Woman says she reported parents of family believed dead in SUV crash for child cruelty

A woman says she alerted Oregon welfare officials about the parents of six children believed killed last week when the family SUV plummeted from a California highway because she believed that the adoptive parents were being cruel and withholding meals.

In a statement provided Tuesday to Associated Press, Alexandra Argyropoulos said she witnessed what she believed to be emotional abuse and cruel punishment in 2013 toward the children by Jennifer and Sarah Hart.

Argyropoulos said she was told the children had been interviewed but that there was nothing more the Oregon Department of Human Services could do because there was not enough evidence to make a case.

West Linn police said previously that Oregon social service authorities contacted them about the family in 2013 while they were living in the area. The state agency cited privacy laws in refusing to say whether its officials were involved.