How to resolve AdBlock issue? In a telephone call with reporters on Sunday evening, acting Assistant Chief Greg Baarts with the California Highway Patrol’s Northern Division and Capt. Greg Van Patten of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office gave updates on the parallel investigations their agencies are conducting into the crash that killed the Hart family of Woodland, Wash.
“It’s a very daunting task to try to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Van Patten told reporters.
Despite the vast interest in the case, Van Patten explained, “We as investigators don’t want to rush to conclusions,” adding, “It’s going to take some time.”
Baarts called the crash “very tragic,” and told reporters, “We’ve been working on this 24/7 since the day that it happened.”
Because their initial conclusion is that the crash may have been an intentional act and not a traffic crash, Baarts said they are investigating it as a possible felony case.
They said they are still trying to find Devonte Hart, 15, Hannah Hart, 16, and Sierra Hart, 12.
Last Monday their siblings, Markis Hart, 19, Jeremiah Hart, 14, and Abigail Hart, 14, and their parents, Jennifer Jean Hart and Sarah Margaret Hart, both age 38, were confirmed dead following a solo-vehicle wreck, as Lake County News has reported.
The bodies of the five family members were found on the afternoon of March 26 after a passerby spotted their GMC SUV on its top on a large rock in the ocean. Authorities said the vehicle went off a 100-foot cliff at the edge of a dirt turnout along Highway 1 at County Road 430, just south of Juan Creek in Westport.
Van Patten said the Harts’ family and friends have indicated that it had been very rare for the family not to travel or to be together, so investigators are going on the assumption that the three missing children were with the rest of their siblings and parents at the time of the wreck.
While the couple had been belted in, their children were not. Van Patten said two of the children were found in the rocks on the shoreline and the third was in the water.
Van Patten said the three missing children also could have been in the water and searchers just weren’t able to locate them.
He said extensive searches inside the crash area and beyond have continued, including through the Easter holiday weekend.
The area where the crash occurred is difficult to search due to its strong and unpredictable ocean tides and the water’s very murky quality. Van Patten said conditions have been such that they haven’t been able to get divers in the water.
He said Mendocino County Sheriff’s Patrol Division staff, with aerial support from CHP fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, continued the search this weekend along the Mendocino Coast and down into the Sonoma County coast. Based on past drownings, Van Patten said it hasn’t been uncommon for bodies to be found counties away.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who had been at the scene, said last week that the firefighters who first repelled down to the vehicle believed that, by the time of its discovery, it had been there several hours because the engine was cold and water that had pooled in the upturned vehicle was warmer than the ocean, likely because the sun had warmed it.
Since then, authorities had asked people across the region to report seeing the family in the days before the wreck in an effort to track their whereabouts.
Baarts said they have not received any leads in response to that request, but on Sunday they renewed the call to anyone who might have seen the family on their trip from Washington – at restaurants, hotels, gas stations or other locations.
While they so far haven’t gotten leads, Baarts said investigators have talked to witnesses in Oregon and Washington, talked to family members, and have written search warrants for bank and cell phone records, which they’re waiting on now.
They said Sunday they still don’t know why the family was even in Mendocino County.
Both men also acknowledged the many agencies – both inside of California and from other western states – who are assisting as well as the outpouring of resources and assistance.
Vehicle investigation raises possibility of intentional crash
Some of the new information the men shared with reporters on Sunday arose from the CHP’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT, investigation so far.
That information has led them to believe that the crash may have been intentional, based on a lack of skid marks, and signs the vehicle accelerated and didn’t brake before going over the sheer cliff, Baarts said.
Baarts explained that the vehicle’s speedometer was “pinned” at 90 miles per hour. However, he said that doesn’t mean that’s how fast the vehicle actually was going, and investigators must look at other reasons that could have caused that speed to be recorded.
For example, he said the speedometer is electronically controlled, and an electronic charge could have caused it to record that 90-mile-per-hour speed, as could an unintentional manipulation during the vehicle’s recovery from the crash scene.
Many other things need to be completed before the speed can be concluded upon, he said.
The reason why investigators believe the wreck may have been intentional is that the vehicle’s computer shows that it came to a stop, most likely in the turnout, before it accelerated and continued to do so over a distance of about 70 feet before going off the cliff and into the ocean, according to Baarts.
He said the lack of physical evidence such as tire friction marks and no burrowing in the gravel pullout and information from the airbag control module suggested that the vehicle went straight off the edge, not off at an angle.
Both Baarts and Van Patten acknowledged during the call that a huge piece of the puzzle lies in the coroner’s investigation.
Regarding that investigation, Van Patten said that on Thursday and Friday autopsies were conducted on the bodies of the five family members located so far.
He said the initial finding and notations were made by a pathologist, and are unofficial findings at this time. Those will be coupled with toxicology testing to be done by an East Coast laboratory as is the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office protocol.
Van Patten said it typically takes four to six weeks to conclude the toxicology testing, and once received he said it will be used to compare against the autopsies’ physical findings.
“This is a very, very complex investigation,” he said, adding that there are numerous agencies and an overwhelming amount of information, and it will take weeks for them to have a clear understanding of whether or not there is a definitive answer as to what occurred.
In response to questions from reporters, Baarts said a search warrant was served at the family’s Washington home and, to the best of his knowledge, no suicide note was found there.
There have been reports in Oregon and Washington media outlets referring to a possible neglect case involving the family that’s being investigated by Child Protective Services.
Van Patten said the local investigators are aware of the case but didn’t have any information about the Washington neglect investigation.
As for the felony aspect of the case, Baarts said the information they have so far is leading them to believe that they could be looking at a variety of felony crimes, such as manslaughter, but said he wasn’t yet in a position to give a final conclusion.
He said the concerns about the felony crime, or crimes, are laid out in the probable cause declaration for a search warrant written for the case.
Baarts said investigators also have come across red flags in speaking with family and friends of the victims, but he declined to be specific.
Anyone who has information about the family is asked to call the CHP’s Ukiah Area Office at 707-467-4000 or the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office 24-hour tipline at 707-234-2100.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
