Police find seven dead babies in Utah County home

"This is not the first time Utah County investigators have had
to handle a case of a mother killing her babies."

Tell me - is abortion denied to Utah women?

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Police find seven dead babies in Utah County home

Woman, 39, gave birth, then killed the infants and put their bodies in a
garage.

By Michael McFall
The Salt Lake Tribune
Last Updated Apr 13 2014 09:44 pm

Pleasant Grove police made a grisly discovery Saturday: seven dead
infants, six of them in cardboard boxes.

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(photo of Megan Huntsman - http://tinyurl.com/kt2j9ol)
Megan Huntsman, 39, was arrested early Sunday morning on suspicion of
six counts of murder.
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Utah has had a Safe Haven law on the books since 2001, allowing
biological parents to anonymously give up custody of their newborn child
without facing any legal consequences. Intended to save children’s
lives, the law tries to prevent women from abandoning infants in places
such as trash cans and bathrooms.

The Utah representative who originally sponsored the law, then-Rep.
Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, had heard the media coverage of one young
Utah woman who left her newborn in a drawer in her parents’ home. The
baby was found days later, dead.

In 2012, officials said that at least one baby a year has been left at a
Utah hospital since the law took effect. Exactly how many babies have
been saved in Utah is difficult to determine, because some women call
the Safe Haven hotline at 1-866-458-0058 to learn about resources such
as adoption, pregnancy health information and programs that provide
financial support for keeping a baby.

Police believe she gave birth to the babies then killed them over the
past decade, according to a police news release.

On Saturday, police responded to a call from Huntsman’s ex-husband about
a dead infant found inside a Pleasant Grove home that Huntsman lived in
until 2011. Officers arrived and found the body of a newborn infant, who
appeared to be full term, according to the release.

Police obtained a search warrant for the home and found six more babies
packaged in separate cardboard boxes inside the garage, said police
Capt. Michael Roberts.

Investigators learned that Huntsman allegedly gave birth to the infants,
then killed them, over a 10 year period, the release adds. Her
ex-husband is believed to be the father, but investigators are still
working on DNA tests, Roberts said.

At this point, police are not pursuing charges against the ex-husband,
Roberts said.

Police said two people are living in the Pleasant Grove home at this
time, a rambler which is split into upstairs and downstairs apartments.

The ex-husband’s parents own the home, and Huntsman’s three daughters
still live there, said longtime neighbor Sharon Chipman. The eldest
daughters are around 18 to 20 years old, while the youngest is now about
13, Chipman said. Chipman hasn’t seen the daughters since the news
broke.

The ex had been cleaning out the garage on Saturday getting ready to
move back into the house this summer, Chipman said.

"He was finally coming down to help take care of his family — and to run
across that, It would devastate him," Chipman said.

Chipman had noticed that Huntsman had gained and lost some weight in the
years she lived there, but Chipman never considered that she was
pregnant. She was a great neighbor, and Chipman even trusted Huntsman to
watch her grandson, when he was a toddler, for years.

"She took good care of him. She was good. This really shocks me," she
said.

Aaron Hawker, who lives next door to the house and has known the family
for years, had been watching police come and go from the house all day,
also never thought Huntsman looked pregnant.

He described her as a great neighbor, and her ex as "a good guy." In
fact, Hawker saw and talked to Huntsman’s ex just Saturday morning.

Megan Huntsman has no criminal record, aside from a 2011 traffic
citation, according to a search of Utah court records.

This is not the first time Utah County investigators have had to handle
a case of a mother killing her babies.

An Orem mother, Darcie Jo Baum, secretly gave birth three times and let
the infants die. The final birth, in 1999, cost the 26-year-old her
life; she bled to death after delivering an infant son into a basement
toilet where he drowned.

Baum’s second-born son, Draye, was the only child to survive. He was
"her life," Baum’s mother, Vickie Austin, said after Darcie Baum’s
death. Each night at bedtime Baum sang, "You Are My Sunshine," as the
boy nodded off to sleep, Austin said in 1999.

Utah has had a Safe Haven law on the books since 2001, allowing
biological parents to anonymously give up custody of their newborn child
without facing any legal consequences. Intended to save children’s
lives, the law tries to prevent women from abandoning infants in places
such as trash cans and bathrooms.

The Utah representative who originally sponsored the law, then-Rep.
Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, had heard the media coverage of one young
Utah woman who left her newborn in a drawer in her parents’ home. The
baby was found days later, dead.