They begged social workers to save 8-year-old Sophia Mason. She was found dead in a bathtub after being left by her older sister who had taken her into foster care.
The family had hoped that the child could be adopted by a woman who worked at a local beauty salon.
But she ended up staying with the Masons.
Sophia was put into foster care in 2008 when she was just seven months old. She was one of 30 children at the time who vanished in the town of Gage, Texas.
Her mother took her to the county’s child welfare agency.
Her father was unaware of her whereabouts.
But soon after she vanished, social workers were told that the family’s phone had been disconnected.
And her parents were now trying to track her down using a new device called a ‘backpack,’ which connects to the internet.
Sophia was five-years-old when she died. She was found drowned in a family tub. (Picture: Supplied)
She was a beautiful little girl with brown curly hair, hazel eyes and a little bit of a gap between her teeth.
Although she could walk and talk, she couldn’t talk to her parents because she had autism.
In the last weeks of her short life, she had cried constantly. (Picture: Supplied)
But as a young girl who was desperately trying to keep her life together, her parents say her crying became even more unbearable.
Her mother said she felt she didn’t have a choice.
A few months before she disappeared, in November 2008, Sophia suffered a terrible pain in her arms called a myoclonic seizure.
According to the New York Times, it was so bad that it left her bedridden for a week.
The seizure left her permanently damaged.
Sophia Mason (pictured, top) was found dead in a family bathtub after being left by her sister who had taken her into foster care
On that visit, her mother told them she had seen a photo of their daughter’s arm and she had seen a photo of Sophia’s arm and hand, and thought maybe the older sister was in trouble.
But when she called the family to
