The discovery of seven dead babies in cardboard boxes in a Utah garage has police desperately seeking answers from family members about how such a tragedy unfolded over a decade with no one noticing.
Megan Huntsman, 39, is accused of killing her babies after giving birth to the children between 1996 and 2006, investigators said on Monday.
She was charged on Sunday with six counts of murder. It's not yet clear if Huntsman has a lawyer or why there were six charges and not seven.
The gruesome case has raised a series of questions about how the killings occurred despite Huntsman carrying out what neighbours said seemed like a normal existence.
Police are declining to comment on a motive and on what Huntsman said when questioned by detectives.
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Her estranged husband made the discovery while cleaning out the garage after recently getting out of prison.
Authorities do not believe he was aware of the killings and he isn't a person of interest.
Police Captain Michael Roberts said officers responded to a call from him on Saturday about a dead infant, and then they found the six other bodies.
Family and neighbours identified the estranged husband as Darren West, who has been in prison on drug-related charges.
Roberts said police believe West and Huntsman were together when the babies were born.
"We don't believe he had any knowledge of the situation," Roberts told The Associated Press
Asked how West could not have known about the situation, 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.
Huntsman also has three daughters - one teenager and two young adults - who lived at the house.
Neighbours in the middle-class neighbourhood of mostly older homes 60 kilometres south of Salt Lake City say they were shocked by the accusations and perplexed that the woman's older children didn't know their mother was pregnant or notice anything suspicious.
Several police cars blocked the entrance to the house on Sunday evening as officers milled about with the belongings from the garage strewn across the front lawn.
Late on Sunday, West's family issued a statement saying they were in a "state of shock and confusion".
Huntsman moved out several years ago, apparently leaving her three daughters to live alone. It is unclear where she had since been living.
