The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said the family may not have intended to stay away from home for long that day because many of their belongings, including a pet and some chickens, were still at their home. First responders immediately found the bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart and their children Markis, 19, Jeremiah, 14, and Abigail, 14. The others — Devonte, 15, Hannah, 16, and Sierra, 12 — remain unaccounted for.
The family had lived in a suburb of Portland, Ore., before they moved north across the Columbia River to Woodland, Wash. Authorities said the family left Oregon to escape intense scrutiny that began in 2014, when Devonte Hart was photographed sobbing in the arms of a white police officer in Portland, where people had gathered to support protests in Ferguson, Mo., over a grand jury’s decision not to charge police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The family’s mixed races have fueled suspicion and anger about the crash, reflected in hundreds of comments left on Facebook postings mourning the family. Many of the comments questioned the motives of white women who adopted black children.
Meanwhile, those who knew the Harts described them as inspiring and devoted parents who had been unfairly subjected to criticisms and assumptions about their motives for adopting the children. Friends also said that the couple tried to keep their children insulated from death threats and hateful emails prompted by the viral picture of Devonte.
But their neighbors in Washington said previous incidents involving the Harts’ children have concerned them.
Bruce DeKalb said Devonte regularly came to his home to ask for food and said his parents weren’t feeding him. The teen also asked him and his wife to call Child Protective Services, DeKalb said.
Last month, another sibling, Hannah, knocked on his front door at 1:30 a.m., DeKalb said. She was covered in weeds after jumping out of her family’s second-story window. DeKalb said the teenager, who was missing some front teeth and who he thought was only 7 years old, was “rattled to the bone.”
Maureen O’Hagan and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Article Appeared @https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/01/speedometer-pinned-at-90-mph-as-suv-carrying-family-plunged-off-a-cliff-report-says/?utm_term=.4589f3bba14f