DNA testing: Pleasant Grove mother’s dead babies include 5 girls, 2 boys

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Pleasant Grove home Sunday, April 13, 2014, where 7 dead babies were discovered on April 13, 2014.

DNA testing Pleasant Grove womans dead newborns included five girls and two boys.

Investigators say a Pleasant Grove woman accused of killing six of her newborn children was a heavy methamphetamine user and that her drug addiction was a motive for her crimes.

Pleasant Grove police Capt. Michael Roberts said Megan Huntsman told authorities she was using meth during the period when she allegedly smothered or strangled the infants and also was drinking during part of that time. The cost of feeding her addiction factored into the killings, Roberts said, adding that Huntsman alluded to a choice she was facing.

"She had to make a decision between the drugs and the babies," Roberts said Tuesday.

He also said DNA testing on seven dead babies found stuffed into cardboard boxes at Huntsmans home in April confirmed that all of them five girls and two boys were fathered by her husband.

The long-awaited results were difficult to obtain due to the condition of the remains. Forensic experts resorted to "nuclear DNA" testing to determine both gender and paternity.

Nuclear DNA, found in the nucleus of most human cells, generally provides more genetic information and from both parents than the more commonly tested mitochondrial, or maternal DNA.

Prosecutors contend that six of the infants were choked or smothered shortly after birth by Huntsman, 39, during the period from Jan. 1, 1996, to Dec. 31, 2006. Huntsman allegedly told investigators that she had killed six of the babies, but she claimed the seventh was stillborn.

Huntsman, who was charged in Provos 4th District Court with six counts of first-degree felony murder, remained in the Utah County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $6 million cash-only bail.

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DNA testing: Pleasant Grove mother's dead babies include 5 girls, 2 boys