MERCED, Calif. (KNX) — The mother of an eight-year-old girl who was found dead inside a Central Valley home has been charged in connection with her death, along with her boyfriend, according to prosecutors in Merced County.
Samantha Johnson, 30, and her boyfriend, Dhante Jackson, 34, were charged Monday with murder and child abuse in conection with the death of Johnson’s daughter, Sophia Mason.
Mason was reported missing by relatives in the Bay Area earlier this month. They told authorities they had no contact with the child since December, and that she was known to stay in different homes in Northern and Southern California.
A missing persons report filed by those relatives led police to arrest Johnson on an outstanding warrant stemming from a child abuse case in Alameda County last year. Statements made by Johnson to law enforcement prompted Merced police to serve a search warrant on a local home where Jackson had been residing. There, they found Mason’s body in a bathtub inside a locked bathroom.
Johnson told Merced police detectives that Jackson kept Sophia in a shed outside the Merced home and that the child was subjected to physical and sexual abuse by him.
Johnson has been arrested while Jackson remains at large, the Merced County District Attorney’s Office said.
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