Body Found Off California Coast May Be Teenager From SUV Plunge

A body found floating near the California coast Friday may belong to one of the children missing after a family’s SUV plummeted from a cliff late last month, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities, who said last week that the crash may have been intentional, had already recovered the bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart and three of their six adopted children, but the whereabouts of the remaining three teenagers were unknown.

The body recovered Friday, identified as African-American and female, was found near the crash site and may belong to one of two missing girls — Hannah, 16, or Sierra, 15 — the Sheriff’s Office said. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday.

“The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the possibility that the body may be one of the two missing Hart girls but identification will most likely be done through DNA analysis, a process that can take several weeks,” the office said.

The floating body was discovered by a couple who had been vacationing on the coast, according to the statement. It was pulled to shore by a third bystander.

While ocean conditions and stormy weather had frustrated search and recovery efforts, the resulting churn of water near the coast may actually have helped to reveal the body.

“It is not uncommon after a significant storm, such as the one passing through the north state currently, to bring items to the surface or wash onto the beach,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

In addition to the two girls, Devonte, a 15-year-old boy, is also missing. The three children found dead at the scene were: Markis, 19; Jeremiah, 14; and Abigail, 14.

Days earlier, child welfare workers tried to reach the Harts after reports of alleged abuse or neglect at their home in Woodland, Washington.

In 2008, Hannah, then 6 years old, told authorities in Minnesota that Jennifer Hart had beaten her with a belt, according to a Sunday report in The Oregonian. And in a 2011 court filing, Sarah Hart admitted to spanking one of the children, adding that marks on the child’s stomach were most likely caused by being bent over the edge of a bathtub while being spanked.

Despite those and other reports stretching back about a decade, the couple evaded serious consequences, apparently benefiting from a lack of communication among authorities across states, according to The Oregonian.

Last week, authorities in California said that the wreck may have been intentional, citing the fact that the vehicle had stopped on a dirt pullout before accelerating 70 feet to the cliff’s edge.

“It was pure acceleration from the last brake application until it hit the bottom of the cliff,” Greg Baarts, acting assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol’s northern division, told reporters at the time.

The Hart family was first thrust into the spotlight in 2014, thanks to a widely shared photograph of Devonte, who is black, tearfully hugging a white police officer at a protest against police violence.