Jennifer and Sarah Hart gave their six children as many as 19 doses each of Benadryl before driving their SUV over a steep cliff and into the Pacific Ocean in the middle of the night last year, a jury determined on Thursday.

The children and their mothers all died in the crash in California’s Mendocino County. The verdict was the first confirmation that the married couple had planned the crash that killed their entire family.

The case has generated much interest, in part because the two white mothers and their six adopted children had been portrayed on social media as a happy, multi-racial family. Devonte Hart, 15, who was black, gained national attention when he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest in Portland, Oregon.

This June, 2014, file photo shows some of the Hart family at the annual celebration of "The Goonies" movie in Astoria, Ore. Authorities in Northern California will hold a coroner's inquest to determine the manner of death for eight members of the family, whose SUV plunged off a coastal cliff last year. Mendocino County sheriff's Capt. Greg Van Patten says that during the two-day inquest starting Wednesday, April 3, 2019, a jury will hear from officials and experts, and decide whether the deaths of Jen and Sarah Hart and their six adopted children were accidental, a murder-suicide or undetermined. More

The family’s story began to unravel in March of last year, when they fled their Woodland, Washington, home after a visit from social workers investigating charges they were neglecting the children. A neighbor had filed a complaint with the state saying the children were being deprived of food as punishment.

New details about their last days emerged this week at a special coroner’s jury in Willits, California.

A coroner’s inquest is generally used in cases involving in-custody deaths or officer-involved shootings where public interest is high and the need for transparency critical, said Mendocino County sheriff’s Capt. Gregory L. Van Patten.

Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner Tom Allman said, “When six children and two adults die in one incident, we as a society need to know the facts of that case," The Willits News reported.

In this March 27, 2018, file photo provided by the California Highway Patrol a helicopter hovers over steep coastal cliffs near Mendocino, Calif., where a vehicle, visible at lower right, plunged about 100 feet off a cliff along Highway 1, killing all passengers. More

Authorities had indicated they believed the crash was deliberate but wanted a jury to make official findings.

Evidence included testimony that Sarah Hart had used her phone to search for information about drowning and hypothermia.

California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates testified that the deleted searches had been recovered from her phone, The Oregonian reported. They included these questions:

“Can 500 mgs of Benadryl kill a 120-pound woman?”

“Is death by drowning relatively painless?”

“How long does it take to die from hypothermia while drowning in a car?”

The SUV’s “black box” computer, recovered after the crash, showed that Jennifer Hart drove over the cliff at full throttle, The Oregonian reported.

A witness who was camping by their vehicle says he heard their car rev up around 3 a.m. on March 26, 2018.

Another crash: After Hart family drove off cliff in fatal crash, another car plunges into water in same region

The jury decided the six children, 12 to 19, died due to their mothers’ intentional act. They also included Markis, 19; Hannah, 16; Jeremiah, 14; Abigail, 14; and Ciera, 12.

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