Two of the children also were determined to have “Benadryl-type substances in their system,” he said. Toxicology tests also showed that Jennifer Hart’s wife, Sarah Hart, had a “significant amount” of an ingredient primarily used in Benadryl in her system, Carpenter said.
Bruce Carpenter said.Ĭarpenter said Friday that no one in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt. The speedometer was pinned at 90 mph, California Highway Patrol Capt. Based on preliminary reports, it appears the SUV had stopped about 70 feet from the cliff’s edge, then sped off it, authorities said.
There are no skid marks and the vehicle was at a full stop before accelerating off the cliff, authorities said. The fatal plunge appears to have been intentional. Jennifer Hart was legally drunk when she drove a sport utility vehicle 100 feet into the Pacific Ocean off a remote stretch of Highway 1 in Mendocino County, killing her, her wife and three of their six children. The discovery of Ciera’s body still leaves many unanswered questions about the fatal March 26 crash. “The missing children could currently be traveling together,” the FBI statement read. Her name on the poster is misspelled Sierra, as it was first reported. And there was a cropped picture of 12-year-old Ciera Maija Hart, her hair plaited in individual braids with barrettes at the ends. A different photo, one of tears streaking his face as he hugged a police officer during a Black Lives Matter protest, went viral in 2014. There was another for 15-year-old Devonte Jordan Hart, his signature fedora perched atop his head and a megawatt smile lighting up his face.
Her lips pursed together into a tight smile in both pictures, hiding her teeth. There was one for 16-year-old Hannah Jean Hart. Were they in the car when 38-year-old Jennifer Hart steered their GMC Yukon toward the ocean, or were the three missing children somewhere else and alive, authorities wondered.įaced with that latter possibility, the FBI issued missing persons posters for the unaccounted Hart siblings Tuesday. Investigators had pulled five bodies from the wreckage, but could not locate three of the adopted siblings. None of the searchers was sure they would ever find them. For 12 agonizing days, search crews have combed the murky waters off Northern California in search of three missing children who were believed to be in an SUV that was driven off a cliff by one of their mothers.