On March 26 , 2018 , police discovered the body of Jennifer and Sarah Hart and three of their six child at the root of a cliff in California ’s Mendocino County . The family ’s S.U.V. appeared to have been drive off the cliff on purpose and lay upside down , break upon the rocks . There was no sign of the couple ’s three other kids .
The back - story to this tragedy is discussed in the raw serial podcast " Broken Harts , " a co - production of HowStuffWorks.com andGlamour magazine . Glamour book editor Elisabeth Egan and features director Justine Harman are the co - legion of this eight - episode podcast .
" Glamour had this really amazing story about the Hart family at a time when other publications had shy off from it after the initial news of the catastrophe , " Jason Hoch , executive producer of the podcast , says via email . " Glamour spent eight months investigating the pillow slip and we felt our blend efforts to severalise this story across print , digital and audio would give the hearing something about this instance they had never before heard . "
What news reports suppose at the time was that the Harts , a clean hook up with sapphic brace , adopted two sets of inglorious , biologic siblings : Markis , Hannah , Devonte , Abigail , Jeremiah and Sierra . Social medium berth picture a happy , loving family . But their neighbour in Woodland , Washington , where they last lived , never watch the home - schooled kids outdoors .
The kid had touch out to teacher , neighbor and a societal worker over the age , complaining of being physically abused and even being denied nutrient . They also verbalize ofracist behaviorby their mother . But while Sarah Hart once pled guilty tomisdemeanor domestic assaultcharges when the family survive in Minnesota , by the sentence Washington state authorities became involve , the crime syndicate was deadened .
Jen Hart was the one drive the SUV on the night it fly off the cliff . She had been drinking . Sarah Hart and two of the children found dead at the scene had diphenhydramine ( an antihistamine that can stimulate sleepiness ) in their systems . There were no sideslip marks at the top of the 100 - ft ( 30 - cadence ) cliff , and the fomite ’s computer showed Jen Hart had stopped the vehicle 70 foot ( 21 meter ) from the drop , then accelerated .
" I ’ve talked to circle of masses about this show , and I get almost the same reaction every time I secern them about it , " says Hoch . " They retrieve when [ the clangor ] happened , how awful and tragical it was , but they do n’t really sleep with anything more about it . "
It ’s curious , for object lesson , that the very - private Harts enjoyed some very public moments , such as the time son Devonte Hart was photographed hugging a blanched police officer in riot gear during a Black Lives Matter protest following the black shot of an unarmed black adolescent by a white-hot police officer in Ferguson , Missouri . The pic went viral .
In April 2019 , a coroner ’s jury unanimously find that the Harts deliberately intended to kill themselves and their child . While Jen was driving the machine drunk , Sarah wassearching the internetfor various ways to die .
