#24: Murder on the Cliff - The Hart Family Case - Nightwatch Files

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Before we begin. Do you have a theory about this
case or a story of your own? Leave a message
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files without the space, or head over to night watchfiles
dot com to find them all in one place. Your
insights might be featured in a future episode. I'm Harper Finley,
and this is night Watch Files. The Pacific Coast Highway

(00:27):
winds through some of California's most spectacular scenery, offering travelers
breathtaking views of rugged cliffs plunging into the churning waters below.
Along this stretch of road in Mendocino County, scenic turn
offs provide opportunities for visitors to pause and take in
the dramatic coastline moments of tranquility above one of nature's

(00:47):
most powerful forces. On the evening of March twenty fifth,
twenty eighteen, a retired couple had chosen one such turn
off for their overnight stop. Traveling in their recreational vehicle.
They had pulled into the small parking area. Perched high
above the Pacific Ocean. The location offered an unobstructed view
of waves crashing against jagged rocks a hundred feet below

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the rhythmic sound of water meeting stone, creating a natural
soundtrack to the approaching night. At approximately eleven o'clock, the
man noticed another vehicle arriving at the same turn off.
A gold sport utility vehicle pulled into the parking area
and came to a stop near by. The occupants remained
inside their vehicle, silhouettes barely visible in the darkness. The

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man thought nothing of it. Travelers often stopped at these
scenic overlooks to rest for the night, or simply to
take in the view. The night was clear and calm.
The retired couple settled into their RV for what they
expected would be a peaceful night's sleep. At three o'clock
in the morning, tranquility shattered. The man was jolted awake

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by the sharp, unmistakable sound of tires screeching against pavement.
The noise was brief but violent, followed immediately by the
harsh scraping of metal against asphalt the distinctive sound of
a vehicle's under carriage dragging across the ground. Alarmed, he
quickly got out of his r V and made his
way to the cliff's edge. The darkness below was absolute.

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He strained to see or hear anything that might explain
the disturbing sounds that had awakened him. For a moment,
he thought he detected something a cry. It sounded like,
but it was so faint and distant that he couldn't
be certain. It might have been the call of a seal,
or simply the wind playing tricks on his ears. After
several minutes of peering into the darkness and hearing nothing more,

(02:41):
he returned to his r V, unsettled but unsure of what,
if anything, had occurred. At approximately two o'clock in the
afternoon on March twenty sixth, a German tourist walking along
the rocky beach below made a discovery that would reveal
what the previous night's mysterious sounds were. There at the
bottom of the one hundred foot cliff lay the mangled

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wreckage of a gold SUV. Emergency responders arriving at the
scene discovered the vehicle had been completely destroyed by the impact.
Inside and around the wreckage were the five occupants of
the vehicle, two adults and three children. All were deceased.

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In the early decades of the nineteenth century, America's approach
to vulnerable children was both primitive and harsh. Before the
establishment of formal orphans, destitute children found themselves swept up
in mass round ups and imprisoned alongside hardened adult criminals.
The site was disturbingly common in rapidly growing cities like
New York, where thousands of children, many from impoverished immigrant families,

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survived on the streets through whatever means they could find.
These street children represented a complex cross section of urban poverty.
Some were true orphans, having lost both parents to disease
or accident. Others came from homes ravaged by substance abuse,
where parents were alive but incapable of providing care. Still,

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others were runaways fleeing situations too dangerous or desperate to endure.
Regardless of their circumstances, society viewed them as a single,
troublesome mass requiring containment. The eighteen hundreds brought with it
a wave of reformist thinking that would reshape how America
handled its most vulnerable children. New charities emerged across the nation,

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establishing institutions specifically designed to house what they termed orphans,
though this definition stretched far beyond children who had lost
both parents. In practice, many of these so called orphans
had living parents who were simply too poor to provide
adequate care. The distinction mattered little to the institutions, which

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focused their efforts primarily on poor white children, particularly those
from the growing waves of Irish and Italian immigrants flooding
American cities. However, this charitable movement had clear racial boundaries.
Black children were systematically excluded from these early orphanages, a
practice that continued until eighteen thirty six, when the Association

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for the Benefit of Colored Orphans was founded in New York.
Even then, the system maintained its discriminatory nature through a
deliberate structural design. Institutions for dependent children operated alongside facilities
for juvenile delinquent, and Black children found themselves disproportionately funneled
into the latter category, regardless of their actual circumstances. The

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most ambitious attempt to address the growing population of street
children came through the vision of Charles Loring Brace and
the Children's Aid Society he co founded. Beginning in eighteen
fifty four, Brace launched what would become known as the
Orphan Train Movement, a sweeping program that would continue for
seventy five years until nineteen twenty nine. The society's own

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promotional materials revealed the stark utilitarian nature of their mission,
stating their goal of draining the city of these children
by connecting them with families in rural areas who needed
them for employment. The mechanics of this system were remarkably
straightforward and deeply troubling. Approximately two hundred thousand children were

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loaded onto trains and transported to Western states, where they
would be distributed to farming families. Upon arrival, these families
had options. They could formally adopt the children, or sign
contracts for indentured labor that would bind the child to
work until age twenty one in exchange for basic room
and board. The transactional nature of these arrangements was made

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explicit in newspaper advertisements of the time. A Nebraska paper
from nineteen twelve described how families could effectively order children
based on specific preferences for gender and skin color, as
if selecting livestock from a catalog. Parallel to these developments,
the US government was implementing its own systematic approach to

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child removal, targeting Native American families beginning in the eighteen sixties.
This program forcibly separated Native American children from their families
and communities, sending them to boarding schools designed to eliminate
their cultural identity. The explicit purpose of this policy was
articulated with chilling clarity by Rias Richard Henry Pratt, founder

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of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. His stated mission was
to kill the Indian in him and save the man.
This systematic cultural destruction aimed to solve what government officials
termed the Indian problem by forcing children to abandon their
native languages, adopt English exclusively, and convert to Christianity. The

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program represented a form of cultural genocide carried out through
the manipulation of vulnerable children, separated from the protection and
guidance of their families and communities. The informality that had
previously characterized child rearing arrangements began to change in the
eighteen fifties, when adoption practices started being codified into American law.

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Before this period, the raising of other people's children had
been largely handled through informal agreements and community understanding. The
new legal framework sought to bring structure and oversight to
these relationships. The motivations were not entirely altruistic. The early
nineteen hundreds brought additional changes to child welfare policy, largely

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driven by white feminist activists who advocated for aid to
widowed mothers. These efforts led to the creation of mother's pensions,
designed to allow widowed women to care for their children
at home rather than surrender them to institutions. However, these
pensions came with a significant caveat. Recipients were required to

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maintain a suitable home, a deliberately vague standard that was
weaponized to exclude black mothers from assistants. The discriminatory application
of this requirement was stark. In nineteen thirty one, only
three per cent of these pensions went to Black mothers,
despite their representing a much larger proportion of families in need.

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Minnesota made history in nineteen seventeen by becoming the first
state to mandate comprehensive investigations before finalizing adoptions. These investigations
examined both the childyild's background and the prospective family suitability,
an early version of what would evolve into the modern
home study process. This represented a significant shift toward viewing

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adoption as requiring careful evaluation rather than simple placement. The
juvenile justice system also underwent significant changes during this period,
beginning with the creation of the nation's first juvenile reformatory
in eighteen twenty five. The New York House of Refuge
was established by the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism

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and was intended as a more humane alternative to housing
children alongside adult criminals. The concept seemed progressive on its surface,
but reality proved far different. These juvenile institutions quickly became
overcrowded and plagued by widespread abuse, mirroring many of the
problems they had been designed to solve. The reformatory system,

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rather than providing the rehabilitation and carit promised, often became
another form of institutional warehouse housing for society's unwonted children.
Throughout this period, the treatment of vulnerable children reflected broader
societal attitudes about poverty, race, and social control. The systems
established during these formative decades would create lasting patterns of

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institutional bias and structural inequality that would persist for generations.
Children were viewed not as individuals deserving protection and care,
but as social problems requiring management and control. The solutions
implemented often served the interests of the institutions and the
broader society rather than the children they claimed to help.

(11:52):
Quick break ads keep the show running. But if you
want to skip them, the ad free versions on Patreon
for just three bucks an links in the show notes,
and we're back. Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get
back to it. In nineteen seventy, two girls were born

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who would later become central figures in a tragic story
that would expose the failures of America's child welfare system.
Though they would not meet for decades, the early lives
of Sherri Davis and Tammy Shirick followed disturbingly similar patterns
of trauma, loss, and systemic abandonment. Sherry Davis entered the
world in Houston's Fourth Ward, a historically black neighborhood that

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by nineteen seventy had fallen into steep decline. The area
that had once been home to a vibrant African American
community now bore the scars of urban decay and neglect.
Shechery lived with her mother, Rosemary Harlan, her younger siblings
Joshua and Alicia, and her mother's boyfriend, Lonnie Ray Curtis.
Violence was woven into the fabric of Sherry's childhood, Lonnie

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Curtis terrorized the household with regular beatings directed at Rosemary.
The children watched helplessly as he hit their mother, brandished
a pistol at her during arguments, and on at least
one occasion, beat her so severely with the weapon that
she required hospitalization. The atmosphere of fear and unpredictability became

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the backdrop against which Sherry's formative years unfolded. The violence
that had defined her childhood reached its inevitable conclusion. One night,
when Sherry was twelve years old, Lonnie had been drinking
and the children could hear him arguing with their mother
from another room. The familiar sound of him rummaging through

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a cabinet was followed by something far more final, a
gunshot that shattered the night and changed everything. Sherry and
Alicia found their mother stumbling from the bedroom, blood spurting
from her neck in rhythmic pulses. They watched in horror
as Rosemary collapsed in the doorway, her life ending before
their eyes, Aslani fled into the darkness. He was later

(14:07):
arrested and charged with her murder, but for Sherry and
her siblings, the damage was irreversible. The children went to
live with an aunt, but stability remained elusive. Soon they
found themselves truly homeless, sleeping in cars and surviving on
the streets. It was during this period of complete abandonment
that Sherry encountered crack cocaine. The drug would become a

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defining force in her life, offering temporary escape from trauma
that had never been addressed or treated. At fifteen, just
three years after witnessing her mother's murder, Sherry gave birth
to her first son, DeMarcus. High School became a memory
as she struggled to care for her child while trapped
in an abusive relationship with a man who controlled her

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every movement. A second son, DeAndre, followed, shortly after. The
pattern of loss that had begun with her mother's death
can continued with devastating consistency. Sherry left her two young
sons with a friend, but when that friend didn't hear
from her for several weeks, child protective Services was contacted.

(15:12):
Sherry claimed her abusive boyfriend had kidnapped her, but the
explanation wasn't enough to save her relationship with her children.
Both boys were permanently removed from her care and adopted
through the foster system. At nineteen, while pregnant with her
third child, Sherry reconnected with Nathaniel Davis, a man forty

(15:32):
seven years old who had known her family for most
of her life. Despite the significant age difference, Nathaniel represented
something Sherry had rarely experienced, stability and genuine care. He
wanted to be a father figure to her children and
was willing to raise them as his own, even as
Sherry continued to have relationships with other men. This unconventional

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arrangement would become the closest thing to a functional family
structure that Sharedry's children would know. However, tragedy struck again
when her third son, to Quince, was just three months old.
The baby's biological father took him out for the day
and returned him with a swollen arm and multiple broken bones.

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Terrified of another encounter with CPS, Sherry made the desperate
decision to take the injured infant from the hospital. The
attempt to hide from the authorities was feudle. De Quince
was inevitably removed from her care and later adopted. The
loss of another child drove Sherry deeper into crack cocaine addiction.
Despite her struggles with addiction, Sherry continued to have children.

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She gave birth to Dante, who received Nathaniel's surname of Davis,
acknowledging his role as the family's stabilizing force. Five years later,
Devanni was born. Sherry found work as a home health aid,
but Nathaniel remained the primary caregiver for the boys. She
genuinely loved her children, ensuring they were well fed and
properly clothed, but her cocaine habit persisted like a shadow

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over their lives. In two thousand and four, Sherry began
a relationship with Clarence Celestine, which resulted in the birth
of another son, Jeremiah. Both Sherry and the newborn tested
positive for cocaine at birth, triggering another CPS intervention. This time,
the agency formalized what had already been the reality. Custody
of the children was awarded to Nathaniel Davis. The family

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would remain under close scrutiny due to Sherry's history with
the system and her ongoing struggles with addiction. Three hundred
miles away in Ingleside, Texas, Tammy Shorick was experiencing her
own version of childhood trauma and systemic failure, raised primarily
by her maternal grandparents, whom she called Mom and Papa.

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Tammy had been separated from her mother, Maxina as a toddler.
Her father, John was frequently absent due to military service,
leaving the girl in the care of elderly relatives who
were unprepared for what would unfold. Early signs suggested that
Tammy had experienced sexual abuse as a young child. She
exhibited alarming sexualized behaviors that deeply concerned her grandparents. Tammy

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herself maintains that she remembers being sexually abused by her father,
though her stepmother vehemently denies these allegations. Whatever the truth,
the trauma went unreported, despite the fact that her grandfather
was a minister at the Englicide Church of Christ, a
man who presumably understood the importance of protecting children. As

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Tammy entered adolescence, her psychological struggles intensified dramatically. She experienced
intense sexual urges, intrusive thoughts, and a paralyzing fear of
abandonment that consumed her daily existence. Her desperate search for
attention from boys and men alarmed her religious grandparents, who
responded by withdrawing from her emotionally at the very moment

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she needed support most. At thirteen, overwhelmed by her inturnal torment,
Tammy threatened suicide. This crisis led to her first admission
to the San Antonio State Hospital, beginning a cycle of
institutionalization that would define her teenage years. Over the following years,
she would be hospitalized three separate times, receiving diagnoses of

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borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder PTSD, and major depression. Her
final institutional stay lasted six months while she waited for
a bed at the Waco Center for Youth, where she
remained for thirteen additional months. The extensive institutionalization failed to
provide Tammy with the tools she needed to function in

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the outside world. When she was finally released, she felt
alienated both at home and at school. At seventeen, feeling
desperate and alone, she made an impulsive decision that would
leave her completely homeless. She took a bus to Houston
to meet an older man she had connected with, only
to be stood up and abandoned in a strange city.

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When Tammy contacted her grandfather for help, his response was
both cold and final. You made your bed, you lie
in it. This rejection from the man who had raised
her left seventeen year old Tammy homeless on the streets
of Houston for an entire month, struggling to survive with
untreated mental illness and no support system. At eighteen, Tammy

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became pregnant with her first child, Marcus, whose father was
a black man named Mark. Despite her youth and instability,
she carried the pregnancy to term, though her frequent homelessness
meant that Marcus lived primarily with his grandparents. When Marcus
was three and a half, Tammy gave birth to Hannah,
whose father was also a black man. The cycle of

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unstable housing and inconsistent parenting continued. Tammy's first direct encounter
with Child Protective Services came in July two thousand three,
when one and a half year old Hannah was bitten
by ants at a birthday party. One of the bites
developed into to a serious m RSA staff infection that
required hospitalization. A doctor, concerned about potential medical neglect, reported

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the case to CPS, which opened an investigation. Tammy's stepmother, Trish,
vouched for her character, and she completed the required parenting classes,
temporarily satisfying the agency's concerns. Frightened by this brush with
the child welfare system, Tammy initially considered placing her third
child up for adoption when she discovered she was pregnant again.

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Abigail was born in December two thousand three, but Tammy
ultimately changed her mind about the adoption, deciding to keep
the baby despite her ongoing struggles with housing and mental health.
The situation reached a crisis point in February two thousand four,
when two year old Hannah developed pneumonia. Tammy found herself

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in an impossible situation. She had no reliable transportation and
no one to watch her other two children while she
sought medical care. She claimed she was trying to arrange
transport to a hospital in Houston, an hour away, where
she felt comfortable seeking treatment. Tammy's case worker, Sharon Kirby,
arrived during this crisis and helped transport the family to

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the hospital. However, once there, a nurse spoke privately with
the case worker, who then returned with paperwork to remove
all three children from Tammy's custody, citing medical neglect. The
very person who had helped her get to the hospital
had become the agent of her family's destruction. Colorado County

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pursued criminal charges against Tammy for child endangerment, specifically for
failing to seek timely medical treatment for Hannah. She received
deferred adjudication, which should have allowed her to avoid conviction
by meeting certain conditions. However, her fixed disability income made
it impossible to pay the required court fees or complete

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the mandated community service. As a result, she was jail
held twice for non compliance with court orders, a cruel
irony that punished her poverty rather than addressing the underlying
issues that had led to the children's removal. Following the
loss of her children, Tammy fell into a profound depression
that rendered her unable to care for herself or maintain

(23:17):
her living situation. The woman who had spent her childhood
moving between institutions and her adolescence struggling with untreated mental illness,
now faced the additional trauma of having her children permanently
removed from her care. The early lives of Sherry Davis
and Tammy Shurick reveal the interconnected failures of multiple systems

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designed to protect vulnerable individuals. Both women experienced childhood trauma
that was never adequately addressed mental health issues that when untreated,
and encounters with child welfare agencies that prioritized removal over support.
Their stories illustrate how cycles of trauma and poverty can
span generations, creating conditions that make tragic outcomes not just possible,

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but probable. In two thousand and five, Jennifer and Sarah
Hart achieved certification as foster parents in Minnesota, joining the
ranks of couples committed to providing homes for children in need.

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The lesbian couple represented what many considered the progressive face
of modern adoption. Educated, financially stable, and eager to provide
loving homes for children who had experienced trauma and loss.
Their first placement was a teenage foster daughter named Bree,
whose mother they described to social services as a family friend.
The Hearts appeared dedicated to helping Bree navigate the challenges

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of adolescence while maintaining appropriate boundaries with her biological family.
During this period, they also began researching additional adoption opportunities,
focusing their attention on children of color, who often faced
longer waits for permanent placements. By August two thousand five,
the Hearts had received authorization to adopt, and they identified

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three biracial siblings from Columbus County, Texas who captured their hearts.
Marcus was almost ten years old, Hannah was six, and
Abigail had just turned four. These children had endured years
of instability and trauma, moving through multiple placements after being
removed from their troubled biological mother, Tammy Shuick. The Hearts

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made the journey to Houston on Christmas Day two thousand
and five to meet the children for the first time.
Jennifer would later write emotionally on Facebook about what she
described as an instant bond with little Abigail, whom she
held for the first time on the child's birthday. The
couple appeared genuinely committed to providing these children with the stable,

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loving home they had never known. As the adoption process
moved forward, the Hearts made the practical decision to adjust
their household arrangements. Two weeks before the children were scheduled
to move to Minnesota. They worked with Breeze Care Team
to transition her to a different placement, explaining that she
was experiencing some emotional difficulties that required specialized attention. In

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March two thousand six, Marcus, Hannah, and Abigail arrived at
the Hart's home in Alexandria, Minnesota. Jennifer's subsequent Facebook posts
described the challenges of their early days together. The children
exhibited severe behavioral problems that reflected their traumatic backgrounds, including
disturbed sleep patterns, food hoarding, and difficulty with emotional regulation.

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The situation was so concerning that the family made an
emergency room visit during their first night together. Jennifer portrayed
their commitment to keeping the children despite these challenges as
an act of love, describing their determination to rescue these
children from what she characterized as a failing foster care system.
The adoption was legally finalized in September two thousand six,

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providing security for three children who had known little stability
in their young lives. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Houston,
another group of siblings was navigating their own difficult journey
through the child welfare system. Dante DeVante, Jeremiah, and Sierra
Davis had been placed with their paternal aunt, Priscilla Celestine,

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in Houston's fourth Ward during the summer of two thousand six,
after being separated in different foster placements. This reunification with
family appeared to offer hope for stability. These children carried
their own histories of trauma, having been removed from their
biological mother, Sherrie Davis, due to her struggles with substance

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abuse and the domestic violence they had witnessed. Priscilla Celestine
was a devout, church going woman who genuinely wanted to
p a permanent home for her nephews and niece. However,
she immediately faced the financial realities that made kinship care challenging.
Relative placements received significantly less financial support than traditional foster care,

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leaving Priscilla struggling to meet the basic needs of four
additional children on her limited income. She relied heavily on
support from Nathaniel Davis, the children's father figure, and their
biological mother, Sherry, who regularly brought clothes and food despite
having lost custody. Determined to provide legal permanency for the children,

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Priscilla hired attorney Shonda Jones to help navigate the adoption process.
Jones advised both Sherri Davis and the children's father, Clarence Celestine,
that voluntarily terminating their parental rights would improve Priscilla's chances
of successfully adopting the children and keeping the family together.
On August twenty ninth, two thousand and six, both parents

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agreed to terminate their parental rights, believing this sacrifice would
secure their children's future with a loving family member. However,
this well intentioned legal decision would have unintended consequences that
no one fully understood at the time. The family's carefully
constructed plan began to unravel on a December day in

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two thousand and six, when caseworker Temka Lipsey made a routine,
unannounced visit to Priscilla's apartment. She discovered Sherrie Davis there
watching the children, which violated the specific conditions of the
placement that prohibited unsupervised contact between the children and their
biological mother, whose rights had been terminated. After consulting with

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her supervisor, Lipsey was ordered to remove all four children
immediately due to what was characterized as potential risk of harm.
The removal was swift and devastating. Dante was collected from school,
witnessing the traumatic scene of his crying younger siblings being
placed into the caseworker's vehicle while his mother pleaded for reconsideration.

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Sherry's words to her children were kiss your Mama. The
siblings were once again separated. Dante was placed in one
foster home, while DeVante, Jeremiah, and Sierra were placed together
in another. Priscilla was informed that she would have no
further contact with the children. She had been fighting to adopt.
The foster home where the three younger children were placed,

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proof challenging, with the foster mother frequently complaining about normal
childhood behaviors such as bed wetting and high activity levels.
In May two thousand seven, refusing to abandon her commitment
to the children, Priscilla filed a formal petition to adopt them. However,
unbeknownst to her or the biological family, the children had

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already been listed on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange, a
public database successible to prospective adoptive parents throughout the country.
Despite the challenges they had in care with their first
three adoptions, the Hart family began exploring opportunities to expand
their family further. Less than six months after Marcus, Hannah,

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and Abigail's adoption was finalized, Jennifer and Sarah began searching
for additional children to adopt. By Christmas two thousand seven,
they had identified their next placement, DeVante Jeremiah and Sierra Davis.
The Heart's expression of interest triggered an interstate home study
process designed to evaluate their suitability as adoptive parents for

(31:30):
these specific children. However, during this evaluation period, an incident
occurred that would later raise questions about the thoroughness of
the review process. In two thousand and eight, Hannah Hart
arrived at school with a visible bruise on her arm.
When questioned by her teacher, the six year old stated
that Jennifer had hit her with a belt. School officials

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reported this allegation to Child Protective Services, initiating an investigation
into potential abuse. The Hearts denied the allegation, and Sarah
ultimately took responsibility for the incident, explaining that she had
lost her temper during a disciplinary situation. The case was
closed without charges being filed. The Texas CPS worker conducting

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the placement update for the pending Heart adoption wrote a
positive review of the family's home environment, describing the children
as living in a stable and loving environment. The worker's
report made no mention of the recent abuse investigation, possibly
due to poor communication between different jurisdictions or because the
case had been closed without substantiation. Meanwhile, Priscilla Celestine's legal

(32:40):
battle to adopt her nephews and niece faced bureaucratic obstacles.
Her petition was denied by Judge Patrick Shelton's court, partly
because the children had lived with her for five and
a half months, just two weeks short of the six
month requirement for adoption finalization. This technical requirement overrode what
many were would consider the obvious benefits of keeping children

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with a loving relative who had been fighting to provide
them a permanent home. Despite Priscilla appealing this decision in
October two thousand eight, the state proceeded with facilitating the
heart adoption. The Davis family was provided no information about
the prospective adoptive parents, with the Department of Family and

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Protective Services classifying all such details as confidential to protect
the privacy of all parties involved. In June two thousand eight,
five year old DeVante, three year old Jeremiah, and two
year old Sierra were transported by airplane to live with
the Hart family in Minnesota. The transition represented a complete

(33:43):
change of environment. They moved from a predominantly black neighborhood
in Houston's fourth ward to Alexandria, Minnesota, a small town
that was ninety six percent white. The children not only
lost their connection to their biological family and cultural commune unity,
but were also permanently separated from their older brother. Dante

(34:04):
remained in a residential treatment center in Texas. Never informed
that his siblings were being moved out of state. He
had requested a home visit with them just one week
before they left Texas, but logistical complications prevented this final goodbye.
The Hart family now consisted of eight members, Jennifer and Sarah,
along with six adopted children, ranging in age from two

(34:27):
to ten years old. All six children were of color,
removed from their biological families due to various circumstances involving poverty,
substance abuse, mental illness, and domestic violence. The couple appeared
to have successfully navigated a complex system to provide permanent
homes for children who had experienced significant trauma. However, later

(34:50):
investigations would reveal troubling details about the Heart family's history
and methods. Brie, their first foster placement, would eventually disclose
the that the Hearts had exercised excessive control over her
finances severely limited her contact with her biological mother, and
maintained such intense surveillance that she felt constantly monitored and restricted.

(35:13):
The claim that Bree's mother was a family friend had
been completely fabricated. The removal of Brie from their home
just before the first adoption was finalized had not been
due to her emotional difficulties, but rather a calculated decision
by the Hearts. They had falsely told her care team
that she was suicidal, a lie that served their purpose

(35:34):
of clearing space for the new arrivals while simultaneously painting
themselves as concerned caregivers dealing with a troubled teenager. Jennifer's
dramatic descriptions of the children's first night the emergency room
visit the extreme behavioral problems would later be recognized as
part of a pattern of exaggeration and manipulation designed to

(35:55):
generate sympathy while explaining away any future concerns about the
children's welfare. This narrative positioning allowed the Hearts to preemptively
characterize any problems as resulting from the children's traumatic backgrounds
rather than their current treatment. The systematic failures that enabled
these adoptions extended far beyond individual caseworker errors. Information about

(36:19):
abuse allegations was not properly shared between states, creating dangerous
gaps in oversight. Financial incentives consistently favored stranger adoption over
kinship care, making it easier for prospective adoptive parents with
resources to acquire children than for loving relatives to keep
families together. Legal technicalities were routinely used to override family

(36:41):
preservation efforts, while the voices and wishes of biological families
were systematically ignored. Most troubling was the revelation that the
couple had been actively scouring adoption websites, specifically searching for
children of color during their early fostering period, suggests that
their motivation was not simply to help children in need,

(37:04):
but to acquire specific types of children for purposes that
would only become clear through their later actions. The heart
adoptions were individual tragedies for the children and families involved,
and at the same time, they exposed the failures of
a system that prioritize the desires of prospective adoptive parents
over the safety and well being of vulnerable children. Quick

(37:47):
break ads keep the show running, but if you want
to skip them. The ad free versions on Patreon for
just three bucks a month. Links in the show notes
and we're back. Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get
back to it. In February two thousand and nine, the

(38:08):
Hart family's second adoption was officially finalized in Minnesota, legally
cementing their control over six children of color who had
been systematically separated from their biological families and communities. One
month later, Jennifer Hart sent an email to friends expressing
relief and happiness about the outcome, noting that a maternal

(38:29):
aunt was still trying to get them back, but framing
the adoption as a happy ending or beginning. This casual
dismissal of Priscilla Celestine's ongoing efforts to reunite with her
nephews and niece revealed the Heart's complete disregard for the
children's connections to their biological family. Despite the enormous challenges

(38:50):
of parenting six traumatized children, the Hearts's appetite for expanding
their family appeared insatiable. Just two months after their second
adoption was finalized and Sarah signed papers for IVF treatment.
The following month, they were already considering adopting another set
of children, twins from Texas, with assistance from caseworker Sharon Kirby,

(39:11):
who had previously facilitated their problematic adoptions. In July two
thousand nine, Sarah underwent an unsuccessful IVF attempt, but the
couple's obsession with acquiring more children continued unabated. Their adoption agency,
the Permanent Family Resource Center, was cited for dozens of
violations and placed on conditional license just months after the

(39:34):
hard adoptions were completed. A Minnesota child welfare worker would
later note that Texas frequently used PFRC for out of
state placements, even when Minnesota's own office did not support
the agency. The first public indication of serious abuse emerged
in November twenty ten, when Abigail's teacher noticed extensive bruising

(39:55):
from her shoulders to her waistline. When questioned, seven year
old Abigail provided specific and disturbing details about her abuse.
She told her teacher and a police officer that Jennifer
had hit her with a closed fist, held her head
under cold water, and denied her food as punishment for
having a penny in her pocket. Despite Abigail clearly naming

(40:18):
Jennifer as her abuser, Sarah Hart took responsibility for the
assault when questioned by police, claiming she had lost her temper.
This strategic misdirection would prove to be part of a
pattern designed to protect Jennifer while positioning Sarah as the
family's designated fall person for any legal consequences. The abuse
extended beyond physical violence to include systematic food deprivation and

(40:42):
psychological torture. In January twenty eleven, Hannah's teacher called the
Hearts after noticing that the child had not eaten all day.
When confronted about this, Hannah revealed that Jennifer had shoved
food in her mouth as punishment for being disrespectful. Sarah's
response to the teacher's concern was both callous and revealing.

(41:04):
She dismissed the situation entirely, stating that Hannah was playing
the food card and instructing the teacher to just give
her water. This response demonstrated not only the parents' awareness
of the children's hunger, but their deliberate strategy of characterizing
the children's basic needs as manipulative behavior. School staff reported

(41:24):
six separate incidents to social services in twenty ten and
twenty eleven, with most relating to the children's desperate hunger.
And their attempts to find food in trash cans. The
frequency and consistency of these reports should have triggered intensive intervention,
but instead, school staff eventually stopped calling the Hearts altogether,

(41:45):
fearing that their reports would result in further punishment for
the children. In April twenty eleven, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty
to misdemeanor domestic violence for her assault on Abigail. She
received a ninety day suspended gar sentence and one year
of probation, a remarkably light consequence for child abuse. However,

(42:06):
the legal system's failure extended far beyond the inadequate sentence.
Immediately following Sarah's conviction, Jennifer and Sarah pulled all six
children from public school and began homeschooling them. This strategic
move effectively eliminated the family's contact with mandatory reporters such
as teachers, social workers, and school nurses who had been

(42:28):
documenting the ongoing abuse. The children were now completely isolated
from any potential sources of help or intervention. At this time,
the family was receiving nearly nineteen hundred dollars per month
in adoption subsidies from Texas, which constituted approximately half of
their household income. Despite Sarah's guilty plea for child abuse,

(42:50):
no state agency in Minnesota or Texas appears to have
considered removing the children or even conducting welfare checks. The
system that had failed to protect the children during the
adoption process continued to abandon them after clear evidence of
abuse had been established. The isolation strategy proved effective in
reducing outside scrutiny, but the abuse continued behind closed doors.

(43:15):
In May twenty twelve, ten year old Hannah suffered a
traumatic dental injury that resulted in both of her front
permanent teeth being knocked out. Jennifer's response to this incident
revealed her disturbing approach to documenting and presenting family traumas
she posted a graphic photograph of the bloody tooth on Facebook,

(43:35):
claiming that Hannah had tripped while running in the house.
Jennifer framed the injury as a not so gentle life
lesson about impermanence, displaying a callous attitude toward her child's
pain and disfigurement. A pediatric dentistry expert later noted that
while the explanation was technically plausible, posting such a graphic

(43:56):
image on social media represented highly unusual and concerning behavior
for a parent. More tellingly, Hannah never received cosmetic replacements
for her missing teeth. This medical neglect had the effect
of making the already small girl appear even younger than
her actual age, further evidencing her vulnerability and difference from

(44:17):
her peers. In early twenty thirteen, once Sarah's probation had ended,
the family began planning another strategic move. They relocated to
West Lynne, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. Jennifer framed this
relocation to friends as an escape to a progressive oasis
where their multiracial, lesbian parented family would be better understood

(44:38):
and accepted. This narrative served multiple purposes. It positioned the
family as victims of discrimination, explained their frequent moves, and
preemptively discredited any future criticism as bigotry rather than legitimate
concern for the children's welfare. However, the move to Oregon
did not end the abuse, and new witnesses began to

(44:59):
notice troubling patterns in the heart household. Family friends Alexandra,
alex Argyropoulos, and Lindsay became increasingly alarmed by Jennifer's harsh
and controlling parenting methods. During visits to the home, they
witnessed Jennifer punish the children for the minor transgression of
eating leftover pizza by forcing them to lie motionless on

(45:21):
an air mattress for five straight hours. They observed that
all the children appeared significantly under weight, and noted that
meditation was regularly used as punishment, forcing the children to
sit in complete silence while wearing sleep masks for extended periods.
These friends recognized that what Jennifer called meditation was actually

(45:42):
a form of psychological torture designed to break the children's
spirits and enforce absolute compliance. However, they were reluctant to
report their concerns immediately, fearing retaliation from Jennifer, who was
known to abruptly cut people out of her life when
they questioned her methods. Eventually, their concern for the children

(46:04):
overcame their fear of Jennifer's reaction, and they made an
anonymous report to Oregon's Department of Human Services in the
summer of twenty thirteen. This report triggered the Hart family's
second official abuse investigation, but the couple had learned from
their previous experience with the system. When a CPS worker

(46:24):
and detective made an unannounced visit to the Heart home
in July twenty thirteen, no one answered the door, despite
the presence of cars in the driveway. This evasion tactic
bought the family time to coordinate their response and prepare
their explanations. Sarah later called the caseworker with a carefully
constructed story. She claimed they had been out picking berries

(46:48):
when the officials arrived, and that Jennifer and the children
were now away at a music festival. When questioned about
the children's apparent malnourishment, Sarah insisted they were not undernourished,
attributing Hannah's particularly small size to her being very petite.
The Minnesota Child Welfare office, which had previous experience with

(47:09):
the Hart family, provided a crucial warning to their Oregon counterparts.
They specifically noted that the Hearts look normal and were
highly skilled at explaining away concerns by referencing the children's
adoption history and supposed food issues. This manipulation caused people
to tend to assign the problems to the children rather

(47:30):
than recognizing parental abuse. The Minnesota caseworker's warning was remarkably prescient.
They explicitly stated that without proper oversight, these children risk
falling through the cracks. This warning represented perhaps the clearest
recognition by any official that the Heart children were in
serious danger and that the family was skilled at manipulating

(47:52):
the system designed to protect them. Despite this warning, the
Oregon investigation proceeded slowly and ineffectively. When the Clacamus County
caseworker finally interviewed the children six weeks after the initial report,
none of them disclosed abuse. Marcus expressed gratitude for his
mother's while the other children showed little emotion responses consistent

(48:16):
with children who had been thoroughly conditioned to protect their abusers.
Jennifer dominated the interview process, demonstrating the controlling behavior that
defined her interactions with the children. She attributed any concerns
to others not understanding their alternative lifestyle, and portrayed herself
as focused on teaching love and compassion. She claimed to

(48:39):
discipline the children using five minute meditation sessions, significantly downplaying
the hours long punishment sessions that witnesses had observed. Medical
examinations revealed alarming evidence of potential abuse and neglect. All
children except Jeremiah were so far below normal growth curves
that their height and weight measurements could not even be

(49:00):
plotted on standard charts. However, the examining doctor expressed no
concerns whatsoever, either missing or ignoring clear signs of chronic malnourishment.
Lacking what they considered sufficient evidence to substantiate maltreatment allegations,
DHS closed the case in August twenty thirteen. This decision

(49:21):
effectively gave the Heart family official clearance to continue their
systematic abuse without fear of intervention. Despite their near complete
isolation from daily public life, Jennifer began an ambitious campaign
to craft a positive public image of her family through
carefully curated social media posts. She frequently updated Facebook with

(49:43):
well lit photographs showing the children engaged in wholesome homeschooling
activities such as gardening and raising chickens. This online presentation
served multiple purposes. It created evidence of a loving, nurturing
environment that could be reference to future questions arose, It
satisfied Jennifer's need for public admiration and validation, and it

(50:04):
provided a stark contrast to the private reality of systematic
abuse and control. Within this public performance, DeVante began to
emerge as the family's primary ambassador and Jennifer's clearly favored child.
He received special privileges and attention that his siblings, particularly
Marcus and Hannah, were denied. This favoritism created additional psychological

(50:28):
trauma for the other children, while positioning DeVante as the
family's public face. The children's carefully orchestrated public appearances often
occurred at music festivals, where their presence seemed designed to
generate positive attention for the family. At the Beloved Festival
in August twenty thirteen, a tearful DeVante wearing a free

(50:49):
Hugs sign, was brought on stage to embrace musician Xavier Rudd.
This moment was captured on video and represented an early
example of how the Hart family used the children's a
pair and emotional responses to generate sympathy and admiration from strangers.
This performance at the music festival would prove to be
a rehearsal for much larger public attention that would eventually

(51:11):
make DeVante internationally famous, while simultaneously masking the systematic abuse
occurring behind the heart. Families carefully maintained facade quick break

(51:35):
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three bucks a month, links in the show notes, and
we're back. Thanks for sticking through that. Let's get back
to it. By twenty fourteen, Jennifer Hart had perfected the

(51:57):
art of public manipulation through carefully social media narratives. Her
Facebook posts portrayed the Heart family as a triumphant story
of love conquering adversity, with herself and Sarah positioned as
heroic saviors who had rescued six traumatized children from what
she repeatedly described as a broken and abysmal foster care system.

(52:18):
Jennifer's posts frequently included elaborate and disturbing details about the
children's alleged histories before their adoption. She wrote about the
children being possessed by demons and described their first night
together as chaotic, with children gorging on food to the
point of choking. These sensationalized accounts served multiple purposes. They

(52:39):
generated sympathy and admiration for the adoptive parents while simultaneously
explaining away any concerning behaviors the children might exhibit in public.
Within this carefully constructed narrative, DeVante increasingly emerged as Jennifer's
favored showcase child. Her posts often highlighted his supposedly wise
beyond his earth year's responses to various situations. One particularly

(53:03):
notable post from twenty fourteen described an alleged encounter in
a grocery store where an elderly man and checkout clerk
were supposedly surprised that DeVante, a black child, wasn't interested
in sports. According to Jennifer's account, DeVante had responded with
mature sophistication, I'm going to be myself, no matter how
much people try to make me something I am not.

(53:26):
This grocery store anecdote was picked up by a New
Zealand based blog and subsequently republished on the Huffington Post's
contributor platform, giving Jennifer's fabricated narratives a wider audience. The
blog post repeated Jennifer's uncorroborated and demonstrably false claims about
DeVante's early childhood, stating that he had entered the world

(53:47):
twelve years ago with drugs pumping through his tiny newborn body,
and that by age four, he had smoked, consumed alcohol,
handled guns, been shot at, and suffered severe abuse and neglect.
These claims were completely fabricated. DeVante's birth mother, Sherri Davis,
would later categorically state that these stories were made up. However,

(54:11):
Jennifer's lies were now part of the public record, creating
a false foundation for the sympathy and support the family
would receive. The culmination of Jennifer's manipulation campaign came just
before Thanksgiving twenty fourteen, at a protest in Portland, Oregon.
The demonstration had been organized in response to a grand
jury's decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson for the

(54:33):
fatal shooting of Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri. It was
a moment of national racial tension and community pain. At
this protest, twelve year old DeVante Hart appeared wearing a
free Hugs sign. He was photographed in an emotional embrace
with Sergeant Brett Barnum, a white Portland police officer, with
tears streaming down his face. The image was immediately seized

(54:56):
upon by media outlets desperate for a symbol of hope
amid nas national division, and was quickly dubbed the Hug
shared around the world by CNN. Jennifer Hart's description of
the moment on Facebook was characteristically self aggrandizing. She described
it as one of the most emotionally charged experiences I've
had as a mother, claiming that DeVante had bravely approached

(55:19):
the officer to initiate a conversation about police brutality. This
narrative portrayed the twelve year old as a mature ambassador
for racial healing while simultaneously celebrating Jennifer's parenting. However, Sergeant
Barnum's recollection of the event differed from Jennifer's heroic narrative.
He told CNN that he had noticed DeVante crying, called

(55:42):
the boy over to him, and they had chatted briefly
before embracing. This version suggested that the officer, not the child,
had initiated the interaction, undermining Jennifer's portrayal of DeVante as
a brave activist. The viral photograph moved millions of people,
who saw it as evidence that racial harmony was possible
even in times of division. However, some observers were disturbed

(56:05):
rather than inspired by the image. Journalist Isabel Wilkerson later
wrote that she saw not black grace but an abused
hostage in the photograph. Other images from the scene revealed
a scrum of photographers capturing the moment and showed DeVante
in clear distress, raising questions about whether the child was
being exploited for public consumption. The viral fame that followed

(56:30):
the photograph created new challenges for the Hart families carefully
maintained facade. Jennifer claimed to friends that the family received
significant attention, both positive and negative. She described Davante being
swarmed by fans requesting autographs and complained about threatening emails
and reporters camping outside their home. She cited harassment from

(56:51):
strangers who disapproved of their multiracial, lesbian parented family as
justification for their increasing social withdrawal. However, Ever, when investigators
later examined the Hearts as computers, they found no evidence
of the threatening e mails Jennifer had described. This absence
of corroborating evidence suggested that Jennifer was fabricating harassment claims

(57:13):
to explain the family's increasing isolation and to generate additional
sympathy from their social circle. Friends and acquaintances noticed that
the Hearts became increasingly withdrawn following DeVante's viral fame. They
frequently canceled one on one plans and social gatherings, even
while continuing to attend large, crowded public events where they

(57:34):
could control their interactions and maintain their carefully crafted image.
In the spring of twenty fifteen, the Hart family made
another strategic relocation, moving from West Lynne, Oregon, to a
more rural and secluded home in Woodland, Washington, approximately thirty
minutes north of Portland. This move followed their established pattern

(57:56):
of relocating whenever outside scrutiny became uncomfortable, always seeking greater
isolation and reduced oversight. The family's new home in Woodland
provided the privacy Jennifer needed to escalate her control over
the children without interference from neighbors or community members. However,
this isolation could not completely contain the evidence of systematic abuse,

(58:20):
and cracks in the family's facade began to appear through
the desperate actions of the children themselves. Some time after
settling in Woodland, the Hart families new neighbors, Dana and
Bruce Decalb, were awakened late one night by urgent knocking
at their door. They found a small girl wrapped in
a blanket with twigs and leaves in her hair, pleading

(58:41):
for help. The child appeared to be only five or
six years old based on her size, but she was
actually sixteen year old Hannah Hart. Hannah's appearance at the
decalb's door represented a desperate escape attempt from the systematic
abuse she had endured for nearly a decade. She told
the neighbors that she had jumped from a second story

(59:02):
window to reach their home and begged them to hide her.
Her words were specific and devastating. They whip us with
a belt and their racists, and they abuse us. The
girl's plea for protection was interrupted by the arrival of
Jennifer and Sarah Hart, who came searching for Hannah with flashlights.

(59:22):
In a demonstration of their complete sense of entitlement and control,
they barged into the decab's home without permission and located
Hannah in her hiding place. Jennifer then spoke with Hannah privately,
after which the teenager robotically apologized to the neighbors at
Jennifer's request. This manipulation of Hannah in real time demonstrated

(59:44):
Jennifer's psychological control over the children and her ability to
immediately suppress any attempts at disclosure or escape. The apology
that Hannah was forced to deliver served to undermine her
credibility while positioning Jennifer as a reasonable parent dealing with
a troubled child. The following morning, Jennifer orchestrated an elaborate

(01:00:05):
damage control operation. She brought all six children to the
Decalb's home and launched into an hour long presentation designed
to discredit Hannah's disclosure and manipulate the neighbor's perception of
the situation. She claimed the children were drug babies and
specifically stated that Hannah's biological mother was mentally ill, using

(01:00:26):
these fabricated details to explain away Hannah's accusations as the
delusions of a damaged child. Hannah was compelled to participate
in this manipulation by giving Dana Decalb a written note
of apology. In the note, she claimed she had been
upset about the death of their cats and had been
telling lies to get attention. This forced recantation served multiple purposes.

(01:00:50):
It provided a seemingly plausible explanation for her earlier statements,
It reinforced Jennifer's narrative about the children being troubled and unreliable,
and it demonstrated to Hannah and the other children the
futility of seeking help. The Decalbs found Jennifer's explanation convincing
and did not report the incident to child protective Services

(01:01:11):
at the time. Dana Decalb would later tell a reporter
that Jennifer sold it well, acknowledging how effectively she had
manipulated their perception of the situation. This successful manipulation prevented
immediate intervention that might have saved the children from continued abuse. However,
the incident continued to trouble Dana Decalb, and several months

(01:01:34):
later she mentioned it to her father. His reaction was
immediate alarm, and he contacted nine one one to report
his belief that the children were being highly abused. This
call represented the first official report of the Hart family's
abuse since their move to Washington. Unfortunately, the passage of
time worked against the children's safety. Because months had elapsed

(01:01:57):
since Hannah's escape attempt and the dec the Cabs had
no additional incidents to report. The Clark County Sheriff's Department
made the devastating decision to drop the matter without ever
visiting the Hart family home. This failure to investigate a
direct report of child abuse represented another critical system failure
that left the six children completely vulnerable to continued torture.

(01:02:21):
The pattern was now unmistakably clear. Hannah had risked everything
to escape an explicitly reported abuse to adults who had
the power to help her. Jennifer had successfully manipulated the
situation to discredit Hannah's disclosure and avoid accountability. The authorities
had failed to investigate despite receiving a direct report of

(01:02:42):
serious abuse. The children remained trapped with no avenue for rescue,
while their captors continued to present themselves to the world
as loving, progressive parents worthy of admiration and support. On

(01:03:03):
March twenty third, twenty eighteen, a child welfare worker from
Washington's Child Protective Services arrived at the Hart family home
in Woodland to investigate a report of child abuse made
by the neighbors, Dana and Bruce de cab The worker
knocked on the door of the secluded property but received
no answer. Following standard protocol, she left a business card

(01:03:23):
wedged in the door frame. The CPS visit represented everything
Jennifer Hart had spent years carefully avoiding official scrutiny, potential
removal of the children and the collapse of her carefully
constructed facade. Within twenty four hours of discovering the business card,
Jennifer and Sarah Hart had packed their six adopted children

(01:03:45):
into their gold Yukon SUV and fled their home in
apparent desperation. On the night of March twenty fifth, twenty eighteen,
a man traveling with his wife in an RV had
parked for the night at a scenic turn off on
the Pacific Coast Highway in Mendocino County, California. The location
offered spectacular views of the rugged coastline and crashing waves below.

(01:04:08):
At approximately eleven o'clock that evening, he noticed the Hart's
gold Yukon park near by in the same turn off area.
At around three o'clock in the morning on March twenty sixth,
the RV occupant was awakened by the distinct sound of
tires screeching, followed by the noise of a vehicle bottoming out.
Concerned by the unusual sounds, he got out of his

(01:04:29):
RV and looked over the cliff's edge, but the pitch
black darkness revealed nothing. He thought he heard what might
have been a whale carried on the ocean wind, but
dismissed it as the cry of a seal before returning
to bed. Investigators would later determine that Jennifer Hart, with
a blood alcohol level of point one zero two, well

(01:04:50):
above the legal limit, had accelerated the Yukon directly off
the hundred foot cliff in what could only have been
a deliberate act. The complete absence of ski marks at
the scene confirmed that no attempt had been made to
stop the vehicle before it went over the edge. That afternoon,
a German tourist spotted the overturned Yukon at the bottom

(01:05:11):
of the cliff and immediately alerted authorities. Deputy Robert Julian
was among the first to respond to the scene and
quickly realized they were dealing with multiple fatalities in what
appeared to be a catastrophic crash. Emergency crews discovered the
bodies of Jennifer and Sarah Hart still trapped inside the
mangled vehicle. Three of their children had been ejected during

(01:05:34):
the impact. Nineteen year old Marcus, fourteen year old Jeremiah,
and fourteen year old Abigail were found dead at the scene.
The bodies of Jennifer and Sarah were carefully extricated from
the wreckage, which required an industrial tow truck to pull
the vehicle up the cliff face. By evening on March
twenty sixth, law enforcement had identified the vehicle and learned

(01:05:58):
that the Hearts were a family of eight from Washington State.
This information immediately raised a crucial concern. Three children, DeVante, Hannah,
and Sierra were still missing and unaccounted for. The following day,
March twenty seventh, a comprehensive search and rescue operation began
along the treacherous coastline. The effort was significantly hampered by

(01:06:19):
a recent storm that had created dangerous conditions and choppy
waves that made underwater recovery extremely difficult. Mendocino County Sheriff
Tom Alman held a press conference acknowledging the absence of
break marks at the scene, but stating there was no
reason to believe this was an intentional act. On March
twenty eighth, the story took on national significance when The

(01:06:43):
Oregonian published a breaking news story that detailed the recent
CPS visit to the Heart home and previous abuse allegations
from neighbors. This reporting began to reveal the pattern of
systematic abuse that had preceded the apparent murder suicide, transforming
public perception of the incident from a tragic accident to
something far more sinister. Nearly two weeks after the crash,

(01:07:07):
on April seventh, the body of a young girl was
discovered on the shore approximately one mile north of the
crash site. Ten days later, on April seventeenth, investigators announced
that the body had been positively identified as twelve year
old Sierra Hart. Her recovery brought the confirmed death toll
to six, with two children still missing and presumed dead.

(01:07:30):
While investigators continued their work in California, the tragedy was
about to impact families in Texas who had no idea
their children were even dead. In Houston, family law attorney
Shonda Jones was watching a news report about the crash
when certain details triggered a powerful memory. The name DeVante,
combined with mentions of Minnesota and Houston, reminded her of

(01:07:52):
an old case file she had handled over a decade earlier.
Jones located the file for Priscilla Celestine, who had fought
unsuccessfully to adopt DeVante, Jeremiah, and Sierra when they were
removed from her care in two thousand six. That night,
she made the devastating phone call to inform Priscilla that
the children she had tried so hard to save were dead.

(01:08:15):
The next day, Priscilla called Sherrie Davis, the children's birth mother,
to deliver the unbearable news that three of her children
had perished in what was now clearly a murder suicide.
For Sherrie, who had spent more than a decade wondering
about the children who had been taken from her, the
news represented confirmation of her worst fears about the system

(01:08:37):
that had failed to protect them. A reporter from The
Oregonian found Priscilla Celestine's name in a public court decision
and dispatched a local journalist to speak with the family.
The fact that biological families were learning about their children's
deaths through media reports rather than official channels, evidenced the
complete disconnection between the adoption system and the families it

(01:08:59):
had separated. In May twenty eighteen, a passerby made a
grizzly discovery on a Mendocino beach a pair of pants
and a small shoe. Inside the shoe was a decomposed foot,
which authorities believed belonged to Hannah Hart. Though initial DNA
tests proved inconclusive, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office made a

(01:09:19):
public appeal for the families of Marcus, Hannah, and Abigail
to come forward and provide DNA samples to help identify
Hannah's remains. However, law enforcement officials did not know the
birth family's names at this point, creating a bureaucratic maze
that prevented proper family notification. The search for the other
birth family required investigative journalism to bridge the gap that

(01:09:42):
official channels had failed to address. On October fourth, twenty eighteen,
a journalist reviewing police investigation documents released by the Clark
County Sheriff's Department found an adoption petition containing the birth
names of the other three siblings, Marcus Edbert Thomas Hannah,
Luis These Holiday Shorick, and Abigail Marie Shurick. Using Facebook,

(01:10:04):
the journalist contacted people with the last name Shurick in
the Corpus Christie area. Within ten minutes, Tris Shurick responded,
identifying herself as the wife of the children's grandfather, John Shuick.
That evening through a phone call with the journalist, Trish
learned that three of her husband's grandchildren were dead. She

(01:10:25):
spent the night reading news articles about the crash and
told her husband John when he returned from his trucking
job the following morning. On October fifth, Trish tracked down
her stepdaughter, Tammy Shuick, the children's birth mother, and delivered
the devastating news of her children's deaths. For Tammy, who
had lost custody of Marcus, Hannah, and Abigail in two

(01:10:48):
thousand four due to her struggles with mental illness and poverty,
the news was catastrophic. She became suicidal upon learning that
the children she had never stopped loving had been killed
by their adoptive parents. The journalists who had helped locate
the family also connected Tammy with a non profit organization
that could provide free therapy, recognizing the additional trauma created

(01:11:13):
by learning about her children's deaths through a stranger rather
than through official channels. On December nineteenth, two thousand six,
Tammy had been sentenced to six months in jail for
failing to follow court orders related to the child endangerment
charge from two thousand and four. A consequence of her
poverty rather than any genuine threat to her children's safety.

(01:11:36):
While she was incarcerated and unable to fight for her children,
they were being placed with the Hart family, where they
would endure years of systematic abuse before their eventual deaths.
By the end of twenty eighteen, the birth families of
all six Heart children had been notified of their deaths,
though DeVante Hart's body had still not been recovered from

(01:11:58):
the Pacific Ocean. The notification process had required the intervention
of journalists and private citizens because the official systems designed
to maintain family connections had completely failed. The Heart family
tragedy exposed the interconnected failures of adoption agencies, child protective services,
law enforcement, and the courts. Six children who had been

(01:12:20):
removed from their biological families to protect them from alleged
neglect and abuse had instead been placed with individuals who
systematically tortured them for over a decade before ultimately killing them.
The families who had fought to keep the children who
had loved them despite their own struggles with poverty and
mental illness, were left to grieve not only the loss

(01:12:43):
of their children, but the knowledge that the system designed
to protect vulnerable children had instead delivered them to their deaths.

(01:13:08):
Quick break ads keep the show running, but if you
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notes and we're back. Thanks for sticking through that. Let's
get back to it. In early twenty nineteen, Mendocino County

(01:13:31):
Sheriff Tom Allman made an unprecedented decision. He announced he
would convene a public coroner's inquest into the Heart family deaths,
the first in the county in over fifty years. The
purpose was clear to have a jury determine whether the
deaths were accidental, the result of a homicidal driver, or
something far more sinister. On April third and fourth, twenty nineteen,

(01:13:54):
the two day inquest was held and broadcast live to
the public. The testimony that emerged painted a chilling picture
of the family's final hours. Deputy Jake Slates of the
California Highway Patrol revealed that while driving toward California, Sarah
Hart had conducted a series of disturbing Google searches on
her phone. Her queries included can five hundred milligrams of

(01:14:17):
benadryl kill one hundred and twenty pound woman and his
death by drowning relatively painless. She searched for information about
hypothermia and drowning while trapped in a submerged vehicle, asking specifically,
how long does it take to die from hypothermia and
water while drowning in a car and what will happen
while overdosing on benadryl. One of Sarah's final searches was

(01:14:41):
for no kill shelters for dogs, suggesting concern for their
pets even as she researched methods for killing herself and
potentially the children in their care. These searches, preserved in
digital records, would later provide investigators with clear evidence of
the intentional nature of what followed. The autopsy results confirmed

(01:15:02):
that lethal amounts of diephenhydramine, the active ingredient in benadryl,
were found in Sarah's system and in the bodies of
the children discovered at the scene. An accident reconstruction expert
testified that the Yukon's air bag deployment system indicated the
vehicle had accelerated off the cliff. There was no evidence

(01:15:22):
that any family members had been wearing seat belts. Law
enforcement officers, including Lieutenant Shannon Barney, testified that they believed
Jennifer and Sarah had succumbed to a lot of pressure
from their lives and made a conscious decision to end
their lives this way and take the children with them. Notably,
throughout the proceedings, the word murder was never used. After

(01:15:46):
just one hour of deliberation, the jury returned with a
unanimous verdict. Jennifer and Sarah Hart's deaths were ruled suicides.
The deaths of the children were classified as death at
the hands of another others than by accident, but the
legal conclusion brought little peace to those left behind. On
January third, twenty nineteen, her birthday, Tammy Shorick had attempted

(01:16:11):
to take her own life with an insulin overdose. She survived,
interpreting her survival as a sign that she still had
a purpose. That purpose became heartbreakingly clear. Just a week later,
the Mendocino Sheriff's Office received DNA results confirming that partial
remains found on a beach belonged to Hannah Hart. They
issued a national press release before personally notifying the families.

(01:16:35):
Tammy learned of her granddaughter's identification through a text message
when she called the Sheriff's office requesting Hannah's remains, she
was told they would go to the next of kin,
Jennifer and Sarah's parents. Eventually, through the intervention of journalists
and advocates, arrangements were made. In late twenty twenty, the
cremated remains of the children were divided among the birth families.

(01:16:59):
Tammy sh Shurick received the ashes of Marcus, Abigail, and Hannah.
Nathaniel Davis accepted those of Jeremiah and Sierra, later purchasing
an urn to keep the siblings together. For Dante Davis,
the tragedy's aftermath brought a cascade of additional losses. Struggling
with his mental health and the news of his siblings deaths,
his life spiraled further out of control. In November twenty nineteen,

(01:17:23):
his three year old son, Yea, and the boy's mother
were hospitalized after being unknowingly drugged with PCP at a party.
Both survived, but Child Protective Services took custody of ye
placing him in foster care. The bitter irony was inescapable.
The same system that had failed to protect Jeremiah and
Sierra from their adoptive parents now separated another generation of

(01:17:45):
the Davis family. Despite efforts by both Dante's father, Nathaniel,
and Yee's maternal grandmother to gain custody, both were denied.
The COVID nineteen pandemic further complicated matters, suspending family visits
and delay saying court proceedings. By May twenty one, during
a trial conducted over Zoom to determine the termination of

(01:18:07):
Dante's parental rights, it was revealed that five year old
Ye had bonded with his foster parents and expressed a
desire to remain with them. As of twenty twenty two,
more than three years after the Hart family deaths, Yee's
case remained unresolved. The cycle of family separation that had
begun decades earlier with the Davis children's removal from their

(01:18:27):
birth parents continued into the next generation. The Hart family
case represents a catastrophic failure of systems meant to protect

(01:18:51):
vulnerable children. Despite numerous red flags, intervention attempts by concerned neighbours,
and a documented history of abuse, six children died because
adults tasked with their protection failed them at every turn.
The case also exposes how certain characteristics of the perpetrators
themselves contributed to these systemic failures. Author Abby E. Goldberg,

(01:19:14):
in her chapter l g B, t Q Parents and
Philicide from the book The Misrepresentation of Queer Lives in
True Crime, provides crucial analysis of how Jennifer and Sarah
Hart's identity as a white lesbian couple affected both media
coverage and official responses to their case. Goldberg notes that
the women's race, gender conformity, and physical attractiveness deflected attention

(01:19:37):
away from the harm they perpetrated on the children in
their care. White saviorism operated to render their parental authority
unquestioned while systematically silencing their children's voices. The couple successfully
crafted an image of progressive, loving parents rescuing children from
a broken system, a narrative that proved devastatingly effective in

(01:19:57):
avoiding scrutiny. This dynamic created a particularly insidious form of
protection around the Heart family's abuse. Well meaning neighbors and
social workers may have avoided raising questions about concerning aspects
of the Heart's parenting for fear of appearing homophobic. The
couple's identity became a shield that prevented the kind of

(01:20:18):
aggressive intervention that might have saved the children's lives. The
case illuminates how the child welfare system's own biases contributed
to placing six vulnerable children with individuals who would ultimately
kill them. The Heart's presentation as an educated, white, middle
class couple allowed them to navigate adoption processes that might

(01:20:38):
have posed greater barriers to other prospective parents. Their carefully
curated social media presence re enforced this image while concealing
the systematic torture occurring behind closed doors. The surviving families
continued to grapple not only with profound grief, but with
a child welfare system that seems to perpetuate the very

(01:20:59):
traumas claims to address. Their fight for justice, recognition, and
the right to grieve their children continues. The Heart Family
story demands we ask difficult questions about adoption practices, child
welfare oversight, and the vulnerability of children in our society.
It forces us to examine how our own biases and

(01:21:20):
assumptions about who makes a good parent can blind us
to evidence of abuse. The case reminds us that behind
every statistic, every case file, and every news headline are
real families whose lives are forever changed by preventable tragedies.
The six heart children, Marcus, Abigail, Jeremiah, Hannah, DeVante, and
Sierra deserve better. Their memory demands that we do better.

(01:22:03):
B

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#24: Murder on the Cliff - The Hart Family Case

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#24: Murder on the Cliff - The Hart Family Case