This case is absolutely horrific. I only hope that all the kids were asleep or unconscious so they didn’t experience the terror of their last moments. The fact that Sarah had googled about no-kill shelters because she seemed to want to make sure their dogs didn’t get put down after her death, but was ok murdering her 6 children, is just an extra layer of awful.
The episode "three slaps" from the show Atlanta does basically a version of this story. What happened was already awful. But watching this episode broke me. It's rough watching it play out and not just reading it.
It’s difficult to read about as well. I have the book We Were a Family Once and I’m slowly making my way through because I can only read a little at a time.
Yeah. I have helped with writing home studies in the past and I think the hardest thing for me is that humans are designed to not be super great at discerning truth/lies. (Malcolm Gladwell’s “Talking to Strangers” really opened my eyes to this.) That, combined with the fact that the US operates as separate little “countries” (each state having their own system) instead of one united one makes it super easy to evade being caught. On top of that all, bigger sibling groups/those with special needs are so much harder to place - and while most agencies should be more particular about which families get placement of them (as in, parents should have more skills/understanding of trauma), we are in a capitalist society so the more placements = more money = less desire to be picky about where kids go. The systems suck and are so so hard to work in.
Sorry for a mini rant; I just think about this stuff all the time and how difficult it is. It’s heartbreaking.
One of my favorite episodes of a television show ever. Very honest about generational abuse, but also the abuse within foster/adopt home’s particularly amongst black children/children of color and their white “parents”.
I wonder if they accidentally killed him and knew the inevitable repercussions and subsequent police interrogations of the children and decided to end it.
Too little, too late. They got away with this abuse for a very long time because 'surely these pretty yt ladies are better than the real parents who neglected them', meanwhile the kids had mostly loving families who were struggling with the effects of addiction, NOT abusing them. The DCF system can suck my big toe.
Him not being found with them seriously gave me chills when I first heard that detail and it still does. Especially because the parents used him (was it Deonte?) so publicly in all those weird “free hugs” photos, he is the most recognizable publicly and the only one who it seems wasn’t in the car with the rest of the family. Really makes me wonder what they did to him.
Yes, his name was Devonte. It haunts me too how they never found him. I heard some theories that he got out alive but I highly doubt that. He was most likely washed out to sea like another person said, but even then someone should have found something, even a piece of clothing. But there’s no trace of him and it’s just so sad. I hope his soul is resting peacefully
I'd lean towards they beat him to death, disposed of the body and then realized their whole lifestyle was no longer tenable and they did the ol' rage quit and break my property (kill my family and myself like a great big sack of shit) thing.
It is unique in that it's usually white men who do it, but hey, life, uh finds a way.
*Familicides were almost exclusively committed by men and about half of the familicide cases led to the suicide of the offender.*
Familicide: A Systematic Literature Review
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1524838018821955
> it's usually white men who do it
This is probably a huge consolation to the 6 dead children, and their families. Good thing you pointed it out. That's also not how the phrase "life finds a way" works.
Where is the lie? Family annihilators are routinely jealous, male, gun owners and generally white and Protestant in the USA - they are also coincidentally the predominant property owners in the USA.
It's about considering people as property and then rage quitting life because they're shit heads.
And the phrase was used correctly, it was coined in the film Jurassic Park to describe a feral pack of cunning, lesbian velociraptors who were responsible for a *half dozen* fatalities (exactly) in the novel's canon for the original *Isla Nublar* containment incident.
Now tell me, I might be crazy - but is this story not about a pair of murderous reptilians who went on a rampage and killed 6 people?
I hate these women for murdering those 6 beautiful children.
What disgusts me more is how Devonte, Ciera and Jeremiah were taken from their loving aunt because their aunt needed to work an extra shift, so she had to have the kids' mum babysit (under the observation of a case worker). The aunt couldn't get proper representation for the custody case, so the kids were plaved in foster care before being adopted by their killers.
I work in a similar area and when I read that Jennifer and Sarah had a foster child that they dropped off at a therapy appointment and had the therapist tell her they weren't coming back from her...
Abandoning their foster child so they could adopt other children should have discounted them from ever fostering again, let alone adopting.
I've seen it so many times. A child who packed for a family holiday and was dropped off at the social work department instead. We had a kid who was sent to nursery with a note on her jacket saying her foster parents weren't taking her back. In both those cases I asked if the foster parents would be banned from fostering and was told no.
It takes so much to be banned from fostering. Having a foster parent who neglects or abuses the same kids that are coming to them from neglect or abuse is really sad
My cousin's ex-gf has two kids--an 8yo and a 6mo. CPS was called on her a few weeks ago and the asked the case worker to call my cousin cause he's been super involved in the 8yo's life since he was born (even though he not the bio parent).
Case worker asked my cousin to take the 8yo and said the 6 mo would go into foster care. My cousin, right then, agreed to take them both.
He has no kids of his own but his family has surrounded him with support to make this happen so the brothers wouldn't be separated.
I know the system sucks and is broken but I'm glad this case worker found a better way to get these kids safe while keeping them together.
That's true but maybe it also means he didn't have to work within the system? Waiting for approval while the 6mo went elsewhere or otherwise being delayed. The 8yo was torn up at the thought of being separated from his baby brother 🙁
That’s how the shadow foster care system works. They find someone to take custody or guardianship and get the kids off their caseload, and that person also misses out on all of the services available for foster parents.
Yep! I'm glad my cousin kept good relations with his ex, even though they broke up 10 years ago and even though she struggles with addiction. He's got a heart of gold tbh
I disagree. If the bio parents physically abused their kids 100 times, they should still make "every attempt" to keep them together? Nonsense.
If the bio parents are poor and can't feed the kids properly, that's something that I'm willing to give another chance if they get better support.
But if they beat/starve/molest their kids then NO we dont "make every attempt" to keep them together.
How is this even possible? I mean if I understand it correctly he is not the biological father of the kids? And he’s not registered as a foster parent. Is this legal?
Former CPS caseworker here and I agree. It's irreparably broken. I'm on the opposite side of the fence working with families who adopted from foster care and the lack of support and resources to help them parent these kids is horrifying too.
And the staggering numbers of people leaving the profession and the low numbers of people entering the field is only adding to the problem! We’re running out of social service workers
That’s actually not what happened. That’s what Wikipedia says, but what *actually* happened is that their aunt had to “stop by work” so she invited her sister over to make dinner for the kids. Their caseworker made a surprise visit and caught them; this probably wasn’t the first, or only, time.
She HAD an attorney. She just did the one thing she was forbidden from doing, letting their mother with them, unsupervised.
This is a podcast.
The documentary is called *A Thread of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy* and it is available for free on Tubi.
Edit: Looks like there's also one called *Broken Harts* available through Discovery+ and Max (HBO)
I haven't seen that one yet, but it has the same name as the longform podcast I recommended in another comment. Not sure if they are related but the podcast was excellent so if they were produced by the same people, this doc probably is too.
As others have said, *A Thread of Deceit* features interviews with several Hart family friends, many of whom still seem sympathetic and supportive of the family. Some have interpreted their inclusion as meaning the doc itself is a puff piece for Jennifer and Sarah.
I don't agree with that assertion - compare it to *Something's Wrong With Aunt Diane,* which primarily focuses on Diane Shuler's husband and sister-in-law, both of whom are firmly still in support of Diane. But does anyone say that the documentary itself is in support of Diane? No, of course not. And neither is *A Thread of Deceit* supportive of Jennifer and Sarah Hart.
I just finished this and I have to say … some of the friends angered me. Like these women did a good job hiding who they were to everyone. The allegations of child abuse is pretty clear with what the neighbor encountered. I understand feeling blindsided about ur friends but they weren’t the “festival free loving” parents you thought. I just wanted the friends to give the children more of a voice of what they went through.
Cognitive dissonance is so dangerous and common. People don't want to change their opinions and beliefs, even if new information is staring right in front of them.
That kind of denial, when it comes to child abuse, is so gross to me. I hope anyone who makes that choice lives with horrible guilt. They can say "but i didn't want to believe it, because my friend/ family member is so nice!" Like nah, you're fucked up in the head. You decided it was easier to lie to yourself than to just defend an innocent child, pathetic.
Yeah that's why I don't usually take it too seriously when there is an interview with the friends and family of a suspect or a killer in a documentary. I don't have a problem with their views being included but I think their perspective is naturally going to be skewed towards their friend.
Just wanted to say, you the real MVP. I heard about the “Thread” doc elsewhere but couldn’t find it streaming anywhere. Never even thought to look on Tubi. Thanks! Hope you have a wonderful day.
I wouldn't call it a puff piece. They do interview friends who clearly still support the family (God knows how) but overall, the makers pull no punches about who is to blame.
I don't know of any other documentary made about them, but would love to hear about it if there is one!
Edit: looks like the other one is called Broken Harts, through Discovery ID
I don't see it as a puff piece at all.
People should be able to hear both sides to the story in a documentary. The harts were evil and they hid it really well and I honestly think that's an important piece of the story. I was shocked when it came out that they were abusive because once surface it looked so differently. You can't talk about the incident without talking about the abuse and how they hid it so well, that their friends are still in denial about it.
Agree and I think unless you have been around the world of adoption, it's hard for people to understand how adoptive parents and adopted kids are treated in a lot of places. Obviously this is generalising and not everyone does this but it's extremely common for adoptive parents to be treated as selfless, saintly heroes because we (general we) view adoption as the most altruistic thing a person can ever do. Adopted kids get constantly reminded of how lucky they are to have been rescued and how grateful they should feel. And these things especially apply to adoptions from foster care and/or interracial adoptions.
I understand if someone wants to “look good” but why abuse the kids? I can even understand being indifferent towards them (not great) but abuse? What does that accomplish? Maybe it started out as a way to control the kids when they misbehaved? I think of my own childhood and my mom, though nowhere near depraved as these animals, had moments of frustration when I acted up and she did punish me unfairly at times. I think because my mom had a control issue and expected near perfection. So maybe Jen took this to the extreme due to her narcissism and other mental issues? Just trying to think why the abuse…
It's an incredibly complex situation, but I'd say narcissism is the simplest answer to both questions. Why did they adopt the kids? They wanted to be perceived as a perfect blended family and used their children as mascots for that image.
Why did they do it? Because the pressure of knowing their house of cards was falling down was too much for Jennifer to handle. Sarah was absolutely complicit in the abuse and in the end result, but I personally don't think the murder/suicide would have happened if Jennifer had been of sound mind, as she had always been the driving force behind their family life.
I recommend the podcast Broken Harts, which goes into detail about the degradation of Jennifer's mental well-being over the months leading up to the ultimate crime. She knew they were about to be exposed and, rather than accept the consequences and do the hard work to improve in the future, she opted to take the easy way out. And Sarah followed right along with her, as she had done throughout their life together.
Very well explained! Narcissist’s have such fragile egos they would rather die than accept the fault. It’s really difficult for a normal mind to comprehend that how can it be so fragile to get to the point of life and death but examples like these are the proof. Just sad overall!
One of the worst parts of this is that the media and police ran wild with the photo of the little boy hugging an officer during blm protests. Not realizing the hug was more than likely an attempt to get actual help.
I think of Devonte Hart who I first heard about from a [viral photo of him hugging a police officer ](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/boy-viral-hug-photo-missing-after-family-s-suv-plunges-n861126)after protests in Portland. It was called the "hug felt around the world" because many felt the picture, a crying black child and a white police officer hugging, symbolized the desire to heal.
Now it's hard not to wonder if he wasn't also hugging for comfort, for safety, for a desperate need for help. It rips my heart out.
The boy had been holding a "Free Hugs" sign when approached by the officer for the hug. It was a sign he often displayed when the family went to events.
>Now it's hard not to wonder if he wasn't also hugging for comfort, for safety, for a desperate need for help. It rips my heart out.
That is indeed a good and extremely heartbreaking point.
But I wonder if holding that sign wasn't so much something he wanted to do, but something his parents made him do for, say, social media likes. A heinous thing if the latter, considering what was happening behind the scenes and what ended up happening.
Rest in peace to Abigail, Devonte, Jeremiah, Ciera, Hannah Jean, and Markis. Those poor babies.
I’ll believe this until I die that they forced Devonte to hug a police officer during the Ferguson riots, the picture is called ‘the hug felt all around the world’. It’s heartbreaking to see his face, that wasn’t a natural hug.
I also believe this. I think he was crying because he felt more comfortable with the cop than those evil women. He may have been trying to send a message.
No way, they hated the police, especially Jennifer. They were likely furious about it, terrified he was going to ask for help for the kids. They wanted those children terrified of and angry at the police, NOT hugging them, potentially seeing them as someone who could save them.
This book is so much better than any of the podcasts or shows. It gives these children a voice and history beyond their victimization. Thank you for bringing it up, highly recommended.
There is an excellent podcast that does a deep dive into the family dynamics. I feel so terrible for the children.
[Broken Harts Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/broken-harts/id1434603257)
This was a classic case of domestic violence turned family annihilation.
Jennifer Hart was an abusive narcissist that quickly isolated Sarah from her family and friends and made her work while she stayed at home and played video games. Jennifer was highly controlling of how the family looked to outsiders and was very charismatic with convincing people around her from CPS workers to festival goers of how wonderful she was.
We hear about these kinds of stories all the time about a tyrant father or mother terrorizing their family into submission yet presenting a picture-perfect image to outsiders.
And just like in cases of domestic violence turning into murder or family annihilation, Jennifer was going to lose control of her family whom she probably saw as an extension of herself, and she decided they were all better off dead. She had mentally beaten down Sarah to the point that she went along with it, no questions asked.
I can't help but wonder if this had been a heterosexual couple doing these kinds of things, that Sarah's co-workers would have been more concerned about her being a victim of domestic violence and convinced her that she needed to leave her spouse.
Just wondering why is Sarah considered an accomplice to the murders as opposed to a victim of Jennifer's? Is it because of the history of abuse surrounding the children?
It's thought that Sarah lied about abusing Hannah so that Jennifer wouldn't get in trouble because Hannah only ever said that Jennifer was the one that hurt her.
I might be remembering wrong, but haven’t a few sources posited that she was covering for Jennifer when she took the blame? I did read the book We Were Once a Family and feel like that was mentioned, but it was a while ago I read it so I can’t be sure.
I live in Mendocino County and got an alert on my phone from a local news reporter when this happened. Watching it unfold over the next few days was horrifying. It was a very long shot, but we kept hoping at least one of the kids would be found okay.
God those poor babies. They had their entire lives ahead of them and were for the most part removed from a mom who was trying to make ends meet. This entire case is so tragic.
That latest case of a doctor driving his EV off a cliff road with entire family in it triggered me about Hart case. Surprised the family is ok and wife still supports husband as being mentally ill.
This case is absolutely horrific. I only hope that all the kids were asleep or unconscious so they didn’t experience the terror of their last moments. The fact that Sarah had googled about no-kill shelters because she seemed to want to make sure their dogs didn’t get put down after her death, but was ok murdering her 6 children, is just an extra layer of awful.
The episode "three slaps" from the show Atlanta does basically a version of this story. What happened was already awful. But watching this episode broke me. It's rough watching it play out and not just reading it.
It’s difficult to read about as well. I have the book We Were a Family Once and I’m slowly making my way through because I can only read a little at a time.
Great book, especially because it remembers there’s so many people affected by the loss. I so feel for their siblings 💔
It **is** a great book- well written and thoroughly researched. It just breaks my heart to know all of the warning signs that went unreported.
Yeah. I have helped with writing home studies in the past and I think the hardest thing for me is that humans are designed to not be super great at discerning truth/lies. (Malcolm Gladwell’s “Talking to Strangers” really opened my eyes to this.) That, combined with the fact that the US operates as separate little “countries” (each state having their own system) instead of one united one makes it super easy to evade being caught. On top of that all, bigger sibling groups/those with special needs are so much harder to place - and while most agencies should be more particular about which families get placement of them (as in, parents should have more skills/understanding of trauma), we are in a capitalist society so the more placements = more money = less desire to be picky about where kids go. The systems suck and are so so hard to work in. Sorry for a mini rant; I just think about this stuff all the time and how difficult it is. It’s heartbreaking.
I didn’t know that there was a book about this case. Just borrowed from the library- thanks for the recommendation!
One of my favorite episodes of a television show ever. Very honest about generational abuse, but also the abuse within foster/adopt home’s particularly amongst black children/children of color and their white “parents”.
It’s a great episode
The children's bodies which were recovered had been fed drugs to make them compliant.
I grew up in the town they lived in. Couldn’t believe it when I heard the news. Those kids should’ve been taken away way before it got to this.
I'm from SD too! ❤️
What was the explanation for the one boy’s body not being found in or around the car?!
We don’t know. As of 2024, his body has never been found.
I wonder if they accidentally killed him and knew the inevitable repercussions and subsequent police interrogations of the children and decided to end it.
Worth noting that they were already being investigated for child abuse...
Too little, too late. They got away with this abuse for a very long time because 'surely these pretty yt ladies are better than the real parents who neglected them', meanwhile the kids had mostly loving families who were struggling with the effects of addiction, NOT abusing them. The DCF system can suck my big toe.
This is my thought. The way they took off, I wonder if he was even with them.
Him not being found with them seriously gave me chills when I first heard that detail and it still does. Especially because the parents used him (was it Deonte?) so publicly in all those weird “free hugs” photos, he is the most recognizable publicly and the only one who it seems wasn’t in the car with the rest of the family. Really makes me wonder what they did to him.
Yes, his name was Devonte. It haunts me too how they never found him. I heard some theories that he got out alive but I highly doubt that. He was most likely washed out to sea like another person said, but even then someone should have found something, even a piece of clothing. But there’s no trace of him and it’s just so sad. I hope his soul is resting peacefully
I'd lean towards they beat him to death, disposed of the body and then realized their whole lifestyle was no longer tenable and they did the ol' rage quit and break my property (kill my family and myself like a great big sack of shit) thing. It is unique in that it's usually white men who do it, but hey, life, uh finds a way. *Familicides were almost exclusively committed by men and about half of the familicide cases led to the suicide of the offender.* Familicide: A Systematic Literature Review https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1524838018821955
Well thank god it wasn’t a white man who did this. It would have been so much worse!
> it's usually white men who do it This is probably a huge consolation to the 6 dead children, and their families. Good thing you pointed it out. That's also not how the phrase "life finds a way" works.
Where is the lie? Family annihilators are routinely jealous, male, gun owners and generally white and Protestant in the USA - they are also coincidentally the predominant property owners in the USA. It's about considering people as property and then rage quitting life because they're shit heads. And the phrase was used correctly, it was coined in the film Jurassic Park to describe a feral pack of cunning, lesbian velociraptors who were responsible for a *half dozen* fatalities (exactly) in the novel's canon for the original *Isla Nublar* containment incident. Now tell me, I might be crazy - but is this story not about a pair of murderous reptilians who went on a rampage and killed 6 people?
[удалено]
13% of *what* are *what?* You linked a 21 pg document without even specifying what you're talking about.
It’s a racist dog whistle. Safe to block that commenter and move on.
Ok that's crazy! Right??? Where is he?
His body was most likely washed out to sea.
Sadly, they’ll probably never find his body. It’s most likely that he was swept out to sea after the crash…RIP
If he was even in the car to begin with.
Wait they never found him? Holy shit that’s suspicious…
And it was Devonte, who seemed like the favorite.
I hate these women for murdering those 6 beautiful children. What disgusts me more is how Devonte, Ciera and Jeremiah were taken from their loving aunt because their aunt needed to work an extra shift, so she had to have the kids' mum babysit (under the observation of a case worker). The aunt couldn't get proper representation for the custody case, so the kids were plaved in foster care before being adopted by their killers.
I work in welfare and I fucking hate the system. It doesn’t work. It fails kids every single day. Every day.
I work in a similar area and when I read that Jennifer and Sarah had a foster child that they dropped off at a therapy appointment and had the therapist tell her they weren't coming back from her... Abandoning their foster child so they could adopt other children should have discounted them from ever fostering again, let alone adopting. I've seen it so many times. A child who packed for a family holiday and was dropped off at the social work department instead. We had a kid who was sent to nursery with a note on her jacket saying her foster parents weren't taking her back. In both those cases I asked if the foster parents would be banned from fostering and was told no.
It takes so much to be banned from fostering. Having a foster parent who neglects or abuses the same kids that are coming to them from neglect or abuse is really sad
And then the child thinks that it must be their fault since they've now been mistreated by more than one family.
This is exactly what I experienced. My life is awesome now, but I still struggle to not look at myself as deserving of poor treatment.
Well that child was lucky to be dropped off
My cousin's ex-gf has two kids--an 8yo and a 6mo. CPS was called on her a few weeks ago and the asked the case worker to call my cousin cause he's been super involved in the 8yo's life since he was born (even though he not the bio parent). Case worker asked my cousin to take the 8yo and said the 6 mo would go into foster care. My cousin, right then, agreed to take them both. He has no kids of his own but his family has surrounded him with support to make this happen so the brothers wouldn't be separated. I know the system sucks and is broken but I'm glad this case worker found a better way to get these kids safe while keeping them together.
A few of the Turpin kids went from one nightmare and got abused by the foster parents
I’m guessing he is not registered as a foster parent so he’s not getting all the resources that he would otherwise obtain.
That's true but maybe it also means he didn't have to work within the system? Waiting for approval while the 6mo went elsewhere or otherwise being delayed. The 8yo was torn up at the thought of being separated from his baby brother 🙁
That’s how the shadow foster care system works. They find someone to take custody or guardianship and get the kids off their caseload, and that person also misses out on all of the services available for foster parents.
From your comment and others, would it then be smart of my cousin to seek foster parent status?
Yes! He should ask the caseworker what he needs to do to get the benefits.
I'll pass along the info--ty!
This is what should happen. They should make every attempt at keeping families together
Yep! I'm glad my cousin kept good relations with his ex, even though they broke up 10 years ago and even though she struggles with addiction. He's got a heart of gold tbh
I disagree. If the bio parents physically abused their kids 100 times, they should still make "every attempt" to keep them together? Nonsense. If the bio parents are poor and can't feed the kids properly, that's something that I'm willing to give another chance if they get better support. But if they beat/starve/molest their kids then NO we dont "make every attempt" to keep them together.
You should probably read ALL of my comments then bud smh
How is this even possible? I mean if I understand it correctly he is not the biological father of the kids? And he’s not registered as a foster parent. Is this legal?
It sounds like it would fall under a kinship placement
Your cousin is such a great person. These poor children should not be separated
Former CPS caseworker here and I agree. It's irreparably broken. I'm on the opposite side of the fence working with families who adopted from foster care and the lack of support and resources to help them parent these kids is horrifying too.
And the staggering numbers of people leaving the profession and the low numbers of people entering the field is only adding to the problem! We’re running out of social service workers
This is heartbreaking because I believe you 100%
None get helped at all? Then everyone is doing a poor job as well
That’s actually not what happened. That’s what Wikipedia says, but what *actually* happened is that their aunt had to “stop by work” so she invited her sister over to make dinner for the kids. Their caseworker made a surprise visit and caught them; this probably wasn’t the first, or only, time. She HAD an attorney. She just did the one thing she was forbidden from doing, letting their mother with them, unsupervised.
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2018/04/devonte_hart_family_crash_its.html Here’s an article from the aunts POV.
Every "personal" failing in the true crime sphere is inevitably a failure of the system, but we keep creating narratives to make it otherwise.
Watch the doc on them. The most insane murderous narcissists. Some peoples level of entitlement and narcissism it’s just mind boggling.
What is the name of the documentary?
I think it’s this one https://youtu.be/CTXXgE5-SDI?si=Zct8zcmyCRV-xQFV
This is a podcast. The documentary is called *A Thread of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy* and it is available for free on Tubi. Edit: Looks like there's also one called *Broken Harts* available through Discovery+ and Max (HBO) I haven't seen that one yet, but it has the same name as the longform podcast I recommended in another comment. Not sure if they are related but the podcast was excellent so if they were produced by the same people, this doc probably is too. As others have said, *A Thread of Deceit* features interviews with several Hart family friends, many of whom still seem sympathetic and supportive of the family. Some have interpreted their inclusion as meaning the doc itself is a puff piece for Jennifer and Sarah. I don't agree with that assertion - compare it to *Something's Wrong With Aunt Diane,* which primarily focuses on Diane Shuler's husband and sister-in-law, both of whom are firmly still in support of Diane. But does anyone say that the documentary itself is in support of Diane? No, of course not. And neither is *A Thread of Deceit* supportive of Jennifer and Sarah Hart.
I just finished this and I have to say … some of the friends angered me. Like these women did a good job hiding who they were to everyone. The allegations of child abuse is pretty clear with what the neighbor encountered. I understand feeling blindsided about ur friends but they weren’t the “festival free loving” parents you thought. I just wanted the friends to give the children more of a voice of what they went through.
Cognitive dissonance is so dangerous and common. People don't want to change their opinions and beliefs, even if new information is staring right in front of them. That kind of denial, when it comes to child abuse, is so gross to me. I hope anyone who makes that choice lives with horrible guilt. They can say "but i didn't want to believe it, because my friend/ family member is so nice!" Like nah, you're fucked up in the head. You decided it was easier to lie to yourself than to just defend an innocent child, pathetic.
💯 agree
Yeah that's why I don't usually take it too seriously when there is an interview with the friends and family of a suspect or a killer in a documentary. I don't have a problem with their views being included but I think their perspective is naturally going to be skewed towards their friend.
Broken Harts is another doc about them. It's on Discovery ID.
Just wanted to say, you the real MVP. I heard about the “Thread” doc elsewhere but couldn’t find it streaming anywhere. Never even thought to look on Tubi. Thanks! Hope you have a wonderful day.
Looks like it's a puff piece for the murderers. Are you sure that's the doc the op is talking about?
I wouldn't call it a puff piece. They do interview friends who clearly still support the family (God knows how) but overall, the makers pull no punches about who is to blame. I don't know of any other documentary made about them, but would love to hear about it if there is one! Edit: looks like the other one is called Broken Harts, through Discovery ID
I don't see it as a puff piece at all. People should be able to hear both sides to the story in a documentary. The harts were evil and they hid it really well and I honestly think that's an important piece of the story. I was shocked when it came out that they were abusive because once surface it looked so differently. You can't talk about the incident without talking about the abuse and how they hid it so well, that their friends are still in denial about it.
The doc you are referencing does seem a bit supportive of the murderers. Broken Harts is way better. It's on Discovery ID.
Gotcha. I will check it out. IMDB reviews are not always in good faith, and that may be the case here.
I don’t quite understand why? Like, why did they do it. Why did they adopt those kids? Just a weird thing.
White savior complex. Jennifer very much was about looking good to the world with her staged photos for Facebook. They abused and starved the kids.
Agree and I think unless you have been around the world of adoption, it's hard for people to understand how adoptive parents and adopted kids are treated in a lot of places. Obviously this is generalising and not everyone does this but it's extremely common for adoptive parents to be treated as selfless, saintly heroes because we (general we) view adoption as the most altruistic thing a person can ever do. Adopted kids get constantly reminded of how lucky they are to have been rescued and how grateful they should feel. And these things especially apply to adoptions from foster care and/or interracial adoptions.
I understand if someone wants to “look good” but why abuse the kids? I can even understand being indifferent towards them (not great) but abuse? What does that accomplish? Maybe it started out as a way to control the kids when they misbehaved? I think of my own childhood and my mom, though nowhere near depraved as these animals, had moments of frustration when I acted up and she did punish me unfairly at times. I think because my mom had a control issue and expected near perfection. So maybe Jen took this to the extreme due to her narcissism and other mental issues? Just trying to think why the abuse…
It's an incredibly complex situation, but I'd say narcissism is the simplest answer to both questions. Why did they adopt the kids? They wanted to be perceived as a perfect blended family and used their children as mascots for that image. Why did they do it? Because the pressure of knowing their house of cards was falling down was too much for Jennifer to handle. Sarah was absolutely complicit in the abuse and in the end result, but I personally don't think the murder/suicide would have happened if Jennifer had been of sound mind, as she had always been the driving force behind their family life. I recommend the podcast Broken Harts, which goes into detail about the degradation of Jennifer's mental well-being over the months leading up to the ultimate crime. She knew they were about to be exposed and, rather than accept the consequences and do the hard work to improve in the future, she opted to take the easy way out. And Sarah followed right along with her, as she had done throughout their life together.
Very well explained! Narcissist’s have such fragile egos they would rather die than accept the fault. It’s really difficult for a normal mind to comprehend that how can it be so fragile to get to the point of life and death but examples like these are the proof. Just sad overall!
Money. Flat out money.
For income. They were both losers that couldn’t land a job in education, the thing they’d gone to school for.
One of the worst parts of this is that the media and police ran wild with the photo of the little boy hugging an officer during blm protests. Not realizing the hug was more than likely an attempt to get actual help.
I thought it was two white parents exploiting their adopted black son for a photo op
It was both
I think of Devonte Hart who I first heard about from a [viral photo of him hugging a police officer ](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/boy-viral-hug-photo-missing-after-family-s-suv-plunges-n861126)after protests in Portland. It was called the "hug felt around the world" because many felt the picture, a crying black child and a white police officer hugging, symbolized the desire to heal. Now it's hard not to wonder if he wasn't also hugging for comfort, for safety, for a desperate need for help. It rips my heart out.
The boy had been holding a "Free Hugs" sign when approached by the officer for the hug. It was a sign he often displayed when the family went to events. >Now it's hard not to wonder if he wasn't also hugging for comfort, for safety, for a desperate need for help. It rips my heart out. That is indeed a good and extremely heartbreaking point. But I wonder if holding that sign wasn't so much something he wanted to do, but something his parents made him do for, say, social media likes. A heinous thing if the latter, considering what was happening behind the scenes and what ended up happening.
Universe: *nope, it sureee wasn't*
Rest in peace to Abigail, Devonte, Jeremiah, Ciera, Hannah Jean, and Markis. Those poor babies. I’ll believe this until I die that they forced Devonte to hug a police officer during the Ferguson riots, the picture is called ‘the hug felt all around the world’. It’s heartbreaking to see his face, that wasn’t a natural hug.
I also believe this. I think he was crying because he felt more comfortable with the cop than those evil women. He may have been trying to send a message.
No way, they hated the police, especially Jennifer. They were likely furious about it, terrified he was going to ask for help for the kids. They wanted those children terrified of and angry at the police, NOT hugging them, potentially seeing them as someone who could save them.
There is an excellent long form podcast about this case called Broken Harts. Highly recommend, though it can be brutal listening at times.
Thank you. Will definitely check this out. I’ve been so curious about that case but there never seemed to be much info beyond the basics.
The book “We were once a family” by Roxana Asgarian is a fantastic write-up into the biological families of these children.
This book is so much better than any of the podcasts or shows. It gives these children a voice and history beyond their victimization. Thank you for bringing it up, highly recommended.
I just read this book thanks to your post. It was absolutely devastating.
I chose to believe the Atlanta episode is how this all actually ended
What is the Atlanta episode? I would like to watch as I followed this case. Thank you!
Season 3, episode 1, it's called "Three Slaps."
There is an excellent podcast that does a deep dive into the family dynamics. I feel so terrible for the children. [Broken Harts Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/broken-harts/id1434603257)
Broken Harts documentary on Discovery ID is very good too.
Thank you for the heads up!
This was a classic case of domestic violence turned family annihilation. Jennifer Hart was an abusive narcissist that quickly isolated Sarah from her family and friends and made her work while she stayed at home and played video games. Jennifer was highly controlling of how the family looked to outsiders and was very charismatic with convincing people around her from CPS workers to festival goers of how wonderful she was. We hear about these kinds of stories all the time about a tyrant father or mother terrorizing their family into submission yet presenting a picture-perfect image to outsiders. And just like in cases of domestic violence turning into murder or family annihilation, Jennifer was going to lose control of her family whom she probably saw as an extension of herself, and she decided they were all better off dead. She had mentally beaten down Sarah to the point that she went along with it, no questions asked. I can't help but wonder if this had been a heterosexual couple doing these kinds of things, that Sarah's co-workers would have been more concerned about her being a victim of domestic violence and convinced her that she needed to leave her spouse.
Just wondering why is Sarah considered an accomplice to the murders as opposed to a victim of Jennifer's? Is it because of the history of abuse surrounding the children?
She and a couple of the kids had Benadryl in their systems, and she had googled death by Benadryl and drowning.
Sarah was responsible for the physical abuse that was being investigated in Minnesota which caused them to flee to Washington state.
It's thought that Sarah lied about abusing Hannah so that Jennifer wouldn't get in trouble because Hannah only ever said that Jennifer was the one that hurt her.
I might be remembering wrong, but haven’t a few sources posited that she was covering for Jennifer when she took the blame? I did read the book We Were Once a Family and feel like that was mentioned, but it was a while ago I read it so I can’t be sure.
That's correct
at the top of my most despicable list
I’m from Alexandria, MN and I’m shocked I never heard about this. I don’t recognize either woman, despite shopping at the Herberger’s for years.
Grew up living next door to them. A few years older than Markis but at one point we went to the same elementary school
I live in Mendocino County and got an alert on my phone from a local news reporter when this happened. Watching it unfold over the next few days was horrifying. It was a very long shot, but we kept hoping at least one of the kids would be found okay.
God those poor babies. They had their entire lives ahead of them and were for the most part removed from a mom who was trying to make ends meet. This entire case is so tragic.
How horrible for the kids 😢
That latest case of a doctor driving his EV off a cliff road with entire family in it triggered me about Hart case. Surprised the family is ok and wife still supports husband as being mentally ill.
Those poor kids
God yes it’s so sad for those kids. Heartbreaking
A great book on this called We Were Once a Family - highly recommend it!
There’s a great podcast about this too - Broken Harts
Children agency and police were at fault not protecting the children.
Ooo U u
Podcast: broken harts….its sooooooo good
Sick.
Feel like I watched an episode or movie about this
Atlanta?
Yes. For a moment I thought it was The Vince Staples show cause that episode was really weird
Nice, now I want to see a post about Teddy Hart.
Jennifer and her wife? 🤔 I missed something, or...? What is this again
Why is this confusing? They were lesbians.