Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman on Wednesday called last week's incident in California, where a woman drove off a California cliff with her six adopted children and wife, a "crime."
"I'm to the point where I no longer am calling this an accident; I'm calling it a crime," Allman told Headline News' "Crime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield."
Jennifer Hart was going 90 mph when the SUV she was driving plunged off a 100-foot cliff along a seaside California highway March 26. California Highway Patrol investigators found no "acceleration marks, tire friction marks or braking furrow marks" at the scene, and there was also no evidence the car collided with the embankment as it "traversed toward the tidal zone below."
Her spouse, Sarah Margaret Hart, along with three of their adopted children, Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; and Abigail Hart, 14, were found dead. The other three children, Hannah Hart, 16; Devonte Hart, 15; and Sierra Hart, 12, have not been found, but are feared dead.
The family got attention after Devonte Hart was photographed during a 2014 protest in Portland, Oregon, over a grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in the shooting of a black man in Ferguson, Missouri.
But there was trouble at home, according to news reports, and child welfare authorities were called to the Hart home in Washington State to investigate possible abuse and neglect just three days before the wreck.
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