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♪ This is the place for all my relations
♪ Bring celebration through meditation
♪ Giving thanks for all of creation
♪ We are so provided for
♪ We are so provided for ♪
JENNIFER: They were a flock, if you would,
'cause there are so many of them.
They were giggling and laughing
and I remember commenting to Amanda, like,
"Wow, those kids are so beautiful."
You know, like, "Who are their parents?"
Yeah, their smiles were just infectious,
you know, just like, lit up the entire room.
So without even knowing their names,
you just wanted to meet them.
CHRISTOPHER: Couldn't miss them.
Just because it was an entourage, you know.
And they would always roll together as an entourage.
NUSHEEN: You have no idea what those two women went through.
You don't live their life and I think
and I think a lot of people are having trouble
because they were made of so much light,
also accepting the fact that there was a lot of turmoil
in the family, and a lot of suffering
and a lot of tragedy that they had to get over.
Most of the social interactions that these two women had
was outside people who were, you know, online, or
ways that you can perfectly curate a temporary image
of perfection.
Love you.
I think Jen took on more responsibilities
then, you know, found herself in over her head
probably pretty quickly.
Didn't really anticipate what she signed up for.
I love you.
WOMAN: Wipe that tear. I don't like to see that.
[CAR HONKING]
REPORTER 1: Still searching for the missing kids.
MAN 1: Amid allegations of child abuse or neglect.
MAN 2: Cellphone pings and surveillance pictures
giving us a better idea of what happened to the family.
MAN Raise your right hand, please.
Do you affirm you'll tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
MAN 4: Yes, I do.
REPORTER: A complicated legacy that remains a mystery.
MAN 5: All we know is that the vehicle ended up
at the bottom of a 100 foot cliff,
and that's what we're looking for now,
to see if we could figure out what happened.
They were all just a big hug.
And every memory I have of them,
is connected and punctuated by the same moment,
of just a flood of them arriving
and us all hugging each other in one big ball.
Every time.
And no pretense.
No dishonesty. Just...
totally present and completely full of, like this
effervescent, intoxicating love.
That was just undeniable.
All of us thought Devonte was gonna be the president.
You know what I mean? Markis, God bless him,
you know, I mean, Markis never talked.
I knew Markis for four years, and he had
his head in the books all the time.
The most excited I ever saw him was when that
bird landed on the podium at the Bernie Sanders thing.
He was, like, clapping and he was, like, smiling
and that was, that was Markis.
Devonte, he reached out, but he was also, like,
the most sensitive of the group.
Hello, Nusheen, how are you doing today?
I missed you. Thank you for that birthday mask,
I loved it so much.
[WOMAN LAUGHING]
Making some bean wraps today for my siblings.
To me, it seemed like,
these children were so
joyful and well adjusted,
and engaging, I mean,
they were all different.
And Markis and Hannah were much quieter,
they were much, much more observers,
and peripheral, and the part of me that prefers the edges
related to them in that way.
And then Devonte and Jeremiah,
and Sierra were always right up in there.
You know, engaging with everybody.
JEN: Go, Abby, go.
She's washing her hair, I think.
[ALL LAUGHING]
Got it up my nose.
JENNIFEDevonte was definitely the most outgoing and charismatic.
And you could tell that within him
that he's a very old soul.
That, as we got to know the rest of the family,
I really feel like Jeremiah and Abby,
would jump out of their shells
and they'd just be these characters...
[CHILDREN GIGGLING]
I think that, because their brother
was so outgoing, that it helped them
to feel more comfortable in their own skin.
I first met Jen in 2015.
At that time, I was the leader of the game
that we were playing,
but it ended up being almost an everyday interaction.
Jen was more of an inspiration, I think,
on multiple levels for a lot of us,
being active politically
for the rights of Black Lives Matter.
Huge.
She was a huge person in that, actually.
I can't put into words.
But she motivated me to actually speak out
and use my voice more.
She was very honest,
she would straight up tell you a lot, like,
"Oh, my God, your children are perfect.
"Everything is wonderful."
And she was, like, "No, they're still kids,
"they're still kids, like, there's still stuff that happens,
"that, like, you know, you gotta deal with.
"But, yeah, I'm really lucky.
"Because these kids are really amazing.
"And I am very, very blessed to have them in my life."
ZIPPORAH: So Sarah was often quieter,
kind of, like, Markis and Hannah were,
And Jen was always, like, right there, as well.
Right in the middle of things.
- SARAH: What? - You can see a snake for real?
Not a real one, honey. Look at, right here.
BOY: I got snake there.
What's this?
- You guys like it here, don't you? - Yeah.
Jen was, you know, just a very friendly person,
good smile, good laugh,
seemed like a reasonable play person to me.
She seemed frustrated with the problems of the world.
Sarah was very quiet, definitely seemed a little more shy,
I didn't really...
I feel like I only really talked to Sarah once, you know, at a party.
Like, all the other time, Sarah was, like, "Hi." "Bye." Kind of like that.
I started working with Sarah at Kohl's
in Beaverton, in 2015.
She was always backed by kids and home.
She had an earthy flow vibe to her.
NUSHEEN: Sarah's a mystery to me.
She was, like, this very quiet, very go with the flow,
just like solider, right?
Constantly exhausted from working so hard.
Gets home, calm, even keeled.
[SINGING]
There was that moment at Beloved festival,
you see Xavier, gestured, like,
"Come, give me a hug."
[SINGING]
[PEOPLE CHEERING]
As Xavier was hugging Devonte,
and still singing, all of us saw
he became very overcome with emotion,
which would happen a lot.
[PEOPLE LAUGHING]
It was a very common occurrence
that people would start crying,
and he turned, and,
with his sobbing face, he ran straight into Jen's arms.
And when I saw that, I just started bawling.
Because what I saw so clearly there, was that
he loved her, and she loved him.
What I saw there, and again,
I'm looking through my confirmation bias,
I saw pure love.
OFFICER: You are in the street blocking the roadway.
You're unlawfully assembled.
Everybody want me to be calm.
Do you know how many bullets hit my son?
Burn this bitch down! Burn this bitch down!
Burn down!
We are Darren Wilson.
OFFICER: You need to disperse immediately.
Or you will be subject to arrest. Do it now.
What the world needs now
might just be what we see in this photo,
after days of disturbing media imagery.
MAN: That moment in time, the picture that is out
floating around on the Internet,
and throughout the world.
I think that just captured the moment.
So apropos of what not only the community is asking for,
what the nation is asking for,
but what the world is asking for right now.
I saw it online like most people did,
I remember, it very specifically,
because Kim Kardashian
came out with that ridiculous,
uh, paste article of her butt, like, popping something
up in the air, and they were, like, Kim Kardashian broke the Internet,
- and then it was, Devonte Hart... - BOTH: Saved the Internet.
In the same day because, like, it shut down
the Internet of her butt, and then it was Devonte hugging,
you know, someone that brought everyone back up.
I remember people posting, and things, just saying
resharing and resharing
of, "Oh, my God, this child is healing me in a way.
"I didn't ever think that I could feel this type of hope,
"in a picture like this."
If you've ever received a hug from Devonte,
you know, you knew that he meant it.
He hugged you with the entirety of himself.
He wasn't the type of person that just, like, one of those little arm pats.
It was, he... I remember when we first had our exchange of a hug,
he said, "Oh, you're a good hugger."
- Yeah. - "You hug heart to heart.
"You know that that's what it's about.
"It's about our hearts."
He's like, "We've to hold, we've to give a second,
"and you squeeze, so people know that you really mean it."
And at the time, I was "Wow.
"My mom taught me that. Who taught you that?"
And he's like, "My mom."
I was like, "It's a good mom."
He's like, "Yeah, she's okay.
It felt like, to me, like, he really did,
you know, in his own young way,
wanna make the world a better place.
In that, he was initiating that.
That photo going viral is an example
of social media success in some ways.
It felt like a real story,
a real human moment
being captured that's not, um, negative
and it's really beautiful.
Devonte was at that time,
telling us about his birthday coming up
and how one of his favorite things to do
was to raise money for different organizations,
that had to do with the Earth and protecting her.
- And, uh... - AMANDA: That's what I think I saw the first Free Hugs.
The sign, he was wearing
the Free Hugs sign at that benefit.
And we're like, "What's up with the hugs?"
No, down at the square.
Yeah, that's what I mean, at the square benefit.
And then, that's when he explained,
"Every year, I raise, like, try to raise funds for my favorite charity
by giving hugs and people, you know, donate to that.
I was struck when I went back and looked at
how much interesting Facebook posts about her family
and how often she was doing that.
That would give you a lack of privacy,
you know, to be posting that much stuff about yourself.
I don't think she did it intentionally
but it's definitely cultivating seeds to have a viral video
happen for you, or a viral photo.
That kind of behavior. Putting yourself out there that much.
Now that I see tons of posts about the kids,
interesting snippets where it's, kind of, personal.
I never understood that dichotomy of it.
The... What she would tell me about how much she didn't want to be in limelight,
and then how much the posting and those type of things
caused them to be in the limelight.
I think this is an example of how
that extremist and rapid
environment of sharing information
blows over and doesn't look back to check back in on
parts of the story that, um, don't, maybe, necessarily fit a narrative,
that is, that could go viral,
that are more complex, more nuanced, and, like,
that's where our humanity is.
The deepest truths about us are
not totally black and white.
There's a gradient,
all the shade exists there
and, like, that is so important
to be able to have a venue for discussing that,
and the mainstream media and social media,
are moving at such a pace,
that we don't even discuss
in a context where our humanity can be understood.
NUSHEEN: I remember Jen telling me she felt like she had PTSD,
as a result of that photo coming out.
Someone taking something so beautiful,
and running with it and creating so much hate in diversity.
She felt like...
they would never...
escape people looking in from the outside,
and...
being suspicious and judging them.
And honestly, the more people did that,
the more they closed off.
I started to notice, like, the Sarah that I thought I knew,
she started to hide more.
She started to, I guess, withdraw herself.
I think they probably didn't know how bad
the reaction was gonna be.
I think they probably just...
God, I don't know.
After the picture of Devonte went viral,
and, you know, the moms, or Jen, perceived herself to be the target for harassment,
at least according to one of her friends,
that seems to be one of the theories about she fell
into a deep depression.
It had to do with that photo going viral
and all the perceived harassment.
From my observation, from
things Jen told me personally,
and shared privately, on Facebook,
that,
the public response to the hug photo,
was the snare that began the unraveling.
WOMAN: My name is Tammy Sheurich,
I'm the mother of Markis, Hannah and Abigail.
When they took my children away,
I went through a very deep and dark depression,
I'd sat myself in the house,
I didn't know what was happening, I didn't understand.
I just started comin' out of the house,
when I was arrested.
My rights weren't terminated by Child Services.
I voluntarily relinquished my rights.
I was trying to make the most unselfish decision
for my children.
WOMAN: My name is Shonda Jones,
I'm an attorney here in Houston, Texas,
I've practiced for over 22 years.
I practice primarily in the are of family law.
I really don't know, honestly,
about the specifics of Sherry and Mr. Davis' relationship.
Um, I do believe Mr. Davis really truly loved those kids.
But CPS, from my recollection,
didn't think that he was eligible.
My guess is that Mom,
one can look at it, and say she made the choice.
You know, she chose the drugs over the children.
Um, and I don't mean to say that in a way to try to blame her,
because I don't know anything about Sherry's past.
So when I was young, I was in a placement,
You know, if I'd done good I'd have been with my brothers.
You know, when I was young, I used to always fight.
You know, get into stuff, get in trouble.
So I didn't have the time to,
you know, regroup with them,
By the time I calmed down, they got adopted.
I used to always ask, like, "I wanna see my brothers.
"Can I see my brothers?"
And they'd be like, "No, you're a bad influence."
At the stage that I came into the case,
that's when Sherry Hurd and Clarence Celestine's
rights were being terminated.
And I think, like I said, that was the damage control.
They were panicking, and then that's when they thought
that Celestine would be the most suitable candidate
to be the caretaker for the children.
I thought that maybe I would see the kids again
and I just wanted to hold on to let them know
there was somebody who fought for you.
Because once the rights are terminated,
they don't know anything about why they wound up
where they were, they just know we're here.
And they think that no one cared about them,
so I wanted them to know, you had an aunt who fought for you.
I felt that it was an injustice
when the children were abruptly removed
from Miss Celestine without having an opportunity
to be brought into court,
to have a hearing,
to some due process.
The reason for removing the children from Celestine I think was very cold,
I think it was very callous
and I think it was a benign reason.
I think it was something that could've been handled
in a much more, in my opinion, humane manner.
I think they could've brought her into court,
they could've issued her a warning,
and make her aware of the seriousness
of letting the mom see the children.
Once CPS takes the position,
and their position is that the rights are going to be terminated
that's exactly what's going to happen.
The courts normally, honestly, rubber stamp whatever CPS says.
I mean, they just do.
Really...
I want to say it's my fault
but then again, it's not.
I had no control over it.
When I had control over it,
I feel like it was kinda my fault.
[NATHANIEL SPEAKING]
[KIDS CHATTER]
DANA: They moved in, I want to say May 17th, 2017.
I knew the house had sold
and I had looked up that it had closed
and they moved in shortly thereafter.
We've had kids live next door before.
You hear them, you see them,
they speak to you, you know, and...
So this was completely abnormal
to have six kids that we never saw,
heard, or spoke to.
Sarah didn't really tell us much about her family.
I don't know anyone that worked with us
that knew more than she's married to Jen
and she has six kids. I mean, she didn't really
tell much about her family.
To me, that was a little weird 'cause
I brag about my son 24/7, you know.
And besides knowing that she has six kids,
we didn't really know much about her.
One of the impressions I got when you sent me the photos,
you know, of their Facebook feeds, of Jen and Sara.
Is like how perfect they are.
And the word perfectly curated comes up a lot.
And what that implies is,
curation implies an act of image manipulation essentially.
So they were, they lived the kinds of lives
that they can project this perfect image of themselves
because most of their quote-unquote "friends" were either through Facebook
or they were, kind of this temporary encounters at festivals
where they could, on a temporary basis
project everything positive they want to project about them.
The pictures of them playing in the snow
those kids were not outside playing in the snow
but yet there is this picture of them, you know,
and it's so perfectly propped
with Devonte and I think, it was Jeremiah
and they're sitting out in the snow
and they have a mug in their hand
and they're probably, you know, drinking hot chocolate.
Or where they're on the side of a lake
and they are turning around and blowing kisses to mom.
I am Investigator Jake Slates,
S-L-A-T-E-S.
I am currently employed by the California Highway Patrol
and I've been employed with them for approximately ten years now.
Um, my current position is
I'm in our investigative services unit.
At one point, there was a call
from the elementary school,
of one of the children being abused.
That would've been Abigail.
CPS department ended up doing an investigation in to that report.
They observed that the child had extensive
injuries to her body.
At that point, there were some indications
that the kids were not eating properly.
When both Sara and Jennifer were questioned about the incident,
um, Abigail named Jennifer
as the one that was the abusive parent,
but when questioned by authorities,
Sarah was the one that took the blame.
We'd kind of established at this point
that there seemed to be a pattern that was going on
and when Clerk County told me that there was another CPS report
that had been opened up
into allegations of child misconduct,
that indicated to us
that this is potentially another situation to that effect.
MAN: Yeah, there are some kids that I feel are being highly abused.
DISPATCHER: Where at? MAN: I can't wait till Monday...
In Woodland, Washington.
DISPATCHER: What's the address?
MAN: Okay, I'm gonna give you the address of my daughter's house
- 'cause it's right next door. - DISPATCHER: Okay, and what's going on there?
The doorbell rang, the dog went crazy
and Hannah just came barging in the door.
She was just covered in blackberry weeds
and grass, you know, just...
you could tell she's been running through the weeds.
MAN: The other night, a little girl jumped out of the second story window
on the roof and then down onto the ground.
And ran to my daughter. This is like, 2:00 in the morning,
begging them to help her, to help her.
And she just kinda barged her way in
and was pleading to Bruce to help her
and to please protect her, "save her" type of thing.
And so, he starts yelling my name
for me to come down, 'cause he didn't know what to do.
DISPATCHER: Did the girl ever say why she was scared?
MAN: No, she... She was crying
and when they came looking for her,
she was begging my daughter
not to let them know she was there.
And then eventually my son in law let them know.
So I got up and...
got her to calm down a little bit and talk
and she started telling us how they were, you know,
abusing her, they were racist.
In the meantime, her moms and siblings
were all out in the property
yelling her name and had flashlights looking for her.
And so Bruce went and said, "She's here",
then they came to the door
and they just kinda barged in the house
and found her in my bedroom.
And she had huddled down between my bed and dresser
and was, you know, just scared.
I mean, I... so when the moms approached her,
I could see her just like, freaking out
so I told them, "Whoa, back up.
You need to give her some space, you're freaking me out now".
And so, Jennifer took Sarah by the shoulder
and pulled her back and said,
"You go back with the other kids, I'll deal with this".
They left, and she stood right there in the entry
and she kind of crouched down to Hannah's size
and was telling her, you know,
you just need to tell these people you're sorry...
"Yes, ma'am."
and you need to explain to them you know,
that you've just been really sad, it's been a tough week.
"Yes, ma'am."
Just total
you know, robot.
MAN: And then she had all four of the kids come back later
and to say everything was okay
and they're all standing at attention
like they were just scared to death.
The next morning,
6:30 in the morning, my doorbell's ringing.
"Dear Dana Bruce,
I stopped this morning because I feel awful about disturbing your peace
and worrying you in the middle of the night.
I was very frustrated with my brother
and didn't handle things very maturely
and I am sorry for telling lies to get attention.
I am working on being more honest
and finding better ways to communicate my frustrations.
I've been pretty sad about two of our cats dying recently.
So I was just very sad and frustrated last night.
Thank you for being kind, Hannah."
MAN: Since she's told me about it, I just can't live with it.
I am very concerned for these kids
I just can't let this go any longer,
those kids, I think are in very serious danger.
DANThe first time he came was March 15th,
he showed up late evening,
and Bruce was actually outside, it was like at 9 o clock at night,
and he caught him running down the driveway,
and he yelled out to him, you know, "What's going on?"
So he came back and asked for tortillas.
So the next morning at 9am,
he's asking me for bread
and I said, well, I don't eat bread
but I have tortillas.
And he goes, "Yeah, okay."
So I went out to the garage and I gave him a huge Costco pack of them.
And then he left.
Well then he came back,
you know, and each day it was, you know,
it went from once a day, twice a day,
three times a day, as late as 11 o clock at night
he was showing up and he started asking for more staples,
like peanut butter and,
um, at one point he literally said,
I need non-perishables.
I need that can't be, you know, that aren't frozen
or don't need refrigeration,
like uncured meats
and tortillas and peanut butter,
and I need six of them.
So I am thinking, "Oh, my God."
You know, "It's six kids..."
and so I... I wanted to earn his trust,
so then I started asking him, "What's going on?"
You know, "You're starting to scare me, this is not normal."
and he said, "Well...
we're teenagers and we do bad things sometimes"
and he kinda shrugged his shoulders
and he laughed and he said,
"You know, so we get punished",
and I'm like, "No, what do you mean punished?"
And then he goes, she used to not feed us a meal
but now it's going into days at a time.
And I'm like, there's nothing a kid can do wrong enough to not be fed.
And so, he's like, "Don't tell Mom, don't tell Mom."
You know, that's how he would leave it every time.
So I said, "Okay, well, who's Mom? You have two moms.
Who are we talking about?
And he said, "No, it's Mom and Sarah".
And then he,
as the week went on, he told us that
they were abusing him as well as not feeding them,
and that Sarah didn't, used to go along with it,
but she was tolerating it now.
It is highly controlling to an unusual degree
to withhold food from your children on a regular basis
to sculpt their behaviors,
you know, Where The Wild Things Are, where Max doesn't get his supper
because he was being, causing a ruckus.
You know, where you don't give a kid dinner for a few hours
but to actually withhold food to the point where they seem like
they would be in medical definitions of being malnourished,
that's obviously very extreme.
So the next morning, he came over at like 9:00 in the morning.
[SNIFFLES] And he said, "Have you been to the store yet?"
And I said, you know, "No, not yet."
And he goes, "I need you to go right away."
And I said, "Okay."
And I told him I was calling CPS,
which, as soon as he left, I called them.
I didn't see any obvious signs
and you know, I...
I guess, you know, I don't know what to look for.
I know what signs to look for if your kid gets abused,
you own kid, and how their behavior changes,
but you know, I don't really know how to see that in others.
He did actually use the word "abuse"
and then he to... [STUTTERS]
then he told me, um...
Ah, sorry, this makes me cry...
[SNIFFLING]
He told me that...
I'm sorry.
He said on Thursday night that...
[EXHALING]
everything Hannah had told us was true.
It just broke my heart.
So, you know, 'cause Hannah had told us
they were abusing her, whipping her with a belt...
When he told me that, I was just like,
Oh, my God!
BRITTINI: No one besides that family knows
exactly what happened in that house.
We all know them from outside the house
you know, we know them from the gaming world,
we know them from past work experience with them,
we don't know what happened behind those closed doors.
We just know what they wanted us to see.
OCTAVIO: All the people that knew Jennifer and Sarah
through these kind of online contacts
were these very brief encounters at festivals,
they obviously were not in a position
to really know what was actually happening.
Jen and Sarah lived the kind of lives
that made it easy for them to hide their behaviors inside the house.
In the early morning hours, I believe it was just prior to 3am,
Sarah began texting three of her co-workers.
One of those texts to the friend was,
"Hey, I need you to open the store, I'm sick."
Some of the others were indicating that she needed to go to the hospital.
Jen was, you know, gaming at least
an hour or two a day, on average.
So when she didn't respond to us
within a 24-hour period
you know, we got worried.
But then she said that she had a family emergency
and asked one of us to take over.
And then her actual last three letters she typed were FML.
FML means "fuck my life."
She disappeared.
The last thing that she wrote to me was,
"I am trying so hard to take my own advice today
trying to look into the eyes of my wife and children
and tell them I'm never gonna give up on them.
I am trying to remind myself of all the good in the world,
trying to believe that everything I've fought for my entire life
didn't just get buried in a pile of hate-filled ignorance.
Trying to allow myself to feel all the fucked-up feelings
that are circling through my weary body,
because it's okay to feel rage,
disgust and deep sadness.
And it's okay to be fueled a vast array of emotions
and not just love.
And now I need to breathe and figure out how to act and that's the hard part."
MALE REPORTER: Neighbors last reported seeing the Harts at their home
on Friday, March 23rd.
So, exhibit 10 is
the actual GPS points that we were able to download
and put into Google Earth Pro software.
And what this is is an overview
from the Harts' home in Woodland, Washington,
all the way down to Fort Bragg.
Once they left their house, every place that we were able to track them to,
they always used cash.
The first digital evidence that we came across
that they were using was a Safeway Club Card.
WOMAN ON RADIO: There's an overturned vehicle, 11:24
unknown if it's just occurred or it's been there...
March 26th,
um, I actually heard the call come out over the radio.
But at that time we thought it was a fatal collision scene.
The cause of the crash remains a mystery right now,
investigators have said the weather was clear at the time.
FEMALE REPORTER: Authorities say Jennifer and Sarah Hart
along with their six children
died when it plunged off a cliff
along Northern California's Pacific Coast Highway.
We have the vehicle going from 34% throttle
to 100% throttle.
And there's no subsequent application of the brake.
Once we get to Sarah's phone,
one of the last searches that she did
was while they were traveling through Oregon,
"Is death by drowning relatively painless?"
"How long does it take to die from hypothermia
in water while drowning in a car?"
"What will happen when overdosing with benadryl?"
Some of the witnesses stated that
they would typically give the children benadryl
on long drives,
that they know the effects of benadryl,
and what it does to the children.
They exceeded the normal therapeutic dosages.
The children were more than likely
um, unconscious or asleep at that point.
The death certificates for Jennifer and Sarah Hart
will be listed as suicide.
And the six children who perished on that day,
their death certainly, as the jury ruled,
was determined to be at the hands of another other by accident
and their death certificates will list homicide
as the manner of death.
They didn't want to tell me nothing,
'cause I might flip out, in the place I was.
So, now that I found out, you know,
I'm really kind of hurt,
but then again,
I can't bring them back.
So, crying ain't gonna bring them back.
So...
I'll take care of my son.
Be a better father to him.
Within an hour of finding out,
I was sitting in my desk
and I was just sobbing.
I couldn't even wrap my head around it.
I didn't know any of the details yet. I just...
All I knew was that
the Harts, the entire Hart tribe, was gone.
But, at the same time, this just like piercing grief of like...
thinking about all of those children.
When the news broke, I...
Gut told me it was them.
I just knew it was them.
But, then the next morning,
Tuesday morning,
like at 7:00 in the morning, our phone rings,
and a reporter had called and said,
"Your neighbors have been identified
as being the people in the crash."
Which we didn't answer the phone.
He left us a message
and wanted us to call back.
But I was like, "Wow."
I don't know what happened.
The evidence overwhelmingly suggests
that last moment was intentional.
Um, which is, given the...
undeniable...
and overwhelming beauty of that family of children,
that decision is um...
impossible.
I just love them still.
You know.
If I...
I just... I know it sounds really weird and fucked up to say,
but I would be like, "I have your back," you know. [SNIFFS]
And I know that
that's the part that nobody wants to hear, but it's like...
I just feel like I can feel their pain
that they were in.
And I feel so sad
that somewhere along the line,
someone missed something or we just let them down.
And so, I would just let them know, like...
yeah, I have their back and...
And if they were here, I would listen to their story,
and if we could do it all over again, I just would've helped 'em.
[VOICE SHAKING] I, unfortunately, think something horrible happened to 'em...
first, and that's why they left.
CHRISTOPHER: I don't know what the internal turmoil was,
and desperation in different ways, and...
I don't know. I guess...
things can get hard, and desperate, and people make...
people make...
extreme, rash decisions. And...
I don't... I do not understand it.
There's no understanding it. I don't...
JAKE: It was extremely comprehensive, large case.
It involved 11 different agencies
from across the nation.
It involved ten departments within the California Highway Patrol.
They would include,
our Investigative Services department.
Our Computer Crime Lab also assisted,
in the determination and downloads of cellphones.
We reached out to several allied agencies,
like the Sacramento High Tech Crime Unit,
the FBI,
Mendocino County Sheriff's office,
Clark County Sheriff's Office.
We've reached out as far as
the Saint Paul, Minnesota, Police Department,
to help us in tracking down a cell phone
that we were actively trying to pin down.
Our case even took us up to the point
of interviewing witnesses
outside of home, or Alaska.
By no means
was this a case that we took lightly.
[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]
SHONDA: It's very touching...
[SIGHS] I'm sorry.
And the reason why it's touching, is because...
it just seems like the children from...
kind of like, from the beginning,
didn't stand a chance, really.
Because, like... [CHUCKLES] I'm sorry.
Because both parents, like I said...
[VOICE SHAKING] they had their issues.
I used to pray every night.
Like, you know, how you pray for somethin'
and it don't happen, so you start to believe...
"Where's god? Who is god?" You know.
I wasn't really the prayer type.
When I was young,
I used to pray to put us to sleep.
You know, and...
hoping something good would happen
later on in the future.
It did, but...
then tragedy happened again.
JAKE: While driving around on the Mendocino coast,
they both decided that this was going to be the end.
That based on talking with all their friends and witnesses,
that if they can't have their kids,
that nobody was gonna have those kids.
The teachers knew,
the neighbors knew,
and now the children are dead.
There was all this hate, and it was so immense.
I mean, there were these threads upon threads
of people who had never met them,
who were talking about how viciously disgusting they were.
I mean, I had people who were like,
"Eat glass and die."
All I was trying to do was protect my friends,
but that wasn't happening.
There was all this like,
we're afraid to talk about it.
We're afraid to... say how we feel,
because we are just immediately attacked.
One of Jennifer's closest friends is speaking out for the first time
to our Gabrielle Karol,
to help answer the question,
"Who was Jennifer Hart?
What do we know about her?"
We weren't duped. That love wasn't fake.
They loved their children.
They weren't white supremacists.
They... they just were isolated.
They were in pain.
It's certainly not the fault of the, you know,
of an online game player,
or a festival musician
who knew their kids for a couple of days
to determine whether they're
secretly abusing their kids inside.
[VOICE SHAKING] Myself...
and everyone else who...
shared our love publicly...
we've been judged as though
there was some precedent
by which we were supposed to behave.
That there was some...
better way to do it,
some right way that...
You know, I realized, really quickly,
that no matter what I said or didn't say...
there was no way I was coming through this unscathed.
We've had friends basically tell us that
they can't even associate with us
because we defend the Hart family.
If our current dialog is so extremist, and...
and violent,
that we can't even make space for that,
we're really...
We've lost our way completely.
Festival friends of mine...
um, so they were very accusatory
in saying that we were completely off-base,
and that we should've minded our own business.
They called us all kinds of names.
Being nosy neighbors. I was racist.
ZIPPORAH: One of our friends said,
"Forgive me for not...
assuming my friends were murderers."
Again, everyone being so angry at us for speaking up.
I wanna say like...
Imagine. Try to put yourself where we are.
Ideologues scare me, you know.
Ideologues scare me because in the pursuit of that perfect, pure vision,
they can be so extreme
that they ignore all sense, all common sense and precaution.
People would attack.
[VOICE SHAKING] And at one point I even told 'em,
"It's easy for you people to sit here and accuse me, or...
say that I should have...
But, until you've walked in my shoes,
until you know who I am,
you can't really...
It's not fair to say."
There's no evidence that they're racist.
And I don't see why, um...
the number of stories why they would,
you know, make that up.
They might not have interpreted everything that happened,
exactly what was going on,
but they're certainly not just fantasizing about that.
I think there was a huge tragedy.
I think... I think all these...
In the very beginning, there was a huge anger
that I did feel, though, with the social media.
There was a lot of Black Lives Matter pages
taking arms and being like,
[IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE] "Told you so.
These white crackers should never adopt us."
And I was like, hold on.
You know what I mean?
You can think whatever you want,
but to exploit the tragedy of these children
to try and further your agenda on this just...
really just frankly disgusting platform,
which is Instagram,
you know what I mean, or Twitter,
I just felt like it was, you know,
hashtag too soon, social media.
And really just callous, and...
just such propaganda.
They were put under a microscope in a way that
I don't think anyone deserves to be put under.
I imagine that...
Jen must've got to a point where she just
degenerated to, I guess, some kind of insanity.
Um, you know, exactly how and when that happened,
and to what... I don't know.
But, I can't imagine getting to the point where
I mean, if you wanna kill yourself, that's one thing.
But, I don't see why you'd need to
take anyone else with you.
This road trip down to California
was quite impulsive and unplanned.
It might be interpreted as
kind of running away from Child Protective Services
who were kind of wrapping up their investigation.
So, this might be a woman who feels like,
"You know what, I'm about to be found out by the world.
I've had this perfectly curated image.
I spent so much of my time
blogging about and posting pictures about,
and presenting this particular image to the world.
And now that's in danger of crumbling."
So, I'm not saying that's what happened,
but that is a very plausible story to me.
That someone feeling, like, a bit desperate,
their mask is gonna be ripped off,
and they'd rather die, frankly,
than to be revealed in front of everyone
about what they are.
Ultimately, I feel that,
based on Sarah and Jennifer's past history,
the pattern that we see of the alleged child abuse,
and confrontations that they may have received out of the community,
that this was just another case
where they would run.
By the system being broken,
it enabled them to just keep hiding.
Um, you know, when you have allegations against you
in Minnesota, multiple times,
and then allowed to adopt children
even after the first allegations,
seems insane to me.
But then, to be able to move to Oregon,
have allegations against you there,
and talk your way through that.
Then to move to Washington,
they get a report,
but none of the agencies connect.
So, it just allowed them to keep hiding their abuse,
and no one be able to connect the dots.
And once the dots got connected, we still ignored them.
I believe that they left their house
not knowing exactly what they're gonna do,
and that they left in a very hasty manner.
Example of being, knocking over those blocks,
forgetting the luggage,
not taking toothbrushes.
I feel that they didn't know what they were doing.
Even though we know Sarah's phone was
searching those types of question about death,
and suicide, and how drowning can be painful,
I don't believe that they were committed to that at that point.
I think their ultimate goal was to get to Mendocino County.
And once they got here,
paying for cash along the way for gas, and items, and stuff that they'd received,
I still don't believe that,
even based on video footage
and items that they bought
while at the Dollar General,
I don't believe they committed at that point.
But, sometime after that,
while driving around on the Mendocino Coast,
they both decided that this was going to be the end.
I'm really grateful for
the law enforcement taking their time to...
to come to this result in this way,
where it was decided by a jury, so that there was no...
real option for doubt.
And, although the conclusion is
the worst possible case,
at least we know what happened,
so we can stop arguing about it.
People need to be honest about their pain,
and like let it out.
And, I feel like maybe they lived in this silo of positivity.
So, it was really hard to reach out for help.
And it makes you feel bad.
Quit looking at it.
Because, people only post perfect things.
They're not posting when they're sitting home bored like you.
You know, and that's how I feel like social media is...
It's crippling people.
We're losing our social connection,
our innate need to be connected.
Um, and portraying life to be better,
which I think, actually, is just adding to depression.
I'm talking in psychological terms now,
not necessarily psychiatric terms.
And this goes back to Freud,
but the more you push away the dark side and compartmentalize,
the those compartments can grow independently,
and become monsters.
The goal of a successful psychotherapy
is to integrate all the different parts of your personality
into one coherent whole,
that could all peacefully co-exist with one another.
I think that Jen felt a...
loss of whatever control she imagined she had,
or tried to maintain.
Um, in a misguided...
In a misguided attempt to protect the family,
I think she was trying to be too controlling.
And, I feel like she
arrived at a place where she genuinely
doubted they would ever be safe.
There's, um, I guess, a balance of light and dark.
And, it doesn't excuse what happened,
because those children were completely innocent,
and just wanted love,
and acceptance, and guidance in this world.
Devonte would've been 16 this year.
Jeremiah would've been 14, shoulda been 13, this year.
You know, and...
really hard to not have 'em around.
Know what I'm saying? 'Cause...
'Cause I see other kids, other brothers,
play with their brothers, I wish would've had my brothers.
CHRISTOPHER: Maybe Sarah and Jen aren't who we thought they were.
We should question it.
We should question everything.
But, then we should come back
to things we know.
And, the things we know are
there are facts that lead us to believe
Jen and Sarah might not have been who they were to us publicly.
But, the kids are.
The kids are exactly who we thought they were.
And, that's why the effect of that family
is so widespread in our community,
and why this tragedy is so huge.
One, that we lost them. And, two, that the story of it
removes what they meant.
That's two losses.
To have to lose them, and to lose, like,
the ability to tell the story of
what authentically they meant.
I have no fear or doubt in my mind
in saying that about those children.
What they represented was 100% authentic.
It wouldn't have had the effect on people that it did if it weren't.
It's impossible.
[SINGERS HARMONIZING]
CHRISTOPHER: Let's come in on that and let's land 'em.
[ALL HARMONIZING]
One, two, three.
ALL: [SINGING] ♪ Fighting
♪ Keep on fighting
♪ You
♪ Trying
♪ You gotta keep on trying
♪ We do
♪ Where did the light go?
♪ Darkness can take A hold of me
♪ Where did the time go?
♪ I'm feeling so empty On these streets
♪ Knowing what I know
♪ All of the lies Are not concealed
♪ I know you had high hopes
♪ For these All-forgotten dreams
♪ Where did the light go?
♪ Hiding
♪ You keep on hiding
♪ The truth
♪ Why then
[PIANO NOTES PLAYING]
♪ You're still fighting
♪ Ain't you?
♪ Where did the light go?
♪ Darkness can take A hold of me
♪ Where did the time go?
♪ I'm feeling so empty On these streets
♪ Knowing what I know
♪ All of the lies Are not concealed
♪ I know you had high hopes
♪ For these All-forgotten dreams
♪ Where did the light go? ♪
[CHEERING AND LAUGHING]
♪ Where did the light go? ♪
[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]