Body found floating in California surf could be one of missing Hart children
On March 26, following the horrific crash that claimed the lives of the Hart family – a crash that police now believe was no accident – three of the children from that family were not found inside or near the crashed SUV “discovered upside down on the rocky shoreline at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff along a remote stretch in Mendocino County, California,” according to an early report from CNN. But yesterday, two weeks after the crash, a body was discovered floating in the surf in the immediate area of the tragedy. Although not positively identified as one of the three missing children, the body has been described as an “African-American female but the age, identity, and cause of death are not known, “according to MSN.
An autopsy of the remains is scheduled for this Tuesday. Early speculation on the part of police is that the body found in the surf on Saturday could be one of the three Hart children still listed as missing. DNA analysis of the remains will take weeks to complete.
The bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart were found March 26 inside the family’s SUV, which had crashed at the rocky shoreline below a cliff. The bodies of three of their children — Markis, 19; Jeremiah, 14; and Abigail, 14 — were found nearby.
But their three other children — Devonte, 15; Hannah, 16; and Sierra, 12 — are missing, officials have said. ~ per MSN
Initially, police believed the crash to be a horrible and tragic accident. But it wasn’t too long after authorities began their investigation that they came to believe the mother intentionally drove the SUV off the cliff. CBS News reports police as saying that the crash was deliberate. Data exhumed from the SUV’s computer shows that the SUV came to a full stop on the coastal highway in an area designed to look out over the ocean, “before speeding straight off the cliff and plummeting 100 feet into the rocky Pacific Ocean below.”
The vehicle had to have traveled 75 to 100 feet on a dirt turnout next to the highway before it went over the cliff edge, officials said. There were no skid or brake marks, said Allman, the Mendocino County sheriff. ~ CNN
CBS also reported the police as saying that there were no signs of the other two Hart children still listed as missing. For more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.
~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
