A surveillance image of Jennifer Hart who died along with her wife and their six adopted kids in what police now suspect might be a murder-suicide, has emerged.
Jennifer Hart was spotted in grainy surveillance video in a Safeway grocery store in Fort Bragg, California on March 25, Just one day before she rode off a cliff with her entire family, killing them all.
The death of the entire family came after the family was visited by child welfare to investigate a report that they were starving their 6 adopted children. Authorities believe Hart and her lesbian partner, Sarah Hart, 38, intentionally drove their 2003 GMC Yukon off a cliff days after a child welfare worker visited their Woodland, Washington home.
"I'm to the point where I no longer am calling this an accident; I'm calling it a crime," Mendocino County Sheriff, Tom Allman told HLN's 'Crime & Justice wit Ashleigh Banfield.'
Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies released an image from surveillance video showing Jennifer Hart, 39, in the grocery store just after 8 a.m. on Sunday, the day before the family’s wrecked SUV was found at the bottom of a cliff near Mendocino, California. There were no skid marks to show that the plunge had been an accident. Police believe the crash may have been deliberate.
The bodies of the couple and three of their children were recovered at the crash site. Three of their kids are still missing. The missing kids are Devonte Hart, 15, Hannah Hart, 16, and Sierra Hart, 12. The 3 missing children (circled in the photo below) were subjects of prior child abuse investigations. Investigators continue to search for them, but they are presumed dead.
However, there are also reports that the FBI is following up on a tip that the three missing children may be staying with a friend in the Portland, Oregon area. A family friend gave authorities the name of an individual in the Portland area.
This will not be the first time the Harts are being investigated for child abuse. Child welfare workers investigated the Harts for multiple reports of child abuse and neglect in three states - Minnesota, Washington and Oregon. Each time Child Protective Service visited their home, the Harts packed up and moved with their children. They have moved so many times over the years.
In 2010, Jennifer Hart was sentenced to community service after one of the children complained of pains in school and the teacher checked her body and found bruises on her stomach and back. Upon interrogation, Jennifer admitted to beating the child.
Alexandra Argyropoulos, a former friend of the family said she alerted Oregon welfare officials about Jennifer and Sarah Hart because she felt they were withholding meals from their six adopted children. She said she "witnessed [in 2013] what I felt to be controlling emotional abuse and cruel punishment" toward the children by the couple, who were living in West Linn at the time.
Then, last week, neighbours called investigators to say that one of the children had been coming to their house almost daily to beg for food and complaining that the parents were withholding food from them as punishment. Another of the children, a girl, came to their house one night, at about 1:30 am, to beg them to protect her from her adopted parents who she said were abusive towards her.
The California Highway Patrol say they haven’t given up searching for the children’s remains in the water.
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