The SUV that authorities said was carrying a family of eight -- two parents and six adopted children -- was traveling at 90 mph before it plunged off a California cliff last week, according to court documents obtained by a local TV station.
Fox affiliate KPTV in Oregon reported that the sport utility vehicle's speedometer was "pinned" at that speed, indicating that the vehicle remained in motion after it fell and just before it hit the rocks 100 feet below on the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators also did not find any marks showing that the vehicle either accelerated or slowed down before it reached the cliff, or any evidence that it crashed into the embankment as it "traversed towards the tidal zone below," according the documents cited by KPTV.
California Highway Patrol officials say preliminary evidence shows the crash may have been intentional.
Capt. Greg Baarts with the California Highway Patrol's Northern Division said information pulled from the SUV's software shows the vehicle was stopped at the highway pullout before it accelerated straight off the cliff.
Baarts said the electronic information combined with the lack of skid marks led officials to believe it was intentional.
The tragedy, which struck a family that had once captured the world's attention, has left troubling questions. Killed were the two mothers, Jennifer Jean Hart and Sarah Margaret Hart, both 38, and at least three of their adopted children. The other three remain missing.
The TV report provides a glimpse into what may have preceded the crash last Monday afternoon at the ocean overlook near Westport, Calif., a small community about 180 miles north of San Francisco. Child services officials in Washington state, where the family lived, also have confirmed that they had begun investigating the Harts over "alleged abuse or neglect" days earlier.
Information for this article was contributed by Kristine Phillips, Kevin Sullivan and Marwa Eltagouri of The Washington Post and by Paul Elias and Phuong Le of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/02/2018