It's been nearly one week since a passerby noticed the wreckage of a GMC SUV belonging to an Oregon family crushed at the base of a rocky seaside cliff in Mendocino County, California. The ensuing investigation surrounding the deaths of two local women and three of their adopted children, along with the whereabouts of another three who are still missing, has turned up just as many questions as answers.

Where are the three children?

Were they in the car at the time of the crash?

Why was the family, all eight of whom had moved to Woodland, Washington, in the last year, traveling in California?

Parents Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, were found dead in the 2003 GMC Yukon they'd taken on the trip. Jennifer Hart was in the driver's seat. Children Markis, 19; Abigail, 14; and Jeremiah, 14, were also discovered dead near the vehicle.

Devonte, 15; Hannah, 16; and Sierra, 12, are still missing. Authorities in Mendocino and Clark counties did not provide updates Saturday.

But the story has piqued interest across the country as Devonte was the focus of a 2014 viral photo taken during a series of demonstrations in Portland following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Devonte Hart, then 12, was photographed tearily hugging Portland police Sgt. Bret Barnum on Nov. 25 of that year. The boy was rarely seen during public events without a small sign around his neck that read, "Free hugs."

The image spread as the Black Lives Matter movement gained traction, its slogan becoming a rallying cry against police brutality in protests across the country.

The family became a national focal point in the months since the photo was published. The photo first appeared on OregonLive before spreading to NBC News, Time magazine and eventually going global.

Friends have told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the attention was not always positive. The family reported receiving racist emails and death threats and were criticized for having same-sex parents.

Jen and Sarah Hart were white. Their six adopted children were black.

The Harts were known as a creative force and source of inspiration to those who knew them.

"The impact they had on everyone around them was truly remarkable and it was like nothing I've ever seen in my life," Rich Waryan, who knew the Harts when they lived in Minnesota, said.

Local musician Max Ribner said the women were amazing parents.

"They'd nursed those six kids back to life," he said. "These children were coming from some of the roughest childhoods you could imagine."

New Zealand-based news outlet Paper Trail in 2014 reported that by the age of 4, Devonte had been abused, neglected and shot at, among other traumas.

Barnum, the Portland police officer seen hugging Devonte in the 2014 viral photo, released a statement late Saturday to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

"As you can imagine, the tragic news about Devonte and his family deeply saddens me," Barnum wrote. "The short interaction with Devonte in November 2014 was certainly one of those moments in my career which reinforced my love, passion, and duty in providing compassion and service to my community."

Barnum wrote that he isn't comfortable talking about the case while the investigation is ongoing.

The idyllic picture of the family portrayed in Facebook posts and through the memories of friends stands in stark contrast to court and police records. In November 2010, police investigated the family when Abigail Hart, then 6, told a teacher in Minnesota that Jen Hart hit her with a closed fist, plunged her head in a cold bath and hit her again, court records show.

Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to abusing Abigail and was sentenced to a year of probation for misdemeanor domestic assault, court records show.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services in 2018 was investigating the family as the children were "identified as potential victims of alleged abuse or neglect."

Those allegations stem from interactions neighbors in Woodland, Bruce and Dana DeKalb, say they had with the Hart siblings three months after the family moved in next door. The couple, who for 22 years have lived two miles from Interstate 5 on a winding, wooded road in remote Clark County, said they awoke at 1:30 a.m. one night to find Hannah Hart on their doorstep.

The girl had apparently tried to crawl through the blackberry bushes on the DeKalbs' property to get to another house, the couple told reporters Wednesday. She gave up when she came across a fence and ended up pounding on their front door. Bruce DeKalb answered.

The Woodland resident thought the girl was 7 or 8 because she was missing her two front teeth, he told reporters. Bruce DeKalb was stunned to find out she was nearly a teenager.

The DeKalbs told The Washington Post that Hannah Hart dashed inside the house and made her way upstairs after Bruce opened the door. She woke up Dana DeKalb, and the Hart family soon came to look for the girl.

Hannah Hart was crouching between the DeKalbs' bed and a dresser, the Post reports. The next day, the Harts introduced the children to their neighbors and offered the couple a letter of apology.

Jen and Sarah Hart told Bruce DeKalb that Hannah's teeth were missing because she didn't want them fixed, the couple told reporters Wednesday.

The Oregonian/OregonLive's stories of the Hart family crash:

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.com