‘We believed her. They did not.’ Sophia Mason’s family says their pleas for help went unheard

Two weeks after the body of 8-year-old Sophia Mason was found at a north Merced residence, her family is still trying to come to grips with the tragic circumstances leading up to her death.

What makes Sophia’s death even more tragic, they say, is that it could have been prevented, as they alerted several agencies she was in danger, yet their pleas went unheard.

“We’re not doing well at all,” said Melissa Harris, one of Mason’s adult cousins in Hayward. “The whole situation surrounding Sophia’s death was a shock to the family. Learning the details of her demise was an added layer of pain.”

By now many Mercedians are familiar with Sophia’s case. On March 11, Merced police arrived at a two-story home on Barclay Way, acting on a tip from Hayward police from information given by the mother, Samantha Johnson. There, they opened a locked bathroom door and found Sophia’s body in a bathtub, curled in a fetal position.

Since then, more information has emerged about some of the circumstances that may have preceded Sophia’s death. Most prominently, Merced police believe the mother’s boyfriend’s Dhante Jackson, 34, murdered and abused Sophia — and has been on the run ever since.

The police reports from the investigation into Sophia’s death also contain horrific details that she was treated with extreme cruelty, based on Johnson’s statements to detectives that Jackson had brutally sexually and physically abused Sophia and kept her in a shed in back of the house, the documents say.

Johnson, Sophia’s mother, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on murder and child abuse charges in Merced County Superior Court. while Jackson’s whereabouts remain unknown. Police issued a murder arrest warrant for Jackson, and there is a $3,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

A short, sad life

Sophia’s family members say while Johnson did have legal custody of her daughter since birth in the Bay Area, the child wasn’t raised by her biological mother for much of her short life.

Harris, Sophia’s cousin, said Johnson had given Sophia as a baby to her grandmother Sylvia Johnson, who lived in Hayward.

Harris said Samantha Johnson was not an active, regular part of Sophia’s first seven years. As a result, Sylvia acted as the child’s full-time parent during that time. “It was Sophia’s grandmother that enrolled her in school, taught her to read and took care of her,” Harris explained.

Sophia’s life with her grandmother and other relatives was stable and happy, Harris said.

Her family members had given her the nickname “SoSo.” She loved singing, dancing and playing with dolls. Her love of music is evident as Harris shared video of Sophia playing guitar. She also loved playing pretend in her kitchen and drawing.

But Sophia’s stable, happy life with her grandmother didn’t last. Harris said Johnson took Sophia away from Sylvia and the rest of the family in January 2021, after Jackson wanted to meet her.

To the family’s knowledge, no other boyfriend of Johnson’s had ever asked to meet or see the girl. Harris says it was Jackson who pressured Johnson to take Sophia away from the family.

Sophie’s young life spiraled from there, Harris says.

Family, already aware that Johnson was earning money by selling sex, didn’t want Sophia with her mother. Sophia’s life with Samantha Johnson was marked by frequent moves and excessive absences from school.

At some point in the last 14 months, Sophia and her mother lived in Southern California, where Johnson earned money as a prostitute.

Then Johnson returned with her daughter to the Bay Area, where they lived in a women’s shelter until Johnson was asked to leave after not abiding by the shelter’s rules.

Eventually, Sophia would be taken by Johnson to live in Jackson’s Merced home on Barclay Way — the residence where local police would eventually find the child’s body.

Red flags did not go unreported, family says

Harris said she and members of her family were extremely upset after Sophia was taken by Johnson from her grandmother’s home.

Those concerns were exacerbated when the child was seen with visible bruises, scars and other marks on her legs.

Harris says her family alerted Child Protective Services in Alameda County, the Hayward Police Department and the Hayward Unified School District.

She said none of those agencies would help their family. The Sun-Star placed calls to the above agencies, though none would comment about allegations that authorities failed to intervene in Sophia’s situation. “The Social Services agency is not able to disclose any information regarding your inquiry,” said Sylvia Soublet, the public affairs director of Alameda County Social Services, in an email to the Sun-Star.

Harris says it was also clear something was wrong when Sophia was not regularly attending school. When the family tried to contact Hayward Unified School District, Harris says they were told that nothing could be done, since it was hard to track how many children were missing school because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as most students were attending school remotely.

“Basically, ‘they couldn’t do anything’ was the response,” Harris said.

Harris said the family had also contacted Alameda County Child Protective Services because they were trying to gain legal custody of Sophia.

Harris said her family never met Jackson, but they knew he was abusing her. “We all knew,” Harris said. “Sophia said Dhante and her mom were hitting her very hard with a belt and belt buckle, and her mom would rub cocoa butter on her to make the bruises go away.”

Sophia, according to Harris, had also told CPS representatives that Jackson and her mother were hurting her. “It was out of her own mouth,” Harris said. “We believed her. They did not.”

The family’s first step in trying to get Sophia back was to have the girl’s aunt, Emerald Johnson, file a complaint to get legal custody. “Sophia’s aunt is still young enough to raise Sophia. Emerald has a stable job, a stable home,” Harris said. “The police and CPS didn’t agree.”

Harris said her family filed two reports with Hayward Police Department, regarding their concerns about Sophia — one in January 2021, and another in October.

Still, every agency they went to for help determined it was in Sophia’s best interests to continue living with her mother. “We really thought going through CPS was the best route to take,” Harris said. “Then they would report it to the police, and they would help us to get her away from Samantha — but that didn’t happen.”

Harris said her family also called Hayward police to a park last summer, when Sophia was visiting with family. They found welts, bruises and scabs on Sophia’s inner thighs

The Hayward police officer who responded to the family’s call eventually returned Sophia to her mother and Jackson, Harris said.

Plus, according to a March 2021 letter written by Emerald Johnson, Sophia’s aunt, the child’s pediatrician also filed a report with Alameda County Child Protective Services, out of concern for the child’s safety after she went to live with her mother.

The letter said Sophia’s mother suffered from “bipolar disorder, sex addiction and schizophrenia.” It also stated Samantha Johnson had been active in prostitution and drugs, and had been homeless since she was 16 years old.

“My mother Sylvia Johnson and I had been raising Sophia together her entire life as Samantha (Johnson) is incapable and suffers from a number of diagnosed mental illnesses,” Emerald wrote to the Alameda County Superior Court. “My mother’s home is the only home Sophia ever knew of where she was loved, nurtured and cared for.”

Harris says the last time her family saw Sophia in person was in August, when she and her mother came for a visit. After that, they only spoke with her during video and phone calls — and then not at all.

The last time anyone in the family had any contact with Sophia was December.

Worst fears become reality

Earlier this month, Sophia’s family went to Hayward police to file a missing person’s report, after Samantha Johnson said she no longer had the child living with her and didn’t know where she was.

“Samantha called my Aunt Sylvia, her mother, asking to come home,” Harris said. “When she called, she said she wouldn’t have SoSo with her. She said she ‘gave SoSo away and she was tired of having a kid.’”

Not long after, Johnson showed up in the Hayward area and was arrested by police there. Johnson was questioned about Sophia’s whereabouts. Her answers led Hayward police to contact Merced police and inform them about the Barclay Way residence, where Sophia’s body was ultimately found.

Sophia’s body has not yet been released by the Merced County Coroner, according to Merced County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Daryl Allen.

The cause of her death is still pending. Until Sophia’s body is released to the family, her relatives cannot yet plan a funeral. Harris and her family have a GoFundMe account to raise money to pay for the upcoming ceremony and burial.

For the time being, Harris said the family is trying to celebrate her life in whatever way they can.

“She was a happy, effervescent little girl, and despite the pain, was helpful, loving and positive,” Harris said. “We’ll never know the amount of trauma she witnessed in her eight short years. But she was upbeat and tried to make the best of the situation with her mother.”

To make matters worse, the family has seen negative comments left on articles published online about Sophia’s death. Many of these comments assign blame to the family.

“Our family sees the comments saying it’s our fault Sophia is dead. As a spokesperson for our family, I can tell you this is not the case,” Harris said. “From the time Samantha took Sophia last January, efforts were made to bring this little girl to safety.”

“These people didn’t do their jobs at all”

Harris and Sophia’s relatives want those authorities who handled Sophia’s case to be held accountable, particularly for leaving the child in the care in of her mother Samantha Johnson, despite the numerous pleas for help made by the family.

“These people didn’t do their jobs at all,” Harris said. “Multiple people raised flags that this girl was in danger. They had the opportunity to intervene and change the trajectory of this little girl’s life, and for whatever reason, maybe because Sophia was a child of color, a little Black girl, they didn’t believe her.”

Merced police are continuing their search for Dhante Jackson, who has an active arrest warrant for Sophia’s murder. There is also a $3,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Dhante Jackson is described as 5-feet-11-inches tall, weighing around 220 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Police believe he is currently in the San Francisco Bay Area and had been working there before Sophia’s body was found. He also has family in the Bay Area.

Anyone with information about the case or Jackson’s whereabouts can call Detective John Pinnegar at 209-388-7712 or write to pinnegarj@cityofmerced.org.

Tips are kept confidential and you can remain anonymous.

Tips can also be made through Crime Stoppers or the Merced police website.

This story was originally published March 26, 2022 at 7:00 AM with the headline "‘We believed her. They did not.’ Sophia Mason’s family says their pleas for help went unheard."