Coroner’s Jury Reaches Finding That Hart Family Adults Committed Suicide/The Youth’s Deaths Were Homicides

Hart family

Hart family [Image from the Mendocino Sheriff’s Coroner Inquest]

Press release from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office:

Sheriff-Coroner Thomas D. Allman announces that a Coroner’s Jury has reached a finding in the Hart Family Incident which originated on March 26, 2018.  The finding of the jury was that the deaths were as follows:

Jennifer Hart – Suicide

Sarah Hart – Suicide

Markis Hart – At the hands of another person, other than by accident

Hannah Hart – At the hands of another person, other than by accident

Devonte Hart – At the hands of another person, other than by accident

Jeremiah Hart – At the hands of another person, other than by accident

Abigail Hart – At the hands of another person, other than by accident

Ciera Hart – At the hands of another person, other than by accident

The Coroner’s Jury reached a verdict after hearing the testimony of witnesses called by the hearing officer, Matthew P. Guichard.

A Coroner’s Inquest, which Sheriff-Coroner Allman convened on April 3, 2019 was a public hearing, during which a jury ruled on the manner of the family’s death.  Jury members were able to choose from the following four options when making their finding:

Accident
Suicide
Natural Causes
At the hands of another person, other than by accident

As a result of the Jury’s findings, Sheriff Allman will be recording the manner of death on each death certificate as follows:

Jennifer Hart – Suicide

Sarah Hart – Suicide

Markis Hart – Homicide

Hannah Hart – Homicide

Devonte Hart – Homicide

Jeremiah Hart – Homicide

Abigail Hart – Homicide

Ciera Hart – Homicide

Earlier Chapters for Hart Family:

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Really Folks!
Guest
Really Folks!
4 years ago

So tragic!

Muddy Black Dodge
Guest
4 years ago

No words…, just tears. Hug your loved ones…

Diamond
Guest
4 years ago

If the adults wanna kill themselves that’s their business but leave the kids alone!

Anon
Guest
Anon
4 years ago

I will be interested to read the transcript re: evidence to support Sarah hart’s cause of death findings. My gut tells me they got that one wrong. Sarah, IMHO, was narcissistic supply, just like all the children , to domineering and controlling Jen. What a shame if her life was taken against her will and now she is actually sharing the blame for the children’s deaths. Sociopathic murderers never stage suicides of their victims tho, right?

...
Guest
...
4 years ago
Reply to  Anon

Have you read anything else about this case? Both of those women were complicit in torturing those children.

Anon
Guest
Anon
4 years ago
Reply to  ...

Too much… The press and LEO’s can both slant things to fit a bias, and they also miss details , for instance, the “abuse” that Sarah plead guilty to in MN was punishment actually meted out by Jen and reported by the child as Jenn but when child protection stepped in Sarah took the fall. :/

And how do we KNOW it was Sarah conducting those allegedly incriminating searches? We don’t. Imo it looks like Jen co-opted her phone and was plotting to end Sarah’s life (reference to 120# woman) . Abusers are very good at covering their tracks, hiding things, and making themselves look good (or in this case half as bad…)

BippityBop
Guest
BippityBop
4 years ago
Reply to  Anon

I agree that a single abusive person in the house is more likely than a conspiracy of f’d up adults.

...
Guest
...
4 years ago
Reply to  Anon

They both starved and tortured those children over the course of years.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Anon

Agreed. It was noted that the passenger seat was tilted all the way back, as if Sara had gone to sleep. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches laced with Benadryl . My gut says Jen put them all to sleep and proceeded with her liquid courage. The 2 main things I hope that really comes out about this tragedy is there are some gubermental policies the 1 social servic depts communicate better with each other. And 2. ALL children who are being home school are observed by the school system in which they reside. Some sort of check I. So another adult other than their parents (and I. This case their captor) can observe them from time to time.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

The Google searches were on one phone.

Then the searches were deleted from the phone. The idea that the dominant crazy one searched on her partners phone and deleted it to cover her tracks is possible. Its speculation. But for those of you saying it, I think it’s absolutely possible.

One of the searches was “how much benadryl will kill 120lbs woman”.

THC
Guest
THC
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

I’m sorry, but both these women were complicit regardless of the circumstances. This is not something that just happened all of a sudden. This situation was known for years and even if one of the partners was being abused by the other, she had plenty of time to get help for herself and the children. How about government agencies just do their jobs. Police were contact multiple times about the abuse of the children and they failed to do their job. A recent local example would be Thomas contacting the Sheriff’s Office three times. 1 time after he was threatened by the person on his own property with a knife and they refuse to do anything because it was a “civil” matter. Only for the person to assault him with a shovel and a knife again afterwards but this time being shot in the process of doing so. He is still going to have to pay tens of thousands of dollars and go through the court proceedings even though the case was clearly self-defense.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  THC

Trying people or the police in the court of internet opinion is tricky at best. No one but the police are likely to have heard both sides and they are not the courts to assign guilt or innocence.

Two Words
Guest
Two Words
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Who needs stinkin’ facts?

47
Guest
47
4 years ago
Reply to  Anon
Michael R Ross
Guest
Michael R Ross
4 years ago

How could it be determined it was suicide for anyone other than the driver? Seems it would be nearly impossible to establish anyone not the driver was suicide or victim. Would this have required corroborating evidence? Cell phone messages; written suicide pact, etc.?

JustaMAGAhatwearingcommonsensekindaguy
Guest
JustaMAGAhatwearingcommonsensekindaguy
4 years ago

Those two pieces of shit can rot in hell for all I care. They should have gave those poor children the love and support they needed and deserved. Rip little ones…. at least you won’t have to starve and be scared of those women anymore….

Mindfulness in life
Guest
Mindfulness in life
4 years ago

No one knows for sure what happened that night. The picture shows a well fed happy group. None of them looked starved. All smiles. This was a tragedy beyond understanding. There seems to be too many lives lost in this country. Mothers drowning her kids. Fathers killing his entire family. Shootings at grade schools to universities. And in every corner of this land. Why has taking a life become so common? Has violence become so much a part of our culture? It has been claimed by others that we are the most violent country in history since the Crusades and early Chinese dynasties. Everyday we read about innocent lives being lost. Everyday our Country’s leaders put our young people in harms way in at least 20 different countries. Where else is that being done. We have become world wide mercenaries. The song, “Onward, Christian soldiers,
marching AS to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before” keeps running through my head. When we are not killing our own and killing others all over the globe. Human life has lost its value. Values should be the definition of our actions in life. Sadly our values are something other than lives. For me it is unacceptable. But I don’t know what to do about it.

Extremely can be bias
Guest
Extremely can be bias
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

They look young, but not “extremely small for their age”. Extremely, as in “to an extreme extent”, small can be deceiving don’t you agree?

I'm not believing what I am seeing..................
Guest
I'm not believing what I am seeing..................
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

That is difficult to believe from the photo. And maybe a photo is worth a thousand words.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

One factor that raises questions but does not answer them.

shak
Guest
shak
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

The article fails to mention the ages of the children when they were adopted, but it does mention the kids were already smaller than normal previous to adoption, if I skimmed that right.

shak
Guest
shak
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Thanks for posting that, I clearly skimmed too fast too many times.

D
Guest
D
4 years ago

And all the occupants in Guyana at Jim Jones’ place were all happy, smiley faces too, for a little while. Hell there were some that believed that crap right to the bitter end.

Thirdeye
Guest
Thirdeye
4 years ago
Reply to  D

That is exactly what this situation reminds me of, a mini-Jonestown perpetrated by someone on their little sphere of power when the abuse underlying their pseudo-altruistic cover was being exposed. That family operated like a cult.

Feel the Nero burn in our Game of Thrones?
Guest
Feel the Nero burn in our Game of Thrones?
4 years ago

It is a huge problem in this country. As the saying goes, Violence begets violence. And that violence permeates every level of our American lives. Although there are some who would say differently the notion of violence is in our faces from an early age. If the belief that movies and games reflect the nature of our society, children as young as five or six see it daily. What used to be Sex, Drugs and Rock in Roll is now Sex, Violence and RAP. At that young age, if you see it you might believe it. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon details the corruption of the Roman’s society as violence, loss of values and morals, and corruption in Government from dictator like leaders (Romulus Augustulus, Tiberius, and Nero) and wanton spending of the empire’s assets on extravagant upper rich society who at the time of the collapse controlled 98% of the Roman Empire’s wealth and was the leading evidence and cause of why the Roman Empire crashed. There are direct correlations between the Roman Empire and the U.S. Empire. On could argue America is on the precipice of failure. And our Nero like President is fiddling while America burns. Whether you believe it or not there are thousands of examples of History repeating it’s self. Can you feel us sliding downward?

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago

Or not. The Roman values you mention included violence on an institutional level. It was considered necessary by the Roman’s themselves to Roman’s continuance that it’s citizens were willing to endure death by violence hardship and violence was a State policy. Gladiators were sacred to that ideal. They were supposed to provided the toughening of the Romans to the spilling of blood.

No benign State, which really never gets to the level of a State anyway, could ever survive contact with an aggressive and violent one. What kills a State is the fantasy that it is easy to survive. And that there is a real best State that can give it’s citizens freedom from violence when all a State can do in reality is keep outsiders from doing the violence.

sue
Guest
sue
4 years ago

you are so ignorant it’s unbelievable… we put our troops in harms way to prevent the SLAUGHTER that goes on in other countries… NOT by Americans but but other psychopaths, like Muslims, countries…

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
4 years ago

Have to say I stopped at the pull out where they went over last year. I can easily imagine someone mistakenly driving over the edge if they were drunk and distracted- like arguing maybe. They could have pulled over then were going to get back on the road when it happened. Maybe even having it in drive and thinking it was in reverse. I’ve gone to gun it in reverse and mistakenly been in drive or vice versa and caught myself before moving much a couple times in my life…

Some people use Bennedril for car sickness. If Jen had taken it in addition to drinking then that might account for really bad hand/eye coordination on top of it all..

We will never really know.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  Lynn H

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/apos-death-relatively-painless-apos-221528833.html

I think they do know. It’s horrible, just a horrible tragedy for the children.

47
Guest
47
4 years ago
Reply to  Lynn H
Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
4 years ago
Reply to  Lynn H

Wow. I was wrong. Jesus H. Christ, how selfish can people be?

Farce
Guest
Farce
4 years ago

They dropped off the dogs at a no-kill shelter. But they made the children go off the cliff with them. Really nice, caring people.

Liz
Guest
Liz
4 years ago
Reply to  Farce

I thought they left the dogs at their home.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  Liz

Without going back to read, I’m quite sure they googled no-kill vets but didnt follow through – in the end the dogs were found in the car.

D
Guest
D
4 years ago
Reply to  Liz

If you read the article I posted above, by People Magazine, “they did internet searches for no kill shelters” but that in the end “the dogs were never found and believed to be in the vehicle with them.” But just the thought that they were going to give the dogs a chance but not the kids is disgusting

Farce
Guest
Farce
4 years ago
Reply to  D

I stand corrected. Thank you,D and thank you, Brian. They googled it…but then killed the dogs too. Heartless black souls. I’m upset that nobody saw this in the years prior and stepped up. People made complaints to child care services but then expected the agencies to do the right thing and the people who made the complaints just wished from afar? Gotta step up more than that, people! Stop always trusting the government agencies! That’s mostly what I get out of this.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Institutions are made up of people. The typical government employees are overworked, hemmed in by regulations and criticized for everything they do not matter what. Knowing that should be a reason to not create so many of them with the idea it absolves the public from the results of their own flawed judgement.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
4 years ago

I am curious to know if the adults were on any of the over-prescribed anti-anxiety or related meds.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Like pot?

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
4 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

#kym, what’s up with my attempt to post a comment and backing links?

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Ok. Dunno. I had exactly 3 links at first. I tried posting 5 different times with 1 to 3 links to no avail.

Edit: Tried 3 more times with 3, 2 and then 1 link. Nope.

Also, on the previous effort I got “You can no longer edit this post.” After trying to add a link after it posted.

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Ullr,

This exact problem has happened to me too.

I’ve explained the woes to Kym.

It seems to be that anything comment related has been affected since Kyms site being crashed.

Hope it can get worked out.

With that said Kym, you’ve likely outgrown the capabilities of WordPress, as good as it is for a while.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
4 years ago
Reply to  The Real Brian

The new setup must not like people who post too much…

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago

I’m going to say something that will irritate some people no end. We all share a part in this by our voracious interest in living vicariously other people’s lives. And using the same information system to punish people and government when they disturb that fantasy.

Conducting lives according to catering to public interest for fame, power and money is always going to encourage behavior that puts feed back from the internet before what is best for the humans involved. It is not that adopting children, for example as in this case, is wrong but making a public circus of it on the internet, is. It creates an incentive for some people to construct a damaging life for the children and themselves in order to feed the approval of total strangers. We need to stop using things like Facebook to entertain ourselves with other people’s lives. Both for their sakes and our own and our society.

However they died knowing why will not have meaning.
Guest
However they died knowing why will not have meaning.
4 years ago

What does it mean to others that the adults were labeled as Suicide and the children as Homicide? Seems like their reasoning serves no purpose. Conclusion…….they all died!!

JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
Guest
JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
4 years ago

Why did social services, in more than one state, allow two marginally employed white women to adopt six black children? Those children had families, why were they handed over to strangers? There is another story underlying the tragedy, and the media is doing it’s best to ignore it.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago

Natural families do horrible things to their own children too. That is probably how the children became available for adoption in the first place. Then finding families who are going to be perfect is impossible while finding any family to adopt older children is hard. Add to it the huge pressure of the currency media social infatuation of victim idealization and there are probably more regulations to make the choice for social agencies than freedom of the individual social worker to keep the child in foster care, which also has its serious negatives.

JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
Guest
JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

You’re engaging in moral relativism; Yes, biological families do dreadful things to one another, but this was not a bio family, it was an artificial construct, created by social services in several states. I was asking WHY this artificial family was constructed, when there were, by all accounts, numerous warning signs at all stages.

Thirdeye
Guest
Thirdeye
4 years ago

I believe the point was, if these children were from gnarly situations that had them in foster care and up for adoption, it might cause those who adopt them, especially those who cultivate and idealistic presentation for doing so, to be looked at by the responsible agencies, with less than due diligence.

sue
Guest
sue
4 years ago
Reply to  Thirdeye

beside the fact!

sue
Guest
sue
4 years ago
Reply to  Thirdeye

some people just like to find fault where the fault does not lay

Sonia Baur
Guest
Sonia Baur
4 years ago

This “event” occurred during a severe rain-storm in Mendocino county; during that storm another (more conventional family- father, mother and two children), entered a pull-out on 101. They were found days later, down-stream in the river. It is interesting how the media and the sheriffs and the public have reacted to these two very similar tragedies.

Sonia Baur
Guest
Sonia Baur
4 years ago
Reply to  Sonia Baur

“Dive Teams Sought for Missing People in the Hart Accident off Hwy 1 and the Missing Vehicle That Was Swallowed by the Eel River on Friday”
April 10, 2018 Kym Kemp

You can provide more references, Kym. Both families went missing. Both were storm related tragedies. The non-traditional family was subsequently examined and vilified.

sue
Guest
sue
4 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

your point is??

Lynn H
Guest
Lynn H
4 years ago
Reply to  Sonia Baur
sue
Guest
sue
4 years ago

sickest stuff I’ve ever read… may those women rot in HELL!!

Sonia Baur
Guest
Sonia Baur
4 years ago

Someone more cynical than I am has suggested to me that an insurance company may have have profited hugely by having these 8 deaths officially declared to be not accidental. One does wonder if there could have been some other reason to spend so much time and energy dissecting this tragedy and then obtaining that official ruling. Would morbid curiosity qualify?