Hart family crash: Police seek relatives for DNA testing to help ID remains

PORTLAND — Police in California are seeking blood samples from biological relatives of six children dead or presumed killed when their adopted mother drove them and her wife off a cliff in March.

Investigators are trying to find relatives of Hannah Hart, 16, and Devonte Hart, 15, to determine if any traces of their DNA is on skeletal remains of a human foot, pants and a shoe found in May a mile from the Northern California coast crash, said Lt. Shannon Barney, a Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. Investigators are also trying to see if the state of Texas, where the two children were born, has samples of their blood that may have been taken at birth.

Testing on the human remains thus far hasn’t yielded results, Barney said.

Hannah and Devonte Hart are the only ones of the family of eight still unaccounted for since the crash. Hannah and Devonte came from two separate birth families.

The wreckage was discovered March 26 off Highway 1 near Westport, Calif. The family had traveled to California from their home in Woodland. They previously lived in West Linn.

Authorities believe Jennifer Hart was drunk when she drove the family SUV off the cliff. Evidence showed wife Sarah Hart and some of the children who died in the crash were apparently drugged.

The children who died have been identified as Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; Abigail Hart, 14; and Sierra Hart, 12.

Records show several adults reported concerns that the children were being neglected or abused while the family was living in Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. Sarah Hart was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault in 2011 from injuries inflicted on Abigail while in Minnesota.

Child welfare officials in all three states couldn’t substantiate any other complaints against the adopted parents.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office asks relatives to contact them at 707-463-4421.