PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The Hart family was in the Newport area around 8:15 a.m. March 24, about 2 days before their GMC Yukon went over a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean, killing 5 people and leaving 3 more missing. 
 
 Cell phone pings placed them in the Newport area, KOIN 6 News learned. 
 
 Investigators from the California Highway Patrol and the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said they determined the family traveled south on US-101 from Newport until they got to Highway 1 in Legget, California. 
 
 They stayed on Highway 1 until they got to Fort Bragg around 8 p.m. Saturday, March 24, and stayed there until about 9 p.m. Sunday. 
 
 Jennifer Hart was spotted at 8:05 a.m. on March 25 at a Safeway in Fort Bragg, and investigators released that surveillance photo. 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The route the Hart family took from Oregon to Fort Bragg, California before plunging off a cliff on March 26, 2018 (KOIN) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The route the Hart family took from Oregon to Fort Bragg, California before plunging off a cliff on March 26, 2018 (KOIN) 
 
 But investigators do not have any further information about where they were between then and the time their SUV was spotted by a German tourist on Monday, March 26. 
 
 Other sighting 
 
 Jennifer Hart may have been seen in surveillance video from Fort Bragg, California a day before the family's SUV plunged off a cliff -- killing Jennifer, her wife Sarah and 3 of their children. 
 
 The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office confirmed to KOIN 6 News Tuesday that they're investigating whether the woman shown in the video is Jennifer, however, they said the footage is grainy -- making it difficult to tell. Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Jennifer and Sarah Hart in an undated photo. (Courtesy photo to KOIN) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Jennifer and Sarah Hart in an undated photo. (Courtesy photo to KOIN) 
 
 The possible sighting in Fort Bragg is about 20 miles from where the crash happened. Authorities plan to canvass that area -- including other businesses -- in hopes they can find out if the whole family was together, which could help narrow the search for the 3 missing children. 
 
 On Wednesday, crews are expected to search about 20 miles of the shoreline from the crash site to the Fort Bragg area. 
 
 Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, were found dead March 26 at the bottom of a California cliff. Their 3 adopted children -- 19-year-old Markis, 14-year-old Jeremiah and 14-year-old Abigail -- were also found dead near the SUV. 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The scene where Sarah and Jennifer Hart's SUV plunged about 100 feet into the ocean -- killing them and 3 of their children. The whereabouts of their other 3 kids are currently unknown, March 28, 2018. (Courtesy: Fort Bragg Advocate-News) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The scene where Sarah and Jennifer Hart's SUV plunged about 100 feet into the ocean -- killing them and 3 of their children. The whereabouts of their other 3 kids are currently unknown, March 28, 2018. (Courtesy: Fort Bragg Advocate-News) 
 
 The couple's 3 other children -- 15-year-old Devonte, 16-year-old Hannah and 12-year-old Sierra -- are still missing. But Sheriff Tom Allman said there is "every indication" all 6 children were inside the SUV at the time. 
 
 Authorities said on Sunday that they believe the crash was an "intentional act" because of air bag evidence and because there was no tire friction by the cliff's edge. 
 
 The California Highway Patrol spokesperson told KOIN 6 News that the vehicle -- a 2003 GMC SUV -- came to a stop 70-feet from the edge-- approximately 5 feet off the highway -- before it accelerated and plunged off the cliff. 
 
 "It was pure acceleration from last break application until it hit the bottom of the ocean -- the edge of the ocean," said Greg Baarts with CHP. 
 
 The SUV's speedometer was also pinned at 90 mph, though it''s no guarantee the vehicle was going that fast during the crash. The crash may have caused that number. 
 
 Authorities are still investigating the crash. Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A CBS News animation shows the Hart family SUV on its path to plunging off a cliff in California, killing 5 people. Three more are missing, March 29, 2018 (KOIN) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A CBS News animation shows the Hart family SUV on its path to plunging off a cliff in California, killing 5 people. Three more are missing, March 29, 2018 (KOIN) 
 
 Authorities searched the Hart home in Woodland, Washington on Thursday, March 29 and said no suicide note was found. They're also trying to figure out why the Harts were in California. 
 
 KOIN 6 News also learned that the West Linn Police Department was contacted about the Harts in 2013, but they said the case was forwarded to DHS, who couldn't confirm or deny that fact. Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Officials served a search warrant at the Hart home in Woodland Thursday, March 29, 2018. (KOIN) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Officials served a search warrant at the Hart home in Woodland Thursday, March 29, 2018. (KOIN) 
 
 Jennifer and Sarah recently moved to Woodland with their children from West Linn, where they had lived since 2014. In 2010 when they lived in Minnesota, Sarah Hart was arrested and later convicted of a gross misdemeanor for hitting one of the children, who was 6 at the time. She served a year on probation. 
 
 The court documents revealed a teacher noticed bruises on the child's back and stomach after the child said her mom had hit her. She also said her mom wouldn't give them lunch when they were grounded. 
 
 In talking with police, Sarah Hart said the kids always got food but admitted spanking her daughter the day before and that it got out of control. 
 
 The police report said "that her mom had put her in the bathtub and turned on cold water and then hit her...also stated that her mom had hit her with a fist. When asked what she had done to make her mom mad, (the child) said that she had a penny in her pocket and that this made her mom mad." 
 
 Detective Sgt. Larry Dailey of the Alexandria, Minnesota police told KOIN 6 News the Harts talked with the police on their own accord but left him with the impression they thought there was a lot being made over just regular parental discipline. Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A 2016 photo of the Hart family shown at a press conference by the Mendocino County (California) sheriff at a press conference about the cliff crash that killed at least 5 of the family members from Woodland, Washington (via KRON) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A 2016 photo of the Hart family shown at a press conference by the Mendocino County (California) sheriff at a press conference about the cliff crash that killed at least 5 of the family members from Woodland, Washington (via KRON) 
 
 Later, the Harts left Minnesota and moved to Oregon, settling in West Linn. There, they homeschooled their children. However, Clackamas Education Services District said they have no records of the Hart family filing a declaration of intent to homeschool their children. 
 
 In late 2017, they moved to Woodland, where 2 of the children reached out to neighbors Bruce and Dana Dekalb. 
 
 "Their daughters telling us, 'Please, please, please,' begging us not to make her go back and that they were abusing her," Dana Dekalb said. "And then Devonte telling us he's being starved to death." 
 
 The Dekalbs called Child Protective Services, who visited the family 3 times in the days before the crash -- but never made contact with the Harts. Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A March 28, 2018 aerial image from Alameda County Sheriff's Office drone video shows the pullout where the SUV of Jennifer and Sarah Hart was recovered off the off Pacific Coast Highway 1, near Westport, Calif (Alameda County Sheriff's Office via AP) 
 
 Copyright 2018 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A March 28, 2018 aerial image from Alameda County Sheriff's Office drone video shows the pullout where the SUV of Jennifer and Sarah Hart was recovered off the off Pacific Coast Highway 1, near Westport, Calif (Alameda County Sheriff's Office via AP) 
 
 After news of the crash, the Dekalbs got a phone call from someone who said he knew the Harts from Minnesota.The friend told the Dekalbs he thought they had unfairly targeted the Harts, perhaps out of bigotry. 
 
 KOIN 6 News contacted that person -- who would only identify himself as "a close friend of the Hart family from Minnesota." He said the Harts were a wholesome, loving family who overcame a lot of adversity. If they were abusive, the friends would have known, he said. 
 
 Asked if he knew Sarah had been convicted of domestic assault in Minnesota, the "close friend of the Hart family from Minnesota" said he just learned about it from media reports, but that everybody makes mistakes. 
 
 And, he added, those who knew the Harts will remember them as great people. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 The search continued Wednesday for three missing children of the family whose car plunged off a California cliff last week, as investigators came closer to piecing together a timeline of their final days. 
 
 The California Highway Patrol released a surveillance image from a Safeway in Fort Bragg taken March 25 — a day before the Hart family's SUV was found crashed at the bottom of a rocky shoreline about 15 miles to the north. 
 
 Authorities have said no skid marks were found at the top of the dirt turnout where the GMC Yukon pulled off, and believe the crash may have been intentional. 
 
 The surveillance photo shows mom Jennifer Hart, 38, purchasing bananas and other groceries. It's unclear where her wife, Sarah, also 38, and their six adopted children were at the time. 
 
 A surveillance photo shows Jennifer Hart, right, at the Safeway in Fort Bragg, California on March 25, 2018. California Highway Patrol 
 
 The CHP said in a news release it was analyzing the store's footage with FBI agents in an attempt to enhance the blurry viewing quality. 
 
 The investigation has included interviewing neighbors and searching the family's home in Woodland, Washington, about 25 miles north of Portland, Oregon. 
 
 Based on the surveillance footage as well as cellphone pings, police have come up with the family's travel itinerary: They were south of Portland at around 8:15 a.m. local time on March 24, then continued moving south along a coastal route, crossing into Northern California. By 8 p.m., they were in the Fort Bragg area. 
 
 They remained there until about 9 p.m. the next day. At some point, they decided to venture north along Highway 1. And on March 26, just after 3:30 p.m., a passerby called police about an upside down SUV that had fallen 70 feet to the embankment below. ||||| FILE - This March 20, 2016, file photo shows Hart family of Woodland, Wash., at a Bernie Sanders rally in Vancouver, Wash. The SUV carrying the Hart family accelerated straight off a scenic California... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This March 20, 2016, file photo shows Hart family of Woodland, Wash., at a Bernie Sanders rally in Vancouver, Wash. The SUV carrying the Hart family accelerated straight off a scenic California cliff and authorities said the deadly wreck may have been intentional.(Tristan Fortsch/KATU News via... (Associated Press) 
 
 SEATTLE (AP) — A woman said Tuesday that she told Oregon child welfare officials in 2013 that Jennifer and Sarah Hart — who plunged off a California cliff with their children last month in an SUV — had been depriving the kids of food as punishment. 
 
 In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Alexandra Argyropoulos, a former friend of the Harts, said she "witnessed what I felt to be controlling emotional abuse and cruel punishment" toward the six children. 
 
 Argyropoulos said she was told after she made the report that Oregon officials had interviewed the children but it was apparent that each child had been coached by their mothers on what to say. She said she was told there was nothing more the Oregon Department of Human Services could do because there was not enough evidence to make a case. 
 
 "My heart is completely broken. The current system failed to protect these children from their abusers," Argyropoulos said. 
 
 Authorities have said social services officials in Oregon contacted the West Linn Police Department about the family in 2013 while they were living in the area. Police referred media questions to the Oregon Department of Human Services, which cited privacy laws in refusing to say whether the agency was involved. 
 
 Authorities don't know exactly when the wreck took place. A passing motorist discovered the vehicle on March 26, three days after social service authorities in Washington state opened an investigation apparently prompted by a neighbor's complaint that the children were being deprived of food. 
 
 The Hart family's two moms and three of the six adopted children were found dead; the three others are missing and presumed dead, possibly washed out to sea. 
 
 Authorities are investigating whether a surveillance video from Fort Bragg, California, shows one of the women a day before the SUV was found. California Highway Patrol investigators are working with the FBI to try to enhance the video. 
 
 Later Tuesday, the highway patrol said investigators believe the Hart family was in or around Newport, Oregon, at about 8:15 a.m. March 24 and that they continued traveling south until reaching the area of Fort Bragg, California that evening. The family stayed in that area until the next evening, the state patrol said, officials said. 
 
 The SUV carrying the family plummeted 100 feet (31 meters) from a highway near Mendocino, California. 
 
 On Sunday, authorities disclosed that data from the vehicle's software suggested the crash was deliberate. They said the SUV had stopped at a pull-off area before speeding straight off the cliff. 
 
 Sarah Hart pleaded guilty in 2011 to a domestic assault charge in Minnesota over what she said was a spanking given to one of her children. 
 
 Argyropoulos said she was unaware of a 2011 domestic assault conviction against Sarah Hart. She said she had met the couple on Facebook, knew them for about eight months and that the family visited her in the Bay Area twice. The couple broke off contact with her after she voiced concerns to them about their treatment of the children, she said. 
 
 Two weeks ago, Bruce and Dana DeKalb, next-door neighbors of the Harts in Woodland, Washington, called state Child Protective Services because the couple's 15-year-old son Devonte had been coming over to their house almost every day for a week, asking for food. 
 
 Dana DeKalb said Devonte told her his parents were "punishing them by withholding food." The boy asked her to leave food in a box by the fence for him, she said. 
 
 Devonte, a black boy who is still missing, drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer during a 2014 protest. ||||| A surveillance video that appears to show one of the Hart mothers is being reviewed as a possible clue in deciphering the route the eight family members took — and in the search of the three children who were reported missing but presumed dead — after their SUV plunged off a California cliff last week. 
 
 Authorities have spent days retracing the "Hart Tribe’s" steps since the family’s battered SUV was found overturned at the bottom of a cliff just off the Pacific Coast Highway, about 150 miles north of San Francisco. The investigation found the family of eight was believed to be in the Newport, Ore. area around 8:15 a.m. on March 24, two days before their vehicle was found, California Highway Patrol said in a Wednesday news release. 
 
 “It is believed they continued south along US 101 until they reached State Route 1 in Leggett, California. The family traveled south along State Route 1 until they reached the Fort Bragg area in Mendocino County around 8:00pm on Saturday evening, March 24, 2018,” the news release read. 
 
 WHERE ARE THE HART CHILDREN? INVESTIGATORS RETRACE ROUTE OF DOOMED FAMILY WHO PLUNGED OFF CLIFF 
 
 A map released by California Highway Patrol showed the coastal route the family possibly took. Authorities retraced the route based on cellphone pings, Officer Cal Robertson told Oregon Live. 
 
 Police said the route goes cold, however, by Sunday night. A surveillance video taken just after 8 a.m. at a Safeway in Fort Bragg appeared to show Jennifer Hart at the register buying bananas and several other items. It’s unclear where the Harts went after the incident. 
 
 Initial reports said there were signs that suggested the family planned for a short trip. 
 
 Their SUV, a 2003 GMC Yukon LX with black rims, was found on March 26 with Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, inside the vehicle. Authorities found the bodies of three children — Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; Abigail Hart, 14 — at the scene. 
 
 Devonte Hart, 15, Hannah Hart, 16, and Sierra Hart, 12, are still missing. Mendocino County Sheriff Lt. Shannon Barney said rescuers will be searching the water near the crash site Wednesday morning for the three children, who were presumed to be in the vehicle at the time of the crash, Oregon Live reported. 
 
 On Tuesday, Alexandra Argyropoulos, a former friend of the family, told The Associated Press she alerted Oregon welfare officials about Jennifer and Sarah Hart because she felt they were withholding meals from their six adopted children. Argyropoulos said she "witnessed [in 2013] what I felt to be controlling emotional abuse and cruel punishment" toward the children by the couple, who were living in West Linn at the time. 
 
 "My heart is completely broken. The current system failed to protect these children from their abusers," Argyropoulos said. 
 
 Argyropoulos said she was told the children had been interviewed but there was nothing more the Oregon Department of Human Services could do because there was not enough evidence to make a case. 
 
 CALIFORNIA CLIFF PLUNGE INVESTIGATION FOCUSES ON UNACCOUNTED-FOR HART TRIBE CHILDREN 
 
 A similar instance also prompted neighbors Bruce and Dana DeKalb to alert Child Protective Services three days before the family was found dead. They feared Devonte — who gained nationwide fame after a photo of him at a 2014 Portland, Ore., rally holding a “Free Hugs” sign went viral — was going hungry because he'd been coming over to their house too often in the past week asking for food. 
 
 Authorities attempted to reach the family three times and made their third attempt the day after their SUV was found. 
 
 Investigators believe the deadly crash may have not been an accident — as originally thought — after evidence suggested the driver, Jennifer Hart, accelerated off the side of the road. Court documents stated the speedometer of the SUV was pinned at 90 mph, though authorities warned the device could have been altered at impact. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– A timeline of the final days of the Washington family killed in an apparently intentional car crash in California is coming together. Jennifer Hart, 38, was caught on surveillance footage at a Safeway store in Fort Bragg, Calif., around 8am on March 25, the day before the family's SUV plunged off a cliff about 15 miles north of the area, Fox News reports. The bodies of Jennifer Hart (who was driving the SUV) as well as her wife, Sarah, and three of their six adopted children have since been found; authorities are still searching for the couple's three other children. Jennifer Hart was purchasing bananas and other groceries during the Safeway trip; it's not clear where the rest of the family was, NBC News reports. The children ranged in age from 12 to 19; their parents were under investigation for alleged abuse or neglect at the time of the crash. Investigators have also been interviewing neighbors, searching the family's Washington home, and looking into cellphone pings. So far, they know the family was south of Portland by 8:15am March 24, and then drove south along the coast until, by 8pm, they were in the Fort Bragg area. They were there a little more than 24 hours, then headed north up the coast. Their GMC Yukon went off the cliff, falling 70 feet to an embankment below, on March 26; a passerby reported it to police around 3:30pm. Authorities say it appeared to have accelerated over the edge and that no skid marks were found near where it went over. "As of this date it is still unclear if the missing children were inside the vehicle during the incident," the CHP said in a news release, but the missing children are tentatively presumed dead. The local sheriff tells KOIN there is "every indication" they were in the car when it crashed. (A former friend of the couple has come forward to speak out about the alleged abuse.)