Woman is expected to face murder charges after 7 dead infants were discovered in her garage
No one apparently knew Megan Huntsman was ever pregnant, including her husband and his three daughters, two of them now adults, who lived at their home.
Yet police in Provo, Utah, are now accusing Huntsman of killing six of the seven dead babies found in her garage over the weekend. Huntsman was arrested on six murder counts and is being held in lieu of $6 million bond, but has not yet been formally charged with murder in the slayings, reports the Associated Press.
Police say the 39-year-old admitted to strangling or suffocating all but one of the babies, after delivering them at home between 1996 and 2006. The seventh infant, she said, was stillborn. All of the bodies were found in boxes stored in her garage.
The case against Huntsman began to gain momentum when Huntsman’s estranged husband, Darren West, found one infant’s body. He was cleaning the garage Saturday following his recent release from prison and called police, the news agency recounts. The husband is not suspected of any involvement. “We don’t believe he had any knowledge of the situation,” Capt. Michael Roberts of the Provo police told the news agency.
West’s family expressed “shock and confusion” in a written statement Sunday. Neighbors also told the AP they were stunned by news of the discovery, and that they had had positive interactions with the family. Like West, they said they hadn’t had an inkling Huntsman was ever pregnant.
“It makes us so sad, we want to cry,” next-door neighbor Kathie Hawker told the news agency, noting that Huntsman formerly was a babysitter for Hawker’s grandchildren. “We enjoyed having them as a neighbor. This has just blown us away.”
