Megan Huntsman in a 2014 booking photograph. Photo: Pleasant Grove Utah Police
PLEASANT GROVE, Utah, Nov. 17, 2024 — Megan Huntsman, a Utah woman serving six life sentences for the murder of six of her newborn children, remains one of the most chilling cases of serial infanticide in U.S. history.
Huntsman, now 49, confessed in 2014 to killing the babies shortly after their births, between 1996 and 2006, citing her methamphetamine addiction and inability to care for the children.
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Authorities discovered the gruesome crimes after her estranged husband, Darren West, found the remains of the infants wrapped in plastic and stored in boxes in the garage of their Pleasant Grove home.
The horrific discovery exposed a decade of killings that family, neighbors, and even law enforcement failed to notice.
The case came to light in April 2014 when West, who had recently been released from prison on drug charges, was cleaning out the garage of the home he and Huntsman once shared.
While organizing boxes, he found a small, decomposing body wrapped in plastic inside a white box.
He immediately contacted authorities, triggering an investigation that unearthed the remains of six more infants.
Huntsman initially told investigators she did not know how many babies she had killed, at one point estimating “eight or nine.”
Autopsies confirmed that six of the infants were murdered shortly after birth, while one was stillborn.
During police interviews, Huntsman admitted to choking or suffocating the newborns within minutes of their delivery.
She described using her thumbs to press on their necks or wrapping ligatures around them until they stopped breathing.
The bodies were then wrapped in plastic and hidden in boxes, undetected for years.
Prosecutors revealed that Huntsman’s motive stemmed from her heavy methamphetamine use and an inability to care for the children.
In her confession, she said she was “too messed up on meth” to raise the babies and did not want them to live in her chaotic circumstances.
Despite this, Huntsman managed to keep three of her children alive.
Two were born before the killings began in 1996, and the third was born during her decade-long spree of infanticide.
Family members and neighbors claimed they never suspected the pregnancies, noting that Huntsman, who weighed just 105 pounds, was able to conceal them.
Relatives later reported that Huntsman claimed to have been a victim of domestic abuse during her marriage to West, though police found no record of any reported incidents.
The murders spanned a decade, with several opportunities for intervention apparently missed by law enforcement and social services.
In 2005, federal drug enforcement agents searched Huntsman and West’s home as part of a narcotics investigation.
Although evidence of drug activity was found in the garage, the agents overlooked the plastic-wrapped bodies hidden there.
A year later, West pleaded guilty to drug possession charges and was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.
Shortly afterward, an anonymous report to Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services alleged that Huntsman was using methamphetamine.
The agency has not disclosed how it responded to the report, citing confidentiality laws.
It wasn’t until 2014 that the gruesome extent of Huntsman’s crimes came to light.
Huntsman was arrested in April 2014 and placed on suicide watch at the Utah County Jail.
In February 2015, she pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder. On April 20, 2015, she was sentenced to six life terms — three to be served consecutively and three concurrently.
Huntsman is currently incarcerated at the Utah State Correctional Facility.
Her first parole hearing is scheduled for April 2064, when she will be 89 years old.
The case left Huntsman’s surviving children and extended family reeling.
West, who fathered all the murdered infants, stated he had no knowledge of the pregnancies or killings.
Friends and neighbors expressed disbelief, describing Huntsman as a seemingly normal mother who had managed to keep her crimes entirely hidden.
Pleasant Grove, a quiet, predominantly Mormon community, struggled to process the revelation.
Huntsman, a former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had not been active in the church for years before her arrest.
Born on Feb. 26, 1975, Megan Huntsman grew up in Pleasant Grove as the eldest child in a working-class family.
She married Darren West in 1993, shortly after graduating high school.
Their relationship quickly deteriorated into substance abuse, with both becoming heavily involved in methamphetamine use.
Huntsman’s addiction and isolation escalated during the years of her crimes.
She committed at least one murder while other family members were in the house watching television, according to police.
The Huntsman case serves as a sobering reminder of the potential consequences of addiction and the importance of vigilance in detecting signs of abuse.
Advocates have used the case to emphasize the need for better communication between law enforcement and social services.
Anyone who suspects child abuse is urged to contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
For the small Utah town of Pleasant Grove, the haunting legacy of Megan Huntsman’s actions remains a stark example of how hidden crimes can fester unnoticed, even in the closest-knit communities.
