Mendocino SUV crash raises questions as three children still missing

Some questions came up soon after the grim discovery of an SUV that had plunged off a steep cliff and onto the rocky shore along a remote stretch of the Northern California coast.

Why were there no skid marks? Why were there no brake marks? What had caused the car to plummet from a flat pullout, killing two women and three young people?

The deeper mystery arose once the dead were identified. The women, who were married, had six children, so where were the three who had not been found at the crash scene?

Friends and relatives told authorities that there was no way the couple would have traveled that far from their Washington state home without all of their children. But since Monday’s discovery, searchers have fanned out across a roughly four-mile stretch of rugged coastline, combing the beach and scanning the water with binoculars, looking for the missing family members.

The U.S. Coast Guard has searched by rescue boat, the California Highway Patrol has used a fixed-wing airplane and helicopter, and the Mendocino County Sheriff ’s Office has scoured the beach along the highway.

So far, they’ve turned up nothing.

“We’re still going to keep looking and then hope they turn up soon,” Mendocino County Sheriff ’s Lt. Shannon Barney said Thursday. “Maybe tomorrow we’ll find something.”

As the search continues, details have emerged about the family in the days leading up to the crash.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services said child welfare authorities attempted to contact the couple — Jennifer and Sarah Hart — after receiving a complaint of potential child abuse or neglect on March 23, three days before the crash.

They tried to make contact that day but were unsuccessful.

One of the missing children, as it happens, also had been in the news before. Devonte Hart, now 15, had a moment of fame in 2014, after he was photographed hugging a Portland, Ore., police sergeant at a protest related to unrest in Ferguson, Mo.

Portland police told the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office this week that the family may have moved from their former home in West Linn, Ore., due to the media attention that followed. When investigators searched the Harts’ most recent home, in Woodland, Wash., they found family belongings, pets and some chickens, but not the three missing children.