7 dead babies discovered in an ordinary suburban home.

Warning: This post deals with difficult subject matter that could be distressing for some readers.

It’s a modest looking brick house in a sleepy middle-class suburb in America. From the outside, there was never anything for neighbours to be suspicious about. It was simply a normal home to a family of five.

But this week, the bodies of seven babies were found in the garage of that Utah home.

It’s alleged that the mother, 39-year-old Megan Huntsman, gave birth to each of the seven babies in the years between 1996 and 2006. It is alleged that Megan Huntsman then murdered her children, wrapped their tiny bodies in towels or shirts and placed them into boxes, which were then discarded in the garage.

It’s not known how Huntsman – who was living with her then husband and three other still living children – kept the pregnancies hidden from her family.

The police arrested Huntsman this week after her (now estranged) husband Darren West found one body in the garage of his home. When the police arrived, they found the remains of a further six infants.

Huntsman, who moved out of the house a few years ago, has been charged with six counts of murder (The Huffington Post is reporting that one of the babies may have died from natural causes).

Investigators don’t believe Huntsman’s estranged husband had any knowledge of the pregnancies or the murders.

This from ABC News:

Asked how the man could not have known if he lived in the house, police Captain Michael Roberts replied: “That’s the million-dollar question. Amazing.’’

The babies’ bodies were sent to the Utah medical examiner’s office for tests, including one to determine the cause of death. DNA samples taken from the suspect and her husband will determine definitively whether the two are the parents, as investigators believe.

Neighbours are reportedly shocked at the discovery. They commented that Huntsman’s weight had fluctuated over the years but that they had never noticed anything else suspicious.

“What’s shocking is the three older ones living there and not noticing that their mother was pregnant,” one said.