GABRIEL JOHNSON - 8 months (2009) - Tempe AZ/Miami Beach FL

Bad weather behind them, searchers continue landfill search for baby's body

by KENS 5 staff

Posted on February 26, 2010 at 8:20 AM

Excerpt:

It's slow work, but searchers are making progress sifting through trash at the Tessman Road Landfill.

Search teams did run into a roadblock this week, with the bad weather, but the search is back on track.

READ MORE: http://www.kens5.com/news/Bad-weather-behind-them-searchers-continue-landfill-search-for-babys-body-85477867.html

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Twelve days into the hand search of a San Antonio landfill, investigators have found nothing.
San Antonio police have discovered no evidence of missing baby Gabriel and no sign of where he might be.But where authorities have failed, Gabriel's father is given more hope that his boy is out there alive.Logan McQueary continues to find witnesses that neither the police nor the FBI have questioned.And
while he says his ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Johnson, was capable of
murder, everything he discovers tells him that Gabriel is out there."Gabriel really was handed off to somebody," said McQueary.Gabriel
was last seen with Johnson the day after Christmas in San Antonio,
Texas. Johnson sits in a Maricopa County jail on kidnapping charges.One
would expect the father of a missing child to have faith even facing
the darkest odds, but McQueary is not grasping at straws."We
found out that Elizabeth was at a Laundromat, and it was kind of weird
the way she was there the first time," McQueary said. "Just kind of
wandered around, didn't wash anything. She might have been meeting
somebody, or might have been waiting for somebody to get there."McQueary
has talked to several witnesses who spotted and even talked to Johnson
when she was in San Antonio; however, in most of those sightings,
Gabriel wasn't with her."Either somebody was watching Gabriel,
or , you know, I don't want to think about her leaving Gabe by himself,
but she has done it in the past," said McQueary.San Antonio investigators think Johnson went a step further, McQueary that all of their evidence points to murder.But so far, they can't prove it.Experts say San Antonio is known to be a haven for underground and illegal adoptions.If Gabriel was handed off, he won't be easy to find."I
think she really met with somebody and we're just trying to track that
down," McQueary said. "We just haven't been able to figure out who she
met with. If we could get one name of somebody she met with, that would
be a huge lead. I still have a lot of confidence. We're still trying.
I'm not giving up. I'm not going to give up at all. If it takes a long
time from now, I'm not giving up."

When Tammi Smith and
Elizabeth Johnson met for the first time in August at Boston’s Logan
International Airport, Johnson no longer wanted to be a mother.
And Smith badly wanted to be a mother again.
That first meeting — as Smith approached the young mother while she
was crying with her infant son, Gabriel — was the start of a
relationship that has placed the pair at the center of a national
search and criminal cases involving the missing child, who was last
seen Dec. 26 at a San Antonio motel that authorities have said is a
“purported” meeting place for underground adoptions.
Timeline of events
Smith, 37, of Scottsdale, and Johnson, 23, of Tempe, have troubled
pasts, similar dysfunctional histories in their relationships and
criminal records, according to police reports and court documents.
They are scheduled to appear for separate hearings in Maricopa
County Superior Court on Tuesday , both on felony charges in connection
with the missing child that Johnson initially said she killed but later
claimed hat she had given to an unknown couple in the parking lot of a
motel, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.
Johnson’s attorney, Vanessa Smith, who works for the Maricopa County
Public Defender’s Office, has filed a motion with the court to ban any
media coverage of the court proceedings, arguing that it would infringe
on Johnson’s right to a fair trial and jeopardize her safety.
Repeated requests for interviews with Smith and her lawyer in recent
weeks were declined. Requests for jailhouse interviews with Johnson
also were denied.
For eight weeks, the Tribune has combed through police reports and
court records from numerous jurisdictions across the country and
conducted interviews with more than a dozen people related to the case
and the pair’s pasts.
Together, the documents and interviews reveal the story of a
troubled young mother eager to be free from her baby and a woman
desperate for a second chance at motherhood.
Troubled pasts
Smith once worked as an exotic dancer in New Orleans, aspired to be
a country music singer pursuing fortune and fame in Nashville, Tenn.,
and at one time was married to two men at the same time, according to
police reports and court records.
In 2001, she paid to give her three children up for adoption to her
ex-husband and his wife after a costly 2½-year custody battle,
according to Smith and the second of her five husbands, Kieth Facio.
More recently, Smith tried to adopt children from China and Africa,
according to her MySpace page, which has since been blocked from public
view and Facio.
“She’s trying to fill a gap,” said Facio, who lives with their three
teenage children near New Orleans. “Tammi knows she screwed up with her
own children and is trying to make up for it. She’s tried to adopt
other children for several years, but it always falls through for some
reason and she can’t. It’s likely because of her past.”
Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different
foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother
drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver
cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of
Scottsdale.
Elizabeth Johnson graduated from a college preparatory high school
in Boston with a 4.0 grade-point average and earned a full-ride
scholarship to Southeastern University in New Hampshire — a $160,000
value — but walked away from it after two weeks because she didn’t like
her roommate, her grandfather said.
Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,”
and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was
living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive
eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.
He does not believe his granddaughter killed her own baby, and he
can’t understand why she won’t tell him where her baby is or help the
authorities find Gabriel.
“She wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer,” Robert Johnson said. “She
had the smarts. Now, her life is a hell of a mess. I’ve tried to tell
her to cooperate with authorities and tell them what she did with
Gabriel so she could get on with her life.”
A mother’s rage
In the last year alone, Johnson’s relationship with Gabriel’s
father, Logan McQueary, was marked by her outbursts of rage as she
destroyed three apartments by tearing up clothes and a couch with a
large knife before demolishing a baby bed, smashing a television set
and breaking windows, according to Tempe police reports.
When Gabriel would cry, McQueary said that Johnson would shout at him: “Shut that damn baby up!” according to a police report.
On Dec. 9, Johnson was arrested on suspicion of providing false
information to law enforcement. She lied to authorities about where
Gabriel was after she told Tempe police that McQueary kidnapped the
baby.
Instead, Gabriel was at Smith’s residence, where police permitted
the baby to stay after the Smiths showed officers a document in which
Johnson had signed over temporary guardianship of the boy to the couple.
However, McQueary said he never supported giving up Gabriel for
adoption, and the Smiths gave Gabriel back to Johnson on Dec. 18, the
day Johnson left for San Antonio in the midst of a custody battle,
according to court documents.
During another incident, police had to restrain Johnson in the back
of the cruiser as she was slamming her head into windows of the
vehicle, according to the police report. Authorities believed Elizabeth
had a mental disorder, according to reports. But she was never
diagnosed with anything and never received professional care, according
to her grandfather.
Of the three apartments and the contents within them Johnson
destroyed, one item that survived was a picture of her and her twin
brother with their mother as young children, according to Johnson’s
grandfather.
“You can’t measure the love between a mother and a child,” Robert
Johnson said. “Although Elizabeth’s mother was a drug addict and had
other problems, there was still that love between a mother and her
child, and Elizabeth loved her mother.”
'Gut feeling’ Gabriel is alive
Since the beginning of the year, the story of “Baby Gabriel” has
been in the national media spotlight as McQueary, of Gilbert, remains
steadfast in finding his son. For reasons yet to be told, Johnson took
Gabriel to San Antonio in late December in the midst of the custody
battle.
On Dec. 27, Johnson told McQueary via text message that she killed
Gabriel and, in a phone call later that day, told McQueary she stuffed
Gabriel’s body in a diaper bag and threw him in a dumpster. But at the
time of her arrest three days later at a hostel in Miami Beach, Fla.,
she told an FBI agent that she gave the boy away.
McQueary’s quest to find his son also includes the pro bono help of
renowned private investigator Jay J. Armes, who said his “gut feeling”
is that Gabriel is alive and the victim of an underground adoption that
possibly has whisked the baby south of the border into Mexico.
The child has blond hair and blue eyes and would have turned 10 months old on March 3.
San Antonio police are conducting a missing persons case parallel to
a homicide investigation, not knowing whether the child is alive or
dead. More than 30 people currently are searching a section of a
landfill to see if they can find anything in connection with the case.
Witnesses at the motel also told authorities that they saw Johnson with
a Hispanic male and that they appeared to be a couple. However,
authorities have been unable to locate him, according to police.
In the ongoing investigation, authorities have compiled 1,575 pages
of discovery and 52 CDs of recorded interviews, according to Maricopa
County Superior Court documents. As the story of “Baby Gabriel” has
played out on national television shows, the Web search engine “Google
News” shows more than 1 million hits, mostly originating from media
outlets throughout the Valley, according to Maricopa County Superior
Court records. On the social networking site Facebook, five pages
dedicated to the search for Gabriel have at least 14,000 members.
Smith is facing charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit
custodial interference and is free on $15,000 bond. Smith and her
husband, Jack, who were interested in adopting Gabriel, were named by
Tempe police as persons of interest in the case because authorities
believed the Smiths withheld information that could have led to the
whereabouts of the boy.
Johnson has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial
interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. She is
being held in a Maricopa County jail on a $1.1 million cash bond.
The Smiths have maintained their innocence and have been adamant
that all they tried to do was talk Johnson into returning to Arizona
with the baby. They have never been suspects in the baby’s
disappearance.
Desperation and deception
Investigators said it was Tammi Smith’s “desperate attempts” to
adopt the child that hindered the investigation. Police allege that the
Smiths had a plan in place to adopt Gabriel or were developing a plan
to somehow pick up the child in Nashville, Tenn., and her contradictory
statements to police and to the media led to her arrest. Jack Smith, a
former pedal steel guitarist in the Grand Ole Opry’s House Band in
Nashville and a former studio musician for country music singer
“Whisperin’ Bill” Anderson, was cleared in the case.
Smith’s attempts to acquire custody of the boy included trying to
persuade a Maricopa County Family Court judge into letting her adopt
Gabriel as she told the judge during a recorded phone message that she
believed Johnson would bring the child back to Arizona if she knew he
would be “safe.”
Smith also researched the possibility of changing the jurisdiction
of Johnson’s custody hearing and the possibility of adopting both a
child and an adult so she could adopt Johnson and Gabriel in order to
have custody of her child, according to court documents.
Smith also wrote the name of her first cousin, an ex-convict named
Craig Cherry, as being a potential father to Gabriel on a
paternity-test petition before she drove Johnson to the courthouse,
according to court documents, which lead to the forgery charge against
her.
In late 1996, Smith was arrested in another forgery case — for
stealing checks from Facio and signing his name to them, according to
St. Bernard Parish District Court documents in Louisiana. Smith was not
authorized because her spending habits had put the family in financial
straits before, according to a police report. The charges against Smith
were later reduced to attempted theft, misdemeanors, and she was
ordered to repay Facio $1,149 in restitution, according to court
records.
“Hey, the money was mine, too,” Smith said in a brief telephone interview with the Tribune.
She claimed that the fourth man she married — Michael Edwyne Riddle
— forced her into marrying him at the Davidson County Courthouse in
Nashville on Nov. 30, 1998, according to court records. Smith said
Riddle beat her so badly that she knew she was at the courthouse but
didn’t realize she was getting married, the documents state. When Smith
married Riddle, she became married to two men at the same time — Mikel
Sikora of Phoenix was the other, according to court records.
When Sikora was contacted by the Tribune, he replied, “I think I’ll stay out of this one.”
Smith, who said she could not track down Riddle, had the marriage
annulled in Maricopa County Superior Court in 2001, according to court
records.
When Smith was asked by the Tribune about Riddle or if she has been
in contact with him, she said, “Who’s Mike Riddle? And why would I want
to contact him?”
During 2006 and 2007, Smith operated a colon-cleansing business in
Nashville for 15 months without a license before the Tennessee Board of
Medical Examiners ordered her to close and fined her, according to a
document from the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners.
Neglect and silence
Smith’s oldest daughter, Gabriele Victoria Facio, 19, recently wrote
in a Facebook message to a Tribune reporter that she only considers
Tammi her biological mother and not her “real mother.”
“She neglected us,” Gabriele Facio said. “She took us, sorta
kidnapped us, right before I turned 6. After that, my dad had enough
and divorced her. She wanted money and fame. She didn’t like working or
taking care of children. It was never her thing. She wanted to make an
album, be a country singer. That’s when she met Jack and left her guy.
“In the end, it was us or him. She chose him.”
Gabriele also said she helped raised her siblings.
“I remember being mom,” she said. “I helped my dad raise my brother
and sister. I cared for them even when Tammi was around. She neglected
us, didn’t always feed us, didn’t always change diapers. She spanked us
for crying or doing something little. We were children.”
Although Smith does not express any regrets for giving up the rights
to her children, she said, “I love my children very much and I always
will.”
Robert Johnson isn’t sure if his granddaughter feels the same way
about her child. He said he never heard Elizabeth express “any
particular joy” in having Gabriel, and he said he never heard her say
that she loved him.
Nearly three months after she fled Arizona with Gabriel, Elizabeth Johnson still refuses to reveal his whereabouts.
The longer the case continues without Johnson revealing where
Gabriel is, concern increases that the case will have a “tragic
outcome,” according to Dr. Erin Nelson, a forensic psychologist who has
worked for Steven Pitt and Associates in Scottsdale on national cases
such as the Columbine school shootings in Colorado, the rape
allegations against Kobe Bryant and the Baseline Rapist case in Phoenix.
“It’s not an accident she’s keeping her mouth shut. Denial is a
powerful psychological defense mechanism,” Nelson said. “But there can
be a number of factors that can ultimately compel someone to cooperate.”
A “significant person,” Nelson said, might be able to get Elizabeth
Johnson to talk. Or, she added, an attorney telling the young mother
what she’s facing might prompt her to cooperate.
Johnson’s attorneys are urging her to remain quiet as part of their
legal strategy. But her grandfather wants her to come clean — now.
“Tell them where the baby is and get on with it,” Robert Johnson
said. “If the baby is alive and well, she’ll be able to get out of
jail, but she seems content with staying there.
“I just don’t understand. I still don’t understand why she won’t say where that baby is.”

EL
PASO -- Jay J. Armes, El Paso's controversial and flamboyant private
investigator, is back in the spotlight -- just as he likes it.This
time he is trying to find out what happened to 8-month-old Gabriel
Johnson of Tempe, Ariz., who was last seen on Dec. 26 in San Antonio
with his mother, Elizabeth Johnson. The mother was arrested in Florida
and extradited to Arizona, where she faces charges of kidnapping, child
abuse and custodial interference.The baby was not with her when she was arrested, so the boy's father, Logan McQueary of Tempe, hired Armes.Armes, 77, said he took the case because he believes the baby is alive, was probably sold and is most likely in Mexico. "The
baby is still out there; I know that," Armes said. "I got so many
agents working on it that I know we'll find him. I selected these
agents myself. They are top-notch."Among those helping Armes are
Bill Dear, a private investigator from Dallas who ran for governor in
last week's Democratic primary election, and the Pinkerton Detective
Agency. "When I'm on a case, I'm on it all-out and full-time," Armes said. "It's what I do."It's
that braggadocio, coupled with his limousine-riding lifestyle, that for
five decades has made Armes one of the most well-known El Pasoans and
one of the most scrutinized. He bills himself as a real secret agent -- a James Bond type."I am not like 007," Armes said. "007 is like me."He knows that his one-liners raise eyebrows, but he doesn't shy away
from
them. He likes being in the public eye, which is why a bodyguard
chauffeurs him in an armed limousine. It is also why he keeps tigers,
lions and other exotic animals at his $400,000 home in the Lower
Valley. "You know, I've never been shy. I always speak up and say
what I want, and I do what I want," Armes said. "What people don't know
is that I think about what I'm about to say before I say it, and I work
hard. I have always worked harder than everyone else because I had to."At that point he raised his arms, displaying the hooks he has used in place of hands for most of his life. The explosionArmes
has been in the public eye since he was a 13-year-old in Ysleta. In May
1946, he and some friends found railroad torpedoes near their Lower
Valley homes. The explosives were supposed to be used to warn train
conductors of coming rail problems, but Armes and company began playing
with them.It was a terrible choice. Two explosives exploded as
Armes held them. Both of his hands had to be amputated. Doctors
replaced them with hooks.Within four months, Armes said in a
1946 interview, he had mastered the use of the hooks. By October of
that year, he was back at Ysleta Grammar School, using his hooks to
write, play sports and play the bugle for his Ysleta Boy Scout Troop 95.His hooks, he said, became an asset."I
wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up. But after my accident, I
had to be practical. I knew people wouldn't want me operating on them.
So I had to find something else to do."By 1949, after going to
school year-round and finishing early, Armes left Ysleta for Hollywood.
He studied, he worked and he tried using his hooks as his acting
schtick. It was during that time that he legally changed his name from
Julian Armas to Jay J. Armes.He appeared in movies,
documentaries and television shows before returning to El Paso in the
late 1950s to begin his investigation agency. He first called it the
Central Bureau of Investigation, but later changed it to The
Investigators and set up shop at 1717 Montana, which is still his
headquarters.His professional and private life often made news:

In 1963, daily newspapers reported that he died while working on a case.

In 1969, neighbors behind his home complained about the elephants, tigers and lions that he owned.

In 1972, actor Marlon Brando hired Armes to find his son, who had been taken to Mexico. Armes found him in three days.

In 1976, a private company hired Armes to find out who bombed La Guardia Airport in New York.

In 1978, the community of La Jolla, Calif., raised $25,000 to hire Armes to find a missing 9-year-old.

In
1979, Bishop Sidney Metzger hired Armes to find out who swindled him
out of $104,000. The con man was arrested, indicted and found guilty
based on Armes' work.During that era, Armes also appeared on the TV
show "Hawaii Five-0," and a national toymaker started making Jay J.
Armes action figures.He was being marketed as the world's
greatest detective. He flatly stated that he had solved every case he
was ever on. He also continued to expand his mansion in the Lower
Valley by adding a 15-foot-high fence, a lake and a waterfall, and a
shooting range in his basement.His private detective agency was booming. "I've
been everywhere in the world," Armes said during a recent interview.
"From the deepest parts of Africa to Russia. I've done everything I've
wanted to do, and the Lord has allowed me have, materially, everything
and anything that I've wanted."Senior PIThese days, Armes
said, he still works international kidnapping cases, travels the world
and protects El Pasoans who venture daily into Juárez.He
generally will not talk about his clients or his fees, but court
records and other public documents show that he still is often hired
for about $100,000, and that he has many contracts. Federal and state
court records also show that over Armes' long career he has won and
lost many lawsuits for many thousands of dollars. For example,
in 2005, a California family paid him $100,000 to find a family member
who had been kidnapped in Tijuana, Mexico. When the case was quickly
solved, the family sued Armes to get its money back. The case was
settled, but the result was sealed by a federal judge.His son,
Jay J. Armes III, has seen it all -- his dad's work, the retaliation
and the rewards -- up close. Armes III works with his father."In this business, no matter who you help, you hurt someone else," the younger Armes said. "Every case is like that."His father said he continues to work only because he loves what he is doing."I
feel that if I retire, I'll die within a week," Armes said. "I still
take everything personal, and I still try to solve every case myself."He says his agency has more work now than ever.Armes
has a devised a system, which includes GPS tracking, that allows his
agency to find clients while they are in Juárez. The business is needed
because of the drug-cartel violence that has branched into kidnappings
and extortions."You sign up with us, and we will be able to find you within minutes if needed," Armes said.Another
change in Armes' life is that he no longer invites visitors to tour his
home, which has undergone a transformation. The indoor pool is gone and
so are the indoor shooting range, the lake and the waterfall.He
has a remodeled gym and an entertainment room. Lions, white tigers and
a chimpanzee remain. Gypsy, a 51-year-old chimp, has been a a part of
the Armes family for about 40 years. "She's old. She had ovarian problems, but she is doing good now," Armes said.Politician and benefactorArmes
said he no longer seeks the public attention because he got too much
exposure while he was a City Council member. He represented the Lower
Valley from 1989 to 1993.Today, he loves talking about how the
other council members did not like him because he would expose the
backroom deals they were making.One such deal, he said, was the
council's attempt to build a public tennis facility at the University
of Texas at El Paso. The mayor and council wanted to use a $1 million
grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to
build the courts for UTEP. The money was supposed to be used to help
low-income neighborhoods. He said council members at the time
were trying to validate the move by saying the courts would get
gangsters off the streets and into playing tennis."Do you believe that?" Armes said. "They had everybody fooled but me."Within weeks of his speaking up, HUD declined to provide the grant.State
Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, was a city representative when Armes was
on the council. Pickett often had differences with Armes. They almost
got into a fistfight once. But Pickett said those clashes are bygones."I thought he was a fine representative," Pickett said. "I learned a few things from him."Pickett also said he has followed Armes' career for decades."He is flamboyant and he had done a lot," Pickett said. "Someone does have to do a movie on him because he is a character."Armes
said a national motion picture company is talking to him about a
possible movie. But, he said, he cannot talk about the details because
the deal is not done.He can say, however, that his second book
will soon be out. Armes said he uses the book, to be titled "My Best
Secret Agent," to thank God for giving him a wonderful life.Jim
Thomas, senior administrator for development at the Lee and Beulah Moor
Children's Home, said Armes has been a quiet benefactor for years.
Armes often drops by with truckloads of cereal, soap, shampoo and other
staples."There are a lot of sides to Mr. Armes," Thomas said.
"He is a very generous person, and while we know him, we really don't
know him."Armes, smiling, said that is because he is a secret agent.

The mother of missing 10-month-old Gabriel Johnson refused to leave her
jail cell Tuesday to attend a hearing in Maricopa County Superior
Court, triggering the judge to calmly tell sheriff's deputies in the
courtroom to "use any means necessary" to get her there next week.
Elizabeth Johnson was scheduled to appear before Maricopa County
Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan for a pretrial conference, but her
public defenders appeared without her to request a new hearing date and
see if they could get the media banned from being in the courtroom.
Ryan said: "Use any means necessary to get Ms. Johnson here for her
next court date. It will be an issue we have to take up sooner or
later."
Johnson, 23, of Tempe, is being held in the Maricopa County Estrella
Jail on a $1.1 million cash bond for charges of kidnapping, child
abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial
interference in connection to her missing son.
Ryan rescheduled the hearing for 10:30 a.m. on March 17 as a courtroom full of media looked on.
Johnson traveled with Gabriel from Arizona to San Antonio on Dec.
18. The boy was last seen at a HomeGate Studios and Suites motel there
on Dec. 26, but his mother has refused to tell authorities his
whereabouts since her arrest.
In a text message on Dec. 27, she told Logan McQueary of Gilbert,
her estranged boyfriend and the baby's father, that she killed Gabriel.
In a telephone call McQueary recorded, she said that she killed the
baby, put his body in a diaper bag and threw him in a dumpster. But at
the time of her arrest on Dec. 30 at a hostel in Miami, Fla., Johnson
told an FBI agent that she gave the baby away to an unknown couple in
the parking lot of the motel before signing an adoption form, according
to a court document.
Tammi Smith, 37, of Scottsdale, who was interested in adopting
Gabriel, is facing charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit
custodial interference in connection with the case. Smith is scheduled
to appear in court for a pretrial conference on April 5.
Renowned private investigator Jay J. Armes, his son, Jay J. Armes
Jr., and one of their associates who are helping the McQueary family
search for Gabriel arrived in Phoenix from El Paso, Texas late Monday
to attend Tuesday's hearing.
However, Vanessa Smith, Johnson's public defender, said they "cannot" comment on the case.
Armes, who has 40 years of experience as a private investigator,
told the Tribune after Tuesday's hearing that he believes Gabriel was
sold in an underground adoption, that the boy is still alive and they
are close to recovering him.
Armes said his office is receiving 60 to 70 leads a day about the case, some are credible and some are extortion attempts.
"She's protecting whoever has the baby," Armes said of Johnson's refusal to leave her jail cell.
However, Armes Jr. said what worries them is that Johnson has no
emotional attachment to the baby and wouldn't have any problem crossing
the line when it comes to killing Gabriel because she isn't showing any
remorse for her actions now.
"To her, the line is not there, or blurry at best," Armes Jr. said.
Armes Jr. also said he believes Johnson refusing to leave her jail
cell was a "calculated action" on her part and a stall tactic.
"She knows this doesn't look good for her," Armes Jr. said. "The
last thing you want to do is (tick) off the judge. She has been given
too much free reign to manipulate the system to her advantage. The only
one that it has helped has been her, not Logan and definitely not the
baby."
During a telephone call Johnson made to Tammi Smith and her husband,
Jack, from jail in early January that was recorded by a Phoenix
television news station, Johnson said she absolutely did not kill her
baby. She said she told McQueary that to hurt him but had actually
given the boy away.
When a reporter asked Johnson if she was concerned for the safety of her baby, she said, "No, not really."

There seems to be a rift in the camp searching for baby Gabriel.
The attorney for Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, sent a statement
Tuesday night, distancing Gabriel's family from private investigator Jay J.
Armes. Armes arrived in Phoenix last Monday night to attend Elizabeth Johnson's
court hearing Tuesday morning, but Johnson refused to leave her jail cell and
fired her public defender.
Now, McQueary's attorney Tim Maloney has released a statement that said,
"Please be advised that Mr. Jay J. Armes is not authorized to speak on behalf of
Mr. Logan McQueary. Mr. Armes has refused to return my client's property and
continues to interfere with an ongoing police investigation."
Maloney went on to write that the McQuearys appreciate the work Armes has
done, but request he turn over any other information or evidence to the San
Antonio Police Department.

Based on this latest info I am moving the topic back to Missing Children
Police confirmed that the landfill search for Baby Gabriel has been
completed.
No evidence was found.
In 16 days crews searched through 4,260 tons of trash looking for
clues to the case.
SAPD Chief William McManus said it is a "bittersweet ending".
The baby's father, Logan McQuery, remains hopeful. His attorney said
the results of the search were not unexpected. He said that sometimes a
negative can actually be a positive, and it only strengthens their
belief that the child is actually still alive.
The Baby Gabriel investigation remains an active missing-person case.
SAPD also urged anyone with information regarding this case to call
1-800-THE-LOST.

PHOENIX -- The father of missing Baby Gabriel
says he is going to move to Texas right after a custody hearing at the
end of March.
Logan McQueary made the announcement Saturday night during a fundraiser
in Avondale.It was the first time McQueary spoke publicly since
police in San Antonio called off a landfill search after finding no
evidence in the disappearance of the boy.McQueary said he's
already found a job and an apartment in Texas, and is anxious to get
back to San Antonio to continue to search for his son.McQueary
has spent the last several months hunting for Gabriel, and throughout
his search, he has maintained that his son is still alive.McQueary
said he believes Gabriel might have been the victim of an illicit
adoption.Gabriel was last seen with his mother, Elizabeth
Johnson, 23, in San Antonio on Dec. 26. The Arizona woman is jailed on
kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference charges.McQueary
said on Saturday he hasn't given up his attempt to visit Johnson in
jail."I've tried several times to, they keep shooting it down,"
he said. "She won't talk to anybody but her brother."Last week,
Johnson refused to go to court Tuesday, delaying the case.Maricopa
County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan would have ruled on two
motions had Johnson not refused to leave her Maricopa County jail cell.Ryan
rescheduled the hearing for this Wednesday, when he's expected to rule
on a couple procedural matters.

The mother of an Arizona baby who's been missing for nearly three
months is expected to be in court Wednesday.Elizabeth Johnson had
refused to leave her cell for a court hearing last week, but Judge
Timothy Ryan ordered deputies to "use any means necessary" to get her to
Wednesday's hearing.The 23-year-old Johnson is being held in
Maricopa County jail in connection with her son Gabriel's disappearance.



Gabriel was 8 months old when he was last seen in late December in
San Antonio, and police don't know whether he's alive.Police say
Johnson drove the boy to San Antonio from Tempe, stayed about a week,
then took a bus to Florida without him. She was arrested Dec. 30 in
Florida and is charged in Arizona with kidnapping, child abuse and
custodial interference.

A Phoenix judge on Wednesday refused to fire the lawyer defending
the mother of an Arizona baby who has been missing for nearly three
months.Elizabeth Johnson, 23, had asked the judge to dismiss
attorney Vanessa Smith, saying in a motion handwritten on notebook paper
that Smith "does not file motions I request and pressures me to do what
she wants."Johnson's son, Gabriel, was 8 months old when he was
last seen in late December in San Antonio, and police don't know whether
he's alive. Johnson, who remains in jail, has pleaded not guilty to
kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference in the case.


In her motion, Johnson wrote that Smith was "inadequately
representing" her, adding that Smith had discussed the case of an
unrelated client with her and that she thought Smith had been discussing
her case with others.Judge Timothy Ryan denied Johnson's request
to fire Smith at a hearing Wednesday, telling her why Smith didn't file
a motion to change her release conditions, and that she has been acting
properly as her attorney."Right now the reality is they have a
case involving baby Gabriel, and the police want to know where baby
Gabriel is located," Ryan said. "So when your attorneys come to you with
requests for information from the police ... the reason they're doing
that isn't to pressure you, it's their ethical responsibility to talk to
you about those things."Johnson's lip quivered at the mention of
her son, but she otherwise sat quietly in shackles and answered Ryan's
questions with one-word responses.Ryan granted Smith's motion to
excuse Johnson from attending future hearings in her case except during
trial or when otherwise ordered to do so. He also denied a motion by
Smith to ban video and still cameras from the courtroom.Smith had
said the media coverage would taint potential jurors and deny her
client the right to a fair trial, while media attorneys argued it was
their clients' constitutional right to record the proceedings for the
public and that any tainted jurors can be vetted before the trial.Police
don't know whether Gabriel is alive.Investigators said Johnson
drove the boy to San Antonio from Tempe in late December, stayed about a
week, then took a bus to Florida without him. She was arrested Dec. 30
in Florida.Police said Johnson told the boy's father that she
killed Gabriel and put his body in a trash bin. She later told
authorities and members of the media that she gave the boy away to a San
Antonio couple.For weeks, San Antonio police have been searching
a landfill where they think Gabriel's body might be buried if he was
killed, but they hadn't found anything as of Tuesday.Tammi Smith,
a north Scottsdale woman who wanted to adopt Gabriel from Johnson, also
is charged in the case, although police said she was not connected to
the boy's disappearance. Smith has pleaded not guilty to charges of
felony forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.

The mother of Baby Gabriel, the Tempe baby who's been missing for
three months now, is due back in court this morning.
The last time she was in court, Elizabeth Johnson, 23, asked the
judge to fire her court-appointed attorney. The judge denied that
request.
Johnson faces a variety of charges including child abuse and
kidnapping.
Gabriel was 8 months old when he was last seen in late December in
San Antonio, and police don't know whether he's alive. A search of a
San Antonio landfill was completed earlier this month, but uncovered no
clues as to what happened to the baby.
Johnson, who has not cooperated with police in the investigation, has
told stories, saying first the she killed Gabriel. She later that she
gave him to a San Antonio couple.
Police say Johnson drove the boy to San Antonio from Tempe, stayed
about a week, then took a bus to Florida without him. She was arrested
Dec. 30 in Florida and was extradited to Arizona.
Johnson has a history of refusing to leave her cell for scheduled
court appearances. Today's procedure is an evidentiary hearing.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about Gabriel
Johnson is asked to call 1-800-THE-LOST.

The mother of a missing Valley boy appeared in Maricopa County
Superior Court Friday, but refused to talk about the child or his
whereabouts.
Elizabeth Johnson, 23, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self
incrimination when Craig Mehrens, an attorney for her missing son's
father, started asking questions.
Judge Michael McVey granted sole custody of the boy, Gabriel Johnson, to
his father, Logan McQueary.
Gabriel, who will turn 1 on May 3, vanished in December after his mother
allegedly took him from the Valley during a custody fight with
McQueary. The mother and son were last seen together Dec. 26 at a motel
in San Antonio, Texas.
Elizabeth Johnson was arrested in Florida a few days later and returned
to Arizona to face charges. She has told conflicting stories of what
happened to Gabriel -- at one time saying she had killed him and at
other times saying she had given him away.
Friday's court appearance came two weeks after Elizabeth Johnson refused
to leave her jail cell and appear in court. She has been indicted on
charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.
McVey set an April 28 hearing on Mehrens' request that Johnson be held
in contempt for violating an earlier ruling that gave McQueary
visitation rights with Gabriel.

After viewing a video of Friday’s custody hearing about missing baby
Gabriel Johnson, well-known Valley forensic psychologist Dr. Erin Nelson
said Elizabeth Johnson didn’t appear interested in her child.During
the hearing, Johnson broke down in tears on the stand when Maricopa
Superior Court Judge Michael McVey questioned her about Gabriel’s
whereabouts.Gabriel was last seen with Johnson in San Antonio,
Texas, on Dec. 26. She was arrested a few days later in Florida and
extradited to Maricopa County.Upon advice from her attorney
during the hearing, Johnson replied to each question by saying, “I
invoke my right to remain silent.”Judge McVey awarded Gabriel’s
father, Logan McQueary, custody during the hearing.Nelson said
Johnson’s behavior indicated that her primary concern is not her son,
but her own fate. "The one thing I take away from today is that
clearly Elizabeth Johnson is somebody who has her own interests as her
number one priority,” said Nelson.Johnson only became emotional
when she was being questioned about issues that could impact the charges
against her.She did not visibly react when the judge awarded
custody to McQueary and revoked her right to spend time with Gabriel.“Her
behavior doesn't bode well for her level of interest in the child,”
said Nelson. "It is noteworthy that at the time that custody is awarded
to the father, she is stoic."Johnson still refuses to reveal what
she did with Gabriel after she took him to Texas last December.Nelson
said that may not be an indication of guilt, but it could be a way for
Johnson to retain control over the situation."For certain people,
just that level of control can be intoxicating,” she said. “To have
people all over the world hanging on your word, that's a pretty powerful
place to be and that could a feeling she's not ready to relinquish.”Nelson
said nothing that happened in court Friday clearly indicates whether or
not Johnson harmed her son, but the fact that Gabriel has been missing
for almost three months is a concern.“That amount of time without
any significant hit or any that I'm aware of doesn't bode well for a
happy ending,” she said.

This is another beotch that needs a good whipping. What ever happened to using "truth serum" on these losers. Wherever baby Gabriel is, dead or alive, I pray he's safe now and being well taken care of. I realize it doesn't seem that a happy ending will come of this situation but, I'm still praying.

alwaysbelieve wrote: This is another beotch that needs a good whipping. What ever happened to using "truth serum" on these losers. Wherever baby Gabriel is, dead or alive, I pray he's safe now and being well taken care of. I realize it doesn't seem that a happy ending will come of this situation but, I'm still praying.

What you said Always! And the law needs to be changed so that the priority is always the safety of the child and nobody should be able to invoke their right to remain silent when a child is missing. Ever. They should be subjected to however much grilling is necessary to find that child. It's just insane and it's rules like this that makes me wonder if our society is completely nuts.

New information is coming out in the search for a baby missing since
December: the family's private investigator is releasing his findings
and says the child's mother did not hurt Gabriel. Ken Gamble is
the private investigator hired by Gabriel Johnson's father, Logan
McQueary. Gamble believes Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, did not
hurt her baby, but rather brought him to a San Antonio, Texas park as
she was told to do. "We have been able to confirm through the
investigation so far that this is the park where Elizabeth handed the
baby to a couple," said Gamble. "That information is supported
by her own handwritten notes in her journal. She wrote down directions
to the park...she arrived..the couple was already sitting in the park so
we now know they were sitting at one of those tables..they immediately
got up and they greeted her." Gamble says that more of their
conversation will help identify the couple, which he is not revealing at
this point. Gamble is asking anyone in San Antonio who saw the
meeting to come forward. He says he's confident the mystery couple will
be found. Johnson then boarded a bus to Florida where she was
later arrested and extradited to Arizona. Johnson is currently in a
Phoenix jail where she is being charged with kidnapping and child abuse.

A private investigator says he believes missing baby Gabriel
Johnson is still alive, in San Antonio, Texas, after reading a journal
kept by the boy's mother.
"I was able to see the hand-written notes," said Ken Gamble, an
investigator hired by the missing boy's father, Logan McQueary.
He said Elizabeth Johnson's journal "is very compelling because it tells
the story of what she did when she was down here (in San Antonio). It
gives details about her contacting women's shelters, crisis centers."
Johnson fled the Phoenix area with Gabriel in December to avoid a
custody hearing. She and the boy were last seen at a San Antonio motel
Dec. 26. Johnson -- who was arrested a few days later in Miami -- has
told conflicting stories about what happened to her son, including one
story that she gave him to an unidentified couple in a San Antonio park.
"She wrote down directions to this park in her journal," Gamble said.
"And that is a key piece of evidence because it shows her story about
coming to the park is actually credible. You can't get any better
evidence than hand-written, contemporaneous notes made by herself."
Johnson has refused to talk to investigators since she has been in the
Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix. She faces numerous charges, including
kidnapping, custodial interference and child abuse. At a court hearing
last week, McQueary was granted sole custody of Gabriel, if the boy is
found.

Gabriel Johnson update: Private eye says he found park where missing baby was given up (video)
April 1, 12:34 AMCrime ExaminerCindy Adams


Gabriel Johnson update: Private eye says he found park where missing baby was given up (video)

The private investigator hired by Logan McQueary, the father of missing baby Gabriel Johnson, says he's found the park where the child was given away.

Ken Gamble told WOAI that Elizabeth Johnson, Gabriel’s mother, kept a journal that contained directions leading to Raymond Rimkus Park off of Huebner road and Evers Road in San Antonio, Tex.

This leads both Gamble and McQueary to believe that Johnson did not hurt the baby, but instead went to the park and gave the baby away.
Gabriel has been missing since December, when his mother fled the Tempe, Ariz. area with him. While on the run, she contacted McQueary saying she’d killed the baby by suffocating him. Later, after being arrested in Miami, she told authorities she gave Gabriel to an unidentified couple in a San Antonio park.
She is now charged with custodial interference, kidnapping, and child abuse in connection with Gabriel’s disappearance.
“We have been able to confirm through the investigation so far that this is the park where Elizabeth handed the baby to a couple,” Gamble said.
“That information is supported by her own handwritten notes in her journal. She wrote down directions to the park...,” Gamble continued. “…she arrived… the couple was already sitting in the park so we now know they were sitting at one of those tables... they immediately got up and they greeted her.”
Gamble is asking anyone with information to come forward and help identify the mystery couple, according to Fox News.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding Gabriel or his whereabouts to call Tempe Police at 480-350-8311, Silent Witness at 480-948-6377, or the FBI at 210-225-6741.

http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2010m4d1-Gabriel-Johnson-update-Private-eye-says-he-found-park-where-missing-baby-was-given-up-video

The mother of an Arizona baby missing since December was placed in a
Phoenix jail's psychiatric unit for evaluation after she claimed a
disciplinary food regime was starving her and allegedly assaulted two
fellow inmates, officials said Monday.
Elizabeth Johnson, 23, was placed on the so-called nutra-loaf
program Friday as punishment after she was accused of assaulting two
female inmates by spraying them with window cleaner on Thursday. They
were not injured.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, child
abuse, and custodial interference in the disappearance of her son,
Gabriel, who was 8 months old when he was last seen in December in San
Antonio. Police don't know whether he is alive.
Johnson could now face two counts of felony assault stemming from
Thursday's incident, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.
The brick-shaped loaves that jailers gave to Johnson as
punishment consist of compacted dry milk powder, fruits and vegetables,
chili powder and bread dough. They are served to problem inmates twice a
day in isolation rather than the regular sack lunch in the morning and a
hot meal in the evening.
Arpaio said Johnson gave jail officials a will she wrote after
being put on the program, claiming that she was starving. She said she
refused to eat the loaves because they're "full of rotten vegetables and
worms."
He said Johnson also wrote that she doesn't want to donate her
organs and that she wants to be cremated and buried next to her mother's
grave.
That prompted her jailers to place her in the psychiatric unit on
Saturday to be evaluated. She remained in the unit Monday and was being
fed normal jail food.
"She was a model inmate, but evidently maybe the jail conditions
have gotten to her," said Arpaio, who calls himself America's toughest
sheriff.
"I don't know what her agenda is," Arpaio said. "Maybe her
conscience has gotten to her, but she sure doesn't like being
incarcerated in our jail."
Johnson has refused to say where her son is, but has offered
conflicting stories about his whereabouts. She told the boy's father
that she killed him and dumped his body in a garbage bin, but later told
members of the media and police that she gave him to a San Antonio
couple.
Investigators say Johnson drove him to San Antonio from Tempe in
late December, stayed about a week, then took a bus to Florida without
him. She was arrested Dec. 30 in Florida and taken to Arizona to be
charged.
San Antonio police have been searching a landfill where they
think Gabriel's body might be buried if he was killed, but hadn't found
anything as of Monday.
Tammi Smith, a north Scottsdale woman who wanted to adopt Gabriel
from Johnson, also is charged in the case, although police said she was
not connected to the boy's disappearance. Smith has pleaded not guilty
to charges of felony forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial
interference.
Both women were scheduled for court hearings on Friday.

23-year-old Elizabeth Johnson, the woman imprisoned for kidnapping
her son Gabriel and refusing to tell police where he is, has gone on a
hunger strike and written a will to prepare for her death. Following
the submission of her will, Johnson was placed in the jail's
psychiatric unit for evaluation. Sheriff Joe fears that she may suicidal
based on the way she talked about her death in her will. About
two weeks ago, jailers placed Johnson on the Sheriff's Nutra-loaf system
after she allegedly attacked two other inmates. Sheriff Joe says she
sprayed two inmates with window cleaner. The loaf consists of
nonfat dry milk powder, an assortment of fruits and vegetables, chili
powder, and bread dough all compacted into one solid brick-like loaf.
The Nutra-loaf system aims to deter inmates from misbehaving or
assaulting others. They are served the Nutra-loaf in isolation, instead
of a sack lunch in the morning and a hot meal in the evening. The
diet, sometimes called "bread and water," has raised controversy like
many of the Sheriff's initiatives. Just last week, claims that the Nutra-loaf was unconstitutional punishment were dismissed. Johnson
is apparently refusing to eat the Nutra-loaf, saying it's "rotten food
with worms in it," and has gone on a hunger strike. Sheriff Joe says the
bread is perfectly healthy. Read Johnson's will below, transcribed from
her own handwriting. Gabriel Johnson was 8 months old when he
went missing in December. Johnson told her ex-boyfriend Logan McQueary
she killed Gabriel and left his body in a dumpster, but told police she
gave the child to an unknown couple at a San Antonio park. A search of a
San Antonio landfill proved fruitless.
My
Advanced Directive & Will (dated 4/9/2010) I am writing my advanced directive and will
because I am incarcerated in Estrella jail and they are starving me and
serving rotten food with worms in it. I haven't eaten in over 7 days and
barely can write this. The water… makes us sick. I feel they will let
me starve to death rather than feeding me safe, edible food. I don't
want an autopsy, I do not wish to donate any organs/body parts. That is
against my religion. I wish my grandmother be contacted [phone number]
only. I wish to be cremated right away, put in a box not an urn and
brought to mass to be buried above my mother's grave. I know my
grandmother Sylvia [last name] will arrange this for me. White lilies
for me is all. I don't think I'll have time to have my lawyer notarize
this because I am starving and so weak and dehydrated so I will put a
tank order in for a notary. I love you Marzzy. I am sorry be happy for
us.
Sincerely, Elizabeth Johnson

My God, she wants white lilies? It's all about her. I have a great idea, she and Casey would make wonderful pen-pals.

Not a word about baby Gabriel. Not a word.

"Be happy for us"??? Who is 'us'. Her and her mom, or her and baby Gabe?

http://www.examiner.com/x-1168-Crime-Examiner~y2010m4d13-Gabriel-Johnson-Missing-babys-mom-assaults-inmates-claims-shes-starving-relocated-to-psych-unit

It’s been four months since the disappearance of Baby Gabriel first
captured the attention of the Valley and the nation.
CNN’s Nancy Grace focused several episodes of her show on the story
of the missing 11-month-old Tempe boy, authorities launched a nationwide
investigation, and a San Antonio landfill was searched for evidence of
the child’s remains.
The faces of Gabriel and his now-jailed mother, Elizabeth Johnson —
who still refuses to reveal the baby’s whereabouts — have been mainstays
locally and nationally in newspapers and on television screens
nationwide. But as much as this one missing child case has been in the
spotlight, the cases of 10 other missing East Valley children have faded
into the background with the passage of time.There are six missing children from Tempe and five from Mesa,
according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
based in Virginia. Some of them have been missing so long they would now
be adults if they are alive. They are among 64 missing children from
Arizona alone, according to the center, which lists such cases on its
website, www.missingkids.com.
A number of the disappearances occurred before the days of mass
distribution of missing children photos on milk cartons, Amber Alerts,
cell phones, DNA evidence and the Internet. Today, missingkids.com is
able to use age-enhanced photos to show how the missing look now, even
decades later.
But their children remain forever young in the minds of parents who
last saw them before they went to a party, walked siblings to school, or
left the house to wait for an ice cream truck, never to return.Sisters Jackie Leslie, 13, and Cynthia Leslie, 15, disappeared within
a three-block area while walking along Baseline Road near Power Road
from their east Mesa home on July 31, 1974. They were on their way to a
party.
“There’s never a day that I don’t say a prayer where I’ll find out
what happened to my daughters,” said Erma Prue, 78, who now lives in
Henderson, Nev., to be close to her oldest daughter, her only other
child. “You never give up hope.”
In a recent interview with the Tribune, Prue said she doesn’t believe
the girls would have abandoned their family, especially given their
father’s medical condition at the time. Albert Jack Leslie died of
cancer on Feb. 21, 1975, about seven months after the girls disappeared.
Authorities, Erma Prue and her daughter, Linda Herring, believe
Jackie and Cynthia met with foul play somewhere between their home and
their destination.
“I’ve tried to keep the story of their disappearance alive so nobody
forgets about it,” Prue said. “I think there is someone out there who
knows what happened to them and never came forward.”
There were conflicting statements as to whether the sisters attended
the party.
Some people questioned by police said they did; others said they
stopped by briefly and left.
“I believe they got in with the wrong crowd,” Prue said.
Herring said that after her sisters disappeared none of the people
who often called Cynthia and Jackie on the phone ever called the house
again.
“I thought that was strange,” Herring said. “We believe something
happened to them ... and we hope that someone who knows what happened
will say something.”
The sisters’ disappearance was in an unincorporated area of east Mesa
at that time under the county’s jurisdiction.
Although no remains were ever found, the case is considered a
homicide because of outstanding suspicious circumstances.
Many people were questioned, but no one was ever a suspect, according
to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Steve Gurlach, who has
investigated leads in the case for several years.
The most recent tip received by the sheriff’s office came from out of
state in February 2009, and actually led to the excavation of a
backyard of a Cottonwood home last summer, according to Gurlach.
However, the excavation turned up nothing.
“Two healthy teenage girls just don’t disappear and aren’t heard from
again,” Gurlach said. “Something happened, and there’s a great fear
that they met with foul play. ... Somebody somewhere knows something.”
‘We never want to give up’
Since it formed in 1986 with the help of “America’s Most Wanted”
television personality John Walsh, the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children has recovered hundreds of children and returned them
to their families, according to Bob Lowery Jr., executive director of
the center’s missing children’s division.
Acting on a firm belief that someone out there knows what happened in
each incident and that time is the enemy of a missing children’s case,
the center follows a case until it is known what happened to that child.
When tips come in to the center’s hotline, they are shared with the
local police department in that case’s jurisdiction.
In many cases, representatives from the center provide assistance to
police departments.
“We never want to give up the possibility that missing children are
out there waiting to be found,” Lowery said. If a child were to be
killed by their abductor, it likely would happen in the first three
hours of their disappearance, Lowery said.
“Mobilizing everything in the first minutes or moments that a child
is realized missing is critical.”
But even then, some cases are never solved.
This year marked 11 years since Mikelle Biggs, 11, of Mesa,
disappeared in a high-profile case that received national attention.
Mikelle was last seen riding her bicycle near her home on Jan. 2,
1999.
It was a little before 6 p.m. when Mikelle heard the bells of an ice
cream truck and asked her mom, Tracy Biggs, for money. Mikelle and her
younger sister, Kimber, then 9, went to the corner of El Moro and Toltec
to wait for the ice cream truck, according to police.
But Kimber got cold and went back to their home four doors away on El
Moro to get a jacket.
A neighbor driving by saw Mikelle standing alone on the corner under
the street lamp with her sister’s bicycle.
Tracy Biggs sent Kimber back outside to fetch her sister, but Mikelle
was gone.
Her bike was discovered a little closer to the house, lying on its
side with the wheel still spinning, police said.
Police dogs picked up her scent but lost it within a few feet,
leading investigators to believe she was placed into a vehicle and
driven away.
But all ice cream truck drivers in the area were cleared in the case,
and Mikelle was never found.
She would now be 22 years old.
Certain that Mikelle is dead, the Biggs family buried a white casket
on Jan. 2, 2004.
“It’s logical to think that after cases go on for an extended amount
of time, the outcome is not going to be a good one,” Lowery said. “We
don’t want to provide false hope, but we don’t want to abandon it,
either.”

Holding onto hope
It’s been four months since Gabriel Johnson was last seen after his
mother, Elizabeth Johnson, took him to San Antonio in the midst of a
custody battle with the boy’s father, Logan McQueary of Gilbert.
At one point, Johnson told McQueary she had killed their son; she
said she stuffed his body into a diaper bag and threw him in a Dumpster,
according to court documents.
But a landfill search turned up nothing. She told an FBI agent that
she had given the child away to a couple at a San Antonio motel a day
after meeting them in a park.
Incarcerated in a Maricopa County jail on a $1.1 million cash bond,
Johnson, who refuses to reveal Gabriel’s whereabouts, is charged with
kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit
custodial interference.
Meanwhile, McQueary believes his son is alive and has been conducting
his own investigation to find him.
Lowery said missing children cases involving custodial disputes need
to be taken as seriously as other cases.
“A lot of emotion goes on in these cases,” Lowery said. “Parents
believe they are providing a better home and better lifestyle for their
child, or they want to get revenge on their spouses during a divorce,
and the child is often used as a token of that revenge.”
Regardless of the circumstances, when a child is missing, parents
hold onto hope for a long time that their family will be reunited, or
that they will at least finally have answers.
Nearly 36 years since her daughters vanished, Prue believes the truth
is out there and that she will find it.
“The only thing I can tell parents of missing children is that they
have to trust God, and have faith in him — I know I do,” she said.
“That’s what has kept me going.”