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PLEASANT GROVE — After police officers located the bodies of seven infants in the garage of Megan Huntsman's former home in Pleasant Grove, they kept searching for one, small item.
Investigators went to two separate homes in Pleasant Grove where Huntsman was storing a bed, some boxes, a desk and chest of drawers in search of an electronic storage device containing the woman's diary, according to search warrants unsealed Monday.
"I believe a search and seizure of any and all electronic storage devices will assist in identifying the parentage of the deceased and or the means, motive and method of death and concealment or storage and preservation of the bodies," Pleasant Grove police detective Rick Henderson wrote in one warrant.
The documents released Monday reiterate information in previous warrants released Friday, that Huntsman's estranged husband Darren West found the body of a baby inside a box labeled "Baby Stuff — Megan's" inside the garage of the home the couple had shared in Pleasant Grove on April 12. Huntsman told police the baby was stillborn and that she didn't go to the hospital or call police at the time of its birth because "she was scared."
Huntsman indicated "there could be as many as eight-nine deceased children in the home." Police ultimately located the bodies of seven infants and Huntsman has been charged with six counts of murder, a first-degree felony.
Investigators who searched Huntsman's former garage at 536 E. 200 North in Pleasant Grove 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 warrants.
I believe a search and seizure of any and all electronic storage devices will assist in identifying the parentage of the deceased and or the means, motive and method of death and concealment or storage and preservation of the bodies.
–Detective Rick Henderson, Pleasant Grove police
The infants were believed to have been strangled or smothered to death between 1996 and 2006.
In the court documents unsealed Monday, officers also obtained warrants to search two additional residences and some vehicles at those addresses in Pleasant Grove, including that of a Joyce Huntsman, 60, whose address matches that which Huntsman gave in court as belonging to her mother.
"Megan said she lost a lot of blood while giving birth to one of the above mentioned seven deceased babies," the warrant states. "Megan said this birth occurred on her bedroom mattress and Megan identified the mattress seized from the residence as being the mattress she gave birth on. Megan told officers she later took the head and foot board off of the bed and transported and stored them at Joyce Huntsman's residence."
Huntsman's current boyfriend, Marvin James Brady, also indicated that Megan Huntsman had been storing her diary on an electronic storage device.
Joyce Huntsman apparently told police that her daughter stored many items at her home and police seized a log headboard and footboard, two sideboards, two support planks, a box containing correspondence between West and Huntsman, and a single handwritten letter.
From the home of a Clifton Wadley, 94, in Pleasant Grove, police recovered a chest and drawers and a writing desk. It does not state whether an electronic device was recovered in either search.
Police and prosecutors have said they believe they know Huntsman's motive but have not released that information to the public.
They said they believe all of the children are Huntsman's and that West is the father, as the woman reported, but are awaiting DNA test results for additional information.
The woman is scheduled to appear in court again on May 19.
