Woman charged with killing her babies – at least seven

(

AP )   A Utah woman accused of killing several babies she gave birth to over 10 years was arrested Sunday

after police discovered seven tiny bodies stuffed in separate cardboard boxes in the garage of her former home.

Megan Huntsman, 39, who lived in the Pleasant Grove home until three years ago, had the infants between 1996 and 2006, investigators said.

Neighbors in the middle-class neighborhood of mostly older homes 35 miles south of Salt Lake City say they were shocked by the accusations and perplexed that the woman's older children still living in the home didn't know their mother was pregnant or notice anything suspicious.

Officers responded to a call Saturday from Huntsman's estranged husband about a dead infant at the home, police Capt. Michael Roberts said. Officers then discovered the six other bodies. Family and neighbors identified the estranged husband as Darren West, who has been in prison on drug-related charges. The spokesman said police believe West and Huntsman were together when the babies were born, but West isn't a person of interest at this time.

"We don't believe he had any knowledge of the situation," Roberts told The Associated Press. Asked how the husband could not have known, Roberts replied, "That's the million-dollar question. Amazing."

Police say West was cleaning out the garage when he made the grisly discovery at the house owned by his parents. Neighbors told the AP they were shocked and horrified by the accusations of what went on inside the home. None of them even knew Huntsman was pregnant in recent years.

Huntsman moved out several years ago, leaving her three daughters, one teenager and two young adults, to live alone, the Hawkers said. They weren't sure where Huntsman has since been living.