investigators believe West and Huntsman were together when the babies were born, but don't believe he was aware of the killings. Buhman said Huntsman is the principle suspect, but didn't rule out more arrests as the investigation continues.

Police have talked with West as they investigate his level of knowledge and involvement in the deaths, Smith said. He was living in the house during the decade that authorities believe Huntsman had killed the babies, Smith said.

He's been cooperative, and was devastated by the discovery, he said.

Smith said the three daughters have been interviewed, but he declined to discuss what they said.

West pleaded guilty in federal court in 2005 to two counts of possessing chemicals intended to be used in manufacturing methamphetamine, according to court records. In August 2006, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison, but appealed three times.

West was released from a federal prison in California in January and transferred to a halfway house in Salt Lake City, said Chris Burke, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

During the Drug Enforcement Administration investigation in 2005, agents stopped by the house, spoke with Huntsman and looked around but it's unknown how extensive the search was.

As he maintained his innocence, Huntsman wrote a letter asking a federal judge to consider leniency at sentencing.

"Darren is a remarkable man, husband, brother, son, son-in-law, friend and father of our three beautiful daughters," she wrote, continuing, "Please we need this guy to keep our family together."

Neighbor Sharon Chipman said the couple married young, and Huntsman never worked except for a short stint at a grocery store.
The three daughters who were living in the house were good young women who have turned out remarkably well considering their father has been in prison, Chipman and Wall said.

West's parents have played an influential role in their upbringing, especially the youngest, who is still in junior high.

Wall said she's puzzled about why Huntsman would have killed the babies, especially considering her youngest daughter, now a young teen, was born during the decade Huntsman told authorities she killed the other babies.

"Why was one of them saved?" Wall said.

Neighbors said they noticed Huntsman's weight fluctuated over the years, with her toggling between baggy and tight clothes, but they didn't realize she was pregnant.

Cheryl Meyer, a psychology professor at Ohio's Wright State University, said some women who kill their children hide or deny her pregnancy and then dispose of the baby after it's born. Meyer said "concealers" are typically teenagers who do not repeat the act.

"These are usually girls who are 17, get pregnant, become scared to death and don't want to tell their parents," said Meyer, who has written about mothers who kill their children. "They're not 30-year-old women who can go have an abortion."

To combat this, states, including Utah, have safe haven laws that allow women to drop off unwanted newborns to authorities with no questions asked. The mother can remain anonymous as long as the child has not been subject to abuse or neglect.

In coming days, defense attorneys for Huntsman are likely to closely examine her background to search for any evidence of mental illness or a family history that would help explain the alleged killings, said George Parnham, who represented Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who drowned her five children in her bathtub in 2001.

Defense attorneys also will try to determine whether Huntsman sought an abortion and if she told anyone about her pregnancies — all in hopes of understanding actions that otherwise appear incomprehensible, Parnham said.

"You start off with the very nature of what happened. Is there a rational motive?" he said.

Police: Utah mom admitted to killing her 6 babies
 
Makes no sense why one would kill an innocent living being and then keep it around for evidence and a reminder what you have done everyday passing by them is one of the sickest thing do it over and over again. Has to have mental illiness issue going on to explain this horrific act
 
It is very interesting that she kept those babies in the box in the HOUSE. Apparently, she has reasons for it.
 
Police say Utah mom gave birth at home before killing infants

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - A Utah mother accused of slaying six of her own infant children over the course of a decade secretly gave birth to each of the babies without medical assistance at home and then immediately killed them, police said on Wednesday.

Megan Huntsman, 39, was ordered held in lieu of $6 million bail on Monday on suspicion of murdering six newborn babies whose tiny bodies were found rolled up in shirts, towels and plastic bags and stashed inside separate cardboard boxes in the garage of her former home.

Police in the Salt Lake City suburb of Pleasant Grove, Utah, say Huntsman has admitted under questioning that she strangled or suffocated the six babies just after they were born in a rare case of serial infanticide that ran from 1996 to 2006.

The body of a seventh infant born during the same period and disposed of the same way also was found in the garage, but police say they believe that child was stillborn.

Police disclosed new findings in the case as medical examiners continued autopsies on the remains and DNA tests aimed at confirming such details as the manner and cause of the infants' deaths, their parentage and their genders.

Following extensive interviews with neighbors and family members, including Huntsman's three older children - all daughters, now aged 20, 18 and 14 - investigators say the mother somehow managed to keep nearly a decade of consecutive pregnancies a secret.

"We have not found anybody who has ever suspected that she was pregnant," Pleasant Grove police Captain Mike Roberts said.

"All seven were born in the home," Roberts said. "We have no proof of any medical anything during any of the seven pregnancies. Nothing."

PUZZLE OF SURVIVING CHILD

Adding to the puzzle is the fact that at least one of Huntsman's surviving daughters, the 14-year-old, was born in the middle of the period during which the mother is suspected of killing six of her babies.

Huntsman was arrested on Sunday after her estranged husband, Darren Brad West, found the body of one infant tucked into a cabinet while cleaning out the garage at the home and called police, authorities have said. Investigators then discovered the six other remains.

He is believed to be the father of all seven, though neither West nor the three surviving daughters - also presumed to be his children - are suspects "at this point," Roberts said.

West, 41, who was released from federal prison earlier this year after serving time for a drug conviction and now resides in a halfway house in Utah, had been preparing to move back into the Pleasant Grove house, which is owned by his parents.

Huntsman left the house in 2011 to move in with her boyfriend in another Salt Lake City suburb, according to police.

Her three surviving daughters remained in the Pleasant Grove home, sharing the house with West's sister and her husband, who reside in a basement apartment there, police said.

Roberts said all of the deceased babies, though their remains were badly decomposed, appeared to have been carried to full term. He said autopsies might be completed on Wednesday but declined to say when results would be released.

Roberts also said he was aware of reports that Huntsman recently suffered a miscarriage, a development he said was still under investigation.

Pleasant Grove neighbors report seeing fluctuations in Huntsman's weight over the years, but say they never suspected she was pregnant. Similarly, Roberts said Huntsman's two adult daughters told police they were unaware of the pregnancies their mother concealed.

Police say they do not believe mental illness was a factor in the killings. Based on interviews with Huntsman, investigators say they have a motive but have yet to reveal it.

"I've heard speculation that she was in a cult," Roberts said, "but that's all coming from the neighbors. Unfortunately, we can't release the motive at this point."

Roberts said he expects formal charges in the case to be filed by prosecutors by next Monday, when an arraignment has been scheduled for Huntsman.

Police say Utah mom gave birth at home before killing infants
 
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