(HLNtv.com) — A Utah mother accused of killing her newborn babies and hiding their bodies in her garage was formally charged with six counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday, according to prosecutors.
Police responded to Megan Huntsman’s former home earlier in April after her estranged husband, Darren West, contacted authorities and claimed he found a baby in the garage wrapped in a plastic bag, according to a probable cause statement.
West told police he contacted Huntsman, who allegedly admitted to him that the baby was hers and that she had placed the baby in a box after it was stillborn in 2006.
“The baby was well preserved and appeared to be full term,” police said in the probable cause statement.
During the execution of a search warrant for the home, police said they discovered six additional bodies.
“The bodies all appeared to be infants,” police said in the probable cause statement. “Each baby was found wrapped in either a towel or a shirt, placed inside of a plastic bag, and each was contained in a separate cardboard box.”
During a police interview, investigators said Huntsman admitted that between 1996 and 2006, she gave birth to at least seven babies at the Pleasant Grove home.
Huntsman allegedly told police that all of the babies, except for one, were born alive, and that she either strangled or suffocated the babies immediately after they were born.
Investigators said Huntsman told them she then concealed the babies’ bodies inside boxes and placed them inside the garage.
Huntsman’s estranged husband and family members currently live in the home where the discovery was made. Megan Huntsman lived in the home until 2011, when she moved to West Valley, according to police.
A second search warrant was issued for Huntsman’s current home, but nothing of interest was found there, according to investigators.
