The deaths of two mums who drugged their adopted children before driving off a cliff at 90mph has been ruled as murder-suicide.

Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, were facing child abuse accusations when they deliberately drove the family’s car off a 100ft seaside cliff in northern California’s coast

– killing six children aged 12 to 19.

A jury at the inquest made the unanimous verdict after hearing how one of the women had searched death by drowning online before the incident.

Sarah and Jennifer Harts killed their six adopted children by murder-suicide (Picture: AP)

Jennifer drove the car off a cliff (Picture: California Highway Patrol)

Social services visited the family’s home the day they died on March 26, over concerns that the children weren’t being fed.


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Neighbour Bruce DeKalb, who called Child Protective Services told KGW: ‘They were all small. The one girl, who was 12 looked like she was seven. Both her teeth were missing, front teeth.’



The bodies of three children, Markis, 19, Jeremiah, 14, and Abigail, 14, were found in the car, while Ciera, 12, was pulled from the sea weeks later.

The remains of Hannah, 16, was identified through DNA testing after a shoe was discovered on the coast.

The pair had been searching for suicide and death by drowning online (Picture: AP)

Jennifer and Sarah were facing child abuse accusations

Devonte Hart made headlines with this picture at a rally protesting the fatal shooting of (Picture: AP)

Police have not found the remains of Devonte, 15, who made headlines in 2014 when he was photographed hugging a white police officer at a rally to protest the fatal shooting of a black teen in Missouri.

Jennifer and Sarah bodies were found in the car, which landed upside down under the cliff.

Jennifer, who was driving the car, had alcohol in her blood over the legal limit.

The children were given around 19 doses each of Benadryl, to make them sleepy, jurors were told.

Pictures from the house showed empty picture frames (Picture: Police Handouts)

Police described is as ‘very sterile’ (Picture: Police Handout)

They fled the house in the middle of the night (Picture: Police Handout)

Social workers said there was almost no evidence children lived there (Picture: Police Handout)

Three days earlier, authorities opened an investigation of neglect – and after a visit to the house, social workers said there was almost no evidence children lived there.

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Police have shared images from inside the ‘very sterile’ house, which showed empty picture frames hanging on the walls.

Police recovered deleted searches from Sarah’s phone which showed she had been looking up suicide, drowning and information on Benadryl dosages and overdose methods on the internet.

They fled their Woodland, Washington home and drove to California in the middle of the night.

An inquest ruled that the pair deliberately drove off the cliff

One body has not yet been recovered (Picture: AP)

California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates said: ‘They both decided that this was going to be the end. That if they can’t have their kids that nobody was going to have those kids.’

Slates said Jennifer rarely drank alcohol but may have that night to ‘build up her courage’.

Sarah had 42 doses of Benadryl, which is used to treat allergies, in her system.

Sheriff Lt Shannon Barney said: ‘It is my belief that both Jennifer and Sarah succumbed to a lot of pressure.

The car plunged about 100ft off the cliff along Highway 1 (Picture: AP)

‘Just a lot of stuff going on in their lives, to the point where they made this conscious decision to end their lives this way and take their children’s lives.’

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Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota, when she claimed she had just spanked one of her children.

Oregon child welfare officials also investigated the couple in 2013, but closed the case without taking any action.

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