California Highway Patrol
One of the mothers of the family who were found dead Monday at the bottom of a California coastal cliff pleaded guilty to abusing one of her adopted children in 2010, according to a police report obtained by The Oregonian. Jennifer Hart and her same-sex spouse, Sarah Hart, both 38, were found dead with children Markis, 19, Abigail, 14, and Jeremiah, 14. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office has said it can’t find three other siblings, whose bodies it is feared may have been washed out to sea. Authorities have said there is no evidence of skid or brake marks on the road. The crash occurred days after authorities in Washington state tried to visit the family home after receiving reports of abuse and neglect concerning the children from a neighbor, who had been visited by the children begging for food. However, it has now emerged that in 2010 Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to abusing one of her children when they lived in Alexandria, Minnesota, a small town about 130 miles northwest of Minneapolis. In an interview with authorities, Abigail Hart, who was then 6, said one of her mothers had struck her with a closed fist and later placed her in a cold bath before hitting her again in a fit of anger. “She had a penny in her pocket and this made her mom mad,” reads an Alexandria, Minnesota, police report obtained Thursday by The Oregonian.