Huntsman said she had '8 or 9' dead infants in her home, warrant says

Huntsman said she had '8 or 9' dead infants in her home, warrant says

(Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

PROVO — When detectives interviewed Megan Huntsman before arresting her, she said there were "eight or nine deceased infant children" inside her home, according to newly released court documents.

Huntsman was unable, however, to confirm the location of each deceased child, the report stated.

Ultimately, the bodies of seven infants were found in the garage of Huntsman's former Pleasant Grove residence. She was charged in Provo's 4th District Court earlier this week with six counts of murder, all first-degree felonies. Prosecutors said a seventh child was stillborn.

On Friday, search warrants served on the Pleasant Grove home where Huntsman lived until 2011 and where all of the deceased infants were found, as well as her most recent residence in a mobile home in West Valley City, were released.

Darren West, Huntsman's estranged husband who had recently been released from federal prison after eight years and was in the process of moving back into his Pleasant Grove home, 536 E. 200 North, discovered a "small white box" sealed with electrical tape while cleaning out his garage on April 12.

"The box was placed on top of a second box which read, 'Baby Stuff — Megan's,'" according to the search warrant.

"Upon inspection of the inside of the box, a large amount of plastic wrap and bagging components were discovered. (West) stated he looked inside the bags and discovered the deceased body of a small infant child," the search warrant affidavit stated. "Upon opening the bag, he explained that he observed a strong chemical odor emanating from the bag. (West) also explained that he is familiar with the smell of dead bodies and that he was expecting the odor of decomposition, however this smell was a different odor from what he is familiar with, and he described the smell as a 'chemical smell.'"

West told police the chemical smelled like iodine and that the infant's body had a "yellowish color," according to the warrant.

Related

When West called Huntsman, 39, she told him the baby was hers and that he was the father, the warrant stated. When police initially contacted Huntsman by phone, she said the infant was stillborn and that "she was scared to call the police or go to the hospital at that time, however she did not state why she was scared," according to the warrant.

Investigators who searched the garage and found the other deceased infants also seized several other items as potential evidence, including white leather gloves with blood, towels, T-shirts, a sweater wrapped around one of the deceased infants, garbage bags, blankets, women's panties and pieces of the master bedroom mattress and box springs that had unknown stains, according to the warrant.

The infants were believed to have been strangled or smothered to death between 1996 and 2006.

Police also served a search warrant on a mobile home at 3800 W. Hummingbird St. where Huntsman was living with her boyfriend at the time of her arrest.

No additional bodies were found. According to the warrants, police seized mainly drugs, drug paraphernalia, a diary and a journal.

Huntsman has three daughters, ages 22, 20 and 14, one of whom was born during the time the other infants were killed. A possible motive for the slayings had not been offered by prosecutors as of Friday.

Huntsman is being held in the Utah County Jail in lieu of $6 million bail. Her next court hearing is scheduled for May 19.

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast