Witness Heard 'Someone Hollering for Help' Near Hart Family Crash Site: Police
A man who was camping near the site of the Hart family crash told investigators he thought he heard someone crying for help on the night they died.
“He felt like he heard someone hollering for help,” California Highway Patrol Officer Jay Slates testified Thursday during the Mendocino County coroner’s inquest presented by the Sheriff’s Office.
The witness told investigators he and his wife were camping near the crash site on March 25, the same day Jennifer Hart drove her family’s SUV, with her wife Sarah and their six adopted children inside, off a 100-foot cliff in Northern California.
On that day, the man saw a vehicle similar to the family’s SUV park near their campsite. Hours later, he woke up to the sound of a car engine revving and tires going through gravel.
“The last thing he heard was a vehicle bottoming out,” Slates said.
RELATED: Where is Devonte Hart? Boy in Viral Photo Was in Fatal Cliff Crash, But Body Remains Missing
The man exited his camper to see what had happened but it was too dark to see anything, he told investigators.
When he heard possible cries for help, he thought it could just be wildlife, Slate said.
It wasn’t until he and his wife heard the news that they contacted law enforcement.
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The inquest is being presented more than a year after the crash, which killed Jennifer, Sarah and their six children.
Authorities said they hoped the inquest would bring a close to the high-profile case, which sparked national headlines when authorities announced the fatal car crash was a crime — not an accident. The family’s picture-perfect online image also drew debate, as disturbing details leaked out about the realities the children had experienced at home.
On Wednesday, investigators testified that the wreckage of Hart’s SUV was pulled up from the bottom of the cliff and Jennifer’s body slipped out of the crushed vehicle and fell.
The impact disfigured Jennifer’s face to the point that authorities were unable to identify her, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Julian testified, noting that Sarah was also unrecognizable.
“Death was obvious for all of them,” Julian said about Jennifer, Sarah and three of their six adopted children, Markis, Jeremiah and Abigail, who were found in the car with them. “They were cold — rigor mortis.”
RELATED: Friend Insists Family-of-8 Wouldn’t Drive Off Cliff on Purpose Despite Police Suggest Otherwise
The remains of two of the other children, aged 12 to 19, were found later, and the remains of one child, 15-year-old Devonte Hart, have still not been recovered, though he has been declared legally dead, Mendocino Sheriff-Coroner Tom Allman told PEOPLE.
The jury will deliberate Thursday and decide on each of the family members’ cause of death.
In California, there are four manners of death: natural causes, accident, suicide and at the hands of another.
