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PAGE 8
MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Utah woman arrested after 7 dead babies found
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PLEASANT GROVE, Utah
INSTANT GROVE, Utah — A Utah woman accused of killing seven babies she gave birth to over 10 years was arrested Sunday after police discovered the tiny bodies stuffed in separate cardboard boxes in the garage of her former home.
Megari 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 most 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.
Roberts declined to comment on a motive. He said it wasn't clear if she has an attorney. Huntsman was booked Sunday into the Utah County Jail on six counts of murder. It wasn't immediately clear why there were six counts and not seven.
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.
The spokesman said police believe the estranged husband and Huntsman were together when the babies were born, but the man isn't a person of interest at this time. His name was not immediately released.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Authorities investigate a crime scene at a house in Pleasant Grove Utah, Sunday. According to the Pleasant Grove Police Department, seven dead infants were found in the former home of Megan Huntsman, 39.
Asked how the man could not have known, Roberts replied, "That's the million-dollar question. Amazing."
parents in a city at the foot of snow-capped mountains. It's a nondescript, newer home with a brick facade and a star ornament hanging by the door. Several police cars blocked the entrance to the house Sunday evening as officers milled about with the belongings from the garage strewn across the front lawn.
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.
Police say the husband was cleaning out the garage when he made the grisly discovery at the house owned by his
"We don't believe he had any knowledge of the situation," Roberts told The Associated Press.
Neighbors told the AP they were shocked and horrified by the accusations. None of them even knew Huntsman was pregnant in recent years.
The family members seemed like nice people, said Aaron and Kathie Hawker, who live next door.
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.
Years ago, Huntsman baby-sat the Hawker grandchildren and they were friendly with each other.
"It makes us so sad, we want to cry," Kathie Hawker said. "We enjoyed having them as a neighbor. This has just blown
us away."
Aaron Hawker said he talked with the husband Saturday morning. He told Hawker he was cleaning out the mess in the garage.
"Two hours later, suddenly we had all these policemen here," Aaron Hawker said.
fred Newman, a neighbor whose cousin is the husband's mother, said he's perplexed how the three oldest daughters living there didn't know about what police say was going on. He said the girls didn't always park their cars in the garage, but did sometimes in the cold
winter months.
He said he has used his snow-blower to clean off the driveway of the home and the young women would thank him.
Roberts said the case has been "emotionally draining" and upsetting to investigators.
NATIONAL
Woman accused of tossing shoe at Clinton released
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to members of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Thursday.
LAS VEGAS — A Phoenix woman accused of throwing a shoe some 60 feet toward Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared aware during questioning by U.S. Secret Service agents of the allegation against her, authorities said Friday.
Alison Michelle Ernst, 36, was given a misdemeanor disorderly conduct summons and freed after she was booked at the Clark County jail, according to a Las Vegas police arrest report.
"Ms Ernst appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done," the report said.
Ernst could face up to a year in the county lockup if she is convicted of violating a county ordinance during the Thursday incident at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.
She is accused of bypassing security and walking quickly toward a rope line about six rows from the front of a conference audience. Police say she reached into a purse, removed the shoe and threw it overhand toward the stage.
Clinton ducked and wasn't struck. She appeared startled but quickly cracked a couple jokes before continuing her keynote speech to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. The audience applauded.
Ernst was ushered by security guards out of the ballroom with her hands in the air and sat calmly afterward on a sofa in a hallway. She wore a blonde wig, blue dress and thong sandals.
She told an Associated Press reporter she threw a shoe and dropped some papers but did not identify herself or explain the action. Security officers ushered reporters and photographers away.
A jail booking photo, taken later, shows Ernst with short brown hair.
She couldn't immediately be reached Friday. It wasn't clear if she had a lawyer.
Brian Spellacy, Secret Service supervisory special agent in Las Vegas, said an orange and black athletic shoe was recovered from the stage.
Authorities said Ernst wasn't a credentialed conference attendee and wasn't supposed to have been in the ballroom.
Clinton has Secret Service protection because former presidents and their spouses are covered for their lifetime, Spellacy said.
NCAA
Connecticut men's basketball coach Kevin Ollie gestures during a celebration of UConn's championships in the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, at a rally at the State Capitol in Hartford, Conn., on Sunday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Over 200,000 cheer UConn champion basketball teams
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARTFORD, Conn. — Nothing like a big win to draw big crowds. But back-to-back victories bring out the biggest.
Hundreds of thousands of University of Connecticut fans jammed the streets of downtown Hartford on Sunday screaming for their victorious UConn Huskies.
Police described the outpouring more than 200,000 people as the largest event anyone could remember in the city of Hartford bigger than the St. Patrick's Day parade, bigger than the 2004 UConn basketball celebration.
"Next to having my children and marrying my wife, this
is the greatest moment of my life," said UConn alumnus Brian Fitzgerald of Glastonbury as he cheered the team.
Fitzgerald had stood in the stands in Texas several days earlier, cheering on the men's team as they won the NCAA championship. The women won the next day, emerging victorious over a strong Notre Dame team.
The women's dominance was unsurprising — they have won a record nine NCAA championships under coach Geno Auriemma, beating the previous NCAA record of eight wins by the University of Tennessee women's team.
The men's win was more stunning, an unexpected run with neophyte coach and former UConn star Kevin Ollie that gave the men a fourth national title.
On Sunday, the women waved gleefully from an open truck rolling out of the state Capitol grounds onto the streets, followed by a truck carrying a grinning men's team.
A passel of leashed Siberian Huskies — the UConn mascot — and their handlers strode by, Mariana Aguirre of Bristol waved a sign reading "Top Dogs Again." A fan of the women's team, Aguirre stood with a crowd of friends who included UConn alumni. "I like the discipline the women show," she said. "I like how they do everything."