In what can only be described as a disturbing find, Darren West found a dead infant wrapped in plastic in his Pleasant Grove, Utah, garage. He immediately contacted the police who issued a search warrant, only to find over a single weekend the remains of six other babies in that same garage. Megan Huntsman, 39, the ex-wife of West, admitted to killing six of the seven babies found in that garage shortly after each was born.
Appearing in court on April 14, 2014, Huntsman was charged with the death of six infants, and bond has been set at $6 million. She described to police how she killed six of the babies shortly after their births by strangling or suffocating them, according to CNN. The seventh infant was stillborn.
No denial by Huntsman
According to a probable cause statement, “During her interview, Ms. Huntsman admitted that between 1996 and 2006, she gave birth to at least seven babies at the Pleasant Grove residence, and that all of the babies, but one, were born alive, and that she either strangled or suffocated the babies immediately after they were born.” Once she had killed an infant, she would then conceal the body in a shirt or towel, which she would wrap in plastic and place in a box that she stored in the garage. Each baby was stored in its own cardboard box.
No charges for ex-husband
While Darren West, ex-husband of the accused, has not been charged, police are still trying to determine what knowledge, if any, he had of what Megan was doing. Police Chief Michael Smith noted that West had been “cooperative,” but he was still under investigation for what role he may have played in this grisly scenario.
While some might question whether the ex-husband knew about the pregnancies, apparently Megan Huntsman concealed all of her pregnancies, even those of her now-grown children (three daughters, ranging in age from 13 to 20). She told police that West (who she claims was the father of all the dead infants) did not know of her pregnancies. DNA testing will be done on the infant remains to determine the paternity of the children, as well as whether Huntsman is the mother of all.
Keeping everyone in the dark
According to CBS News, she never saw a doctor in any of her pregnancies, and gave birth to all of her children at home. She also recently became pregnant by her current boyfriend, but he did not learn of the child’s existence until she miscarried.
Similar to French case
The Huntsman case has remarkably similar characteristics to a case in Villers-au-Tertre, France, in which Dominique Cottrez admitted to giving birth to and then smothering eight infants over the course of a 17-year period. Two of the babies were discovered when a couple who bought the Cottrez house were gardening and found them while digging in the back yard. Cottrez then admitted to police that at least six others were hidden in the garage. It is uncertain whether Huntsman knew about the French case.