Sofia Archer is a soap actress who adopted a baby from Mamuno, Africa, only for him to be killed in her custody. The lies unraveled when her husband Sean was shot by the boy's father, Ephraim Mogae.
Background[]
Sofia provided charitable donations to the struggling people of Mamuno and personally visited the area. She offered to Ephraim to adopt his son, Christopher Mogue, Ephraim believing she'd be there for a year. After three days, Sofia returned to America, which horrified Ephraim and made him desperate to see Christopher again. However, on top of the civil rights outrage from the adoption and other scandals, including Sean's affair with his married co-star Darla Brody from the Archers' open relationship, Sofia was a negligent mother, leaving his primary care under her staff, including house assistant Lashonda Harris and nanny Mary Calvin. Lashonda would later be jailed for heroin smuggling, and Mary had a history of kids under her supervision being injured. Christopher at some point died, injuries showing he was beaten, but with his dried saliva also on diet pills of dexamphetamine which were later vacuumed up. According to Mary, she found Sofia over Christopher, Sofia saying he went blue. Mary tried to resuscitate Christopher and failed. Threatening to sell Mary out to the police, Sofia made Mary bury Christopher in a park, then ask to care for Lashonda's infant son simply to replace Christopher with him in hopes no one would notice. Ephraim was eventually smuggled into America by civil rights attorney Marlon Cooper and was hiding out with his cousin Festus Lepetu, in hopes of seeing Christopher again.
Charity Case[]
While Sofia went with Sean, her daughter Agatha, and Mary for ice cream, Ephraim confronted Sean outside the parlor while he was holding Christopher. Ephraim pulled a gun he stole from Cooper on Sean to try and scare him into giving Ephraim his baby back, but the firing pin was broken, and the gun discharged. Sean died instantly from a shot in his face, he fell back through a window with Christopher unharmed, and Ephraim ran. Sofia was intermittently devastated by Sean's death and sternly trying to keep her lifeguard with a presentation of stoicism, even the detectives getting judgmental of her. She redirected the police to Darla's husband John Brody, but he was cleared as a suspect. Knowing the outrage against Sofia's adoption of Christopher, they tuned to Cooper, but he had a rock-solid alibi of being with one of his clients. However, he knew Ephraim was responsible, but he kept silent to support Ephraim's intentions.
After Ephraim broke his leg in an escape and fled with his cousin Festus, Festus was encouraged to bring him in, and he was arrested while he was receiving medical attention for his injuries. When he confessed and said he'd only write his statement if he saw Christopher, Sofia was outraged and originally refused to entertain Ephraim's demands after his actions. When Mary agreed to be with the detectives when Ephraim saw the baby, Sofia teared up and relented. But Ephraim knew on sight the boy wasn't Christopher, refusing his plea until he had answers. When a family court agreed to test his DNA, it led to Lashonda, who was shocked Sofia pulled off the ruse with her baby. Knowing the walls were closing in on her, Sofia tried to blame Mary and said it was while Sofia was in a spa retreat in California, but Mary sold out Sofia and even led the police to Christopher's bones.
Sofia was charged from the assertion she must've known about Christopher's murder, but her defense tried to pin it all on Mary. The clinching evidence came when it was revealed not just she paid Mary for her silence, but when she went to the spa retreat, she cancelled Christopher's malaria drug prescriptions, proving she knew after the fact he was dead. She agreed to a plea of manslaughter two and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. (L&O: "Charity Case")