Cops Reveal Why Utah Mom Killed 6 Babies

What could drive a mother to smother six babies as soon as she gave birth to them? Police in Utah say it was pure selfishness, driven by drug addiction. Megan Huntsman was a heavy methamphetamine user when she strangled or suffocated the newborns between 1996 and 2006, a police spokesman tells the AP. He says she wasn't concerned about potential health problems caused to the infants by her drug use—but did care about the cost of feeding her addiction. "It was completely selfish. She was high on drugs and didn't want the babies, or the responsibility," he says. "That was her priority at the time."

"She had to make a decision between the drugs and the babies," says the police spokesman, who confirmed that the five girls and two boys found in boxes in her garage were all fathered by her husband, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Investigators believe one of the babies was stillborn, so Huntsman faces six counts of first-degree felony murder. She has been in jail since April with bail set at $6 million. Her long-estranged husband, who spent eight years in federal prison on meth charges, was the one who alerted police after finding one of the dead infants and is not considered a suspect. (More Megan Huntsman stories.)