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Hart Family Northern California Cliff Crash Ruled a Murder-Suicide

“They both decided that this was going to be the end,” a highway patrol investigator testified.

A fatal car crash off a California cliff last year involving two women and their six adopted children was ruled a murder-suicide on Thursday, CBS News reports. A Mendocino County coroner’s jury deliberated for about an hour before delivering the unanimous verdicts. The crash reportedly happened days after allegations surfaced that Jennifer and Sarah Hart were neglecting their children, who ranged in age from 12 to 18. A highway patrol investigator also testified Thursday that Sarah Hart had spent hours before the incident looking up overdosing options on her phone and whether it was relatively painless to die by drowning. The jury had four choices for each verdict: death by natural causes, accident, suicide or death at the hands of another. "They both decided that this was going to be the end," California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates said at the inquest. "That if they can't have their kids that nobody was going to have those kids." The bodies of the women were found inside the vehicle, which landed upside down below a cliff more than 160 miles north of San Francisco. The bodies of four of the children were also recovered, and the body of a fifth was matched to remains found in a shoe. The remains of 15-year-old Devonte Hart have not been found.

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Body Found Near Site of Hart Family Cliff Crash