OAKLAND — Under a haze of secrecy, a county investigation into the death of 8-year-old Sophia Mason — whose malnourished body was found decomposing in a basement bathroom — has dragged on for nearly three years.
Now, even as hints emerge that the 2023 county-ordered probe may finally be wrapping up, child welfare and open governance experts say the delay in completing it raises new alarms about the county’s commitment to keeping children safe.
They say the reason cited by county officials for holding up the investigation — a lawsuit filed by Sophia’s grandmother that claimed widespread wrongdoing on behalf of Alameda County’s Department of Children and Family Services — suggests that county leaders’ priorities may be misplaced.
While the public has waited for answers, a searing report by the California State Auditor’s Office found the same concerns raised by Sophia’s family — including delays in investigating abuse — persist. The audit found that more than two years after Sophia’s death, county social workers missed their 24-hour deadline to start “immediate referral” investigations up to 11% of the time.
“Either the interests of the county’s children come first or they don’t,” said Ed Howard, senior counsel with the University of San Diego School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute. “And the fact that their prior negligence may be costing the county money is not a reason to expose more children potentially to being killed.”
Howard said it would be “utterly ridiculous” for the county to delay an investigation to limit its legal exposure. Doing so “elevates the financial interests of the county over the interests of preventing the gruesome deaths of abused and neglected children in the county,” said Howard, who co-wrote a state law mandating disclosure in child death cases.
County Counsel Donna Ziegler’s office denied a request by this news outlet earlier this year for information about the entity handling the county’s investigation, claiming “attorney work product and/or attorney-client privileged information.” On Jan. 29, Ziegler told this newspaper in an email to “not expect an update prior to the resolution of litigation.”
Such a resolution may happen soon. Court records show the county and attorneys representing Sophia’s family reached a preliminary settlement in early November 2025, though the Board of Supervisors has not yet announced any finalized payout.
Sophia’s body was found March 11, 2022, in the basement bathroom of a Merced house after her relatives in Hayward — where she had spent much of her life — grew concerned about her well-being. She appeared to have been dead for at least a month. The Merced County coroner later ruled her death a homicide.
The girl’s mother, Samantha Johnson, later told authorities that Sophia had been made to stay in a metal shed in their backyard prior to her death, police records show, and was brought inside for a shower because she had “feces on her,” according to records. At one point, it sounded like the girl fell in the bathroom, though Johnson did not investigate the “thud” because her boyfriend at the time said the girl wanted to be left alone, according to a police report.
Johnson later told investigators that she assumed Sophia ran away because a back sliding door was open.
She now faces murder and child abuse charges and is awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 4. Her boyfriend, Dhante Jackson, pleaded guilty in October to an accessory charge in Sophia’s death in a deal that saw prosecutors dismiss murder and child abuse charges against him.
Subsequent investigations by Bay Area News Group found social workers repeatedly ignored evidence of the danger Sophia was in under her mother’s care and did not elevate allegations of abuse to law enforcement in a timely fashion. Alameda County had jurisdiction over the case because Sophia lived the majority of her life in Hayward.
Months after ordering their investigation, an Alameda County civil grand jury issued its own report detailing increasingly lax adherence to timeliness benchmarks for opening abuse and neglect investigations.
The California State Auditor’s office followed suit in September, finding that social workers missed their 10-day deadline for “non-immediate referral” investigations 49% of the time as recently as June 30, 2024. In addition, more than half of their investigations were not completed within the required 30 days following in-person visits. The report’s authors largely blamed chronic understaffing at the agency for the problems.
Supervisors Nate Miley, David Haubert and Elisa Márquez either declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation, or did not return messages.
In interviews with this news organization, county Supervisors Lena Tam and Nikki Fortunato Bas defended the Department of Children and Family Services as working to address concerns raised in the audit.
Tam said she had been given a verbal briefing in December about preliminary findings of the Sophia investigation, but could not discuss them because they were delivered during one of the board’s closed sessions.
“I want to underscore that the county is taking this seriously, and we are making every effort to make the kind of improvements that are necessary in terms of response times,” Tam said.
Nearly three years after supervisors ordered answers, the findings of the county’s own investigation remain undisclosed.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at [email protected].
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