Inside the bathroom of the modest two-story home in north Merced, a tiny, 55-pound body lay decomposing in a tub. The roaring exhaust fan and burned incense failed to mask the putrid smell.
In the backyard, soiled sheets, candy wrappers, and other food packaging littered a locked metal shed – used for punishment, police were later told. The outline of a small handprint blemished a dusty brown nightstand inside.
This is how police found Sophia Mason, an eight-year-old Hayward girl who had lived through so much cruelty in the months before her death but never received the protection she needed from Alameda County’s Department of Children and Family Services. Now, a three-month investigation by the Bay Area News Group is raising critical concerns about the county agency that left Sophia under the care of a mother who had a history of mental illness and neglecting her, until she died.
“It was probably the most disturbing thing I’ve seen in my career,” said Merced police Sgt. Kalvin Haygood of the scene he encountered March 11. “I just can’t begin to imagine what that child went through.
“If Alameda County is actually giving you all of the records that they’re required to, it means no social worker wrote down what they saw and no social worker or supervisor ever got to take a look at what they did,” said Ed Howard, senior counsel with the University of San Diego School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute, who co-wrote the law mandating disclosure in child death cases, SB 39.
“And that would be horrifying if that was common practice in Alameda County.”
After each of the eight reports, Alameda County child welfare employees decided the 8-year-old was safe.
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