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order for her use insanity as a defense it must be proven that she was unable to
discern right from wrong when the crime was committed. A jury found her
guilty and rejected the insanity plea in March 2002. She was sentenced to life in
prison with eligibility for parole in 40 years.
Still, a Texas Court of Appeals reversed the conviction in January, 2005. This
was due to the fact that one of the witnesses for the prosecution, psychiatrist Dr.
Park Dietz, admitted he had given considerably false testimony. He had stated
that just before the murders, Law & Order had aired an episode that featured a
woman who got off on an insanity plea after drowning her children. However,
author Suzanne O'Malley, a former writer for the show, reported that no episode
had ever aired.
Andrea started a new trial in January 2006 and in February 2006 she was granted
release on bail on the condition that she be admitted to a mental health treatment
facility. She was found not guilty by insanity in July 2006 and committed to the
North Texas State Hospital and later to a low-security hospital in Kerrville,
Texas in 2007.
In addition to her mental illness, it was also implied that she might have been
seeking revenge on her husband when she killed the children; there was no clear
evidence to support this theory. Her previous 2002 conviction was, therefore,
overturned.
During her time in prison, she spoke about the killings and stated that she’d
thought about ending their lives for several years. She felt that she wasn’t a good
mother and that her sons were not developing correctly. Speaking to her jail
psychiatrist, Dr. Melissa Ferguson, she said: "It was the seventh deadly sin. My
children weren't righteous. They stumbled because I was evil. The way I was
raising them, they could never be saved. They were doomed to perish in the fires
of hell”. (Christian, 2002) She also referred to herself as “stupid” and wondered
why she had to kill all of them, asking herself if she couldn’t have just killed her
youngest.
Her husband and family thought that a combination of antidepressants
inappropriately prescribed to her by her psychiatrist, Dr. Saeed, before the
tragedy was responsible for Andrea's violent actions. As a result, "homicidal
ideation" was added to the warning label of the antidepressant drug Effexor as an
adverse effect. Andrea was taking 450 mg, twice the recommended maximum
dose, when she killed her children. Still, a witness hired by the defense, Dr. Lucy
Puyear, disputed this, saying the dosages were not uncommon and didn’t have
anything to do with the behavior she exhibited.
Andrea’s stay at the low-facility mental hospital led her to ask to be considered
for the experience of a small amount of freedom by allowing her to attend
church services outside the hospital. Her attorney, George Parnham, stated,
“Little by little she will adapt to the outside world by taking baby steps.”
(Moisse, 2012) He persisted in saying that her children were not the only victims
that day and that, "Andrea was one of them.” Her request was denied.
Rusty remarried and now has a new family. (Hlavaty, 2014)
Megan Huntsman
Sometimes mothers have been known to kill more than one child over a period
of several years. While extremely rare it does happen on occasion and when it
does, the news is appalling. Megan Huntsman of Pleasant Grove, Utah, strangled
and suffocated six of her newborns from 1996-2006. When police searched her
house, they found seven deceased infants. Six of them were inside cardboard
boxes.
Who was Megan?
Neighbors were rightly shocked at the news of the deceased infants in the
modest, regular looking house. Although they’d seen her wearing tight clothes
and baggy clothes at different times, nobody ever knew she’d been pregnant so
many times –including her husband.
Those around her did know; however that she’d been struggling with drug
addiction as this was something she was apparently unable to hide. Neighbor
Kathie Hawker stated they were “worried about her” because she appeared to be
in poor health and that they were also “worried about the children that lived
there with her”. (Demasters, 2014) Katie’s husband Aaron, however, was
shocked to find out Megan had been pregnant so many times, claiming that she
always looked “kind of slim” and, in regards to the babies often wondered,
“Where were they?” (Demasters, 2014)
At the time the infants were discovered, three of Megan’s other children were
living in the home –her teenage daughter and two adult children. Josh Flowers, a
neighbor, claimed that Megan “loved kids” and even babysat his own nephew,
toddler, and grade-school-aged children. (McFall, 2014) Another neighbor,
Sharon Chipman, allowed Megan to babysit her grandson for years.
The Murders
So what would drive a mother to kill so many infants so soon after their births?
Megan told authorities that she killed her children because she was, “Addicted to
drugs and didn't want to deal with the responsibility of raising the children”.
(McCombs, 2014) Pleasant Grove Police Captain Mike Roberts stated that she
was addicted to meth and that she “wasn't worried about potential health
problems caused by her drug abuse while pregnant” and that she “simply didn't
want to care for them”. (McCombs, 2014) This, according to Dr. Phillip
Resnick, is known as “unwanted child filicide,” an instance in which a mother
believes her child is a hindrance in her life. (Gafni, 2014) Huntsman was
charged six counts of first-degree murder. The seventh child was stillborn.
Darren West, Megan’s husband, also suffered from meth addiction and had been
released earlier that year, after spending almost nine years in prison. He
contacted local authorities about the deaths of the infants after he discovered
their bodies while cleaning out the garage of the house he and Megan had shared
together. He was apparently unaware of both either the deaths or the pregnancies
and wasn’t considered a suspect. At the time, he’d only uncovered one body. It
was contained in a small box and covered with electrician’s tape. Later, the
investigators found the other six. They were all wrapped in towels and shirts and
inside their own boxes.
Megan had not lived in the home since 2011. The home, owned by Darren’s
family, was only available to her as long as she remained faithful to her husband.
When they learned of an affair, she was asked to move out. Her children;
however, were allowed to continue living in the house with their relatives.
All seven of the babies were full-term. At first her husband denied being the
father of the infants, claiming that Megan was unfaithful to him during their