A woman was drunk when she drove her large family off a Northern California cliff last month, and her wife and several children had large amounts of a drug in their systems that can cause drowsiness, authorities said on Friday.
Police had previously said they believed the Hart family died in a suicide plunge from a scenic overlook.
The crash happened just days after authorities in Washington state opened an investigation following allegations that the children were being neglected.
Photo: AP
Preliminary toxicology tests found Jennifer Hart had an alcohol level of 0.102, California Patrol Captain Bruce Carpenter said.
California drivers are considered drunk with a level of 0.08 or higher.
Toxicology tests also found that her wife, Sarah Hart, and two of their children had “a significant amount” of an ingredient commonly found in the allergy drug Benadryl, which can make people sleepy.
Toxicology results for a third child killed are still pending, Carpenter said.
Carpenter said none of the car’s occupants were wearing seatbelts.
Sarah and Jennifer Hart and their six adopted children were believed to be in the family’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) when it plunged off a cliff in Mendocino County, more than 250km north of San Francisco.
Authorities have said data from the vehicle’s software suggested the crash was deliberate, though the California Highway Patrol has not concluded why the vehicle went off the road.
A specialized team of accident investigators is trying to figure that out with help from the FBI, Carpenter told reporters.
“We believe that the Hart incident was in fact intentional,” he said.
Carpenter said the family stopped in the small town of Naselle, Washington, about 128km northwest of their Woodland, Washington, home, during their drive to the California cliff.
However, investigators are still trying to determine why they stopped in Naselle, which added an hour and a half to their trip, and whether they contacted anyone.
Naselle is near US Highway 101, a popular scenic route along the coast.
Five bodies were on March 26 found near the small city of Mendocino, a few days after Washington state authorities began investigating the Harts for possible child neglect, but three of their children were not immediately recovered from the scene.
Two more are missing and another body has been found, but not identified.
The 31m drop killed the women, both 39, and their children Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; and Abigail Hart, 14. Hannah Hart, 16; Devonte Hart, 15; and Sierra Hart, 12, have not been found.
Devonte drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest.
A neighbor of the Harts in Woodland, Washington, had filed a complaint, saying the children were apparently being deprived of food as punishment.
Long before the crash, 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.
Authorities have said social services officials in Oregon contacted the West Linn Police Department about the family in 2013 while they were living in the area.
Alexandra Argyropoulos, who told reporters previously that she contacted Oregon child welfare officials, said in an e-mail on Friday that Jennifer Hart ran the household “like a regimented boot camp.”
Argyropoulos wrote that as a family friend she initially thought Jennifer Hart was a loving mother.
However, after spending two weeks with the family Argyropoulos said she noticed kindness, love and respect for the children was largely absent.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not