Jury: Two Moms Killed Selves, Six Adopted Kids When They Drove Off California Cliff

A coroner's jury ruled Thursday that two women killed themselves and their six adopted children when they drove off a Northern California cliff last year.

The Mendocino County jury deliberated for about an hour before delivering the unanimous verdicts after nearly two full days of testimony.

The March 2018 crash happened days after authorities in Washington state opened an investigation following allegations that the children, ages 12 to 19, were being neglected by their moms, Jennifer and Sarah Hart.

California Highway Patrol investigator Jake Slates testified that soon before her wife drove their family off a cliff, Sarah Hart researched whether it was relatively painless to die by drowning.

Despite the cell phone searches as they fled Washington, the women weren't committed to killing themselves and their six adopted children, Slates said. But at some point, Sarah and Jennifer Hart made the decision that would end with all eight presumed dead.

"They both decided that this was going to be the end," Slates said at the coroner's inquest. "That if they can't have their kids that nobody was going to have those kids."

Slates said that Jennifer Hart, who rarely drank, was extremely intoxicated and may have been "drinking to build up her courage." Sarah Hart and the children had high amounts of Benadryl in their systems.

The bodies of the women were found in the vehicle, which landed upside down below a cliff more than 160 miles north of San Francisco. The bodies of four children were recovered and a fifth was matched to remains found in a shoe. The remains of 15-year-old Devonte Hart have not been found.

The special coroner's jury was trying to determine whether the deaths were murder-suicide or accidental. Authorities had called the deaths intentional but wanted a jury to decide.