How Could You? Hall of Shame-Markis Hart, Jeremiah Hart, Abigail Hart, Hannah Hart, Devonte Hart and Ciera Hart-Child Deaths UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Mendocino, California, a ” married lesbian couple and all six of their adopted children, including one who made national headlines when he hugged a police officer during a protest, were in an SUV that plunged 100-feet off a cliff in California in a deadly crash.”
“Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 39, were killed when their 2003 GMC Sierra truck crashed off the scenic Pacific Coast Highway in Northern California onto rocks in the ocean.
The bodies of three of their children – Markis Hart, 19, Jeremiah Hart, 14, and Abigail Hart, 14 – have since been recovered by authorities.
Police believe the couple’s three other children – Hannah Hart, 16, Devonte Hart, 15 and Sierra Hart, 12 – were also in the car at the time but their bodies have not yet been found.
‘We have every indication to believe that all six children were in there,’ Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allmon said.
‘An entire family vanished and perished during this tragedy.’
The sheriff’s office said the Harts had received a visit from Child Protective Services on Friday following complaints from neighbors.
Neighbors told police they saw the couple and their six adopted children leave the home in a hurry shortly after not answering the door to the child services worker.
The family’s car was spotted at the bottom of the cliff three days later.
The three children who were found dead had been thrown from the car, while the two parents were found inside the car.
Searchers scoured the coast on Wednesday searching for the three unaccounted for children.
The California Highway Patrol has not determined why the vehicle went off an ocean overlook on a rugged part of coastline. A specialized team of accident investigators is now trying to figure that out. The weather at the time was reported as clear, and drugs and alcohol were not considered factors.
The sheriff said ‘there were no skid marks, there were no brake marks’ at the turnout on the Pacific Coast Highway where the vehicle went over.
Allmon said there was no reason to believe the crash was a deliberate act.
The Harts lived in Woodland, Washington, a small city outside Portland, Oregon. When police inspected their home after the crash – initially in search of the three missing children – they found no obvious signs of trouble or violence.
It appeared the family planned a short trip because they left behind a pet, chickens and most of their belongings.
Bruce and Dana DeKalb, who lived next door to the family, said they called child welfare officials last week after becoming concerned that one of the children, Devonte Hart, had been coming to their house too often in the past week asking for food.
Devonte made headlines in 2014 when a photo of him tearfully hugging a police officer in Portland during a Black Lives Matter rally went viral.
The boy had told neighbors that his parents would keep food from him and his siblings as punishment. The DeKalbs said he asked them to leave food by the fence so his parents wouldn’t find out.
The DeKalbs also recounted a night three months after the family moved in when one of the girls rang their doorbell at 1.30am.
‘(She) was at our door in a blanket saying we needed to protect her. She said that they were abusing her,’ Bruce said.
Other previous neighbors also reported suspicions the children had been abused.
Sarah Hart had previously been convicted in Minnesota of domestic assault back in 2011.
Online court records said Sarah’s plea in Douglas County also led to the dismissal of a charge of malicious punishment of a child. No other details were immediately available.
Bill Groener, who lived near the family at their previous home, said the children were often kept inside.
‘Something just didn’t seem right. They were very isolated in the home,’ he said, adding he felt ‘guilty he never called (child) services’.
The crash report for the incident states that the couple’s 2003 GMC Sierra truck was driving south along Highway 1 on Monday when it pulled into a dirt turnout along the road and, for unknown reasons, continued directly off the cliff.
In a photo of the crash, released by the California Highway Patrol, the truck is seen on its roof on rocks.
Firefighters had to rappel down the cliff to retrieve the bodies – after they were discovered around 3.40pm on Monday by a passerby – and a helicopter was called to lift them up
Searchers looking for the three missing children were using boats, aircraft and drones to scan the ocean and nearby beach. Choppy conditions prevented divers from joining the search.”
[Daily Mail 3/29/18 by Emily Crane and Mary KeKatos]
“According to court documents, Sarah Hart had pleaded guilty to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota in 2011. Her guilty plea allowed a charge of malicious punishment of a child to be tossed out.”
“The family’s former neighbor in West Linn, Bill Groener, told the AP that the siblings were foster children who were home-schooled. They were “friendly enough,” he said, but “privacy was a big thing for them.””
Family of boy in viral police hug photo dies after SUV plunges off cliff. He’s still missing.
[Washington Post 3/29/18 by Marwa Eltagouri]
“On Friday, neighbors of Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 39, called CPS to report that their son Devonte had come to their home asking for food every day for a week. ”
“On Friday, a CPS worker arrived at the home and knocked on the door, according to the neighbors Bruce and Dana DeKalb, but the Harts never answered.
Instead, they packed up in a hurry and fled with all six kids in their 2003 GMC Sierra truck, they said.”
“It is not clear yet if they drove over the cliff purposefully or by accident but police said no brake marks were found at the scene.
To reach the cliff edge at the lookout, the women would have had to have driven off the Pacific Highway and traversed 75ft of rugged dirt road.
It is not known yet if they came to a stop at the edge before falling over. ”
“‘If this was an intentional act, I truly believe we are going to come to that conclusion.
‘If we do, that information will be released to the public,’ he added. ”
“It was also revealed this week on Wednesday that in 2011, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota.
Her plea led to the dismissal of a charge of malicious punishment of a child, online court records say.”
“Another neighbor who lived near the family in Oregon years ago said the children mostly stayed inside and were not allowed to eat sugar. ”
“Bill Groener, 67, was a next-door neighbor of the Harts when they lived in West Linn, Oregon, and said the kids stayed indoors most of the time.
He said the family grew their own vegetables, had animals and went on camping trips but that he never worried about their wellbeing.
‘Something just didn’t seem right. They were very isolated in the home,’ he said, adding he felt ‘guilty he never called (child) services’.
The revelations by officials in Woodland, Washington, suggest the family was not the happy, blended unit police painted them as when their bodies were found. ”
“In Woodland, Washington, the family lived in a $400,000 home which they bought in 2017.
Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. They are asking for anyone who may have seen them in a restaurant or hotel in the days beforehand to contact them.
They are also still considering the three children who were not found as missing people and say in the best case scenario, they were not in the vehicle at the time of the crash. It is not clear what either woman did for a living. ”
REVEALED: Neighbors alerted child protective services after lesbian couple’s ‘starving’ children begged them for food, days before the family of eight mysteriously plunged off a cliff edge on the Pacific Highway
[Daily Mail 3/29/18 by Jennifer Smith]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “On Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol revealed more details about the family’s movements in the days before their deaths.
The family appear to have left their home in Woodland, Washington on March 23, after a neighbor called Child Protective Services to report that the couple weren’t feeding the kids.
Two days later, a family cellphone pings in Newport, Oregon, around 8:15am.
CHP believes the family then drove south on Highway 101, and then State Route 1, arriving in the Fort Bragg, California area 12 hours later.
It’s believe that the family stayed the night in the area, since Jennifer was seen checking out of a Fort Bragg grocery store around 8:15am on Sunday, March 25.
Authorities say the family stayed in Fort Bragg until 9pm that evening, at which point it seems they turned around and started traveling north again on State Route 1.
t’s unclear when exactly the couple drove off a cliff near Westport, California. But officials say it happened sometime between Sunday night and Monday afternoon.
Jennifer was behind the wheel at the time, with her wife in the front passenger seat. Three of their children’s bodies – Abigail, Jeremiah and Markis – were found dead outside the vehicle. Their other three kids – Hannah, Sierra and Devonte – are still unaccounted for, but presumed dead.
Wednesday morning, a massive search effort of more than 70 people were scheduled to look for evidence and signs of the children’s bodies at low tide.
Officials had previously said they believed all the children were in the vehicle and the other bodies may have been washed into the ocean.
Anyone with information on the Hart family is being asked to call the California Highway Patrol’s Ukiah Area office at (707) 467-4000 or the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 463-4086. “
[Daily Mail 4/4/18 by Ashley Coleman]
“A body was recovered Saturday in the vicinity where an SUV plunged off a Northern California cliff last month, killing a family of eight in what authorities suspect may have been an intentional crash.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s office said in a statement that a couple vacationing along the coast saw a possible body, which was pulled from the surf Saturday afternoon by a third bystander.
The body appears to be that of an African American female, but the age and identity could not immediately be determined, said Lt. Shannon Barney. An autopsy is planned Tuesday to determine a cause of death.
While authorities said they believe the body may be that of one of two missing girls from the crash, positive identification will most likely be done by DNA analysis, which could take weeks.
Sarah and Jennifer Hart and their six adopted children were believed to be in the family’s SUV when it plunged off a cliff last month. Five bodies were found March 26 near Mendocino, a few days after Washington state authorities began investigating the Harts for possible child neglect, but three of their children were not immediately recovered from the scene.
There were no signs of the other two children, authorities said Saturday.
Authorities have said that data from the vehicle’s software suggested the crash was deliberate. They said the SUV had stopped at a coastal highway overlook before speeding straight off the cliff and plummeting 100 feet (31 meters) into the rocky Pacific Ocean below.
Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a spanking given to one of her children.
Bruce and Dana DeKalb, the family’s next-door neighbors in Woodland, Washington, called child welfare officials last month because the couple’s 15-year-old son, Devonte, had been coming to their house almost every day for a week, asking for food. They said the teen claimed his parents were “punishing them by withholding food.”
Devonte, a black boy who is still missing, drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest.
The discovery of the body Saturday follows a two-day storm that swept through Northern California.
The sheriff’s office noted that it is not uncommon after a significant storm that items would surface or wash onto the beach.
“The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office is monitoring the ocean conditions to see when further searches might be safely conducted,” Barney said. “This evaluation includes the use of divers if conditions permit.””
Body found near site of family’s fatal SUV crash in Northern California
[VC Star 4/7/18 by AP]
“The six children of the couple killed in last month’s fatal plunge off a cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway in Northern California had all been adopted in the Houston area, records show.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Jennifer Jean Hart received monthly adoption subsidies from Texas that “likely” amounted to $270,000 over the last decade.
Hart and her spouse, Sarah Hart, reportedly lived in Minnesota when the six children were adopted from Texas foster care. The first three siblings were adopted in Colorado County in 2006. The second group was adopted from Harris County in 2009.
Meanwhile, a search for the three children still unaccounted for after the March 26 fatal plunge near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County was called off Friday because of inclement weather, the Oregonian reported.
Authorities have speculated that Hannah,16, Devonte, 15, and Sierra, 12, may have been carried out to sea after the SUV in which the family was traveling dropped about 100 off the cliff, in a fall that investigators say might not have been an accident.
The family traveled to California from their home in Washington state, and previously lived in Oregon and Minnesota. Over the years, reports have accused the parents of child abuse and neglect.
While living in Minnesota, one of the Hart children told police that Jennifer Hart had hit the child with a belt. It was unclear to what extent the state’s Depart of Family and Protective Services was aware of the allegation.
In another incident, one of the daughters told authorities that Jennifer Hart had spanked her and had held her head underwater in a tub. Records show that in 2011, Sarah Hart – rather than Jennifer – pleaded guilty to the allegations.
According to reports, authorities had visited the family’s home in Washington a few days before the fatal crash.”
Harts likely received $270G from Texas after adopting kids from Houston area: report
[Fox News 4/8/18 by Bradford Betz]
Update 2: “An intake report from Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services filed March 23 paints a picture of horrific abuse leading up to the family’s annihilation.
Neighbors’ reports state the parents starved their children as a punishment and whipped them with belts.
The children asked neighbors for food on numerous occasions and one even reportedly leaped out of a window to try to escape, the documents reveal.
At least four reports of suspected child abuse in the Hart family were made during the past seven years.
The case has raised questions about the ability of authorities to track known offenders as the Harts had moved between three states during that period.
Prior to the deadly crash, they were living in rural Woodland, Washington. Before that they had spent time in West Linn, Oregon, and Douglas County, Minnesota.
Steve Frkovich, whose daughter Dana DeKalb, 58, lived next door to the family in Washington, reported the Harts on November 18.
A recording of his 911 call was released by Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency in Washington State.
He told the cops 16-year-old Hannah Hart had fled from her home at 2am and begged his daughter to hide her.
His daughter told the girl’s parents what had happened and all the Hart children came over and said everything was okay, said Frkovich.
‘There are some kids that I feel are being highly abused,’ he told the dispatcher.
‘They were all standing at attention, like they were all scared to death. I think something very serious is going on.’
On March 23, DeKalb notified the department that she believed the children were being abused, according to media interviews and state records.
Investigators believe that Jennifer drove the car off the cliff intentionally as there were no skid marks and evidence shows the speedometer was ‘pinned’ at 90mph.
They said the SUV had stopped at a coastal highway overlook before speeding straight off the cliff and plummeting 100 feet into the rocky Pacific Ocean below.
It fell into rocks and was found partially submerged about 100 feet below the highway.
The California Highway Patrol released a photo of Jennifer Hart shopping at a grocery store just a day before the crash.
CHP believes the family then drove south on Highway 101, and then State Route 1, arriving in the Fort Bragg, California area 12 hours later.
It is believed that the family stayed the night in the area, since Jennifer was seen checking out of a Fort Bragg grocery store around 8.15am on Sunday, March 25.
Authorities say the family stayed in Fort Bragg until 9pm that evening, at which point it seems they turned around and started traveling north again on State Route 1.
Police searched the family’s home about 500 miles north of the crash site but found no suicide note.”
[Daily Mail 4/12/18 by Reuters]
“One of the moms who died when an SUV plunged off a Northern California cliff, killing a family of eight, told a friend days before that she was so sick she might have to go to hospital.
Sarah Hart texted her friend Cheryl Hart, who shares the same last name but is not related to the family, the alarming message at 3am on March 24.
The text came just hours after the family was visited by Child Protective Services. It’s unclear exactly what the text said.
When Cheryl did not hear from Sarah for two days, she called a Clark County emergency dispatcher on March 26.
‘Nobody has been able to get ahold of her, talk to her or seen her since… or her wife, which is Jen,’ Cheryl told the dispatcher at 1.15pm, according to 911 call records obtained by The Oregonian. “
[Daily Mail 4/12/18 by AP]
“The 16-year-old adopted daughter of white lesbians who drove off a California cliff killing all themselves and all six of their kids complained to neighbors that the couple were racist six months ago.
Hannah Hart ran to neighbors in Woodland, Washington, to complain about her mothers Sarah and Jennifer in November 2017 at 2am.
The 16-year-old, one of six minority children who the couple had adopted, said they beat them with belts and that none of the children were safe or happy.
It echoes claims made by her adoptive brother, Devonte, who had told neighbors he was starving and being deprived of food by his mothers.”
[Daily Mail 4/13/18 by Jennifer Smith and Reuters]
“The mother of Devonte, 15, Jeremiah, 14 and Sierra, 12, did not know about last month’s deadly cliff plunge until Wednesday, and she’s ‘taking it hard’, according to her husband.
‘The way they went about moving the kids from here was wrong – they never should have been moved away from Texas,’ her husband told KOIN 6 News.
Court documents cited by CBS affiliate KOIN reveal the children’s biological mother was a long-time cocaine abuser. She lost custody of Devonte, Jeremiah, Sierra and a fourth child when she tested positive for cocaine in 2006, shortly after the birth of her seventh child.”
[Daily Mail 4/13/18 by Germania Rodriguez]
“The white lesbian woman who drove off a Northern California cliff last month in an SUV carrying her wife and adopted children was drunk, authorities said Friday.
Toxicology tests found Jennifer Hart had an alcohol level of 0.102, said California Patrol Capt. Bruce Carpenter. California drivers are considered drunk with a level of 0.08 or higher.
Toxicology tests also found that her wife Sarah Hart and two of their children had ‘a significant amount’ of an ingredient commonly found in the allergy drug Benadryl, which can make people sleepy. Toxicology results for a third child killed are still pending, Carpenter said.”
[Daily Mail 4/13/18 by AP]
“More than 40 pages of reports documenting the abuse and neglect Jennifer and Sarah Hart subjected their six adopted children to in 2013 were released
- The couple were reported multiple times to officials in Oregon and Minnesota for withholding food from their severely undersized children
- A family friend once told officials that Markis Hart, the oldest of the children, was target of Jennifer’s abuse and was punished on his birthday one year
- Jennifer told another family friend Hannah was morbidly obese when she was adopted although photos show the girl was the normal size of a child that age
- When the friend reported Jennifer, a case worker noted that Hannah was ‘very small’ and missing her front teeth
- The women were also reported for denying the children breakfast because they believed the kids had eaten an entire pizza without permission
The records reveal that officials in the state began investigating Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, in July 2013 while the kids were ages 8 to 15.
The case was closed just five months later in December, despite reports that the children were severely malnourished and being neglected by the couple. “
“The doctor’s statement weighed heavily in the Department of Human Services’ decision to ultimately close the case citing there was no conclusive evidence of neglect or abuse.
The records also reveal that Jennifer and Sarah were regularly accused of withholding food from their six children. Four years after the couple adopted Abigail Hart, a welfare worker in Minnesota noted that the then-six-year-old girl was the size of a two-year-old.”
“The Minnesota case worker wrote that all six children denied they were being abused by their adoptive parents and gave nearly identical accounts claiming Jennifer and Sarah disciplined them by making them meditate for five minutes.
The case worker also noted that Devonte Hart was the only child who showed any sign of emotion during the interview.”
***
“She also made the kids lie on a bed wearing sleeping masks and their arms at their sides for four or five hours. ”
***
“When Oregon welfare workers interviewed the two women about the complaints they said the kids came to them with food and medical issues. Jennifer said the kids were thriving at their house and said many of the complaints were because people did not understand her family’s ‘alternative lifestyle’, Oregon Live reports.” 
“The body of 12-year-old Ciera Hart, the youngest of the children, was found off the coast of Northern California earlier this month.”
[Daily Mail 4/24/18 by Minyonne Burke]
Update 3: “A case worker’s premature conclusion that the children were safe shaped Oregon’s investigation into allegations that Jennifer and Sarah Hart abused their six children. At no point did a child welfare supervisor sign off on the decisions made in the case, newly released records show.
Before a doctor examined six Oregon siblings for signs of neglect, the case worker tasked with keeping them safe wrote that he or she planned to leave them in the care of their parents, according to case notes released to The Oregonian/OregonLive after a public records appeal.
The plan didn’t change even after the doctor reported five of the children were smaller than the 5 percent of smallest children their age.
All eight members of the Hart family are now dead or presumed to be, after Jen Hart drove their vehicle off a California cliff. Investigators described the March crash as intentional.
New emails and internal documents released by Oregon’s Department of Human Services show the agency’s investigation into the family was officially open for nearly a year. But within weeks, the case worker wrote that he or she planned not to place the children in foster care.
The agency says it has no record that a supervisor ever reviewed or approved the decisions made along the way: to extend the case several times beyond the initial 30-day deadline or to close it without a definitive finding whether neglect occurred.
The official conclusion was “unable to determine,” which means the agency’s ultimate finding was inconclusive.
The case worker decided that outcome without written review or approval from a supervisor at a time when the office that handled the case was roiled by a personnel investigation. Human resources officials ultimately found unprofessional conduct by three workers.
The Department of Human Services refuses to release the names of the case workers and supervisors involved in the Hart case or the osteopathic doctor who examined the children and said she had “no concerns whatsoever” about the children’s well-being, despite their bodies being extremely small.
The Oregonian/OregonLive appealed the redaction of the names. On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Frederick Boss sided with the agency, saying Oregon law allows the agency to determine whether releasing the information could help improve its future oversight of vulnerable children.
Spokesman Jay Remy said the agency has now released all records involving the Harts.
Initial investigation
The investigation into their welfare was spurred by an anonymous caller in July 2013. She reported that she had witnessed the Hart parents emotionally abusing and withholding food from their six children: Markis, Hannah, Devonte, Jeremiah, Abigail and Sierra.
The investigation’s original due date was Aug. 17, 2013. The deadline passed. Case records provided by the state child welfare agency show spaces for the supervisor’s name, the reasons and dates he or she signed off on each extension, and the date the supervisor approved the case decision. All are blank.
In a Sept. 24, 2013, email, apparently to his or her supervisor, the case worker described the investigation as “relatively new” to explain why basic details remained unknown. The worker wrote that he or she was unsure how to correctly spell Sierra Hart’s name and added, “I don’t plan on removing” the children from their home.
It would be several more weeks before the kids were evaluated by a doctor. The last two exams were completed November 5.
The doctor’s reports showed all of but one of the children were smaller in both weight and height than 95 out of 100 girls or boys their age. The sixth child, Jeremiah, was smaller than 90 percent of boys.
The case worker noted that the doctor said in a phone conversation that she did not have any previous history to see how they had grown over time.
The case worker’s notes do not say that Oregon’s child welfare agency requested medical records from Texas or Minnesota, two states that were involved in the adoption of the children from foster care.
Oregon officials knew Minnesota officials had investigated several abuse reports involving the Harts before they moved to Oregon. The Oregon case worker also was aware Sarah Hart was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault stemming from injuries inflicted upon the middle daughter, Abigail.
After Oregon officials received the anonymous call about the Hart children, the case worker spoke to at least two other women who knew and interacted with the Harts. The women told the case worker that abuse continued after the family moved to Oregon. They said the children were served only tiny portions of food, were afraid to speak without their mothers’ approval and were made to lay for hours on a bed or the floor as punishment.
The case worker interviewed Jennifer and Sarah Hart about the allegations five weeks after the family was reported to the child-abuse hotline. At the same time, a colleague interviewed the children and noted they all denied any abuse.
As the case dragged on, Sarah Hart offered explanations for the delays, according to the case worker’s notes. She said the family traveled often, so they were not able to meet with the two case workers until one month after the abuse report was made. She said the family had to get medical insurance for the children, then secure appointments for all six of them, so the visits to the doctor did not begin until three months after the abuse report.
Ultimately, the case worker cited the doctor’s lack of concern as the rationale to close the investigation in December 2013 without any formal action, despite the evidence of past abuse and the children’s refusal to disclose what others had witnessed, such as being forced to lie silently for hours.
Conclusion
In evaluating their safety, the case worker found them to be highly vulnerable. “The children are completely dependent upon their caregivers and do no(t) have regular contact with mandatory reporters, as they are home schooled,” he or she wrote.
The case’s official outcome was “unable to determine,” meaning the case worker found some evidence that abuse occurred, but not enough to conclusively say that it had.
The case worker informed Sarah Hart of that decision in December, the worker wrote in case notes the same day.
Yet the Hart family case was not technically closed until June 2014, after a routine report showed the case was 319 days overdue — longer than any other on the case worker’s workload.
A worker officially marked it closed the next week.
Remy said that a supervisor was likely aware of the case before June 2014, because case workers frequently print out and discuss their “caseload report” with their supervisors.
He said the delay was caused by a common paperwork issue caused by the agency’s chronic understaffing, which the agency is working to fix.
“Generally, in the case of overdue assessments, children are being seen and served in a timely fashion but the lag is in completing the steps to formally close them out,” he said in an email.
Jerry Buzzard, who oversaw Department of Human Services’ operations in Clackamas County at the time, said he did not remember the case and retired as the investigation was underway.
As the Hart family case dragged into 2014, the Oregon City office that handled the Hart case became embroiled in its own internal investigation.
State officials ramped up their investigation into Carrie Nash, a former Oregon City child welfare supervisor who was promoted to a child welfare manager’s position in Bend in 2012. The investigation focused on what the agency deemed to be unprofessional, insubordinate and profane emails and chat messages to her colleagues, including several in Oregon City. It ultimately culminated in her firing in March 2014.
At least three employees in the Oregon City office were ensnared in the investigation. The other supervisor involved, identified only by initials “TY,” received a letter of discipline, records from Nash’s challenge of her firing show. A state employee directory from February 2014 lists Tammy Young as a child welfare manager in Oregon City.
Messages left at numbers listed for Nash and Young Tuesday have not been returned.”
Documents reveal where abuse investigation failed
[Bend Bulletin 5/7/18 by Molly Young]
Update 4: “A Northern California resident found a pair of jeans and human remains inside a girl’s shoe on a beach near the spot where a woman drove her large family off a cliff in March, authorities said Thursday.
Deputies responded to the area of North Highway 1 and Hardy Creek in Westport, California around 7.15pm on Wednesday.
A resident had found a pair of girl’s size 10 jeans with a girl’s size 3.5 shoe entangled inside one of the pant legs.
When deputies inspected the shoe, they found what appeared to be a human foot inside.
DNA tests will be conducted on the remains to try to identify who they belonged to, the Mendoncino County sheriff’s department said.
Sarah and Jennifer Hart and their six adopted children were believed to be in the family’s SUV when it plunged off a cliff in Mendocino County, more than 160 miles north of San Francisco.
The location where the remains were found is about 1 mile north of where the SUV disappeared.
Five bodies were found March 26 but two girls and a boy were not immediately recovered.
The FBI placed a boy and a girl on its missing persons list but investigators said they have no evidence indicating the two children are still alive and officials continue to search the ocean and nearby beaches.”
“There are still two missing children, 15-year-old Devonte and 16-year-old Hannah.”
[Daily Mail 5/11/18 by AP]
Update 5: “One day, she thought, the three kids would come back and find her. They would return to Houston and reunite with the woman who fought to keep their family together.
Priscilla Celestine held on to that dream for years, long after the state of Texas took the children — all younger than 6 at the time — and sent them 1,300 miles away to live in a Minnesota town she didn’t know, in a home she didn’t know with a family she didn’t know.
The interstate adoption, finalized in 2009, was in Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera’s best interest, the state determined. They would be safe and cared for.
The state was wrong.
“When they first took them away, it hurt so bad, but I got through that,” Celestine says. She told herself it was God’s plan. She told herself that her niece and nephews — the “jolly little kids,” the “live-as-fire kids,” the “happy babies” — would come back one day.
Celestine no longer dreams. Jeremiah and Ciera are dead. He was 14; she was 12. Devonte, 15, is missing and presumed dead.
All were killed in late March when one of their adoptive mothers, Jennifer Hart, drove an SUV over a cliff near Mendocino, Calif., and plunged into the Pacific Ocean 100 feet below — an act the local sheriff called intentional. Their other adoptive mother, Sarah Hart, and their three adopted siblings — Markis, 19, Hannah, 16, and Abigail, 14 — were also in the vehicle. They died, too.
It was a story that shook the country for a news cycle and then was mostly forgotten. But troubling questions reverberate about the system that put their adoptions in motion and then failed the children repeatedly for years.
The children were ushered into a family where they would spend more than a decade reaching out to teachers, law enforcement and neighbors about physical harm, mental anguish and food deprivation.
Adoption records for all six children remain sealed, but publicly available documents show that warning signs were missed or ignored. Child abuse by the Harts was reported to local police in Minnesota months before the adoption of Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera was finalized. The small Minnesota adoption agency that placed the children had a history of violations, including a failure to properly conduct home studies for pending placements. And records show that school officials and neighbors repeatedly contacted authorities with concerns and allegations.
Jennifer and Sarah, both 38 when they died, were a same-sex white couple. The adopted children — two sets of biological siblings — were black. Child-welfare workers visited the family on numerous occasions, but Jennifer and Sarah were able to keep the children and evade suspicion because, as one welfare worker put it in a report, “these women look normal.” Again and again, authorities trusted the parents more than they did the kids.
Much of the country responded the same way. When a viral photo of Devonte crying and hugging a white officer during a protest against police violence thrust the Harts into the national spotlight in 2014, many celebrated the moment as a symbol of hope for racial harmony. Few wondered if there were other reasons for Devonte’s tears.
In Texas and Minnesota, the states involved in the adoption of the Hart children, there are no public investigations into how the adoptions were handled. Records in both states remain sealed. Six children are dead, and there is no inquiry into how they were placed in jeopardy or why they were left there.
Adoption experts agree that the Hart case is an extreme example of how the system has failed adopted children, but they say it also points to a need for a rigorous monitoring process by social-work agencies.
“In our system, once a child is adopted, we equate it with success and there is very little follow-up,” said University of Michigan law professor Vivek Sankaram, who advocates for children’s rights. “We actually know very little about the well-being of how kids from foster care do after they are adopted.”
Celestine, 67, last saw the children in December 2007. She spent two hours holding them and playing with them that day, she said in an interview, and cried when it was time to go.
She learned of their fate in a late-night call from her former lawyer in early April.
She put the phone down, not wanting to hear the details.
“No, no,” she said. “No, no.”
Shonda Jones, the Houston attorney she had hired to help her keep custody of the children, maintains that they never should have been taken from her in the first place.
Celestine “had brought them some normalcy, some stability, and then to just abruptly remove them without some form of warning, I just couldn’t believe it,” Jones said in an interview. “Everything about this case screamed, ‘wrong, wrong, wrong, injustice, injustice, injustice.’”
A single mistake
Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera — along with an older brother, Dontay — became wards of the state in 2006, when a Texas court terminated the parental rights of their biological parents. Almost everyone involved in the case believes that was the right decision, Jones said. The children’s mother, Sherry Davis, was addicted to drugs, and the state documented regular instances of neglect.
Celestine, the sister of Jeremiah and Ciera’s father, petitioned to adopt the children in May 2007. She had a steady job. She moved into a bigger home, and the kids moved in with her in June. She bought them food and clothes and toys. Her schedule never varied: Work, home, church. Work, home, church.
Celestine was 56 at the time and says the young children — then 4, 3 and 2 — gave her energy.
“They kept me moving, and that’s what I needed,” she said in an interview. “And I enjoyed it. I loved it because they were little, and you could teach them.”
The children had been with her for about six months when she made the decision that cost her custody. Her employer called her in to work an extra shift, her lawyer said. Celestine temporarily left the children with Davis.
Celestine says she didn’t realize that violated the rules. By chance, a social worker visited the house while Davis was there with the children. The siblings were immediately removed from the home and taken into state custody.
“She had to go to work,” Jones said. “Does she lose her job or does she allow the mother to be with the kids? I just believe it could have been handled in a more compassionate, civil manner.”
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services refused to comment on the case, citing confidentiality laws related to adoptions.
Celestine and her lawyer fought to regain custody. But it was a losing battle.
Texas officials moved quickly to find the three younger children an adoptive home. Dontay wasn’t adopted because the state determined he required placement in a mental health treatment center, Jones said.
The small percentage of adoptions that occur across state lines are governed by the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, a nearly 60-year-old agreement intended to ensure continuity of care. A caseworker in the destination state must complete a home study — including a review of the adoptive parents’ criminal histories, employment status and daily routines. Child-welfare agencies in both states must approve the placement.
Federal funding for state child-welfare systems is based in part on how quickly states move children out of foster care and into adoptive families. There is, however, no federal oversight of adoptions, either in state or between states, and there is minimal transparency on how the process works. There is almost no data to determine success or failure rates.
Holes in the safety net
Texas officials entrusted Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera to Permanent Family Resource Center (PFRC), a small adoption agency in Fergus Falls, Minn. According to its now-defunct website, the agency was founded in 2000 by three families that had adopted multiple children and specialized in adoptions of “sibling groups and children of color.”
The adoption moved swiftly. Within six months of being removed from Celestine, court documents show, the siblings were living in Minnesota.
But while the adoption of Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera was pending, in September 2008, Hannah Hart told a teacher that Jennifer had hit her with a belt, leaving a bruise on her arm — the first public record of many allegations of abuse. The mothers told police that the 6-year-old fell down the stairs, and the case was closed.
In February 2009, a judge approved the adoption of Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera. Even that decision, and who made it, remains under wraps.
Within months of the approval, Minnesota cited PFRC for dozens of violations. In September 2009, the state put PFRC’s operating license on a two-year conditional status, an action that “indicates repeated and serious violations of licensing standards,” according to a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The agency closed in 2012.
It is unclear if any of the violations were related to the Hart family. PFRC founder Maryjane Westra did not respond to a request for an interview. Bridget Leonard, a former director, declined to comment. Minnesota DHS also would not comment on specifics of the Hart case.
A Minnesota social worker who worked with the Harts would later tell investigators at the Oregon Department of Human Resources that Texas frequently funneled children through PFRC, “even when the [Minnesota] Child Welfare office has not supported the placement.”
Back in Houston, Celestine pressed for information about the children’s new home, court records show. She asked about the background check of the adoptive parents, about their gross income, about the number of bedrooms in their home. She asked whether they had criminal records.
To each request, the state of Texas had the same response: “The information requested is confidential.”
‘No food for you’
Alexandria, Minn., is a small town about a hundred miles southeast of Fargo, N.D. Most of the people who live there also grew up there. They went to the same schools, boated on the same deep blue lakes, shopped in the same stores. They know a lot of each others’ secrets.
The Hart family was different. Jennifer and Sarah grew up in small towns in neighboring South Dakota and met as college students in 1999. In 2004, they moved to Alexandria, buying a house on a tidy, tree-lined street. Sarah worked as a manager at the Herberger’s department store. Jennifer did occasional odd jobs.
After adopting Markis, Hannah and Abigail in 2006, Jennifer stayed home with the kids. A liberal, white lesbian couple with three adopted children of color stood out in a conservative county that is 97 percent white. But the family also stuck out for other reasons, according to others who knew them.
Barbara Hines, the listing agent for the house Sarah and Jennifer bought, recalled having dinner with the family in 2006.
“The children did not speak,” Hines remembers. “I really felt there was something that wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.”
A relative of Jennifer’s, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private matters, said Jennifer often erupted at the children.
“The kids couldn’t do anything without getting into trouble,” the relative said. “If the kids did anything she thought was wrong, she would snap her fingers and say, ‘Get in the corner. No food for you.’ ”
Family members and others who questioned her child-rearing were “pretty much cut out,” said the relative. “Jen wouldn’t have anything to do with you if you disagreed with her.”
Several people recalled the children walking around town in single file.
“They wouldn’t fight or be silly. They were perfect kids, which didn’t seem normal to me,” said Lorraine Fealy, who lived across the street with her husband. “It was like they were programmed.”
When Fealy commented to Jennifer about the children’s “perfect” behavior, Jennifer snapped back, “They are not perfect.”
“She didn’t speak to me after that,” Fealy said.
In 2010 and 2011, Alexandria schools reported six incidents involving the children to the state Department of Human Services, including reports that the children had been rummaging through trash for food and taking food from other students.
At first, school officials notified the Harts about the incidents. In January 2011, for example, after Hannah told the school nurse that she hadn’t eaten that day, school officials called Sarah.
But Sarah accused Hannah of “playing the food card,” and instructed school officials to “just give her water.”
The school eventually stopped calling the Harts, records show, after realizing the children were being punished.
There were also signs of physical abuse. In November 2010, a teacher found bruises on Abigail, then 6, across her sternum to her belly button and from her mid-back down to the waist of her jeans, according to an Alexandria police report.
Abigail told police that Jennifer hit her after accusing her of lying about where she found a penny. Abigail said Jennifer grabbed her by the neck, hit her with a closed fist and forced her head under cold water. She also told police that whenever Jennifer got upset with her, she had to stay in bed with no lunch.
The Harts told police that Abigail was lying and that it was Sarah who had hit Abigail. Sarah pleaded guilty to domestic assault and received a 90-day suspended jail sentence.
Soon after the conviction, the Harts began home schooling the children, which often consisted of nature trips and music festivals, according to Jennifer Hart’s social media posts.
Within two years, they had packed up and moved to Oregon, where they quickly drew notice.
Alexandra Argyropoulos, a friend who hosted the family in June 2013, told authorities that Jennifer permitted each child to eat just one tiny slice of pizza for dinner one evening. The next morning, when the leftover pizza was gone, Jennifer accused the children of stealing it. She denied them breakfast and made them lie in bed wearing sleeping masks, arms at their sides, for five hours, according to the child-welfare report.
Kindness and respect were “largely absent” in Jennifer’s interactions with the children, Argyropoulos said in a written statement.
“Her reactions were overblown, and the punishments seemed unnecessarily cruel.”
In July 2013, about three months after the family arrived in Oregon, the state Department of Human Services launched an investigation of the Harts that produced a 30-page report filled with allegations of abuse in Minnesota and Oregon.
The report noted that five of the children were extremely small for their ages. At 11, Hannah weighed 50 pounds and stood less than 4 feet tall, a stature typical of a 6-year-old girl. Devonte, also 11, stood about 4-feet-2 and weighed 57 pounds — the size of a typical 8-year-old boy.
Jennifer and Sarah said the children had issues with food that predated their adoption. A doctor who evaluated the children “expressed no concerns,” the report said, in part because Jennifer and Sarah insisted that the children had been small their entire lives.
During the investigation, a Minnesota child-welfare worker warned Oregon officials that Jennifer and Sarah had long deflected suspicions by blaming the children for their problems. Without regular oversight from doctors, teachers or child-welfare workers, the Minnesota worker wrote that the Hart children “risk falling through the cracks.”
Still, officials in Oregon were “unable to determine” whether child abuse or neglect had occurred. The children, interviewed independently, reported no abuse, one child-welfare worker wrote.
The report deemed the Hart children “safe.”
‘Me and Mr. Washington’
In 2017, the Harts packed up and moved again, this time to Washington state. Soon after, police received a report that Hannah had jumped out a second-story window at 1:30 a.m. and appeared at the nearby home of Bruce and Dana DeKalb covered in weeds and missing two teeth.
Hannah told the DeKalbs “the moms were racist and were abusing her,” according to a state child-welfare report.
Though she was 16 at the time, Hannah looked barely 7, Bruce DeKalb said in an interview. She was “rattled to the bone” and crouched between the bed and the dresser when Sarah and Jennifer came looking for her.
Months later, Devonte showed up begging for peanut butter, tortillas and other food. The boy pleaded with the DeKalbs not to call police, saying he feared that he and his siblings would be split up.
After about a dozen visits from Devonte, the DeKalbs called children’s services. On March 26, police and a social worker knocked on the door of the Hart home. No one answered.
About five hours later, a passerby on Highway 1 near Mendocino, Calif., called 911 to report an SUV upside down in the surf at the bottom of a cliff.
At first, the crash appeared to be an accident. But police determined that the GMC Yukon had stopped 70 feet from the cliff’s edge before racing over it at high speed. There were no brake marks.
Jennifer was in the driver’s seat. Toxicology reports indicate she had a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent — above the legal limit for driving.
“I’m calling it a crime,” Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said in April.
After the crash, a number of friends recalled the family as joyful and artistic. They bristled at others who talked about Jennifer and Sarah’s darker sides. Friends of Jennifer also remembered her love for the global fusion band Nahko and Medicine for the People, whose music is bouncy and brimming with horns and percussion.
A video on Jennifer Hart’s YouTube page shows the Hart children singing and dancing to one of the band’s songs, “Mitakuye Oyasin.” But it’s another of the band’s songs that has struck the nerves of some of those who knew the family and their fondness for the group.
“Mr. Washington,” from the group’s 2016 album, “On the Verge,” is upbeat even as it grapples with questions of identity and justice. In the context of the Harts’ last moments, however, the song’s opening lyrics read like despair:
Me and Mr. Washington go forth with no real direction
Dreaming of the day we drive our cars into the ocean
And all the people looking on will wonder what to say
And live confused about us till the day they do the same
And they will see while swimming that they are free.
At her home in Houston, Priscilla Celestine still doesn’t want to know the details of the deaths of Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera. She tells her friends not to talk about what happened. She gets weak inside when she thinks about those last moments. Her breath comes up short.
She knows that Devonte, Jeremiah and Ciera are never coming home.”
Abuse, neglect anda system that failed:The tragic lives of the Hart children
[The Washington Post 7/12/18 by Joe Heim and Julie Tate]
Update 6: “Human remains found near the deadly California crash site involving the Hart family from Woodland have been confirmed through DNA testing to be 16-year-old Hannah Hart.
Hannah was one of two missing Hart children who had not been accounted for following the crash on the California coastline in Mendocino County in March 2018.
Investigators said Jennifer and Sarah Hart, along with three of their adopted children, were pronounced dead immediately after the crash scene was discovered. The couple’s three other children were believed to also be in the car, but they were not immediately found.
Another body was later discovered and confirmed to be 12-year-old Ciera Hart through DNA analysis.
In May 2018, skeletal remains of a foot in a shoe entangled inside pants were discovered near the crash scene.
DNA testing was inconclusive and the remains could not be positively identified. However, in October, the mother of Markis, Abigail and Hannah Hart contacted investigators and provided a DNA sample that was used for comparison testing.
This week, deputies said those test results showed a positive identification of the partial remains found in May 2018 as being Hannah Hart.
Devonte Hart remains listed as a missing person and the only remaining person not accounted for in the crash.
“It is believed, the most likely scenario is that he too perished in this incident but the case remains open and active,” according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
Of the four previous children found following the crash, three tested positive for diphenhydramine in their blood. Diphenhydramine is an active ingredient in Benadryl. The other child had no toxicology finding, according to investigators.
Investigators previously said Jennifer Hart, the driver, was drunk, with a blood-alcohol content of .102 at the time of the crash.
Reports of possible abuse and neglect involving the Hart children emerged as the investigation unfolded. The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services opened a Child Protective Services investigation of the family days before the crash.”
Human remains found near Hart family crash site in California confirmed to be teen girl
[KPTV 1/9/19]
Update 7: “A jury determined a Washington state couple committed murder suicide when they drove off a cliff killing their six adoptive children.[No shit, sherlock!]
When you look at a picture of the Hart family and their six adoptive kids, you see nothing but huge smiles.
However, behind that was pain.
Officials confirmed Jennifer Hart intentionally drove her kids off a cliff in California, all while her wife googled ways to end lives.
“It’s a sad scenario and I think people regularly think how could we have prevented this and there is a lot of signs and symptoms,” said Christa Jensen of the Marathon County Social Services.
CNN reports the kids would sneak off to a neighbor in the middle of the night to ask for food.
Just days before the family died, Child Protective Services in Washington requested a welfare check on the family.
However, by the time they arrived the family was already gone.
Experts believe, the fact that the kids were home schooled could have made it tougher to catch the abuse.
“What I could tell you is school personal is our number one reporters of child neglect and abuse,” Jensen said. “When somebody is seeing them on a regular basis somebody might be able to see if their physical appearance is diminishing or they aren’t gaining weight.”
Patrick Schmidt knows all too well about the hardships that come with fostering and adopting.
He has had six kids at a time live with him.
“I felt at points where it’s like there is not enough of me to take care of all these children so I don’t know what to do next so I get that,” said Schmidt.
Experts are always urging foster parents to just ask for help before tragedy hits.
In Wisconsin, foster parents have to be cleared mentally and physically to take in kids.
They have to get their license renewed every two years.”
Concerns spark over abuse in the adoption&foster care system after Washington couple drives family off a cliff
[WAOW 4/9/19]
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