Hart Family Tragedy: Evidence Of Neglect, 911 Calls Come To Light

Although Jennifer and Sarah Hart perished in a car crash off the California coast March 26, taking with them at least three of their six adopted children, their story hasn't quite ended.

California police officials first questioned whether the crash was intentional; no one was wearing seatbelts, and data pulled from their wrecked SUV revealed the car had come to a complete stop before accelerating and launching from the cliff, plunging more than 100 feet into the Pacific Ocean.

Because none of the occupants were wearing safety restraints, and because three of the six children have been missing since the SUV was found, authorities have suggested the three missing kids may have been swept out to sea.

But with the hypothesis that the crash was intentional comes the question of why; why did Jennifer and Sarah Hart make such a fatal choice for themselves and their adopted kids?

Neighbor testimony and 911 call logs recently released by the Clark County Regional Emergency Services Agency in Washington have added more layers to the whole picture of what may have been happening in the Hart family household in the days, weeks, and months preceding the crash.

CNN on Thursday published several more details, including neighbor accounts, about the Harts' home life — and they're grim.

Evidence of child neglect, severe punishments, calls to Child Protective Services (CPS), and multiple cries for help have all come to light in the weeks since the family's SUV was found upside down off the Pacific coastline in Mendocino County, California.

In fact, a neighbor's call to CPS just days before the crash very well may have been part of the reason the family fled their Woodland, Washington, home.

According to CNN, a 911 call in November 2017 and a call to CPS March 23 — by two different individuals — show the children begging for food around their neighborhood.

In both cases, a Hart child visited a neighbor between 1 and 2 a.m. begging for help. It's unclear which children they were or if it was the same daughter both times, but in the incidents about four months apart a young girl came to the neighbors' doors crying, asking the neighbors to protect them in both instances.

In the first case, the neighbor apparently saw the young girl jump from a second-story window to the roof, then to the ground in the middle of the night before running to the neighbor's house.

And a few weeks before the crash, Devonte Hart also reportedly visited one of the same neighbors as before, begging for food and complaining that nourishment was being withheld as punishment.

"It started out as one time a day and escalated up to three times a day, until a week went by and we decided that we needed to get professional help," the neighbor told CNN. He called CPS March 23.

CPS reportedly visited the Harts right after Jennifer got home, but no one answered the door. CPS tried to contact the family two more times, on March 26 and 27 — but by then it was too late.

It was also too late for a friend of Sarah Hart's who called 911 to request a welfare check March 26.

"The friend told the operator that she received a text from Sarah Hart, saying that she was sick, unable to come out and may need to see a doctor," CNN reported. "Her phone was dead and no one had since seen her or her wife, the friend told dispatch."

The SUV and the bodies of five of the Harts were found in California the same day.

Click here to read the full CNN article.

Image via Mendocino County Sheriff's Office