Devonte Jordan Hart was a teenage boy who went missing after a murder-suicide carried out by his adoptive mothers in 2018.
The bodies of his mothers, along with his five siblings, were recovered shortly after the incident, but Devonte's body has never been found. He has since been declared dead.
Case[]
In March 2018, authorities responded to a car crash off Highway 1 in California. An SUV registered to Jennifer Hart had driven off a cliff and landed on the Pacific Ocean shoreline. The bodies of Jennifer Hart, her spouse Sarah Hart, and their adoptive children, Abigail, Jeremiah, and Markis, were recovered. Two additional adoptive children, Sierra and Hannah, were found at a later date. Sierra's body was discovered floating in the water two weeks after the crash, while Hannah’s remains, identified only by a foot, were recovered in May and confirmed in January 2019.
Devonte is the only adoptive child who remains missing.The Hart children were adopted from two sibling groups originally from Texas. Devonte, Jeremiah, and Sierra were biological siblings, born to parents with a history of drug addiction and abuse.
The case is believed to be a murder suicide. Investigators found searches on Sarah Hart's phone related to overdosing on Benadryl and the effects of drowning. Toxicology reports revealed that all members of the family had been drugged with Benadryl at the time of the crash. The children exhibited signs of abuse, including malnourishment and bruising. Their bedrooms were reportedly bare, with no personal belongings, and neighbors had observed some of the children scavenging for food in garbage bins. Abigail Hart had attempted to report physical abuse, claiming that Jennifer had beaten her and held her head underwater. Hannah once fled the house seeking help from a neighbor, but her pleas were unsuccessful.
Sources[]
- Hart family murders on Wikipedia
- Devonte Hart at the Charley Project
- Washington Post