Police: Utah mom admitted to killing her 6 babies

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

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.

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.

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