Investigators search for clues in SUV wreck; eight presumed dead

SAN FRANCISCO — Accident-reconstruction investigators are trying to figure out what caused an SUV carrying a family of eight to plunge off a 30metre cliff in a deadly wreck that happened shortly after child-welfare authorities went to their home to investigate possible abuse.

Five members of the Hart family — a free-spirited brood from Washington state who grew their own food and took up activist causes — were found dead, and the search continued Friday for three more children believed to have been in the vehicle when it went over the edge and landed on the watery rocks below the Pacific Coast Highway. The missing children may have been washed out to sea.

“There are a lot of unknowns on this,” Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said. “Several of the questions that have been asked today will never be answered.” He said there is no reason so far to think the crash was intentional, but he also said there were no signs the driver braked as the GMC Yukon crossed a flat, dirt pull-off area, about 23 metres wide, where motorists often walk their dogs.

Accident-reconstruction experts said investigators would look at road conditions along with such possibilities as brake failure or a blown tire.

The brood was known as the Hart Tribe, a multiracial family of two women — Sarah and Jennifer Hart — and six adopted children who took spontaneous road trips to camp and hike and travelled to festivals, offering free hugs and promoting unity.

One of the children, Devonte Hart, drew national attention when the black youngster was photographed hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest in Portland, Ore., over the deadly police shooting of a black man in Ferguson, Mo. Devonte was holding a “Free Hugs” sign.

The wreck was discovered by a passing motorist Monday afternoon, three days after social service authorities opened an investigation that was apparently prompted by a neighbour’s complaint that the children were being deprived of food.

A state caseworker went to the Harts’ house in Woodland, Wash., on March 23 but didn’t find anyone home, state officials said.

The two women, both 38, were found dead inside the SUV, while three of their children — Markis Hart, 19, Jeremiah Hart, 14, and Abigail Hart, 14 — were discovered outside the vehicle. The search continued for Hannah Hart, 16, Sierra Hart, 12, and Devonte.