How to watch Broken Harts documentary – where is it streaming?

The Hart family murders remains a chilling true crime case that proves you shouldn’t believe everything you see on social media, as is explored in the documentary Broken Harts. 

There’s plenty of new true crime to dive into in the coming weeks, from Monster Season 2’s dramatization of the Menendez brothers case to the Netflix spinoff series Worst Ex Ever. 

However, more than five years on from the tragedy that unfolded in Mendocino County, California, focus has turned to the 2021 documentary film about the Hart family murders. 

If you want to learn more about the case, Broken Harts is available to stream now. Warning: some may find this content distressing. 

The Broken Harts documentary is streaming now

As a Discovery Plus production, Broken Harts is streaming on Max now. 

You can also watch the 85-minute documentary on various on-demand channels, as well as with a Discovery Plus subscription via Amazon Prime. 

Is it on Netflix?

Although Warner Bros. Discovery does license some of its titles, Broken Harts isn’t on Netflix right now. 

Given it’s a smaller true crime documentary and is available on its main streaming services, it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing it on Netflix anytime soon. We’ll be sure to keep you posted if this changes. 

The Hart family murders explained

On March 26, 2018, couple Jennifer and Sarah Hart murdered themselves and their six adopted children – Ciera, 12, Abigail, 14, Jeremiah, 14, Devonte, 15, Hannah, 16, and Markis, 19. 

The Hart family murder-suicide unfolded when the couple, aged 37 and 38 at the time, intentionally drove their SUV off a cliff near Westport, California. Jennifer had been driving the vehicle, with the crash leaving all eight passengers dead. 

All but one of the bodies were recovered, with Devonte’s yet to be found, although he has been declared legally dead. The children had been sedated before the incident, while Jennifer had a high blood alcohol content. 

As the tragedy unfolded in the news, new information about the Harts came to light, indicating a failure from the child care system while raising issues relating to race, social media, and child exploitation. 

Jennifer and Sarah had presented themselves as a loving, progressive family online, promoting their same-sex relationship and their six Black adopted children. 

But beneath the surface, their kids were allegedly subjected to severe abuse and neglect, proving a stark contrast to the picture the couple had painted to the world. 

Broken Harts delves into this disturbing disparity, exploring the family’s online persona versus the grim truth while raising critical issues about the exploitation of children for social media content.

It also highlights how Jennifer and Sarah promoted themselves as the “white saviors” while the abuse was overlooked. 

As stated on advocate Diahanne Rhiney’s blog, “Adopting six African American children gave Jennifer and Sarah enormous ‘kudos’ as saviors, which is perhaps why Jen saw a need to write endless posts about her ‘drug babies’, most of them false.”

Neighbors recall red flags 

Although to the outside world they appeared to be this picture perfect family, those close to them spotted numerous red flags.

As far back as 2008, when the Harts were living in Minnesota, a police report showed then-six-year-old Hannah had told officers that a bruise on her arm was caused by Jennifer hitting her with a belt. 

When the couple were questioned about the injury, they claimed they didn’t know where it had come from “but stated that a few days prior to our interview, (Hannah) had fallen down eight stairs in their house.” And the report indicates there were no police follow-ups.

In 2017, Hannah jumped out of the bedroom window at 1.30am and knocked on their new neighbors Dana and Bruce DeKalb’s door, begging them to hide her. “Please protect me! Don’t make me go back,” she said. “They’re racists, and they abuse us!”

Although she tried to hide, the DeKalbs said the Hart matriarchs intercepted, claiming that the children weren’t being abused and that they’d just had troubled backgrounds. 

The following day, the entire family appeared at the door, where Hannah handed over a letter in which she apologized for “telling lies.”

This incident raised suspicion for the DeKalbs, with Dana suggesting it seemed like the mothers had dictated what to say. When Dana told her father, Steve Frkovich, he called 911 and said, “I just can’t sit with this. I believe those kids are being highly abused.”

Officers took a report, but again there were no follow-ups from Child Protective Services (CPS). The neighbors continued to keep an eye on the situation, which progressed in the months that followed. 

In March 2018, the DeKalbs called CPS after Devonte made repeated visits to her home, pleading for food. That afternoon, a CPS worker arrived at the Hart residence but left after no one answered the door. 

Shortly after, the family began a hasty departure. They were under investigation for potential abuse and neglect in Washington State, raising the possibility that they were fleeing from authorities. 

Just three days after the initial CPS visit, Jennifer drove the family’s SUV off a cliff in California, killing everyone inside.

As is explored in the Broken Harts documentary, the case underscores the need for greater scrutiny and accountability in adoptive parenting, child protection services, and the pitfalls of social media-driven narratives.

For more true crime, read more about what Face to Face is about, whether Scott Peterson will get a retrial, and what happened to Melissa Witt.