Officials search for kids after cliff crash kills family
San Francisco — Searchers in boats and aircraft scoured the Northern California coast Wednesday for three missing children whose parents and three siblings died when their SUV plunged off a scenic highway onto rocks in the ocean below.
The California Highway Patrol has not determined why the vehicle went off the overlook. Officials in Oregon and Washington, where the family has lived, have not been able to find the missing children of Jennifer and Sarah Hart at their home in a small city outside Portland, Ore., or with family members and friends.
One of the missing children was an African-American boy who gained widespread attention when he was photographed hugging a white officer during a 2014 protest over a fatal police shooting of a black man.
The Harts lived most recently in Woodland, Wash., and recently had a visit from Child Protective Services, Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Brent Waddell told The Associated Press.
He said the sheriff’s office later entered the house and 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.
Sarah Hart had pleaded guilty to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota in 2011. Her plea also led to the dismissal of a charge of malicious punishment of a child, online court records say.
The women, both 39, and their children Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; and Abigail Hart, 14, were killed Monday when their SUV plunged 100 feet from an ocean overlook on the Pacific Coast Highway about 150 miles north of San Francisco.
Searchers were looking for Hannah Hart, 16; Devonte Hart, 15; and Sierra Hart, 12.
Bill Groener, 67, was a nextdoor neighbor of the family when they lived in West Linn, Ore., and described the siblings as foster children.
“They were friendly enough. The kids were all homeschooled. They stayed indoors most of the time, even in really nice weather,” Groener told AP.
He said the family didn’t eat sugar, raised their own vegetables, had animals and went on camping trips.
“There was enough positive there to kind of counteract the feeling that something maybe wasn’t quite right,” Groener said.
He said they were neighbors for about two years and that “privacy was a big thing for them.”
The family got attention after Devonte Hart was photographed during a 2014 protest in Portland, Ore., over a grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in the shooting of a black man in Ferguson, Miss.