WEBVTT - "The Perfect People" 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:03.960 What can you really tell about someone from a picture? 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.520 Can you determine their ethnic background, whether they're introverted or extroverted? 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:12.760 Can you tell if they're genuinely happy or just playing 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.200 the part? What if you zoom in or out, can 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.800 you infer things like wealth or religion from the furniture 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.200 or personal objects in the background. What about a tight 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.919 shot of a presidential hopeful on the campaign trail? What 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.400 kind of crowd would you want assembled around you to 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.840 communicate that you're the other guy, the progressive, anti establishment choice, 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.000 and who could say those things for you simply by 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:51.080 being at your side? Now you're seeing this little bird 0:00:51.360 --> 0:01:04.360 doesn't know it? Oh, I think, I think that may 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:13.520 be some symbolism here. I know it doesn't look like it, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.160 but that bird is really a dove asking us for 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:27.080 world peace, no more wars. That's Bernie Sanders at a 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:31.320 two thousand sixteen rally in Portland, Oregon. You may remember 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.279 this moment. He's going on about the merits of public 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.399 education when a tiny finch lands on his podium in 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.839 the heart of the Pacific Northwest. It's a moment straight 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.880 out of the show Portlandia, Irony and Serendipity. All wrapped 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.800 into one. Sanders takes one look at the bird and 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.480 raises his fists like a magician who just conjured a 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.800 rabbit from a hat. It was a whole thing. The 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:01.000 Sanders campaign started selling Bertie Sanders merch. Of the more 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:05.640 than eleven thousand attendees who was stationed directly behind Sanders, 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:13.640 Jen Sarah, Marcus Davante, Abigail Jeremiah, and Sierra Hart. There 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.640 they are on a Friday morning in March, jumping up 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.880 and down in matching royal blue Bernie T shirts. I 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.320 saw them, and they're you know, they're right in the 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.840 direct head on. This is Mark Levitt. He worked as 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:31.280 Bernie's director of scheduling in advance work during his presidential campaign. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.280 He even helped create and popularize Sanders a Future to 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.520 Believe in branding efforts. He remembers the bird moment, well, 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.800 I mean, jeez, best laid plans right, um, you know, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:42.480 we we have no way of planning for that sort 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.000 of thing. I mean that was that was actually a 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.240 level of serendipity that in my entire time working in 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.760 scheduling in advance, I don't think I'd ever encountered. It 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.200 was said half jokingly at the time, but you know, 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.080 there was some sense in which he had sort of 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.000 performed a miracle or whatever. I mean. This is this 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.760 is what people were saying online. And this wasn't the 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.560 first time the Heart Tribe had gotten near the Senator. 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.359 Earlier that same week, Jen roused her family at four 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.120 thirty in the morning to attend a rally in Vancouver, Washington. 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.680 She wrote on Facebook that she had the kids stand 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.760 for four hours in the rain to ensure they wouldn't 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.880 miss out on this opportunity. She even made the blue 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.760 shirts herself. Family friend Machine baktr says members of the 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.280 Sanders campaign approached the family and invited them to attend 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.239 to the Portland rally. Here's Lauren talking to Machine about 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.160 that day. They went to the Washington rally and there 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.560 it was Bernie's campaign people that sort of gave them 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.520 tickets to come to the Oregan one. Yeah, and they 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.720 asked them and they put them they like wanted them 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.480 to sit right behind them. That video of Bernie Sanders 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:50.960 putting a bird on it with the Heart family squarely 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.400 in the shot. It's been viewed over two point three 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:58.240 million times on YouTube. Part of the reason that you, um, 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.600 you know you want to craft that shot behind the 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.960 candidate very carefully? Is because uh and then this happened 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:10.880 with Obama on an handful of occasions that the people 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:16.880 in that shot functionally sharing with the candidate. From Glamour 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:31.960 and how stuff works, This is Broken Hearts, I'm Justine 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:36.160 Harmon and I'm Liz Egan. Crazy things like this, moments 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.320 of infamy, seemingly random or unsolicited brushes with fame, like 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.040 that vibral photo of Davante crying and hugging the cop. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.000 They were nothing new to the Heart family, yet, despite 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.400 the relentless fascination from the outside world, friends like Ian 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.560 Spurling marveled at Gen's ability to protect her children from 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.480 prying eyes. Our Field reporter Lauren chatted with Ian over 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.680 the phone back in May You and Spilling as a 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:02.920 dad who often met up with the Hearts that shows 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.440 around Portland, Jen would tell him that the kids were 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.320 developmentally delayed from their terrible lives before they were adopted, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.840 and he had bought it, so that was why the 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.960 kids acted a little differently. Maybe that's why Davante smiled 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.159 all the time and seemed to act a little younger 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.840 than his age, or why Marcus and Jeremiah would look 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.400 listless and suddenly snap into smiles and personality when he 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.600 greeted them. Jen also explained why the kids were so 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.440 thin they had a vegetarian organic diet. She always had 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:39.160 an answer for everything. I mean when I say that 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:44.560 Jen was good, she was good, and she made parenting 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:49.360 look unbelievably easy and awesome and there was no red flags, zero, 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.039 Like the way she respected Davante's privacy when he was 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.240 took the picture with the cop, and the way she 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.800 would talk to us about that stuff in private. You know, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.520 it's like we looked up to her, like, Wow, she's 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:03.880 the best parent in the world. Were horrible, you know, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.280 kind of thing. Jen often wrote about the importance of 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.480 protecting her kids privacy. Once, when a Facebook follower asked 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.560 if she'd ever considered a reality TV show, she said, no, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.200 We've had multiple offers in this area. She wrote, no 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.479 amount of money would ever be worth the trials and 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:28.000 tribulations that would surely come from media slash producers manipulating 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.599 our lives on a TV show. Ian remembers hearing about 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.520 the offers, she was extremely stressed, doesn't know what to 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.200 do with getting offers from like Good Morning America or 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.800 the Today Show specifically, and a few others to take 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.120 him on there, and she declined to do that. Now, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:47.320 that plays into what we're learning now because obviously we 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.360 learned now that there was some abuse charges in Minnesota there, 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.200 you know, um fleeing to Oregon for lack of a 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.880 better term, and so there's probably more of a reason 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.680 why she didn't want to go on national TV. At 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.200 the time, we're thinking, Wow, phenomenal parenting. Nice work, you're 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.159 not exploiting your children. Perfect. That's just adds more to 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.120 the legacy. You know, Liz and I have talked about 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.120 this part of the story a lot. How could one family, 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.640 one seemingly interested in maintaining a low profile and living 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:22.040 off the grid, consistently find itself in the news. How often, 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.640 really do people become famous, like virally famous by accident? 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.160 Mark Levitt says, from his experience, not that often. With 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:36.200 respect to getting back and behind Bernie at the Bernie rally, 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.160 I would say that if they had seen the process 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:40.560 at the rally that they had been to a few 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.320 days earlier, that would have given them a hint that 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.680 most people otherwise don't have as to how to do 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.760 it so that you know, most people when they arrive 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:50.720 at these rallies, is that their first rally or their 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.040 only rally or whatever. It's not that common to have 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.080 people go to these rallies twice, in part because they 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.880 are pretty onerous affairs. You know, you wait for a 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.040 long time for the candidates, that sort of thing, so 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:03.920 you don't get a whole ton of repeat customers. But 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.480 if these were repeat customers, that they could have very 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:12.080 easily seen how the selection process goes forgetting people in 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.960 that shot in the head on shot. So be honest, 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.480 what does a photo of two moms and six black 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.320 kids say to you? Depending on how you were raised, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.720 your background, and your life experiences, it could mean any 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.560 number of things. For Zippy Lomax, who first encountered the 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.040 Heart Tribe back in two thousand thirteen, the family was 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.040 the perfect visual symbol for the kind of transformational, inclusive 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.800 music festivals she attended and often photographed. They were very unique, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.079 you know, and I know I'm not the only person 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:48.920 who could who It was just sort of like a 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.280 natural term that would kind of come out when you 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.199 would see them showing up at places though there's a heart, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.800 there's a hard time. Beloved is just one of many 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:04.000 many that have this very similar kind of uh the 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:09.520 goal I guess of like, you know, like experimental community, 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.319 different ways of coming together and being supportive rather than competitive. 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.320 As a photographer, Zippy observed how these festivals could serve 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.840 as a form of emotional release. Attendees often dressed up 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.679 in costumes, with hundreds of people standing on a lawn, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.400 rocking and swaying to the music. Footage from the events 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:35.120 look more like emotionally raw group therapy than raucous jam sessions. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.360 In a video posted to Jen's YouTube page, Davante and 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.679 Jeremiah are at the two thousand twelve Project Earth Festival 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.319 in Minnesota. The boys, both under ten at the time, 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.200 have flowers around their necks. Davante is wearing his free 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:55.600 Hug sign. They're both dancing, and around the second mark 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.600 you hear Jen's voice You're going to give Naco a hug. 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.800 Jeremiah runs up to Jen's favorite musician, Nacobert, who is 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.320 dancing shirtless in the crowd, the to embrace for a 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:13.920 few seconds, while Abigail, Sierra, and Hannah danced nearby with Sarah, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.160 it's one of the rare moments you get a glimpse 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.240 behind the curtain. Some might see it as proof that 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.839 Jen coerced the kids into performing for the camera, but 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.480 if anything seemed off when the family was in public, 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:30.880 onlookers like Ian Spurling didn't notice. In ours these are 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.120 superhuman people, like they're living the perfect lives there, perfect people, 0:10:34.200 --> 0:11:00.360 we have perfect kids. Zippy noticed their infallibility too. She 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:04.120 started a friendship with Jen one mostly maintained over Facebook Messenger, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.880 and frequently took pictures of the family. All of these 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.839 events are opportunities for people to kind of reinvent themselves 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:16.160 and experiment with what it would be like to to 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.240 be to show up in a different kind of way, 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:25.320 So it's hard to say because people are maybe not 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.920 showing up at those events in the same kind of 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.760 wearing the same persona or even the same kind of 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.840 clothes that they would wear in just everyday life. Between shows, 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.360 the festival crowd kept taps on one another on Facebook, 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.920 where Jen racked up the likes. Her feed was full 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:48.360 of well staged family photos and long form captions. Opposed 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.400 from January sixteen shows silhouettes of three of the Heart 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.200 children at sunset. The location is Malala River State Park 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:01.360 in Clackamas County, Oregon. It reads him sitting in the 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:06.360 mud watching the sunset. Do you ever think society overcomplicates life? 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.120 There's so much business, technology obsession and worrying about crossing 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.240 things off a to do list, while forgetting what it's 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:21.480 like to be her, be what him alive. This zest 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.880 for life and jens seemingly endless off for her children 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.439 is something Friends of the Hearts loved about her. In fact, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.280 she's often described as the more gregarious and social of 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:34.480 the two women. Jen and I were closer. She's also 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.480 an amazing photographer, and so we had another point of 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.720 connection there and um mutual respect I guess for each 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.600 other's craft. But we were friends on Facebook and we 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.719 interacted in that way, and so I think that, like 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:53.760 in this age of social media, it's interesting because we 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:59.160 feel like we're more um engaged with people then maybe 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:06.680 we actually are. I was very much engaged, like commenting 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.079 and interacting with Jen and the all the amazing photos 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.360 she was posting about the kids, and definitely kind of 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.559 aware of what was happening in their lives. The last 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.160 time Zippy saw the heart family in person. Was at 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.480 that same Bernie Sanders rally in Portland where the bird 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.760 landed on the podium. She was there once again to 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.439 take pictures. Zib read us a Facebook message Jen sent 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.679 after that memorable day. So she was telling me how 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.720 she was watching me instead of Bernie Sanders, watching you 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.360 work your magic behind the lens was so special. Seeing 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:45.040 you just made that much more magical. She saw me 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.439 capture that bird moment, caught a glimpse of you capturing 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.080 the beyond amazing bird moment. I love you um and 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:56.319 then the she just said it made her heart. This 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.760 moment genuinely made my heart exploding the best possible way. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.320 This is how jan Hart spoke on her Facebook page, 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.280 a feat of countless posts that spanned from two thousand seven, 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.160 a year before she and Sarah adopted their second set 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:14.199 of biological siblings, up until March eighteen, four days before 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.400 the crash. She was effusive and passionate about everything from 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.360 her children, to her wife, to the many animals the 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:27.640 family rescued and rehabilitated. In a post from June two thirteen, 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.360 she wrote, in what reads like something from a children's 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.400 book of a red robin and a baby blackbird she 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.040 discovered in her yard. The young blackbird hopped onto my 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:39.160 knee and proceeded to look me in the eye and 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.480 go back and forth between me and nuzzling the baby robin. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.920 It was beyond clear that he was trying to communicate 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:49.360 a message. I lightly stroked the back of the robin's 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.600 neck and checked for injuries. This has been my deeply 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.520 connected purpose for as long as I can remember. Take 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.560 care of all beings in need. Like so many of 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.280 her posts, it feels just a little too good to 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.520 be true. Along with the post is an image of 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.520 Jen wearing a gray graphic tea and cuffed jeans, several 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.280 beaded bracelets lining her wrist, clutching a small bird between 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.240 her palms. She added an inspirational quote from an obscure 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:24.400 science fiction author named Lloyd Biggle Jr. Life is life's 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.000 greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.680 would your own. It was a kind of slightly mythological story. 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:37.680 Ian Spurling knew well. I think she was a master 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.640 Facebook poaster, like I've never seen anyone articulate so well 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.600 with photos. My wife said something that made sense like 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.040 after everything was done, she says, there's not even paint 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:53.520 on the paintbrush, you know. And and that was, you know, 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.960 like a Facebook picture and uh, you know when you're like, 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.680 whoa what So it was like stage like stage photo 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.360 maybe because they're they're sitting in front of a canvas 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.480 a painting. Look what the kids are doing today, and 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.080 then you look on the paintbrush and there's no paint 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:08.880 on it. Now had idea as a mom or whatever, 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:10.360 you're like, oh, shoot, we just did that. We didn't 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.400 give you pictures. Hey, you guys, let's grab a picture 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.520 real quick, you know, what have you. But in hindsight, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:19.600 that's probably a little bit of the case. You know, 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.760 it was almost too good to be true. Ian tells 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.440 one story about how the Heart Children befriended a homeless man, 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.760 and his version has almost the same hyperbolic language gen use. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.960 In April two, thou post there was a gentleman who 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.000 was and if I told you this already, I apologized. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:41.520 Um they were. She took her kids down to the 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.360 clack and Mr every one night and they're playing around. 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.280 It was a hot, sunny summer day and they're playing 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:49.880 around down there and swimming, and Devonte and two the 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.440 other kids walked on the way to what looked like 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.760 a homeless man, and Jen in her the way she 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.520 told it was, I didn't know what to do, Uh 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:02.560 if I should let my kids talk to this homeless 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:07.040 person who looked extremely disheveled, um and a bit suspect. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.440 But she's taught her kids to not be afraid of strangers, 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.200 proceed with contion, but to spread love in this world. 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:16.640 And they went down and talk to this guy blah 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.560 blah blah. Then she saw them hugging this guy. Okay, 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.320 and the kids walked back and she's like, well was 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:24.960 that all about? And they're like, oh, we just wanted 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.159 to brighten this guy's day, you know. Of course, beautiful kids, 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.120 and that's this is an exaggeration of how they would be, 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.960 because I wanted at plenty. And then the guy walks 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:36.919 down to Jenny goes, it is are your kids, I assume, 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.600 and and she said yeah yeah, And he says, well, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.919 I gotta tell you they just changed my whole life. 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:45.679 And she goes, oh, how so, and he goes that 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.040 hug I got from him. I don't get that from 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.000 anybody here. See the problem is I have face cancer 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:52.920 and half of my face is gone, so I look 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:57.000 really scary and it's terminal. And he goes, I don't 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.159 have any hope. I look like a homeless person. He goes, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:00.800 I'm not. I have a all, I have money. I 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.840 just looked scary and I've just completely depressed about the 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.760 end of my life. And your kids just took all 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.400 of that aside, saw me for who I am inside, 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.639 and gave me a huge hug because that meant the 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.359 world to me. I can die a peaceful person. You 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.360 know something along those lines. This is Jen telling us 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.639 the story. So now do you take it as a 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.720 grain of salt or what. But I've watched the kids 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.280 do this to people, so it didn't surprise us one bit. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:49.720 You know. The last time Ian saw the Hearts was 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.240 in November two, four months before the crash, at a 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.800 Knacko and Medicine for the People concert in Portland. In 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.200 a quiet moment, Sperling told Sarah that she seemed worn down. 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.640 She said, I'm just so tired. He hugged her, said 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:06.040 he was sorry she had to put in so many 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.240 hours at work to support the family of eight, and 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:13.480 Sarah answered, thanks, I don't hear that very often, so 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.200 I think she was definitely a fan girl, like following 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.879 these bands like Nacho, Trevor Hall, Xavier, read some of 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.720 these bands and like getting to know them. And this 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:27.399 was her backstage pass as your kids, you know. And 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.040 the look on Sarah's face every time was cool, I'm 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.639 just taking along. I gotta work in a few hours, 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.600 and that was it was Sarah constantly. That night at 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.360 the Naco concert at Last November, Ian noticed that Sarah 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.160 took most of the kids home after sound check, while 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.560 Davante stayed on with Jen through the concert. This was 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.720 the only time he noticed anything remotely strained, anything other 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.480 than synchronicity in the relationship. And it wasn't even like 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.560 they were fighting so much. It was just Sarah's tired, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:58.320 she wanted to go home. She took the kids, Jenn 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.040 and Davante stayed dance Snia and then left, and uh 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:03.960 so that was it, you know, and we just are like, 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.959 oh cool, They're normal. To say that Jen was the 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.639 fan girl while Sarah was the adult with a job 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:14.359 would be an oversimplification, but Sarah did work a lot. 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.440 She was an assistant manager at the Coles in Hazel Dell, Washington, 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.160 where she put in long hours, sometimes six days a week. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.240 Her colleague Cheryl Hart, the one who requested a welfare 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.640 check the same day they were found dead. Remember Sarah 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.840 as super professional on the sales floor, but relaxed and 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.119 chatty in the back office. One thing about Sarah is 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:40.879 she was most definitely a talker. It was always a 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.040 bit hard if you got caught up in a conversation 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:49.600 with her because she would just rattle on sometimes. And 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.600 Sarah would often talk about her home life with Jen 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:56.280 and the kids. I mean, she would definitely talk about 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.119 her family. One thing I would notice so is that 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.359 she would never she would never mention like the kids' names. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.320 She would always just you know, say the kids, or 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.960 you know, like the girls or the boys. I mean, 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.240 when she first came on with us, she let everybody 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:18.359 know right off the bat that her family was the 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.639 family with the hug heard around the world. Basically, the 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:27.000 hug had gone viral and I didn't know anything about it, 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.520 so I actually had to look it up and I 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:31.840 was just like, oh, okay, well that was pretty cool, 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:35.840 and you know, she said that it wasn't cool. It 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.720 caused a lot of stress in her family, and and 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.760 it had really changed her wife, and not for the good. 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.800 Um that Jen had come really closed in and really depressed, 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.520 and just it had just changed her immendsly. But Cheryl, 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.359 a mother of two herself, understood the pressures of co 0:21:56.520 --> 0:22:00.920 managing a household as a new mom, especially with so 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:05.640 many kids. She would talk about how the the kids 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.320 would stress her out. Um, you know, I have two 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:13.240 kids myself, so I mean, obviously two kids versus six kids, 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:17.000 that's it's different. But you know there's three times where 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:19.800 you know, parents get times where it's like, you know, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:21.600 my two girls are be like, oh my gosh, my 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.560 kids are driving me insane, you know. And she would 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:28.480 say the same thing like, oh yeah, when I get home, 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:29.919 you know, I have to take over and deal with 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.000 the kids because you know Jen's had them all day. 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.360 You know, when I get home, I got to deal 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:38.119 with them. Tensions plagued the family, according to newly released 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:42.040 emails made public in October two eighteen, in the months 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:46.400 following the adoption of Davante, Jeremiah, and Sierra, Their days 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:50.240 appear to be a chaotic jumble of post office runs, paperwork, 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:55.680 and dentist appointments, six dentist appointments. Sarah wrote to Jen 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:59.160 in April two nine, I will take my lunch hower 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:00.840 from one to two to help out with the kids 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.520 during that time waiting there. Sorry, I made such a 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:07.640 mess of everything. That same spring, Sarah tried to get 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:12.000 pregnant with donated sperm and later suffered a miscarriage. Jen 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:14.560 wrote in July two tho nine to an administrator at 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:17.960 the agency that facilitated the adoptions, I don't know what 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:20.680 else to say really now, we just take it one 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:24.159 day at a time, true to form. If there was 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:29.640 anything stressing the family, overwhelming schedules, infertility or mental health issues, 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.840 even racist stalkers, you would never know it from Jen's Facebook. 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:37.520 But back in June of two thousand seventeen, gent old 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.920 family friend neu Sheen baktr that someone had left upsetting 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:48.399 racist notes in their mailbox. The first time Neuchen baked 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:51.120 are encountered the Hart family was at an event Machine 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:55.080 put on called Portland's for the Philippines. It was a 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:58.399 concert series for charity hosted in New Sheen's dad's place, 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.960 a Mediterranean restaurant called blew Olive. She noticed that all 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:03.840 the hard kids were sitting at a table and had 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:07.600 incredible posture. Sheen had Jen in her phone as Je 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:11.040 double in because she says Jen dropped F bombs all 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:14.320 the time, so Jen was her favorite four letter word. 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:17.680 The first show was at my dad's place. It was 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:21.200 all ages, and they brought Jen and Sarah both came 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:24.040 and they brought all six of their children. And at 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:26.720 first they were sitting at a table right in front 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:30.320 of the stage, and um, they were just eating food 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:32.920 and they were super polite and they were all sitting 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:37.040 really like, um, it was just the best posture that 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.359 I had ever seen like kids have. And then to 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:41.480 see like all the kids have that great posture, it 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:44.440 was like, holy crap. So that's actually I think what 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:48.200 I commented on and how I started talking to Jen 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:52.440 and Sarah and then um, yeah, I was like, oh 0:24:52.480 --> 0:24:55.239 my god, what is up with your kids? How are 0:24:55.280 --> 0:24:57.400 they so well behaved? And she's like, oh, you don't know. 0:24:57.520 --> 0:24:59.800 That's just because there's not a dance floor. That's how 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:02.920