Before 8-year-old Sophia Mason's body was found curled inside a bathtub in a Merced home, the young girl's extended family tried desperately to raise the alarm.
For more than a year, Sophia's aunt, grandmother, teachers and doctors reported signs the girl was being abused and neglected, at times pleading with social workers to remove her from her mother's care.
There had been bruises and scabs and what looked like cigarette burns on her body. All were reported to child welfare workers, according to a legal claim filed against the county.
