California crash that killed Hart family may have been intentional, authorities say

"At this time, three children are still missing and could be in the ocean," a California Highway Patrol officer said.</s>California Highway Patrol: SUV that plunged off cliff killing family may have been an intentional act

MENDOCINO, Calif. (AP) — California Highway Patrol: SUV that plunged off cliff killing family may have been an intentional act.</s>MENDOCINO, Calif. (AP) — California Highway Patrol: SUV that plunged off cliff killing family may have been an intentional act.</s>SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — California Highway Patrol officials say preliminary evidence shows the cliff crash that killed a Washington state family may have been intentional.

Capt. Greg Baarts with the CHP Northern Division says information pulled from the SUV’s software shows the vehicle was stopped at the highway pullout before it accelerated straight off the cliff.

Baarts says the electronic information combined with the lack of skid marks led officials to believe it was intentional.

A Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office spokesman says authorities believe at least one felony was committed but declined to specify.

Five members of the Hart family were found dead. Searchers are looking for three more children believed to have been in the vehicle when it went over a scenic coastal overlook and landed on rocks in the Pacific Ocean below.</s>A crash in California that killed a Woodland family may have been an intentional act, the California Highway Patrol said Sunday.</s>The California Highway Patrol says that a crash involving an SUV that plunged off a cliff killing a family may have been an intentional act.Capt. Greg Baarts with the CHP Northern Division says information pulled from the SUV's software shows the vehicle was stopped at the highway pullout before it accelerated straight off the cliff.Baarts says the electronic information combined with the lack of skid marks led officials to believe it was intentional.A Mendocino County Sheriff's Office spokesman says authorities believe at least one felony was committed but declined to specify.The California Highway Patrol identified the adult victims Wednesday as Jennifer Hart and Sarah Hart, both 39. The agency says their SUV was driving Monday on the Pacific Coast Highway when it pulled into a dirt turnout and continued driving off the cliff.Jennifer and Sarah were a married couple who had previously resided in West Linn Oregon. It was later learned they had 6 adopted children. Three children were confirmed to have died in the crash.The Sheriff's Office, the California Highway Patrol, and the United States Coast Guard out of Fort Bragg initiated a second search after learning that three other children were missing following the crash.Fifteen-year-old Devonte Hart, 16-year-old Hannah Hart, and 12-year-old Sierra Hart are still unaccounted for. But, investigators say it's unknown if the children were with their parents or might be staying with friends.Devonte drew wide media attention after being photographed hugging a Portland Oregon Police Sergeant during a demonstration over the unrest in Ferguson Missouri.Child welfare officials in Washington state had recently visited the home of two women who died along with three children in that crash according to officials.Clark County sheriff's Sgt. Brent Waddell told The Associated Press that the family lived in Woodland, Washington, and recently had a visit from Child Protective Services.He says the sheriff's office later entered the house and found no obvious signs of trouble or violence.</s>Authorities believe the parents behind the wheel of an SUV that plunged off a California cliff with their adopted children did so intentionally, according to a report Sunday.

The GMC Yukon stopped in a highway pullout about 70 feet from the cliff’s edge before speeding forward and over the cliff, according to California Highway Patrol officials.

The vehicle’s speedometer was “pinned” at 90 mph, suggesting the vehicle had logged the speed before the fatal March 26 crash.

“We do have reason to believe, however, that the crash was intentional,” said Greg Baarts, acting assistant chief for California Highway Patrol’s northern division.

The state law enforcement agency made the stunning disclosure after searching Jennifer and Sarah Hart’s Woodland, Wash., home for possible suicide notes. A search warrant affidavit revealed the vehicle's speedometer was "pinned" at 90 mph, according to court papers obtained by KPTV-TV.

The crash killed Jennifer and Sarah Hart and three of their kids. Three other children adopted by the couple are presumed dead.

Baarts warned the evidence was preliminary and that the speedometer may have been altered upon impact, when the vehicle crashed into the rocky shore 100 feet below.

“While it has been documented that the car was traveling at 90 mph upon impact, it is not conclusive whatsoever,” Baarts told KGW-TV in Portland.

Family famed for protest photo die when SUV goes off cliff

The affidavit said state police were working under the belief that “a felony has been committed,” according to KPTV-TV. The felony was unspecified.

Investigators initially said they had no evidence that the crash near Mendocino was a deliberate act. But no skid or brake marks from the Yukon.

All of the couple’s six kids are believed to have been killed in the 26 crash, including a 15-year-old African-American boy whose tearful moment hugging a white police officer during a protest against police brutality went viral. Devonte Hart protested the Ferguson, Mo., police shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014.

The bodies of three children have not been located, officials said. The two women, both 38, were found dead inside the SUV. The bodies of three of their children — Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14, and Abigail Hart, 14 — were discovered outside the vehicle. Searchers were still looking for Devonte, Hannah Hart, 16, and Sierra Hart, 12, and said they may have been washed out to sea when the SUV plunged over a scenic coastal overlook and landed on rocks in the Pacific Ocean.

Before the crash, neighbors reported Devonte’s parents to the state Child Protection Services and accused them of abuse.

Bruce and Dana DeKalb, next-door neighbors of the Harts, said they called child protective services because Devonte had been coming over to their house almost every day for a week, asking for food.

Dana DeKalb said Devonte told her his parents were “punishing them by withholding food” and asked her to leave food in a box by the fence for him. She told The Oregonian newspaper that Devonte asked for things like tortillas and peanut butter and eventually was coming over three times a day.</s>One week ago, a Washington-based family’s SUV plunged off a 100-foot cliff in California and landed in the Pacific Ocean. Authorities now believe the crash may have been intentional.

The bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart and their children Markis, 19, Jeremiah, 14, and Abigail, 14, were discovered on March 26. Their other kids, Hannah, 16, Devonte, 15, and Sierra, 12, are still missing and feared dead.

“Pure acceleration all the way,” Greg Baarts, acting assistant for the California Highway Patrol’s Northern Division, told USA Today on Monday, April 2. “We have reason to believe . . . the crash was intentional.”

The speedometer of the family’s 2003 GMC Yukon was pinned at 90 miles per hour when it was found. But the investigation is still ongoing. “That information is not conclusive or factual,” Baarts told Washington news station KGW8 on Sunday. “The speedometer could have moved at impact or somehow was manipulated.

During a telephone press conference that evening, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson revealed that Hart’s vehicle stopped a pullout and then accelerated over the cliff, a distance of about 70 feet. As previously reported, there weren’t any skid or brake marks.

Meanwhile, troubling details continue to emerge about the Harts. Neighbors of Jennifer and Sarah called Child Protective Services to visit their Woodland home on March 23, according to KGW8. CPS confirmed that they had opened an investigation, which identified the six adopted siblings as “potential victims of alleged abuse and neglect.” When CPS tried to reach the parents on Friday, Monday and Tuesday they were unable to do so.

One person in their neighborhood told KWG8 that Devonte said his mothers didn’t feed them and withheld food as punishment. Neighbor Bruce DeKalb told The Washington Post on March 30 that Hannah knocked on his door at 1:30 a.m. covered in weeds after jumping out of her home’s second-story window. He described the 16-year-old as missing some front teeth and looking like she was only 7. “This kid was totally losing her mind,” he told the paper. “Just rattled to the bone.”

According to Minnesota court documents obtained by The Washington Post, Sarah, 38, was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault in 2011 after police said she hit one of her daughters.

“There have been red flags,” Baart told USA Today on Monday. “To the best of my knowledge, there was not a suicide note found at the residence.”

Devonte, who is still missing, made national headlines when a photograph of him embracing a white police officer during a 2014 demonstration went viral.

Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!</s>This photo shows ruts cut into the clifftop Thursday, March 29, 2018, where the SUV of Jennifer and Sarah Hart that went off the cliff was hauled up and over by a tow truck Monday off the Pacific Coast Highway near Westport, Calif. Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the crash and said there is no reason so far to believe it was intentional. But they also said Thursday there were no skid marks or signs the driver braked as the GMC Yukon crossed a flat dirt pull-off area and went over the edge of the highway.</s>Police said the SUV found at the bottom of a California cliff may have been intentionally driven off the road, CNN reported.

The family of eight from Washington state had been driving along the Mendocino Coast. The bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart were discovered inside the overturned GMC Yukon in northern California on March 26. The bodies of three of the children in the vehicle -- Markis, 19, and Jeremiah and Abigail, both 14 -- were found outside the car, which landed upside down on the shoreline below the cliff, CNN reported..

Three other children -- Hannah, 16, Devonte, 15, and Sierra, 12 -- are missing, police said.

Police said preliminary information suggested the vehicle may have been intentionally driven off the edge of the cliff.

According to Greg Baarts, acting assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol’s Northern Division, data from the vehicle's air bag module and software indicated that the car had stopped at the pull-out and then accelerated off the road.

>> Three children still missing in crash

"At this point in our investigation, that is the direction we are going," Baarts told CNN.

Baarts said that while investigators are still verifying that information, they believe a felony had been committed in the crash, CNN reported.

He denied rumors that a suicide note had been found at the Harts' Washington house but said investigators were still evaluating some items found at the residence.

Devonte, who is black, earned national attention when a photo of him at age 12 went viral. In the image, the teary-eyed boy embraces a white officer in the middle of a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, related to the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Devonte had been holding a sign offering "Free Hugs."
California Highway Patrol says a crash that left five dead and three children missing after a car fell off a cliff into the sea may have been intentional.