Roxanna Asgarian’s book on the 2018 murder of six adopted children focuses on their birth parents and the broken child-welfare system.
; Sarah was even convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault against a then 6-year-old Abigail in 2011.
When news of the Hart family murder-suicides first broke in 2018, much of the major coverage, as you note, revolved around what may have led Jennifer and Sarah Hart to kill themselves and their adopted children. By contrast,focuses on “the parts of the story that had been made invisible”: the children and their birth families. Tell me more about why you decided to frame the book through that lens.
The hardest thing for me was writing the part about Jennifer and Sarah. When I got to that part, I realized I’d been avoiding it. I’m really sensitive, so I don’t personally enjoy most true crime. I’m interested in investigative reporting — that’s what I do — but I’m sensitive to sensationalism. I don’t like dwelling there. Talking to Jennifer’s dad and having those experiences with him — everyone is a human being, and they’re all experiencing grief in these ways.
It took a long time. Part of the reticence was the pain everyone was experiencing, and part of it was just that they were like, “Who are you?” I got that; it’s totally understandable. Dontay expressed a desire to do a story with me and he was hard to pin down for a long time, so I ended up just hanging out with him for a year and building up trust. During that period I was reading through his file and coming to understand the full scope of the drama and tragedy he had faced as a child.
Professionally, it felt intuitive to be around and available to everyone. Personally, I’ve just really needed to work on my mental health these past few years. Therapy was so helpful and I’m still doing it.
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