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Authorities have shared grisly details of the deaths of a family whose SUV plunged off a cliff in California, including how their bodies were retrieved and how the children had drugs in their system.

The details were revealed at a coroner's inquest on Wednesday in a bid to determine whether the March 2018 deaths of Jen and Sarah Hart and their six adopted children were accidental, a murder-suicide or undetermined.

The crash happened just days after authorities in Washington state, where the family moved in 2017 from Oregon, opened an investigation following allegations the children were being neglected.

A neighbor of the Harts in Woodland, Washington, had filed a complaint with the state, saying the children were apparently being deprived of food as punishment.

No one answered when social workers checking on the report went to the family's home near Portland, Oregon, on March 23.

Three days later, their SUV was found partially submerged on the ocean below a rugged cliff.

Google searches were read by California Highway Patrol Officer Jay Slates during the Mendocino County coroner’s inquest presented by the Sheriff’s Office Thursday.

'How long does it take to die from hypothermia in water while drowning in a car?', Sarah also searched, according to Slates’ testimony.

Sarah began searching at 12.30 am on March 24 as she and her family neared the Washington-Oregon border.

She would continue to conduct Google searches along these lines until 6:30 p.m. that night.

The bodies of Jen and Sarah were inside the SUV when it was discovered but one of the women fell out as the vehicle was being towed up the cliff off the coast of Mendocino County.

Sheriff Deputy Robert Julian testified on Wednesday that he was able to identify Sarah Hart through a Minnesota driver's license found near the car.

'I wasn't able to identify Jennifer Hart due to her fall,' Julian said.