Authorities are continuing to investigate the death of eight Clark County residents — a couple and six children — who died Monday when their vehicle plunged off a cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway in Northern California. The investigation includes input from Clark County deputies who recently conducted a welfare check at their home near Woodland.
California Highway Patrol identified the two women as married couple Jennifer Jean Hart and Sarah Margaret Hart, both 39.
Their children were identified as Markis,19; Hannah, 16; Devonte, 15; Jeremiah 14; Abigail, 14; and Sierra, 12. All were adopted.
Property records show the couple bought a house on Northwest 389th Street in May 2017.
CHP public information officer Olegario Marin said a 2003 GMC SUV was driving south on California Highway 1 on Monday when it pulled into a dirt turnout that many tourists use to take scenic photos. The vehicle drove directly off the cliff for unknown reasons, falling 100 feet onto rocky coastal terrain.
Jennifer and Sarah Hart were found inside the vehicle while three children were recovered outside, Marin said. The other three children were not recovered, but California authorities said Wednesday they are also presumed dead.
After learning of the three missing children, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office coordinated a search involving multiple agencies. U.S. Coast Guard personnel searched the ocean waters near the crash site, troopers searched the area from above in a small airplane and helicopter, and Mendocino deputies combed the beaches along the highway. In Clark County, sheriff’s deputies went to the Harts’ home, where they found no one at home except for several pets and some farm animals. Arrangements have been made to care for them.
The Harts, who had previously lived in Oregon, had been in the spotlight occasionally. They were photographed with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at a rally in Vancouver. In 2014 Devonte Hart drew wide media attention when he was photographed hugging a Portland Police Bureau sergeant at a Black Lives Matter rally, with tears running down his face.
Cause investigated
Authorities don’t know why the Harts’ SUV plunged off the cliff. There were apparently no eyewitnesses.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman told reporters Wednesday that crash investigators are studying the scene, but it’s very curious because there were no skid or brake marks. But Allman says there’s no reason to believe the crash was a deliberate act.
The sheriff appealed for the public’s help in retracing where the family had been in recent days.
Allman says a passer-by called 911 about the crash, but investigators don’t know exactly when the SUV plunged into the ocean.
In Clark County, sheriff’s Sgt. Brent Waddell said there were no clues at the house to suggest why the family went on the trip and left their animals behind.
“There were no signs of anything, other than it was a well-cared-for house,” Waddell said.
Waddell did confirm that the family had recently received a visit from Child Protective Services, the state agency that would investigate complaints of abuse.
Next-door neighbors Bruce and Dana DeKalb said they called child services Friday because they were concerned that Devonte Hart, who hugged the officer at the protest, was going hungry. They said he had been coming over to their house too often in the past week asking for food.
The DeKalbs also recounted that three months after the family moved into the home on 2 acres with a fenced pasture in May 2017, one of the girls rang their doorbell at 1:30 a.m.
She “was at our door in a blanket saying we needed to protect her,” Bruce DeKalb said. “She said that they were abusing her. It haunted my wife since that day.”
Sarah Hart had pleaded guilty to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota in 2011. Her plea also led to the dismissal of a charge of malicious punishment of a child, online court records say.
Bill Groener, 67, was a next-door neighbor of the family when they lived in West Linn, Ore., and described the siblings as foster children.
“They were friendly enough. The kids were all home-schooled. They stayed indoors most of the time, even in really nice weather,” Groener told AP.
He said the family didn’t eat sugar, raised their own vegetables, had animals and went on camping trips.
“There was enough positive there to kind of counteract the feeling that something maybe wasn’t quite right,” Groener said.
He said they were neighbors for about two years and that “privacy was a big thing for them.”
Zippy Lomax, a Portland photographer who knew the family, told The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com that the Harts frequently traveled to festivals and shows and that “Jen and Sarah were the kind of parents this world desperately needs.”
“I’m sure they were going somewhere special and fun,” Lomax told the newspaper.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
