The searches
Sarah Hart had been typing into her phone during the drive.
At a coroner’s inquest in April 2019, investigator Jake Slates told jurors what had been recovered. The searches, he said, were made while the vehicle was moving, between the time the family left Woodland and the time they died.
She had asked whether 500 milligrams of Benadryl could kill a 120-pound woman. She had searched which over-the-counter medications could be used to overdose. She had asked whether death by drowning is relatively painless. She had searched how long it takes hypothermia to kill someone drowning in a car.
She had also looked up no-kill shelters for dogs.
The blood tests matched the searches. Sarah Hart had the equivalent of about 42 doses of Benadryl in her system. Markis had about 19, Abigail 14, and Jeremiah almost 9. Investigators believed the children were most likely asleep when the SUV went over.
Witnesses said the mothers often gave the children Benadryl on long car rides.
“Pedal to the metal”
Jennifer Hart, who friends said almost never drank, had a blood alcohol level of 0.104 percent, over the legal limit. Slates compared it to roughly five beers. Investigators suggested she had been drinking to build up her courage.
The SUV’s data recorder showed the rest. California Highway Patrol investigator Timothy Roloff testified that the Yukon accelerated from the turnout at 100 percent throttle, “pedal to the metal,” and that the brakes were never touched. Nobody in the car appeared to be wearing a seat belt. There was nothing wrong with the vehicle.
It was not a crash. It was a decision.
The verdict
After two days of testimony, the 14-member coroner’s jury took about an hour. The verdict was unanimous.
Jennifer and Sarah Hart had died by suicide. All six children had died “at the hands of another.”
Sheriff Tom Allman said he accepted the finding of murder-suicide. Because both women were dead, nobody would ever stand trial.
Ciera’s body was pulled from the ocean weeks after the crash. Hannah was identified through DNA. Devonte, the boy from the photograph, was never found. A judge later ruled that he had been in the car, and a death certificate was signed.
What everyone missed
In the months after the crash, journalists and officials in three states went back through the record. There had been the bruises in Minnesota and the guilty plea. There had been the children taken out of school. There had been the investigation in Oregon that was closed. There had been the girl who jumped out of a window at night, and the boy who begged a neighbor for food.
Each warning had landed in a different state, and each one had been looked at alone.
Millions of strangers had seen what the photograph showed: a boy who wanted to hug people.
It took a coroner’s jury to say what the family had been hiding behind that picture.
Markis was 19. Hannah was 16. Devonte was 15. Abigail and Jeremiah were 14. Ciera was 12.
