‘Broken Harts’ Documentary Details How Couple Secretly Abused Adopted Black Children

The Hart family murders were a March 2018 murder–suicide by Jennifer and Sarah Hart. (Family Photo)

The tragic true story of the Hart children and their two adoptive mothers, who all died in a murder-suicide in 2018, is examined in the new Discovery Plus documentary Broken Harts.

In the gripping trailer, authorities are initially baffled as to why a seemingly normal couple would purposely drive their family off a cliff along the California coastline.

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Jennifer Hart and her wife, Sarah Hart, died in the crash, along with five of their adopted children, who were all of color.

“This was not a normal traffic accident from the very onset, and it continued to be anything other than normal,” retired Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says in the trailer.

One of the children the couple adopted was Devonte Hart, who went viral in a photo hugging a white police officer while he was crying. Devonte’s body was never found, although he has been declared deceased, according to The Oregonian.

Jennifer and Sarah appeared to be doting parents in their social media posts, but their former friends and social workers interviewed for the 88-minute film begin to piece together disturbing reports of abuse.

The Harts are accused of physical abuse, starving the children and force-feeding them a combination of various medicines.

“In this case, we start putting the totality of everything together, and you know, something’s rotten here,” Allman states.

Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to abusing one of the children in 2011. After that, the couple removed all six kids from public school and moved to a different state.

Broken Harts is directed by Gregory Palmer, who also executive produced the documentary alongside Patrick Reardon, Harrison Land, Skye Borgman, Oren Katzeff, Geneva Wasserman, Jon Koa, Lorna Thomas and Katherine Grandy.

The true-crime documentary is now streaming on Discovery Plus. Watch a preview of the documentary below: