The lesbian mothers who died on Monday along with at least three of their six adopted children after plunging 100ft over a coastal cliff in California had been reported to Child Protective Services days earlier for allegedly starving their kids.

On Friday, neighbors of Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 39, called CPS to report that their son Devonte had come to their home asking for food every day for a week.

They said Devonte - who made national headlines when he was pictured hugging a police officer during a 2014 protest - asked them to leave food out in a box for him and said his mothers were 'punishing' him by not feeding him.

In 2017, another of the children came to their home at 1.30am asking for their 'protection' and claiming the women did not treat her well.

They also said one of the daughters who was 12 looked about seven and had no front teeth.

Days before their bodies were found at the bottom of a cliff in California, neighbors called CPS in Washington to report Jennifer and Sarah Hart (above) for not feeding their six adopted kids. On Friday, their 15-year-old son Devonte (seen center, right) went to a neighbor's house begging for food. They fled hours later after refusing to open the door for a CPS worker

This is an aerial view of the cliff the family plunged over in their car. It is in Mendocino, California, 600 miles away from their home in Washington. To reach the cliff's edge at a lookout point where police were basing their search, the family would have had to have turned off Pacific Highway and traversed 75ft of dirt road. The car was found slightly southbound, not directly beneath the cliff. There were no skid or brakemarks on the highway either to suggest that they suddenly turned off the road

These are the tracks left by the car when it went over the edge of the cliff. They remained at the scene on Wednesday

Video courtesy KRON4

On Friday, a CPS worker arrived at the home and knocked on the door, according to the neighbors Bruce and Dana DeKalb, but the Harts never answered.

Instead, they packed up in a hurry and fled with all six kids in their 2003 GMC Sierra truck, they said.

'The next morning when we saw that the vehicle was gone, and then Sunday morning when it still wasn’t there, we figured something was off because they never go anywhere.

'They go to the store and back but.. we figured that they saw the (CPS) business card and loaded up the kids as quick as they could and took off, ' Mr. DeKalb told KGW on Thursday.

On Monday, their bodies were found at the bottom of a cliff in Westport, California, off Highway 1 along with the bodies of three of their children, Markis, 19; Jeremiah 14; and Abigail, 14.

Hannah, 16; Devonte, 15; and Sierra, 12, have not been found.

It is not clear yet if they drove over the cliff purposefully or by accident but police said no brake marks were found at the scene.

To reach the cliff edge at the lookout, the women would have had to have driven off the Pacific Highway and traversed 75ft of rugged dirt road.

It is not known yet if they came to a stop at the edge before falling over.

If traveling northbound, the family would have had to have turned left here to reach the cliff

A southbound view of the same cliff shows how they would have had to deliberately turn off towards it. Police found no brake or skid marks at the scene which would suggest they tried to stop the car from going over the edge

On Monday, a passerby spotted their car at the bottom of the cliff. The two mothers' bodies were inside along with three of the children but three other kids have not yet been found

A zoomed out image shows where the car was found. It was between two cliffs

Sarah (right) and Jennifer (left), both 39. In 2011, Sarah pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor domestic assault charge in Minnesota. As part of the plea deal, another charge of malicious punishment of a child was dismissed

Devonte, 15, made headlines in 2014 in this picture where he is seen hugging a police officer at a protest in Portland over the cop shooting of a black man. The family moved to Washington in 2017. He is the child who asked neighbors for food last week and told them that his moms were 'punishing' him

Neighbors Bruce and Dana DeKalb said Devonte asked them to leave him food in a box near the fence surrounding their home. They called CPS last week after he came to them hungry several days in a row. The couple also described an incident last year when one of the children showed up at their home at 1.30am asking for 'protection' and saying: 'Don't make me go back'. They described another girl, who is 12, as having the appearance of a 7-year-old

'I can tell you it was a very confusing scene because there were no skid marks, there were no brake marks, there was no indication of why this vehicle traversed approximately over 75ft of a dirt pull out and went into the pacific ocean,' Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said on Wednesday.

'We have no reason to believe, we have no evidence, that this was an intentional act. Certainly people are wondering what caused this.

'If this was an intentional act, I truly believe we are going to come to that conclusion.

'If we do, that information will be released to the public,' he added.

It was also revealed this week on Wednesday that in 2011, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota.

Her plea led to the dismissal of a charge of malicious punishment of a child, online court records say.

Another neighbor who lived near the family in Oregon years ago said the children mostly stayed inside and were not allowed to eat sugar.

Flowers were left in jars at the scene on Wednesday, two days after the car was found

Police continued to search the scene on Wednesday for the three missing children

Devonte Hart, pictured above, is one of the three Hart children still missing after the crash. He is pictured above at a Bernie Sanders rally in Portland in 2016

The Harts, pictured with four of their children in 2014, were married. Sarah Hart (left) had previously been convicted in Minnesota of domestic assault back in 2011

Bill Groener, 67, was a next-door neighbor of the Harts when they lived in West Linn, Oregon, and said the kids stayed indoors most of the time.

He said the family grew their own vegetables, had animals and went on camping trips but that he never worried about their wellbeing.

'Something just didn't seem right. They were very isolated in the home,' he said, adding he felt 'guilty he never called (child) services'.

The revelations by officials in Woodland, Washington, suggest the family was not the happy, blended unit police painted them as when their bodies were found.

In family photographs, they are the picture of happiness.

Police said the family of eight were driving a five-seater 2003 GMC truck at the time (file photo)

Police do not know yet if the family was driving north or southbound when they turned on to the cliff edge.

Their vehicle was spotted in the water by a passerby on Monday. No one saw it go over the edge, according to police.

'I don't know that they were parked and continued to roll. I don't know if it rolled over the edge, if it launched over the edge.

'We will not know until we get all our tests and photographs back,' said a Highway Patrol officer on Wednesday.

By the time they were found, police say they had been in the water for several hours.

In Woodland, Washington, the family lived in a $400,000 home which they bought in 2017.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward. They are asking for anyone who may have seen them in a restaurant or hotel in the days beforehand to contact them.

They are also still considering the three children who were not found as missing people and say in the best case scenario, they were not in the vehicle at the time of the crash. It is not clear what either woman did for a living.

Video courtesy KOIN

