Utah mom Megan Huntsman has been sentenced to 30 years to life behind bars after she admitted killing six of her newborns. According to USA Today , Huntsman said that she killed her babies because she knew that she wouldn’t be able to properly care for them because of her drug addiction.
She wrote a statement that her attorney read out loud in court.
“In some small way, I wanted to help them avoid the terrible life I would have given them. I deprived my little babies of the opportunity of life. … Those babies aren’t coming back, and they never will because of my actions.”
The Utah mom, 40, has three living children. She killed six of her babies that were born at her home from 1996 to 2006. She stored all of their bodies in boxes in her garage. Her husband, Darren West, was cleaning out the garage after a drug-related prison stint when he found the bodies. All of the babies in those boxes were his biological children.
According to CNN , Huntsman said that she “ strangled or suffocated ” each of the babies. There was a seventh body found in the garage, but authorities say that it was a stillborn.
“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.”
The police who worked the case have really been scarred for life.
“It’s been horrible for our department. Some of the things officers saw in that garage, they can never unsee,” said Pleasant Gove police detective Dan Beckstrom.
The Utah mom does seem to be showing remorse following her actions.
“Depression and alcohol took hold of me the same way drugs did. I cannot give a reasonable answer why I was capable of such a sick and heinous crime. I held my secret for 18 years,” she said in a statement (it’s unclear if it was the same statement as above or a different one).
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , it is unknown how Megan Huntsman was able to hide her pregnancies from her family — and from her husband. Or how she was able to murder these babies without anyone having any suspicion for years. Had Darren West not found the boxes, Huntsman’s secret could have lived on. She didn’t seem like she was going to break anytime soon had she not been caught.
[Photo via YouTube ]