An investigator who searched the home of two Washington state women after a crash killed them and their six adopted children says there was “very little” evidence to indicate that six children lived in the home.
Investigators in Clark County, Wash., executed a search warrant on the rural family home after the bodies of Jennifer Hart, her partner Sarah, and three of their six adopted children were found scattered on the rocks below a Mendocino, Calif. cliff on March 26.
Searchers recovered the bodies of Jennifer and Sarah, both 38, and three of their children, 19-year-old Markis, 14-year-old Jeremiah and Abigail, also 14. Locals found the body of Ciera Hart, 12, a few miles from the crash site on April 7.
Devonte Hart, 15, and Hannah Hart, 16, are still missing and presumed dead. Officials believe all six children were in the family’s SUV when it went over the cliff.
According to documents obtained by KOIN, investigators served a search warrant on the family’s rural home.
“Upon entering the house, it was found to be extremely clean and organized, giving a perception of being very sterile,” wrote Clark County Sheriff’s Office Detective Joe Swenson.
He added that the house was “so orderly and nothing seemed out place regarding any belongings, toys or entertainment items the children may have owned.”
Swenson wrote that there were very few toys in the home and nothing to suggest six children lived there.
“There was very little to show the children had access to any toys or items or entertainment, save for some board games found in the downstairs living room.”
Detective Lindsay Schultz observed that “none of the rooms were personalized for the children or showed the supporting elements that children lived in the residence.”
“I did not get any indication that children lived in the house,” Swenson concluded.
Swenson also described “a lot of perishable food recently purchased, including milk, fruits and vegetables.”
But just a week before the fatal road trip, Devonte ran to a neighbor’s home begging for food for himself and his siblings. Devonte told the neighbors he and his siblings were being starved by the lesbian couple as punishment for misbehaving.
The murder-suicide briefly drew worldwide attention because Devonte Hart is the tearful boy hugging a cop in a viral photo taken at a rally in Oregon in 2015.
Investigators also interviewed Sarah Hart’s co-worker’s at the Hazel Dell Kohl’s. None of them had ever met Jennifer or the children.
One co-worker said Sarah told her she regretted having a large family.
She said she wished “someone told her it was okay not to have [a] big family. Then she and Jennifer would not have adopted the children.”
