Devonte Hart's little sister told police in 2010 she was beaten, denied food

Years before Devonte Hart told neighbors his parents withheld food from him as punishment, his younger sister, who was then 6 years old, told police and a social worker she would not be given meals when she misbehaved.

In a 2010 interview with authorities, Abigail Hart also said one of her mothers had struck her with a closed fist and later placed her in a cold bath before hitting her again in a fit of anger.

"She had a penny in her pocket and this made her mom mad," reads an Alexandria, Minnesota police report obtained Thursday by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Abigail's parents told police their daughter had a problem with lying. And at least two of her five other siblings said during an investigation their parents grounded them or sometimes gave spankings but were never violent.

But Sarah Hart later pleaded guilty to abusing their daughter, even though Abigail — who was found with bruises on her stomach and back — told authorities it was her mother Jennifer who had physically hurt her and withheld meals.

The police report comes after at least five members of the family were found dead Monday at the bottom of a California coastal cliff, and three of the children remain missing and feared dead.

One of the missing children is Devonte Hart, a boy who in 2014 was at the center of a viral photo showing his tender embrace with a Portland policeman.

Authorities say it remains unclear if those three were also in the vehicle, though a search has focused on whether they were possibly thrown into the cliffs or surf.

The family – same-sex parents and six adopted children who had lived for years in West Linn and recently relocated to Woodland, Washington – was beloved by some in the community for their activism and boundless spirit, but recent revelations also showed periods of trouble in the home.

The investigation in California has yielded more questions than answers since the grim incident. The crash was discovered as authorities in Washington tried multiple times to visit the family home after receiving reports of abuse and neglect concerning the children.

Nearly eight years earlier, the Minnesota report surfaced.

Police in Alexandria, a small town about 130 miles northwest of Minneapolis, opened an investigation in November 2010 after Abigail told a teacher at Woodland Elementary School she had "owies" on her tummy and back.

The teacher said she found bruises that stretched from the little girl's sternum to her belly button and from her mid-back to the waist band on her jeans.

The discovery prompted the teacher to contact social services and police.

In an interview, according to the police report, Abigail told a detective and a social worker her mother Jennifer had grown angry with her the day before because a penny had fallen out of her pocket and onto the floor.

The girl said Jennifer then dragged her into the bathroom and submerged her head under cold water in the bathtub.

Afterward, Abigail said she was "spanked" repeatedly, imitating her mother's hand with a clenched fist.

She was later grounded, a punishment that would sometimes include missed meals, she said.

"When asked what happens when she gets grounded, she stated that she has to stay in her bed and has no lunch," the report reads. "[She] also stated that she had missed lunch this past Saturday."

No one else in the house witnessed the abuse, Abigail told police. She said her other mother, Sarah, later saw the bruises and placed an ointment on them.

Abigail added that "mom Jen spanks the most and acts tough when she is upset with the children," according to the police report.

Police and the social worker also interviewed some of Abigail's siblings, whose names were redacted from the records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

One sibling said their sister had lied about the beating and had only received a time out for her misbehavior, adding that their parents rarely doled out spankings and always used an open hand.

Another sibling told authorities that getting grounded only meant they had to stay in bed and not do anything. This sibling also said their parents did not spank them or ever withhold food.

Authorities later interviewed Sarah Hart, who told them Abigail had been "lying out of control" lately and that she and Jennifer had recently resorted to spanking their children.

Sarah Hart then said it was she — and not her partner Jennifer — who had struck the child. Sarah Hart said she had bent her daughter over the bathtub and "swatted" her repeatedly, which likely led to the bruising.

"Sarah again stated she had lost her temper, mostly due to lying, and that she had lost her control," the police report says.

Sarah told police she worked while Jennifer stayed at home.

Sarah Hart was eventually arrested. She pled guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence and in 2011 received a 90-day suspended jail sentence and a year of probation for the incident.

Former Alexandria Police Department Det. Sgt. Larry Dailey, who investigated the case, recalled the girl's injuries weren't severe compared with other incidents involving children he'd seen in his 31-year law enforcement career. Nor had there had been signs of other abused or injured siblings in the home.

What struck Dailey, however, was how the girl's parents bristled at him and a state social worker who were contacted by the school, he said.

"From what I recall, they were very anti-system folks." Dailey, who retired in 2014, told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Thursday. "They didn't like the school or that the police intervened, and they certainly didn't like the outcome."

Dailey also said the two white women and their six black children stood out in Alexandria, a small city of 13,000.

"I think they had faced a lot of problems and were leaning in the direction to move out of town," Dailey said.

Shortly after, the family moved to the West Linn. They relocated to Woodland in northern Clark County about 10 months ago, records show.

The Harts and their children left their rural home Friday shortly after no one answered the door for a visit by the authorities, according to neighbors and the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Bruce and Dana DeKalb, who lived next door, said they rarely spoke with the family.

Dana DeKalb said Devonte had come to their home a dozen times to ask for food, saying his parents had withheld it as punishment.

She recounted how Devonte's requests for food escalated. First, he asked if the DeKalbs had any tortillas. The next morning, he came back and asked if they had any bread. She didn't, but she gave him a bunch of tortillas.

He later came back asking for more. Then he asked for peanut butter. Then a case of peanut butter. Non-perishables. The list went on. He was eventually coming over three times per day.

DeKalb told him she'd have to call for help.

And on last Thursday night, she said, the boy's first words when he came to the door were: "Have you called?"

"I almost got the feeling it was more of, 'What are you waiting for, lady? ... How much more do I have to tell you?'"

She and her husband decided the situation was more serious than teens needing extra food, and she called authorities.

The DeKalbs also recounted that three months after the family moved into a home on 2 acres last May, one of the girls rang their doorbell in the middle of the night.

The girl, Hannah Hart, "was at our door in a blanket saying we needed to protect her," Bruce DeKalb said. "She said that they were abusing her."

Such interactions prompted the DeKalbs to contact authorities last week, they said Wednesday outside their home.

A Clark County deputy accompanied Cowlitz County Child Protective Services to the Hart family's home Friday but nobody answered the door, Sgt. Brent Waddell, a Clark County Sheriff's Office spokesman, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The family and its GMC Yukon were gone the next day, Bruce DeKalb said.

On Monday, a passerby along California's Route 1 in Mendocino County discovered the SUV upside down at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff.

The bodies of Abigail, now 14, and her siblings Markis, 19, and Jeremiah, 14, were found near the wreckage. None of them were wearing safety restraints, the California Highway Patrol said.

The crash also killed their mothers, who were found inside the vehicle wearing safety restraints. Jennifer Hart was driving.

In addition to Devonte Hart, the other missing children are Hannah, 16, and Sierra, 12.

There were no skid marks or brake marks indicating why the vehicle went off the cliff.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
skavanaugh@oregonian.com
503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh

Jim Ryan of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.