If Child Protective Services had taken notice of repeated warnings about the girl’s mother, the horrific death of an eight-year-old Hayward, California girl who had gone missing could have been avoided, according to relatives.
Dhante Jackson, the boyfriend of 30-year-old Hayward mother, who’s in custody, Samantha Johnson, has been issued an arrest warrant by Merced police, according to KPIX.
Both are charged with murder after a child’s body was discovered inside the Central Valley home where Samantha and her daughter, Sophia Mason, were staying.
Hayward authorities have been looking for the missing eight-year-old girl since Tuesday. Mason was last seen in December, according to relatives. But they’ve been concerned about her wellness for years.
Merced Police discovered a child’s body on Barclay Way in Merced on Friday, March 11. Mason’s cousins think it’s Sophia’s.
“Devastated, shocked and angry. Just seems unreal,” said Mason’s cousin Melanie Verlatti. “Thinking about how this could have been avoided, and just knowing that it’s terrible, and it’s a tragedy.”
According to the family, there have been several red flags over the years, and pleas for help from authorities and Child Protective Services went unanswered.
“It was countless calls, letters, emails… my cousin who is also Samantha’s sister had sent me documents saying we feel like Sophia’s in an unsafe environment. Her mom’s taken her, we know she’s prostituting, and she has her and she’s in a hotel somewhere, but they would ultimately say ‘well she’s with her mom’” said Verlatti.
Samantha was adopted at a young age by Sylvia. Her family claimed she suffered from mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Samantha would show up on a sporadic basis and take her daughter without warning over the years. She would disappear for weeks or months at a time, cutting off all communication.
“She would take Sophia up and down the coast, Northern California, Southern California, in and out of different hotels, while she was prostituting. Who knows all that she’s been exposed to and we’ve heard that she’s drugged her before, so she would go to sleep, and not make noise in a hotel room while her mom is involved in illegal activities,” added Verlatti.
According to her, there were also signs of physical abuse at the hands of her mother. According to the family, Kaiser Permanente employees began photographing the child’s scars and bruises in the fall of last year, unrelated to the car accident that brought her to the hospital in the first place. Samantha, came to the hospital and ultimately fled the with Sophia.
As a result of this incident, police issued a warrant for her arrest. Samantha was eventually apprehended this week. Samantha led police to her boyfriend’s home in Merced during the investigation into her child’s disappearance.
According to Merced Police, Jackson fled after learning that his home was being searched. A warrant for his arrest on the charge of murder has been issued. He is well-known in the Bay Area.
Samantha was already detained at Dublin’s Santa Rita Jail when she was arrested on a murder charge. She’ll be taken to the Merced County Jail.
“This system is broken, and this is what happens when kids fall through the cracks in the systems. And this is more than kids who fall through the cracks in the system. This is kids who are poor and kids who are of color,” said Verlatti.
The child’s identity is still being confirmed by the coroner’s office.
