Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong, where our motto is you’re either someone’s last love or first murder.
I am your host Ky and we don’t have a co-host today because we can’t figure out our technical difficulties, but the show must go on!
As a reminder, our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and just a little bit of humor sprinkled on top – but never at the expense of the victim.
Be sure to subscribe to Love and Murder on whatever platform you’re on, as well as give us a 5 star review right now so you don’t forget. If you’re new here, then listen to the episode first and then please rate us (also welcome!)
In today’s episode, we are discussing a horrible HORRIBLE crime – so heinious that I have no words. It’s a case of drugs and alcohol use. So grab your butts and grab your kids and hug them close.
But first, I wanted to remind you to head on over to our Patreon……….
Now, on to the show…
Megan Huntsman was born on February 26, 1975 in Pleasant Grove, Utah to Joyce Huntsman and an undisclosed father (they didn’t give his name) but it was known that he was an industrial painter. She also had one sibling whose name is Jaime Huntsman.
Pleasant Grove, by the way, is a small town of about 35,000 residents and it’s just south of Salt Lake City. Since this is a small town, I wonder if one of my favorite podcasts, Small Town Murder, would do an episode on this case.
Anyway, Megan had a strict but loving upbringing. She was raised in church and and went to Pleasant Grove High. Megan was a really introverted person; she always kept to herself, didn’t like sharing about herself, and was known for refusing to ask for help.
At 18, Megan got pregnant and moved out of her parent’s home and into the parents home of a Darren West – the young man she married in April of 1993.
Darren West was born in Utah to parents Stephen and Diane West.
Darren and Megan met while in highschool and not much else is said about him.
Darren and Megen ended up having 3 babies – Darian born in 1993, Jaycee born in 1994, and Sawyer born in 2000. Now, because of the drug use, they also had a history of domestic violence. This drug use would land Darren in federal prison on drug charges between 2006 and January 2014.
During Darren’s incarceration, in 2011, Megan was kicked out of his parent’s house due to being caught having an affair. Yes, she was still married, living in his parent’s home AND decided to cheat on him. I would say what was she thinking, but she was on drugs and alcohol so basically she wasn’t thinking. She moved back in with her mother in West Valley City at that time and then went and moved in with her boyfriend at the Meadowbrook Village Mobile Home Park. Wow.
There she made friends with her neighbors and even watched their kids
On Saturday 11 in April 2014, when Darren got out of prison, him and his family began cleaning out his parents garage – basically getting things out of there so that he could move out of a halfway house and into his parent’s house. The youngest daughter, Sawyer – at this point the girls are 20, 18, and 14 years old. Side note – at this point the 20 year old was pregnant and Megan was so excited to be a grandmother – so anyway the youngest daughter -Sawyer – opened a box and found somethere weird. It looked like some type of weird doll in a bag. After looking closer, she realized that it was actually a dead baby in a bag.
{COMMERCIAL HERE}
Of course, police were called out. Who would stop by their house and just put a random baby in their garage? I mean also who would do such a heinous thing in the first place.
Police came out and searched the garage, and while searching, began questioning the occupants of the house.
They also went to Megan’s boyfriend’s house to find her. Her boyfriend was just pulling up to his house from his mom’s funeral when he saw police cars surrounding his place. Can you imagine that? During interviewing Megan, she revealed that it was their baby and insisted that it had been born stillborn and had been delivered right after Darren went to prison. Darren was shocked – an understatement I’m sure – and wanted to know why she did that. Megan said when the stillborn baby came forth, she didn’t know what else to do, so she hid the body. I mean, you COULD have gone to the hospital like any other rational person. I mean – it’s just a thought.
However! After getting a warrant to search the house, an hour later, police discovered a second body of a newborn baby at the scene after opening another box. Then another and another and another and another and another.
Each baby was found inside of a box – that were on different shelves or cabinets in the garage – that had been wrapped in layers of plastic or blankets. Some were even taped shut with electrical tape. Each baby was also covered with a chemical – probably iodine.
In the garage, authorities also found a pair of bloody, leather gloves and a pair of women’s underwear. Then in the master bedroom, they found infant booties and baby clothes.
They also took stained sections of a mattress from the master bedroom as evidence.
After they searched the entire house, investigators realized they’d found the bodies of 7 babies.
The bodies were all in various stages of decomposition.
“It’s been horrible for our department. Some of the things officers saw in that garage, they can never unsee.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my career,” Detective Dan Beckstrom said.
Of course police turned to both Darren and Megan. Darren maintained that he had no knowledge of any of this and said that he believe no one smelled anything because when they opened the first box, no one smelled decomposition; they only smelled HEAVY chemicals.
Here’s a side note: Another reason these bodies were probably never found is because the house was set up to have two SEPARATE residences. Where the bodies were was in the upper residence, where they lived, in that attached garage. So basically if no one but Megan was up there, they wouldn’t have known. It was also said that no one had lived in there or had been in there since Megan moved out in 2011.
So, Darren also denied being the father to any of these children as Megan had cheated on him while he was away.
Neighbor Aaron Hawker said, “’He has told me he has no idea where the babies come from. He has insisted that they were not his.”
Megan said that all of the babies were stillborn like the first one, and that she did this all for the same reason.
Police believed neither one of them.
Some neighbors never even knew she was pregnant
Aaron Hawker said, “It is a complete mystery to me and my wife Kathie. Megan was always very shy, but she was very nice.”
But 70 year old neighbor, SanDee Wall said, “I would see her walk up the driveway and she would have the smallest of bumps on her stomach. I thought to myself of several occasions she must be pregnant, but I did not like to say anything to her. Megan was so shy and not the sort of person who would engage in conversation. I would also smell pot quite a lot and on many occasions I would see her drunk.That could have been one of the reasons she was asked to leave the house.”
She also said, “I had two of my last children at home then and as any mother who has given birth knows it can be very messy. I just don’t understand how she could have concealed so many babies from her husband.”
When police brought Megan into the station for questioning, that’s when the entire story came out.
Yes Darren was the father to all 7 babies – so 10 in total – but between the decade of 1996 and 2006 Megan said she had strangled or suffocated 6 of the babies and put them in the plastic bags and boxes. She said she would just put her thumb over their throats until they stopped moving. With one of them, she put a hair scrunchy around its neck to be sure. I’m seriously SERIOULSY trying to control my anger right now.
Out of all of the babies they found, only one was actually stillborn.
Detectives asked her why did she do this to 7 of her children but let the first 3 survive. She said because those children were born before her and Darren started abusing meth – well the first 2 were born prior, but she’d been pregnant with her 3rd while she was on drugs.
“She was not murdered because the pregnancy was known” – known to other people that is. After she made that “mistake” she never let anyone else ever know she was pregnant again.
Darren, for his part, never even knew she had ever been pregnant again except for their first 3 children. At this point, he stopped being a person of interest.
She said that because of drugs and alcohol. She didn’t feel that they could afford the children and afford buying her meth. Then once she stopped doing meth, she turned to alcohol and still needed her money for that.
“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 also stated that she thought she couldn’t be a good mom to those kids.
“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.”
She said that each baby, except 1, had been alive for 2 minutes or less.
On Sunday, April 12, Megan was booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of seven counts of homicide and they placed her on suicide watch.
On Monday morning, April 13, a judge set her pail at $1 million for each count of murder. So $6 million.
The FBI had to be called in on this one as the lab in a small town in Utah, didn’t have the equipment necessary for this kind of case. A southern Arizona Pima County Chief Medical Examiner, Greg Hess, was interviewed. He stated that forensic anthropologists would be able to eventually determine the sex of the babies using DNA results. They would also be able to determine if the newborns were full term by examining their bones.
More than likely, they won’t be able to determine if the babies were born alive unless the height of the baby was bigger than a newborn or if there were physical signs of trauma.
Another issue was determining exactly how long ago the infants died. They wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the time of death, but could estimate time of death within a span of 10 to 15 year window.
“The older the remains, the larger the window is. The more recent the remains, the tighter you can make the window.” Examiner Hess said.
It was revealed that there were 5 baby girls and 2 baby boys.
During the case, by the way, it was noted that without Megan’s confession prosecutors wouldn’t have had a case against her.
Everything moved quickly – there was no trial, just plea talks which started only months after Megan’s arrest.
Two of Megan’s daughters submitted letters to the court on behalf of their mom. They described her as a loving mother who had done a good job of caring for them. They said that she wasn’t the cold killer some saw her as.
“Nobody could guess my mom would do anything like this. No matter what anyone thinks you are, you are a good person.”
Megan’s youngest sister, Jamie Huntsman, read the letters and cried as she was reading them. After reading them, she gave her own statement saying that her sister was always loving, but timid and shy at the same time.
“Megan is not a monster. She’s not evil. From what I understand, she was scared.”
The family said that they didn’t know about the meth or how much of a hold it had on Megan’s and Darren’s lives. They then urged parents to watch out for signs of addiction with their children.
However, even though the family came forth with this testimony, prosecutors said that there was no denying that Megan meticulously plotted to kill 6 children without anyone noticing. She even cleaned up all of the evidence before anyone could even see it.
Attorney Jeff Buhman said, “These were very cold and calculated killings. She smothered or strangled six of her own flesh and blood.”
A deal was reached in February 12, 2015 after Megan plead guilty to 6 counts of muder. The deal they reached had little option for appeal and sentencing would be announced in April.
On April 20, 2015, Megan was sentenced to 6 terms of 5 years to life in prison. She will serve 49 years in prison before being able to go to her first parole hearing in 2064. So she will be about 89 years old by then.
As Fourth District Judge Darold McDade handed down the sentence, he told the court that he was the judge who signed the search warrant on the day the babies were found. He’d also quietly hoped that he wouldn’t have to be the one assigned to this case.
“I really thought I had seen it all until this case. It shocked me then and it shocks me now.”
Josh Flowers, who lived next door to Megan when she lived in West Valley City gave a statement, “She loved kids. She watched my three toddler and grade-school-age children and my nephew. She would go to the park with them and play ball. My 10-year-old daughter really liked her. That’s where I’m still at. … She watched my kids. She was in my house.”
“I don’t know how somebody can do that and go on with their day … be a good mother figure … and look at yourself in the mirror and be OK.”
Another neighbor, Sharon Chipman let Megan watch her toddler grandson for years.
Just so you know too, that a law had been passed in Utah in 2001 that allowed people who feel that they aren’t prepared to care for their children to drop them off to a designated facility with no questions asked and no liability. The law is called the Safe Haven Law.
And that is the sad and insane case of Megan Huntsman.
6 precious babies were murdered and a family left in shock.
Let us know what you think in the comments below or if you want your comments heard on air, head on over to our website, www.murderandlove.com and click on our brand new shout out system or SOS. It’s right there on our homepage ya can’t miss it. Record your comment and it will be played at the end of the next episode.
If you liked this horrible horrible episode then you’re sick and need to seek help. For everyone else who was as disturbed as I was then head on over to apple podcasts or spotify and rate us 5 stars. You can also download Goodpods and rate us on there too. You can say whatever you want in description but it helps bring us up in the charts so others can find us just like you did.
Follow us on social media at
Facebook.com/relationshipcrime
Instagram at lovemurderpodcast
Join our Facebook Fan Group by searching Love and Murder Fan Page in Google or Facebook or by simply clicking the link in the show notes.
Find our awesome merch by going to our website www.murderandlove.com and clicking “our shop” in the menu above.
And an easy and free way to help us out is by simply sharing this episode.
And as always, we end each episode by reminding you that it’s
All Love and No Murder Yall
Join our Fanpage at https://bit.ly/39qUG3t
