[11] On Facebook, Jennifer stated that the women were initially closeted when they lived in South Dakota, and that when they decided to come out they lost friends.

[12] After a period of living in West Linn, Oregon,[14] the Harts moved to an unincorporated area near Woodland, Washington;[15] Sarah became a manager at a Kohl's in Hazel Dell.

[14] The Harts received funds from the state of Texas, covering their six adopted children, which accounted for almost 50% of the family's income.

[10] The Davis children were put into foster care; their older brother, Dontay, was not adopted by the Harts due to behavioral issues.

[28] Prior to the murders, 12-year-old Devonte came into the national spotlight when he was photographed crying while embracing a police officer during a 2014 protest in Portland, Oregon resulting from the Ferguson unrest.

"[31] In 2008, while the family was living in Minnesota, a teacher observed bruises on Hannah's left arm and was told she had been hit by Jennifer with a belt.

[31] In 2010, Abigail said that she had "owies" on her back and stomach and stated that she felt threatened by the Harts, who had beaten her and held her head in cold water over a penny they assumed had been stolen.

Two family friends stated that the children were forced to raise their hands before speaking, could not wish each other a happy birthday, and could not laugh at the dinner table.

When Jennifer discovered that the pizza was gone, she punished the children by not feeding them breakfast and forcing them to lie on their bed for five hours.

When Jennifer herself was interviewed, she claimed that any family problems were the results of others not being tolerant to two lesbian mothers with six African-American children.

[32] In August 2017,[33] after the Harts had since moved to the Woodland, Washington area, Hannah jumped out of her second-story bedroom window at around 1:30 a.m. and approached the residence of her next-door neighbors, the DeKalbs.

This, combined with the earlier incident with Hannah, made the DeKalbs report the Harts to both the police and to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).

[34][11] The bodies of five of the children (Hannah, Markis, Jeremiah, Abigail, and Ciera) were found in or near the vehicle, which had landed upside down on a beach below the cliff.

[11][35] A superior court judge ruled in 2019 that Devonte was in the vehicle at the time of the crash, and a death certificate was signed on April 3 of that year.

[36] Expert analysis of the SUV's internal air bag-deploying computer determined that the Yukon had been intentionally driven off the edge of the cliff from a standing stop, accelerating to 20 mph (32 km/h) in 3 seconds with the throttle at 100%.

[40] Toxicology results showed that Jennifer's blood alcohol content was over the legal limit at the time of the crash,[11][35] and that both Sarah and two of the children had diphenhydramine in their systems.

[45] In the 2024 novella collection American Spirits, author Russell Banks included the story "Homeschooling", which fictionalizes the Hart family murders.