PREVIOUSLY: 

###

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman announced yesterday on the cable TV news program “Crime & Justice,” with Ashleigh Banfield, that Jennifer Hart is suspected of driving at the time of last week’s tragic crash that killed her, her spouse and at least three of their six adopted children.

Allman also stated on the news program yesterday that Jennifer Hart and her spouse Sarah Hart, both 38 years old, were buckled at the time of the crash. But the sheriff’s office redacted that statement this morning, saying that neither parents were wearing seatbelts.

The Hart family | Photos provided by MCSO.

“I’m to the point where I’m no longer calling this an accident, I’m calling it a crime,” Allman said during the TV interview.

Newly released surveillance video shows Jennifer Hart buying a bunch of bananas at the Fort Bragg Safeway at 8:05 a.m. on March 25. The crash was discovered and reported the next day at 4:16 p.m., but it’s unknown exactly what day or time the crash occurred.

Photo: MCSO.

“The fact that the grocery store did have her on video buying multiple bananas leads us to believe that she was at least buying some food for her family,” Allman told Ashleigh Banfield.

Jennifer Hart at the Fort Bragg Safeway.

The Hart family was reportedly in the Newport, Oregon area around 8:15 a.m. on March 24 Officials believe the family then drove south along Highway 101 until reaching Leggett. But no other known sighting of the family have been reported.

“It would take much more than one tank of gas to get from Portland to my county,” Allman said during the TV interview. “So I know they stop somewhere and I’m hoping someone says, ‘yeah I remember seeing that family.’ We haven’t got any credit card information yet but we’re still searching.”

Allman told Banfield that the sheriff’s office has asked a pathologist to investigate if there was a struggle between Sarah and Jennifer Hart at the time of the crash, and said there are still many unanswered questions.

“There’s many other questions we’re asking,” he said. “Was everyone alive when they went off the cliff? That’s a question we don’t know yet.

A citizen reportedly found a wet cell phone in the area along the roadside on Tuesday, which was sent to a forensics lab to determine if it belonged to the Harts. 

The Sheriff’s Office continued to conduct a heavy search operation for the three missing kids yesterday, in hopes of locating any sign of them before today’s storm moved into the area, but the search seems to have been fruitless as today’s update offered very little new information.

Anyone who may information regarding the Hart family is asked to contact the California Highway Patrol at (707) 463-4086.

The family was driving a GMC Yukon similar to the one seen in this photo. The Hart’s vehicle is also described as having black rims.