WEBVTT - "Fear" 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:08.760 The cliff is the kind of place Jennifer Hart would 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.320 have loved to photograph her kids. Located two hundred miles 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.000 north of San Francisco, it has a green edged bluff 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.240 right off of California's Highway One, with a gravel path 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.280 leading to a dramatic one foot drop into the Pacific. 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.439 On other trips, Jan and her wife Sarah might have 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:27.360 pulled to the side of the road and had their 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.480 brood line up, as they often did, backs to the camera, 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:35.400 hands raised in peace signs, a technicolor sunset framing their silhouettes. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:43.360 They were Marcus nineteen, Hannah sixteen, Davante fifteen, Abigail and 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:49.760 Jeremiah both fourteen, and Sierra twelve, two sets of biological siblings, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:53.760 both black, adopted by two white moms. A beautiful family 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:58.200 by most accounts. Friends called them the Hart Tribe, but 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.600 this trip wouldn't be like the others the tribe took 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:06.759 to places like Bliss Idaho or Zion National Park in Utah. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.720 Investigators have been desperate to figure out how that family 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.080 flew off that cliff in California and whether it was 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.959 on purpose. I was at the scene two days ago. 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.959 There were no skid marks. We have no evidence and 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.039 no reason to believe that this was an intentional act. 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:30.800 Certainly people are wondering what plaused this. On March two, eight, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.720 a German tourist spotted the families two thousand three GMC 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.560 Yukon x L belly up on the rocks below the 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.759 picturesque Mendocino Cliff. The car plummeted more than a hundred feet. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:46.880 Here's what we know happened in the days leading up 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:52.880 to the crash. On March at three am, Sarah's co 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.520 workers at Cole's, where she worked as an assistant manager, 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.720 received a text from Sarah saying she was too sick 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.320 to open the store that more n that same morning, 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.400 the Hearts next door neighbors, Bruce and Dana Deco, noticed 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.120 that the Yukon was no longer in their driveway and 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.080 that the bright red kayak that typically sat on top 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:16.120 of it had been removed. Cinder Blocks littered the driveway, 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.120 suggesting that the family had crashed into a retaining wall 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.840 in their rush to leave. On March at eight oh 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.480 five am, a surveillance camera in a Fort Brag safeway 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.400 captured gen in eyeglasses and an ill fitting gray hoodie, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.320 paying twenty dollars and eight cents in cash for groceries. 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:40.239 She bought bananas, saltines, and Chef Boyardi ravioli, and used 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.040 a club card for discounts. Friends said she looked twenty 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.920 five pounds heavier than they'd ever seen her. On March 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:54.200 at one pm, Sarah's co worker, Cheryl Hart no relation, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:01.040 called asking for a welfare check on her friend. Thanks 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:02.760 for all and can I help you because I was 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.840 calling to Seethe Willford checks done? Okay? And her? Are 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.720 we checking on Sarah? Hart told me the reason that 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.080 we're checking on her? Um. She sent out a text 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.400 message at three o'clock in the morning on Saturday morning 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.240 stating that she was sick, But nobody's been able to 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.120 get ahold of her talk to her or being her 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:25.079 since that text message. Okay or her wife was his jin, 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.119 So we're just confirmed, okay. And did she say when 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:30.600 she said she was sick? Did she say what was 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.080 going on? Or she just said that she just is 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.320 unable to come out and wasn't able to go to 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.160 work and thought she was gonna have to go to 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.960 the doctor. Um, I've checked the hospital. If they didn't 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.640 have any records of her, and I think her phone 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.200 is now dead. Okay. And just the children was there? 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:56.080 They have six children, okay. Any known medical history, not 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.840 that I'm aware of. Now. She has been sick, and 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.840 I think she's like a cool okay. Has she been 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.640 so vital at all? Or see? Not that I'm aware of. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:10.560 The call you just heard came several hours too late. 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.840 Early the morning of March, rescue workers were pelled down 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.520 the cliff, where they lifted the dead bodies of three children, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.520 later identified as Marcus, Abigail and Jeremiah Hart, and spotted 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.919 two more, Sarah in the back and Jen in the 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:30.040 driver's seat. The corner found an ingredient commonly used in 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.880 allergy medicines like benadro, in the bodies of Sarah and 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.680 two of the kids. Jen's blood alcohol content was over 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.200 the legal limit. No one had been wearing a seatbelt. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.280 The cars computer revealed that Jen had stopped on a 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.799 pull out some seventy ft from the cliff moments before 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.839 the free fall. She then gunned it off the ledge. 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.679 Ten days later, the county sheriff issued a statement about 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.600 the gruesome incident. I'm to the point where I no 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.720 longer I'm calling this an act sit in. I'm calling 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:05.960 it a crime from glamour and how stuff works. This 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:22.520 is broken Hearts. I'm Justine Harmon and I'm Liz Egan. 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.960 Together we've been looking into this story for the past 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.080 six months, and what has emerged is one of the 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.520 most complex and compelling stories of abuse, neglect, privilege, and 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.840 confusion in the digital age we've ever encountered. One astounding 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.919 element of this story is that this family, the Heart Tribe, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.920 didn't just burst into the news after the horrific crash. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.360 Over the years, they had somehow managed to be at 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.919 the center of multiple news events. Remember that picture of 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.520 a young black boy in a blue fedora embracing a 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.599 white cop in riot gear at a Black Lives Matter 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.120 rally in two thousand fourteen, and the debate that ensued 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.200 over whether it was a symbolic moment of racial healing 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.880 or semi staged theater. That was DeVante Hart, the third 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.880 oldest of the Heart kids. Davante was a trumpet player 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.040 who loved to brush his dog, Kenya. He had big 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.920 teeth and big eyes. His whole face looked like a smile. 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.960 He often wore a free hugs sign around his neck. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.480 He was an extrovert and an EmPATH. That photo from 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.160 the rally was taken in two thousand fourteen, nearly four 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.719 years before the family's death, and that wasn't the only 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.680 time the Hearts found themselves in the spotlight, but we'll 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:45.840 get into that later. A few weeks ago, our producer 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.800 Jason asked us what drew us to this story in 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:53.800 the first place. Our answers were different. I was on 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:58.120 a ten day road trip with my family. One afternoon, 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.839 after spending about nine hours in the car with my 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:08.160 three kids, who are seventeen, fourteen, and eleven, I looked 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.000 at the New York Times homepage and I read a 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.800 story about the Hearts. I was really surprised by how 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.320 quickly it fell out of the news. There weren't that 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.560 many stories that sent me down a rabbit hole of 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.800 wondering what had happened. At Glamour morning meetings, we discussed 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.320 not only what we're working on currently, but what stories 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.840 are sort of piquing our interest, and Liz brought up 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:35.280 this story that I had almost surreptitiously clicked on the 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.560 night before. Something about the picture. I saw these two women, 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:46.960 white very attractive, sort of every day looking. Nothing seems 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.240 sinister about them, and six really adorable. I mean, the 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.880 kids just looked so happy and so to have that 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.640 juxtaposed with such an egregious storyline and headline, I was 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.040 instantly captivated by, Well, what have driven these women to 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.080 do such a thing? How does someone get to a 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:08.520 place where they're willing to choose not only a path 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.760 for yourself, but that of six young people. I am 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.680 a mother of a two year old. I can't imagine 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.360 ever being pushed to the brink that way. But at 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.280 the same time, it is a relatable feeling as a mother, 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.840 as a woman to feel trapped by the choices you make. 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.320 The story is so complex, in fact, that we brought 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.880 on Laurence Smiley, a San Francisco based investigative reporter, to 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.840 help us figure out what really happened in the days, months, 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.040 and years leading up to the crash. You'll hear from Lauren. 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.080 She's the intrepid interviewer with the throaty chuckle and the 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.760 Iowa accent. Over the course of this cross country journey 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:49.760 that leads us from South Dakota to Minnesota, to Oregon, Washington, 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.400 and ultimately a cliff in California. You'll also meet a 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.240 variety of people who knew the Hearts or thought they did, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.040 and you'll get an exclusive look into a case that 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.640 left six people said to missing and a nation puzzled 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.200 over the perfect family they never knew. But the most 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.400 important voices in this podcast belonged to the people we 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:17.400 couldn't interview, the Heart Kids, Marcus, Hannah, Davante, Abigail, Jeremiah, 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.200 and Sierra. Hannah and Davante were not found in the 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.800 car that day in March, and their bodies have not 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.440 yet surfaced at the crash site. Since their whereabouts have 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.320 yet to be located, some fear they were killed before 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:34.040 the plunge. Others speculate they escaped in the nick of time. 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.560 Back in May, we sent Lauren to Woodland, Washington to 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.320 meet with Dana and Bruce Decalb, the Heart's next door neighbors. 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.360 The families shared a driveway. Take the fork to the 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.480 left and you'll hit the Decalb's red split level. Take 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.240 the one to the right and drive down a little 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.360 bit and you're at the Hearts. This is Lauren. I 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.360 got out of my car and felt like I'd landed 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.920 in a postcard of the Pacific Northwest. It seems like 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.400 the Decalb's property could be swallowed up by ature at 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.920 any moment. Their house is blanketed by pine trees and 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:08.320 rhododendron bushes. Just for some orientation, I'd driven up from 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.280 Portland for about an hour on I five, which continues 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.360 on up to Seattle. I took an exit and then 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.960 drove along this twisty road with trees overhead for five minutes, 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.600 even though there's this huge freeway just minutes away. By 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.440 the time you get to the Decalps, it feels really remote. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.840 You move out here to be close to nature, not people. 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.800 Dana agree to me at the door. She's in her 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.640 late fifties and his short, curly hair. She's a talker 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.559 and always wears a smart watch to track her daily steps. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:41.920 Two decades ago, she and Bruce moved from a California 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.040 cul de sac to the spot in the foothills of 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.200 the Cascades where you can see cleared amount st Helen's 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.000 Bruce is about six ft tall. He's more laid back. 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.920 He's chatty too, but went together. Let's Dana do the talking. 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.440 Their days usually include some beating back of the Washington 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.360 Wild than of venturing out on jet ski or kayak. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.640 Last September, the retirement good life was interrupted when a small, 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.680 frightened girl wrapped in a fleece blanket rang their doorbell 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.800 at one in the morning. Doorbell rang, and I went 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.760 to the front door. Here's this girl standing there on 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.320 a blanket wrapped around her. She comes bolton in the 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:28.000 house and I'm yelling for Dana, you know, hey, wake up, 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:33.000 come help me, and she ran up the stairs on 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:38.920 her own. She bolted upstairs pounced on me. Because that's 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:40.720 when I woke up, thinking who are you and where'd 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:46.560 you come from. I came down here and was talking 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.200 to her and trying to get her to calm down, 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:55.400 to understand what was going on. And she was just 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.479 frantic and begging, you know that take me to Seattle. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.559 Don't make me go back there. They're racist, they're abusive, 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:13.640 you know, and we're just going hole, you know, Bruce 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:15.800 Astrab what do you mean And she's like, well, they 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:19.120 whip us with a belt and he was like, well, 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.160 I've been whipped with a belt. Trying to think of 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:28.319 you know, and in the meantime, I'm trying to figure 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:30.840 out where she came from, because we don't know she 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:37.240 lives next door. I noticed that the whole family was 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.240 outside looking forward with flashlights, and she's freaking out, and 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.480 I'm like, you know what they're coming. I have to 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:48.600 figure this out. Just stay put. They came in and 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.599 they just kind of pushed their way into Sarah and 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.320 Jennifer did and they started going around looking through the 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.200 house and went up to the bedroom. Did you invite 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:04.520 the family to go into a house? Know? And we 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:06.480 you know, it's one thirty in the morning, and you're 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:12.240 freaking out. Hannah had crouched down between my bed and 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.960 dresser and this little spot and she was like in 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:21.920 the beetle position. And when they just went in and 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.760 Sarah approached her first, and Hannah she was like no, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.199 you know, And so I said, well, you back up, 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.920 give her some space. You know, you guys are freaking 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:36.560 around and freaking me out. Let's just back up. At 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.080 about that time, Jennifer kind of grabbed Sarah and said, 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.680 I'll deal with this. You go down back downstairs with 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:50.200 the kids. So Jennifer started talking to her and you know, 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.559 calling her and being all nice and stuff. So I 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:55.760 thought Okay, I'm gonna give him a minute, and so 0:13:55.840 --> 0:14:04.920 I left the room be correctly, and then they came 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.520 back downstairs, and they when they started coming back downstairs, 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.160 Jennifer told Sarah, you need to take the kids and go. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.840 Hannah's having a problem with her big brother. Right now, 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.680 we were like, what her issue? Wasn't her brother at all? 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.560 What do you mean? So that kind of was a 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:32.280 little bit weird, but you know, I don't know. So 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.240 they sat there saying, you know, you needed to tell 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.000 these people you're sorry, yes, ma'am. And you need to 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.160 explain to him you just had a really bad week, yes, ma'am. 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.320 And she just constantly was looking at Jennifer. Never even 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:51.280 talked to us. It was just robot And so they 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.440 ended up leaving. Now it's like two thirty in the morning. 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:04.000 You're trying to figure out what, Wow, What's what's really 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:05.960 going on here? You know? And I guess it was 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:13.040 just beyond our imagination. For a variety of reasons. The 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.480 Decals wouldn't call the authorities until nearly six months after 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.400 the incident, but that didn't stop her eight year old dad, 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.480 whom she told about the event, from getting involved. On November, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.040 nearly three months after Hannah visited. In the middle of 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:32.360 the night, Dana's dad, Steve, plays the call to there 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.080 are some kids that I feel as being highly abused, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.320 and how I know. Okay, I'm gonna get to the 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.040 address of my daughter's house because it's right next door. Yeah, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.040 if you're going up to the road to her house, 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.400 it's a house on the right, okay. And what's going 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.440 on there, Well, they helped flock children. What's that part? 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.640 Doesn't matter, they're they're new here. But the other night 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.000 a little girls jumped out of the second story window 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.880 on the roof and then down onto the ground and 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.000 ran to my daughter. And this is like two in 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.120 the morning, begging him to help her, to help her. 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.120 And when they came looking for her, she was begging 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.440 my daughter not to let him know she was there. 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.760 And then eventually my son in law let him know. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.440 He doesn't want to get involved. But the more I 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.320 sit on it, I just can't live with it. Somebody's 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.320 got to go there and check it. And know how 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.480 old less the little kid that did that, that Randy 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.600 a Gotta's house about twelve years old, thirteen and then 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.480 she had all four of the kids come back later 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.960 and to say everything was okay, and they're all standing 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.200 at attention like they were just scared to death. And 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.600 I think there's something very serious going on there, and 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.800 they're here from Texas. The kids might even be kidnapped. 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:47.200 And and basically my son in law was like most people, 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.320 they don't want to get involved, and so he's keeping 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.640 my daughter out of it. But since she's told me 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.560 about it, I just can't live with it. I'm very 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.360 concerned for these kids. Someone from the County Sheriff's office 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.359 called the Helps to ask whether there have been more incidents, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.120 and Dana explained what she had observed since that night. 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:10.040 The kids next door were almost always indoors. She remembers 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:14.520 being told it's not illegal to keep kids inside. On August, 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.280 a little less than a year after her dad called, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.120 I contacted County Sergeant Brent Wadel over the phone, so 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:27.160 Dana's dad and called down here and reported that Dana's 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.120 neighbor child had come over in the middle of the night, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:37.480 and the deputy contacted Dad and also contacted Dana. When 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:41.199 the deputy talked with Dana, there was no indication that 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:46.120 there's any ongoing issues or anything like that. What else 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.640 wasn't the one who talked with Dana, but the department 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.199 had done an internal review of how they handled their 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.400 interactions with Dana and her dad. He inquired and documented 0:17:55.440 --> 0:18:00.520 that he talked with Dana and they had discussed is 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:06.120 there anything over there, sense that's happened, anything concerning And 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.800 Dana basically said, you know, we never see him, see 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.960 him out. For us to go up and knock on 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.400 the door, we would need something a little bit more. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:20.040 People have rights in this country and in this state, 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.359 and just because your neighbor, you know, if there's something 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:28.440 a little bit more current, and some other factors. Again, 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.199 we don't know what happens behind closed doors. So just 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.840 because the kids aren't playing outside or aren't outside aren't 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:41.879 seen that much, that amongst itself is not a trigger 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:46.919 or red flag hindsight being who knows, but you know, 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:51.480 there's you know, the deputy and Dana had a conversation 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.600 and and the deputy was okay with not going up 0:18:55.600 --> 0:19:12.240 and knocking on the door, But what really went on 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.119 behind the white door in that baby blue split level? 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.080 Who are these women and how did they come to 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:22.520 adopt six children? Two sets of three black siblings. Their 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.720 story starts in small town South Dakota, where Sarah Gangler 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.240 and Jen Hart both grew up. A photo of five 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.199 year old Gen shows her dressed up in a roughly 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.160 blue dress with knee high white sox outside a cornflower 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:42.520 blue home with astro turf covered stairs. Extremely rare, fine, 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.879 she wrote on Facebook in May of two thousand sixteen, 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:50.560 me in address. The women met when they were twenty 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.760 years old as undergraduates at Northern State University in Aberdeen, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:20:00.320 South Dakota. It was American pie was the biggest thing 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:04.160 at the box office. Jfk Jr. Had just been found 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:06.920 dead off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, still strapped into 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.920 the pilot's seat of his plane. Live in La Vida 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.639 Loca was the biggest thing on the radio. But it 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:15.200 would be more than a decade before Ricky Martin would 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:24.399 publicly come out as gay. At Aberdeen, Sarah would go 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:28.440 on to earn her degree in education, Jen never graduated. Later, 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.239 Jen would describe on Facebook how she called Sarah her 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.399 friend or her roommate once they did come out as 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.840 a couple. However, the Midwestern mindset, she wrote, was relentlessly unforgiving. 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.520 The pair eventually moved to Alexandria, Minnesota, a laketown famous 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.800 for Big Olie, a foot tall statue of a Viking 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.800 that was built for the sixty four World's Fair. Her 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.920 Burger's where the women worked, Jen in the junior's department, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.000 Sarah as a department manager, was the biggest store at 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.320 Viking Mill Plaza, a one level strip mall located off 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:06.520 of Root twenty nine. Jen was probably the one I 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.000 met first. She was taller than me. She had like 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:15.959 the big, bright red hair. I remember her feeling so 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.000 much older than she actually was, like she probably was 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.600 twenty six or twenty seven at the time, and she 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:32.240 was confident and assertive and intimidating. I immediately did not 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:34.880 feel like I was on the same level as her. 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.720 This is Jordan Smith. Jordan worked with Jen and Sarah 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:41.320 in the summer of two thousand four at her Burgers. 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:44.200 We asked Lauren to find out what they were like. 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.880 Most people who knew the women back then noted their differences. 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.919 Jen was more colorful, outgoing, abrasive. That would be the 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.200 Minnesota term for it. Smith says Sarah could be more 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.639 emotional and stressed, but she lovingly kept the picture of 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:02.760 her in Jen cuddling on her office desk. When I 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.879 talked to Jordan's she remembered the time Jen complained about 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.760 a mannequin's nipples being sexist. Jen hauled the mannequin to 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.640 a back room at her burgers and manually cut them 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.560 off with a hack saw. She pulled the mannequins in 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:17.600 the back to do it. She wasn't doing it like 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.240 on the floor in front of customer. Um. It was 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.840 probably her relationship with Sarah that like gave her, you 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:26.480 know that kind of like I can do this as 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:31.240 a couple. They were very uh discreet. It took me 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.159 almost nine months to realize they were a couple. I 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:39.800 mean we're talking real rural Minnesota, like the Bible Belt 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:45.719 of Minnesota. That's Alexandria. In two thousand four, Alexandria, Minnesota, 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.600 a town located one and thirty two miles northwest of Minneapolis, 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:53.280 had a population of around eleven thousand. It was a 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.880 bit more progressive than rural South Dakota, but it wasn't 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.440 exactly the most tolerant of places either. As Jordan recalls, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.720 it was pretty usual to get called a diake or 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:10.560 a bag and uh, you're gay and everything negative. It 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:13.200 may not seem that long ago, but two thousand four 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.480 was a very different time socially, especially in the rural Midwest. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:21.000 You could kind of describe the mentality as well, don't ask, 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.880 don't tell. Jordan identifies as queer now, but back then 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.119 it wasn't so easy to be out to Sarah and 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:34.640 John Credit they were probably one of very rare handful 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:40.879 of open and out um homosexual couples in the area. 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:44.280 Years later, in a Facebook post, Jen would recall the 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:47.120 realities of being a gay woman living in the unforgiving 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.760 and unaccepting Midwest. The truth of our love was clouded 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.080 with fear, she wrote, Fear of rejection from family and friends, 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:58.280 fear of being unwanted, unloved, fear of not being able 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.720 to get a job, fear of acts of violence, fear 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:04.280 of not being able to have a family, fear of 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:07.080 walking through this life alone with our love keeping it 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:16.200 a secret. The Hearts would eventually find a community over 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:21.080 the years. They became regulars at transformational festivals, days long 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:26.080 socially conscious mashups of music, yoga, dance, and creative costumes. 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.520 The kids would join too, often dressed in colorful costumes 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.320 and carrying motivational signs and interacting with the musical acts. 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.400 In one YouTube clip, we see Davante at the Beloved Festival, 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:45.639 and annual gathering dedicated to what its website describes as vulnerability, belonging, 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:50.400 and liberation. In the clip, a large group of adults 0:24:50.480 --> 0:24:53.879 dressed in tai edie and bucket hats congregate around the 0:24:53.960 --> 0:24:57.560 musician Xavier Rudd as he plucks at a guitar placed 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:02.240 across his lap. Rudd is shirtless, his long blonde hair 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:05.800 is pulled back with a headband. His eyes are closed. 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:09.199 About eight minutes into the song, he notices someone in 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:13.600 the crowd and beckons him to the stage. Davante, dressed 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:16.399 in a zebra costume, a free Hug sign around his 0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:19.800 neck and the word Beloved shaved into his head, approaches 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:22.840 the musician and gives him a hug, their tears in 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:33.320 his eyes. The embrace lasts over a minute. The whole 0:25:33.359 --> 0:25:58.480 moment is a lot, but it was also at these 0:25:58.520 --> 0:26:02.240 festivals that friends like Zippy Lomax, a Portland based photographer, 0:26:02.359 --> 0:26:06.480 first encountered Jen and Sarah. After the news of the 0:26:06.520 --> 0:26:09.359 crash broke Lomax, like so many of the people in 0:26:09.400 --> 0:26:12.320 the Heart's inner circle, took to social media to defend 0:26:12.359 --> 0:26:15.920 the women. She knew. They were that really bright kind 0:26:15.960 --> 0:26:19.080 of presence. It was pretty hard to miss them any 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:21.639 event that I was at where they were if I 0:26:21.680 --> 0:26:23.840 had a camera, I was of course attracted to that. 0:26:24.480 --> 0:26:28.199 I was inspired by them. They gave me hope. Everyone 0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:30.800 considered them like the Heart tribe. It was just sort 0:26:30.800 --> 0:26:33.439 of like a natural term that would kind of come 0:26:33.440 --> 0:26:36.160