A tragic “murder suicide” of a family of eight was committed on March 26th, 2019. The family consisted of a female couple and six adopted children ranging in age from 12 to 19. Before the suicide, investigators found that the couple had been accused of child abuse multiple times. Sarah Hart, one of the women, pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a “spanking” given to one of her children. Oregon child welfare officials also investigated the couple in 2013, but closed the case without taking any action. Slates said that Jennifer Hart, Sarah Hart’s partner, who rarely drank, had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit and may have been “drinking to build up her courage.” Sarah Hart and the children had high amounts of generic Benadryl in their systems, he said.

Days before the crash, officials in Washington state opened an investigation after one of the children, Devonte, rang the doorbell of their neighbors and said his parents were holding them back from eating as a punishment. “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,” says the couple. After the crash the investigators found the bodies of the two women still in the car and four of the children-Marks, 19; Hannah, 16; Jeremiah, 14; Abigail, 14-  who were found within or very close to the vehicle, which landed completely upside down on a Pacific Ocean beach. The other two children Devonte age 15 and Cierra, 12 weren’t found anywhere after the wreck, the remains of Cierra’s body were found weeks after the crash and Devonte’s body was know where to be found after the crash and they still yet to find his body.