Advertisement

Utah mother sentenced to 15 years to life for murdering six newborns

Megan Huntsman appears in court in Provo, Utah April 21, 2014. REUTERS/Rick Bowmer/Pool

PROVO, Utah (Reuters) - A Utah mother who pleaded guilty to murdering six of her newborn infants over the course of a decade was sentenced on Monday to 15 years to life in prison. Megan Huntsman, 40, confessed to suffocating or strangling the babies while she was suffering from methamphetamine and alcohol addiction, according to police. The six infants' remains were found in April 2014 wrapped in old towels, shirts and plastic bags inside boxes in the garage in Pleasant Grove, about 40 miles north of Provo. The body of a seventh infant was discovered disposed of in the same way, but authorities have said they believe that child was stillborn. Police have said Huntsman secretly gave birth to all seven without medical assistance at the house after apparently managing to conceal her pregnancies from the outside world. The case of serial infanticide came to light when Huntsman's estranged husband, Darren West, later confirmed by DNA tests to have fathered all of the victims, stumbled on one of the tiny bodies while cleaning out the garage and notified authorities. Neither West nor any of Huntsman's three surviving daughters, aged 14, 18 and 20 at the time of her arrest, was considered a suspect in the case. Those three daughters continued to live at the Pleasant Grove address, with other relatives, after their mother left to move into a boyfriend's home in 2011. At least one of the three, the youngest, was born during the period in which her sibling infants were slain. Huntsman was not eligible for the death penalty because the murders, which took place between 1996 and 2006, predate changes in the law that would have made the offense a capital crime in Utah. (Reporting by Peg McEntee in Provo, Utah; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Peter Cooney)