Authorities said today that toxicology tests found Jennifer Hart had a blood alcohol level of .102, which is above the .08 legal limit. CHP Officer Chad Ramsey says tests also found that her wife Sarah and two of their children had a significant amount of an ingredient commonly found in the drug Benadryl in their systems, which can make people sleepy.
RAMSEY: “The pathologist found that the driver Jennifer was over the legal limit in alcohol and Sarah and two kids they found Benadryl in their system.”
The mothers and three children were found dead after their SUV went over a cliff on March 26th, in what authorities are saying was likely an intentional act. No one in the car was wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.
More information keeps coming out that fills in the blanks about why the Hart family left their home in Washington State suddenly and ended up over the cliff on the coast.
Neighbors described troubling encounters with the children crying for help and asking for food, one of which prompted a call from Child Protective Services in late March -- just days before the family’s SUV plunged off the cliff.
Officials in Washington State have released a 911 call from last November. The caller reported that a child, about 12 or 13 years old, was in distress, asking his daughter, who lived next door, for help.
CALLER: “The other night, the little girl jumped out of the second-story window on the roof and down onto the ground and ran to my daughter. And this was like 2 in the morning, begging them to 'help her, to help her.'"
This was one of at least four events in which the Hart children appear to have told other adults about troubles at home. It's not immediately clear if authorities took any action following the November call.
Back in 2011, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to domestic assault involving one of her daughters.
The search for the three children still missing—Hannah, Sierra and Devonte— is ongoing. Officials began conducting an autopsy this week on a body found last weekend that could be one of the girls.