Searchers find cellphone where SUV went off California cliff | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Searchers find cellphone where SUV went off California cliff

This March 25, 2018, Safeway surveillance photo provided by the California Highway Patrol shows Jennifer Hart, right, at a Safeway store in Fort Bragg, Calif. Sarah and Jennifer Hart, of Woodland, Wash., were found dead at a crash scene March 26, 2018, along with three of their children where the SUV they were traveling in plunged off a coastal cliff near Mendocino, Calif. (Courtesy of California Highway Patrol via AP)
Original Publication Date April 05, 2018 - 9:26 AM

MENDOCINO, Calif. - Searchers looking for three missing children whose family's SUV plunged off a Northern California cliff have found a cellphone that could have belonged to a member of the large brood.

There was no sign of the siblings who were missing but presumed dead in the crash that killed Sarah and Jennifer Hart and three of their other adopted children. Five bodies were found March 26 near Mendocino, a few days after Washington state authorities began investigating the Harts for possible child neglect.

Dozens of people combed miles (kilometres) of coastline Wednesday. The Mendocino County sheriff's office told Portland, Oregon, TV station KOIN that a searcher found a cellphone that was being analyzed.

Authorities have said that data from the vehicle's software suggested the crash was deliberate. They said the SUV had stopped at a coastal highway overlook before speeding straight off the cliff and plummeting 100 feet (31 metres) into the rocky Pacific Ocean below.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman told HLN : "I'm calling it a crime."

Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a spanking given to one of her children.

Bruce and Dana DeKalb, the family's next-door neighbours in Woodland, Washington, called child welfare officials two weeks ago because the couple's 15-year-old son, Devonte, had been coming over to their house almost every day for a week, asking for food.

Dana DeKalb said Devonte told her his parents were "punishing them by withholding food." The boy asked her to leave food in a box by the fence for him, she said.

Devonte, a black boy who is still missing, drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest.

News from © The Associated Press, 2018
The Associated Press

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