SEATTLE (AP) – Investigators said Monday they were examining “red flags” in a Washington state family’s past in hopes of explaining why their SUV went off a 100-foot cliff in an apparent suicide plunge.
The wreckage was discovered last week on rocks along the coast near Mendocino, Calif., a few days after child welfare authorities in Washington began investigating whether the children were being abused or neglected.
The Hart family’s two moms and three of the six adopted children were found dead; the three others are missing and presumed dead, possibly washed out to sea.
Police said Monday that social service authorities in Oregon contacted the West Linn Police Department about the family in 2013 while they were living in the area.
The questions were referred to the Oregon Department of Human Services, which cited privacy laws in refusing to confirm or deny the agency was involved.