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

TomTerrific0420 wrote:Poster's Note: As in past cases, when the police change the focus of their investigation I change forums accordingly. As this is, according to LE, now a Homicide investigation, this topic has been moved to "Murdered Children".

According to police, there is information that Baby Gabriel, who was
last seen in San Antonio the day after Christmas, was murdered and
dumped in a landfill.
SAPD said the section of the landfill has been closed off and they will begin an active search in that area for the body.
Police Chief William McManus said that although they still hope to
find the baby alive, for now the case will be treated as a murder
investigation.
Homicide detectives have been assigned to the case.

Oh no no no no.....I was really hoping for a different outcome on this one.....

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus
announced Saturday that the case of the missing 9-month-old infant
known as Baby Gabriel is now being investigated as a kidnapping and a
homicide.
McManus also said the Police Department would begin searching an
East Side landfill as soon as weather permits for the body of Gabriel
Johnson. The baby last was seen Dec. 26 in San Antonio with his mother,
Elizabeth Johnson.
Johnson was arrested Dec. 30 in Florida and is charged in Arizona with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.
“Classifying this as a homicide allows us to search for a dead
body,” McManus said in an afternoon news conference. “You could ask,
‘How can you search for a dead body if it's a missing person's case?'”
A segment of the landfill in the 7000 block of Interstate 10 East
was secured after police officials contacted the waste-management
company about a potential search, said Peg Mulloy, spokeswoman for
Arizona-based Republic Services Inc., which owns the 1,000-acre
landfill.
McManus said police have been planning to search the Tessman Road Landfill site “for a long time.”
“Logistics make it hard,” he said. “We've been working with
contractors, and worrying about toxic runoff associated with landfills.
And, the weather hasn't been cooperating. We're expecting more rain in
the next couple days.”
McManus said there was no rush to search the landfill “because evidence is not being lost.”
Meanwhile, Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary of Tempe, Ariz., arrived
in San Antonio late Friday and met with local authorities Saturday
morning, the police chief said.
McQueary has said he would retrace Johnson's steps in hopes of finding his son.
Authorities said Johnson and her baby were in San Antonio Dec. 20-27
and spent time in two hotels: HomeGate Studios and Suites on San Pedro
Avenue and Quality Inn and Suites Fiesta Park on Interstate 10. On Dec.
27, Johnson was seen boarding a bus to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but
Gabriel wasn't with her, according to authorities.
The case drew national attention in early January after McQueary
went on TV network morning shows and pleaded for his son's safe return.
McQueary said he received a text message from Johnson telling him
she had killed Gabriel and that she later told him she put the baby in
a diaper bag and threw it in a trash bin. McQueary and Johnson were in
the middle of a custody dispute when Johnson left Tempe with Gabriel on
Dec. 18.
Johnson later told a Phoenix television station that she gave
Gabriel to a couple she didn't know at a San Antonio park, and that she
only said she killed the boy to get back at McQueary, according to CBS'
“The Early Show.”
Despite the opening of the homicide case, McManus said he remains optimistic.
“Hopefully nothing will turn up in the landfill,” he said. “Hopefully we'll find him alive.”

Admin wrote:

TomTerrific0420 wrote:Poster's Note: As in past cases, when the police change the focus of their investigation I change forums accordingly. As this is, according to LE, now a Homicide investigation, this topic has been moved to "Murdered Children".

According to police, there is information that Baby Gabriel, who was
last seen in San Antonio the day after Christmas, was murdered and
dumped in a landfill.
SAPD said the section of the landfill has been closed off and they will begin an active search in that area for the body.
Police Chief William McManus said that although they still hope to
find the baby alive, for now the case will be treated as a murder
investigation.
Homicide detectives have been assigned to the case.

Oh no no no no.....I was really hoping for a different outcome on this one.....

Me too, Melissa. I was praying she had given this baby to someone

PHOENIX -- A high-profile private investigator has launched his own
search for Gabriel Johnson, the 8-month-old baby who was kidnapped by
his non-custodial mother and hasn't been seen since December 26. The
well-known detective says he usually charges $250,000 to a million to
take a case -- but after hearing of Gabriel's story, he decided to
search for him free of charge. "We've got about 175 years of
experience concentrating on this case," says private investigator Jay
J. Armes. His team of detectives is assembled across Texas and Mexico
searching for baby Gabriel. Armes has been a private eye for
more than 40 years, based out of El Paso, Texas. He's known for his
trademark prosthetic arms -- he lost both of his hands in a childhood
accident. Armes believes he can bring baby Gabriel home. "I've
had about 150 underground kidnappings that I've worked on and
recovered," he says. He's criticizing the San Antonio Police
Department for the way they've handled the case. On Saturday, police
announced they're opening a homicide investigation into the baby's
disappearance, so they can search a landfill for his body. "That is a cop out, because you just don't do that to parents of a child that is missing." Gabriel's
father Logan McQueary has traveled to San Antonio to search for his
son. He's retracing Elizabeth Johnson's steps. Back in December,
Johnson, Gabriel's mother, took off with him from Tempe to San Antonio.
That's where Gabriel was last seen six weeks ago. Over the
weekend, McQueary met with San Antonio Police to talk about his son's
case. Armes says that meeting was a disappointment. "They just
wanted a photo op so that they could not be caught with egg in their
faces. You open the file and there was zero there was nothing," says
Armes. Armes has set up a tipline for baby Gabriel. For more information, go to www.spymall.com/investigators .

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- New evidence that
surfaced Sunday in the search for baby Gabriel shows there is a better
chance that he may still be alive. It suggests it was Elizabeth
Johnson's plan all along to adopt her baby away.Johnson sits in
a Maricopa County Jail on charges of kidnapping and custodial
interference in connection with an attempted adoption and her son's
disappearance.The day started with Gabriel's father, Logan
McQueary, hitting the pavement, stopping at spots Johnson was seen or
captured on surveillance video.He
posted fliers and asked questions at the Subway next to her hotel, the
Jack In The Box, and even a Papa Johns because Johnson's babysitter saw
empty pizza boxes from the restaurant on her hotel room floor.Everywhere he and his cousins, Lisa and Joe Peters, stopped, people listened to their story and wanted to help.“I
have three kids and I couldn’t even imagine. Good luck to you, really
good luck. I’ll be praying for you all night,” said one man at the
Subway where Johnson was spotted.But the stronger clues came to the McQueary family later in the day through phone calls and emails.“We came on this trip looking for any evidence and we’re finding a lot of it,” said Logan McQueary.After
talking to an adoption expert who helps the FBI in the world of
underground adoptions, the McQueary family learned some startling
connections.The Homegate Hotel where Elizabeth stayed is well
known in adoption circles. Agencies put girls up there for meetings
with families and to complete paperwork.“It just seems like it is a place that mothers go when they’re trying to give up their children,” said Lisa Peters.The adoption expert, who didn't want to be identified, also had plenty to say about the San Antonio Six Flags.“Often
girls go to Six Flags to meet with the adoptive family. There’s a lot
of people in and out there, and there’s also security there, and it’s a
safe place for both the mother and the family to meet, often to bring
the child, introduce the child to the family,” said Lisa Peters.Elizabeth
Johnson and Gabriel were spotted on surveillance footage outside the
Six Flags on Dec. 26, the same day she took the last known photos of
Gabriel in the Homegate hotel room. That was also just two days after
she posted two comments on her MySpace page stating, "Where there's a
will, there's a way" and "Excited to start my new life."“I think
on the 26th, she knew it was the last time she was going to see
Gabriel, she took some pictures, she drove to Six Flags, somebody
picked him up and she took off for Miami. And we just have to figure
out who she met and where they are now,” said Lisa Peters.The
adoption expert also told the McQuearys that because of recent changes
in Texas law, the state is now one of the easiest to remove parental
rights from a biological father.But despite the latest evidence,
it is still possible that Elizabeth Johnson carried out her claim that
she killed Gabriel and threw his body in the trash.San Antonio
police plan to search the nearby Tessman Road Landfill as early as
Monday, but rain in the forecast could stall the beginning of that
effort.

Baby Gabriel's father says two locations in San Antonio where
Elizabeth Johnson and Gabriel were last spotted lead him to believe
that the baby was adopted.
Logan McQueary says the first spot is the Homegate Hotel, where
Johnson stayed. The McQueary family says they've talked to adoption
experts, who say that the hotel is a well-known location in adoption
circles.
Agencies put girls up here for meetings with families.
The second clue that baby Gabriel may have been adopted is that
Johnson and Gabriel were spotted on surveillance footage outside the
Six Flags on one of the last days the baby was seen.
Despite these clues, the San Antonio Police Department plans to
search the landfill for the baby's body as soon as the weather
cooperates.

SAN ANTONIO - Police began excavating a landfill Tuesday in
search of a body or other evidence in the disappearance of an
8-month-old Arizona boy who was last seen with his mother at a San
Antonio hotel on the day after Christmas.
Elizabeth Johnson, 23, was
locked in a custody dispute with the baby's father when she took off
from Tempe, Ariz., in mid-December. Johnson has refused to say where
the baby is, but she told the father, Logan McQueary, that she killed
the infant and threw his body in a trash bin — a story she later
retracted in a media interview.
Police Chief William McManus said Tuesday that authorities began the arduous
task of digging down through 45 feet of trash with hazardous material
crews and cadaver dogs standing by. It will take at least six days to
dig to the layer containing trash from the hotel. The hotel's trash,
which is in a section that's been cordoned off for weeks, will be
recovered and carefully sifted, he said.
"We do remain hopeful that Baby Gabriel is alive," McManus said at news
conference near the landfill's edge. "We are, however, conducting a
missing person investigation and a homicide investigation."
He declined to offer any details on the investigation, which began as a
missing-person case but was reclassified as a homicide to allow for the
landfill dig. McManus said leads have come in from a variety of sources
and investigators are checking every one.
Safely conducting a landfill search requires careful planning and specially
trained investigators, McManus said. Heavy rains, which create toxic
run-off, also have been a concern, he said.
Johnson, who was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Dec. 30, is jailed in
Arizona on charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial
interference.
She told Phoenix television station KPHO that she gave the baby to a couple in a
San Antonio park and only said she killed the boy to get back at
McQueary, who had refused to give the baby up for adoption.
Investigators say her descriptions of the purported hand-off were vague.

While Logan McQueary was sleeping in a San
Antonio hotel someone was breaking into his car. McQueary and his
cousins woke up Tuesday morning and discovered the side window smashed.

McQueary reported that a GPS system and some paperwork
were missing. McQueary said, "the important stuff," was inside the
hotel. Police believe the burglary was random and don't think McQueary
was targeted. McQueary however said he ran across
someone who told him to "watch his back".

McQueary spent about an hour with officers filing out a report and going through his car.

Across town San Antonio Police held a news conference at the Tessman
Road Landfill. Police are set to start a search of the area. Chief Bill
McManus said it will take six days to excavate dirt and debris before
the search for Gabriel can begin, "There is no lead we will not follow
up on or chase down," said McManus.

San Antonio Police are running a dual investigation. While officers
are searching the landfill other officers are tracking down leads in
the missing persons case. Police say Gabriel Johnson was last seen in
San Antonio with his mother Elizabeth Johnson on December, 26, 2009.
Police in Miami, Florida found Elizabeth Johnson four days later in
South Florida without the baby. Elizabeth Johnson is in an Arizona Jail
charged with kidnapping and child abuse.

San Antonio police are likely to race weeks of meticulous digging through mountains of
stench and waste in a costly landfill search that experts say may never lead to the
body of 9-month-old missing baby Gabriel Johnson.
On Wednesday, police worked through the rain to remove 45 feet of
debris, a process that will take another four days before investigators
get to the trash they really want: garbage from the motel where the Tempe child was last seen alive.
Experts who have conducted similar searches said police volunteers
and cadaver dogs could spend months in the tedious task of sorting the
trash.
They will follow dates on discarded newspapers to make sure they are looking in the right spot.
They will become experts on the difference between turkey bones, chicken bones and steak bones.
They will get attached to the case and the child, but they may not ever find him, experts said.
A landfill search is expensive, laborious and often fruitless,
experts say. They note that without confirmation that the boy is dead
and evidence to support the theory that the child is in the dump, the
likelihood of finding the body is slim.
"Sometimes unfortunately, you end up having to do things because you
have a public out there expecting you to," said Paul Laska, who once
oversaw a landfill search for a child in Florida.
On Tuesday, San Antonio police declined to say whether they had new
information to suggest that baby Gabriel is in the landfill. The
department held a press conference in the morning to announce the dig,
though Police Chief William McManus said he remained "hopeful baby
Gabriel is still alive."
Spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez said there are "many leads in the case"
and one of them led police to the landfill, but wouldn't expand on the
investigation.
Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, sent a text message to her
ex-boyfriend two days after Christmas, telling him she smothered their
son, stuffed him in a baby bag and left him in a dumpster.
She has since recanted that story to local media but reportedly refused to talk
to investigators in either state. She is being held in Maricopa County jail on
charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.
San Antonio Police announced over the weekend that they are
investigating the case as both a homicide and missing person. The
homicide classification allows them to do the landfill search.
Searches came up empty


In what may be the only two landfill searches in Valley homicide
cases both came up empty despite partial admissions from suspects and
forensic evidence found in garbage cans that pointed directly to the
landfill.
One involved the body of Brad Hanson
an Ahwatukee teen shot to death by a friend who said he disposed of the
body in a residential garbage can. The other involved Tempe mom Cookie
Jacobson ,whose son told police he found her dead and stuffed her in a
garbage can. Neither body was found.
"It's terrible to think that's her final resting place," said
Detective Tom Magazzeni, who worked on the case when Jacobson
disappeared in 1998 and has since taken it over as the lead detective.
"There was a lot of hope and optimism that they were going to find her
and it was very upsetting when they weren't able to. I talk to officers
who were part of that search and to this day it still hurts them bad
that they weren't able to find her."
Tempe police searched a block of trash that had been compacted to
"cell" that was 13 feet deep, 150 feet long and 50 feet wide. When
decompressed, Magazzeni said, the 80 tons of garbage in one cell could
fill up Sun Devil Stadium.
The search cost $350,000 using funds appropriated by the mayor's
office. It took 59 days from October to December before it was called
off.
"I feel confident that the remains we were looking for, Brad Hanson
and Cookie Jacobson, were not in the trash we searched," wrote Laura
Fulginiti, a forensic anthropologist who aided in both landfill
searches, in an email. "But you should keep in mind that the purpose of
a landfill is to warehouse
trash, not keep careful track of where specific trash might be located.
We examined multiple tons, but if we were off by even a foot, we would
not have found our target."
In a 1993 Florida case, when forensic expert Paul Laska worked crime
scenes for the Martin County Sheriff's Office, police spent a month
searching for a 10-year-old missing girl.
Authorities suspected a convicted child molester Claude Davis who
told the Sheriff's Office he was collecting cans with the girl when she
fell and hit her head. He said he panicked, throwing the body in a
dumpster.
Police and landfill owners at the time tracked the trash from that
dumpster to an area the size of two football fields and spent the
entire month of December searching, said Laska, who is now a partner in
a forensics consulting business in Florida.
Her body was never found and charges against Davis did not hold up.
National successes offer hope


Though police never believed his story that she died accidentally
and he dumped her body, authorities had an "obligation" to search the
landfill, Laska said.
Even though their searches were futile, Laska and Magazzeni said
they believe finding bodies in landfill is possible with the right
amount of luck and precision.
"If you can pinpoint where a particular person can be, with
assistance of waste management and if they keep good tracking of where
things are, with a little bit of luck you can find people," Magazzeni
said. "It has happened, but it is very difficult."
Police in Roanoke, Va., found the body of a missing toddler in a
city landfill two weeks ago after also searching a nearby river. The
2-year-old boy had disappeared two weeks earlier and police searched
garbage taken from near the home. His stepfather is facing charges in the case.
In October, authorities found the body of a 7-year-old girl in a
south Georgia landfill where the trash from the girl's Florida hometown
ends up. Police still don't have a suspect in her murder.

SAN ANTONIO -- Police in San Antonio have begun the grim process of sifting a landfill to find missing infant Gabriel Johnson, last seen with his mother Elizabeth Johnson in December.

San Antonio Police Chief William McMannus said, “We are doing everything that we can to track down baby Gabriel and hopefully we’ll find that baby alive.” McMannus told reporters the search is part of a dual homicide and missing person investigation.

The landfill search has been delayed for weeks by bad weather, but it could still take another week before searchers get to an area that could contain evidence left behind by the mother, including perhaps, little Gabriel's body.

“We will begin by removing 50 feet of debris. Once we’ve removed debris and searched our target area, we will begin the arduous task of sifting through layers," McMannus told the media.

Gabriel Johnson was last seen with his 23-year-old mother in San Antonio on Dec. 26, 2009. The Arizona woman was arrested Dec. 30 in Florida, and charged with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.

Before her arrest Elizabeth Johnson sent the baby's father, Logan McQueary, a text message saying she had killed Gabriel, and also told him she put the baby in a diaper bag and threw it in a trash bin.

She has since recanted and refused to talk to investigators.

Meanwhile, the missing person investigation continues as FBI investigators questioned a pizza delivery driver located by KPHO on Monday. Tabor Morris delivered an order to Elizabeth Johnson at the Homegate Hotel in San Antonio on Dec. 21. The receipts he provided indicate she may not have dined alone.

“Let me say this, the San Antonio community is a very tight community, and it takes very personally crimes against children, and the community will not tolerate this, the police department will not tolerate this," McMannus said.

On December 9, 2009, Elizabeth Johnson told Tempe police that her
eight-month-old son, Gabriel Johnson, was missing. On the same day,
police found Gabriel with Jack and Tammi Smith in their Scottsdale
home. The Smiths told police they wanted to adopt Gabriel. Police
arrested Elizabeth for 'False Reporting to Law Enforcement'. On the
11th, the father, Logan McQueary, filed for custody of Gabriel.

On
December 14, Tammi Smith phoned a friend asking to use her husband's
name on Elizabeth's court document for Baby Gabriel's paternity. Tammi
said the friend's husband's name would cause a problem for Logan. The
friend angrily refused. Tammi falsely wrote in the name of her cousin
Craig Cherry on the document. She made copies and drove Elizabeth to
the courthouse.

On December 18, Elizabeth kidnapped Baby Gabriel and left Tempe Arizona with him. On the 20th, they arrived in San Antonio Texas. On the 26th, Elizabeth either killed, sold, or gave away Baby Gabriel.

On
December 27, Elizabeth sent cell-phone text messages to Logan stating
she had killed their baby and how. She also called Logan and vocalized,
"I killed him". She vocalized how she had killed him. Logan recorded
her words on a digital recorder (later impounded as an evidentiary
item).

Also on December 27, Logan went to the Tempe Police on
120E 5th Street and reported Elizabeth's frightening calls. They
learned that Elizabeth was in Texas. Sgt. Lenzen called her. He told
her to contact Texas Law Enforcement and confirm that Baby Gabriel was
alive and safe. Elizabeth refused. Gabriel officially became a missing
endangered child.

Also on December 27, because of the December 9
incident of finding Baby Gabriel at the Smiths, Tempe law enforcement
visited Jack and Tammi Smith to see if the baby was again in their
care. They interviewed Tammi. With her and Jack's permission, they
searched the property. Gabriel was not found.

It was later
discovered that during the December 27 interview, Tammi Smith had
withheld from police the text messages and phone calls that she had
exchanged with Elizabeth on the 27th. She had also withheld the text
message that she had sent to Logan on that day. The text read: "Can we
get together tomorrow morning with you and your dad? I'm afraid she
[Elizabeth] will be gone forever, because she doesn't want to go to
jail for kidnapping. She doesn't trust u or ur dad. The only way she'll
come back is if my attorney faxes the signed papers to her so she won't
get in trouble, and Gabriel b w/us." Logan shot back a text message
saying 'no' and that he wanted Gabriel returned to him.

Police
later learned from Tammi Smith that she had researched on her computer
how Elizabeth (while in Texas) could change court jurisdiction
regarding a scheduled court appearance for a child custody hearing at Maricopa County Superior Court
in Phoenix. Tammi told police that she gave the jurisdiction data to
Elizabeth and that she called lawyers asking for advice on how to
change jurisdiction. She also called a relative in Tennessee to learn if housing was available for Elizabeth. She advised Elizabeth to enter a shelter.

Tammi
also researched the topic of 'adopting an adult' with the hope of
adopting Elizabeth along with Baby Gabriel. According to Jack's
son-in-law, Travis Warford, Elizabeth has a smile like Nicki's. Nicki
is Travis's wife and Jack's daughter.

On December 27, Elizabeth left Texas on a Florida-bound bus, without Baby Gabriel. On the 28th, she missed the scheduled child custody hearing in Arizona. Judge McVey awarded full custody
to Logan and issued a warrant for 'Custodial Interference' on
Elizabeth. Police later learned that Tammi Smith gave Elizabeth the
phone numbers of persons who could possibly give legal advice regarding
her missed court appearance.

Tammi stated that Logan had called and threatened her after the custody
hearing. Logan had recorded the call. The police listened to the
recording and found he had made no threat. Logan had simply told Tammi
to stop calling him and then hung up. Soon after, Jack Smith also had
called him. Again, Logan had hung up.

On December 29, a Tempe
police officer interviewed Jack and Tammi Smith. He asked how they
would handle Logan's refusal to sign over his custodial rights. Tammi
stated she would use her attorney's assistance to pressure Logan into
paying previous and current child support— and into being 'responsible
for visitation'. She also stated her hope that this applied pressure
would get Logan to let go of his custodial rights so the Smiths'
adoption of Baby Gabriel could proceed.

According to Logan, the
Smiths called him about three times in December and asked him to give
up his custodial rights. He said he continued to refuse. Tammi admitted
during her interview with police on December 29 that she had sent a
text message to Logan on December 27. She had given him Elizabeth's
ultimatum and had asked that he give up his custodial rights.

On December 30, Elizabeth was arrested at a hostel in Miami
Beach. Later extradited to Arizona, she retracted her murder story and
told police that she had given Gabriel away to a couple in a park.
Elizabeth sits in a Maricopa County jail.

On January
4, 2010, Superior Court Judge McVey called a Tempe law enforcement
officer who had interviewed Tammi Smith and asked him listen to a voice
mail message. The officer recognized Tammi's voice. In the message,
Tammi asked the judge to return her call. She stated she believed
Elizabeth would return with Gabriel if she knew he'd be 'safe'. Tammi
later claimed that a reporter had told her to call. Later still, she
could not recall a reporter telling her to call.

On January 12,
a media source notified police that the name Craig Cherry on the
December paternity court document belonged to a first cousin of Tammi
Smith's. According to Judge McVey, Elizabeth was not protesting Logan's
paternity.

On January 14, during an interview, Tammi Smith gave
the officer a sample of her handwriting. A criminalist inspected her
handwriting and determined it was the same as on the December 14
paternity document. Tammi admitted that she, not Elizabeth, had written
in Cherry's name.

As of February 11, Baby Gabriel is still
missing. And one of the loudest advocates for his safe return is the
woman who has consistently lied and withheld evidence as well as aided
and abetted the kidnapper mother. And has blackmailed Baby Gabriel's
father. The woman is Tammi Smith.

If you have seen Baby Gabriel or know where he might be, please submit a tip to jjarmes.com/babygabrielcase.html.

A grand jury
indicted a Scottsdale woman Tuesday on counts of forgery and conspiracy
to commit custodial interference in connection with the case of a
missing 9-month-old Tempe boy.
According to the indictment and police, Tammi Fay Smith, 37, and
Elizabeth Johnson plotted to sever the parental rights of Gabriel
Johnson’s father. Elizabeth Johnson, who is charged with kidnapping, child abuse and
custodial interference, left the state with Gabriel in December and
claims to have both killed the child and given him up for adoption in
Texas. The boy hasn’t been seen since Dec. 26, and San Antonio police are searching a landfill for his remains. The indictment also alleges Smith forged a court document. Police say
she admitted to forging the document, which was filed in the child
custody case involving Johnson and Gabriel’s father, Logan McQueary. Smith is scheduled for a court appearance March 9.

Rain has halted the excavation of an East Side landfill, where officials searched this week for evidence in connection to the disappearance of an Arizona infant.
“The excavation has been suspended for the day because of the inclement weather,” said San Antonio Police Department spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez. “But we hope to resume Friday.”
Police Chief William McManus said at a news conference Tuesday that the landfill was targeted because it was tied to a trash bin at a hotel on San Pedro Avenue, where Elizabeth Johnson, 23, claimed to have suffocated Gabriel Johnson, placed him in a diaper bag and disposed of his body.
Police continued to investigate a separate missing person case on the 9-month-old because Johnson also claimed that she gave him to a couple in a San Antonio park.
Private companies donated more than $100,000 worth of personnel, equipment and services to the excavation, which began at the Tessman Road Landfill Tuesday. It will take several more days to remove an estimated 1.8 million cubic feet of debris that officials said sits atop a layer where police believed the baby's remains or related evidence could be.
The particular section of the landfill was cordoned off since Dec. 27, the day that Johnson allegedly sent a text message to Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, saying she killed the boy.
Vicky Waddy, spokeswoman for Zachry Construction Corporation, said her company's efforts also temporarily halted at the site. She added that five employees operated an excavator and three dump trucks in the dig since Tuesday.
She estimated the cost of the employees' work — which included loading dump trucks with debris and unloading the dump trucks at another section of the landfill — was $30,000. But that amount could change if the rain continued, complicating the operation.
“The problem isn't just the rain coming down, but whether there's a stable foundation for our excavator,” she said.
A spokesman for Yantis Company said a crew was on standby to help police in the second phase of the landfill operation, which will include sifting through debris for evidence. That process, which costs an estimated $30,000, will begin once the landfill site has been excavated to 45 feet, police said.
Yantis employees will then use equipment, including two excavators, to move the debris to a nearby secure site, which police refused to disclose, to allow for the arduous process of searching through the trash. Police will use search teams and cadaver dogs in the search, McManus said.
“Right now, we're waiting for the Zachry crews to finish their part,” said Yantis spokesman Paul Basaldua. “We hope to start sometime next week, pending weather. If it continues to rain, it's harder to sift through that material because it becomes more compacted and clay-like.”
Meanwhile, Johnson, who was arrested in Florida, remained jailed in Arizona on charges of kidnapping, custodial interference and child abuse.

Sources have revealed that when Elizabeth Johnson vacated
her hotel room at the Homegate Inn & Suites in late December, she
left behind all of her son's personal belongings.
But there reportedly was one item investigators could not find: a
green diaper bag that belonged to Gabriel Johnson. Of course, the
8-month-old was missing too.
A joint investigation involving authorities in San Antonio and
Arizona led to a portion of the Tessman Road Landfill being roped off.
Johnson reportedly sent the baby's father, Logan McQueary, a text
message saying she had killed their child, placed him in a bag and put
his body in a dumpster. Trash from her hotel would come to the area
where San Antonio police are currently searching.
That's where sources said police are looking for a green diaper bag or suitcase that could contain the child's body.
San Antonio police have called the case both a missing person case and a capital murder investigation.
Sources said the young mother's text to Gabriel's father declared
she would direct him to their child's blue body if the garbage does not
take him prior to that alert.
Johnson allegedly came to San Antonio trying to elude child custody
issues with McQueary. Sources said she wanted to adopt little Gabriel
to Tempe, Arizona couple Jack and Tammi Smith.
Police have evidence of communication between the Smiths and Johnson while she was in San Antonio.
According to sources, they allegedly were discussing ways to conduct
an illegal adoption. But police reportedly have not been able to
conclude that such an adoption ever happened.
Sources said police did find witnesses who saw Johnson shopping
without Gabriel the day she abandoned her grandfather's vehicle at a
south-side Motel 6.
Investigators say that's when she used a fake last name to buy a bus
ticket to Miami, Florida. Sources said the child did not make the trip.
Johnson was arrested on child custody charges in Florida.
Police have said the mother was uncooperative. She reportedly said Gabriel was given to a couple in a San Antonio park.
But sources said subsequent questioning of the toddler's mother
revealed inconsistencies in her story. Plus, investigators allegedly
believe the missing child's story garnered so much national media
attention that it's peculiar that they have not received any reports
of sightings of Gabriel.
As a result, investigators reportedly think the child really could
be a capital murder victim and unthinkably was tossed away like garbage.

A renowned private
investigator and four of his associates who are conducting a nationwide
search of missing 9-month-old Gabriel Johnson believe the boy is still
alive and they are close to finding him.
Jay J. Armes, whose office is based in El Paso, Texas, told the
Tribune he believes Gabriel Johnson has fallen victim to an underground
adoption, and he and his investigators are following up on more than
350 leads nationwide that include sightings of the boy.
Gabriel’s mother, Elizabeth Johnson, 23, of Tempe, drove Gabriel in
her grandfather’s 1995 white Delta-88 Oldsmobile to San Antonio on Dec.
18 in the midst of a custody battle with her estranged boyfriend and
the baby’s father, Logan McQueary.
The child was last seen on Dec. 26 at a Quality Inn and Suites
motel, where Johnson was staying. The next day, Johnson told McQueary
via text message that she killed Gabriel. The mother has since said she
gave the baby away, but she remains uncooperative with police.
Armes, who has 40 years of investigative experience, has a claim to
fame of finding actor Marlon Brando’s son, Christian Brando, who was
kidnapped in 1972 and held in Mexico for ransom.
Armes, who did not reveal his whereabouts or his strategy to find
the Gabriel, said his office has been receiving 70 tips a day for the
last week on the “Baby Gabriel” case that has received national
attention.
“My feelings about the child, my gut feeling, is that he’s still
alive,” Armes said. “I have no thought otherwise. There have been no
clues that the baby is dead. I’m very optimistic that we’re close to
finding him. If we do this investigation right, it’ll come out right.”
Johnson was arrested without the child on Dec. 30 in Miami Beach,
Fla., where she told an FBI agent that she was approached Dec. 25 in a
San Antonio park by an unknown couple who wanted to adopt a child. She
told the agent she gave Gabriel to the couple the next day in the
parking lot of the motel and signed an adoption form, according to a
Maricopa County Superior Court document.
Armes said he has recovered 150 children from underground adoption
cases of the 300 such cases he’s been involved in. He said he is
familiar with underground adoption rings, including those south of the
border in Mexico, where he believes Gabriel might have wound up. People
will pay as much as $50,000 for a child in an underground adoption
after a child is sometimes kidnapped and taken south of the border,
according to Armes.
Armes said he was retained to direct a national search for Gabriel,
but offered his services pro-bono to McQueary’s family last week. Armes
said a woman working for a missing children’s group in California
brought the case to his attention, and he said he knew McQueary did not
have the financial means to hire private investigators.
McQueary has told the Tribune he has taken leave of absence from his
job stocking shelves at a in Tempe while he searches for clues in the
case. He currently is in San Antonio with relatives. He also is passing
out flyers featuring pictures of Gabriel.
Up to a $5,000 reward is being offered through Crime Stoppers in San
Antonio for information that could lead to the safe return of the boy.
San Antonio police currently are conducting parallel homicide and a
missing person’s investigations into the disappearance of Gabriel.
Authorities began excavating a section of a landfill in San Antonio
this week in searching for evidence or possible remains of the boy. Two
leads led police to that section of the landfill, and it was closed on
Jan. 9 at their request.
Johnson is being held in the Maricopa County Estrella Jail on a $1.1
million cash bond on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, custodial
interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.
Tammi Smith, of Scottsdale, has been charged with conspiracy to
commit custodial interference and forgery. Tammi Smith and her husband,
Jack Smith, were persons of interest in the case, and were interested
in adopting Gabriel, but McQueary objected to the adoption.
If anyone has any information about Gabriel’s whereabouts, they can
call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at
1-800-843-5678 or Armes’ office at (915) 532-5739.

San Antonio police say crews searching a local landfill for clues to
the fate of a missing Arizona baby have reached the target level of
their dig.A Wednesday statement from San Antonio Police Chief
William McManus says crews had only to reach a 30-foot depth of an
expected 45-foot depth in the Tessman Road Landfill.McManus says
a meticulous second phase of the landfill search will begin Thursday.
However, he says hope remains that 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson will
be found alive.He was last seen with his mother, Elizabeth
Johnson, shortly after Christmas at a San Antonio hotel. The Tempe,
Ariz., woman was later arrested alone on charges of kidnapping, child
abuse and custodial interference. She told the boy's father she killed
Gabriel and dumped him in the trash — a story she later recanted.

Tammi Peters Smith, the Scottsdale woman implicated in the case of missing baby Gabriel Johnson, entered
not-guilty pleas Thursday morning to felony counts of forgery and
conspiracy to commit custodial interference in Maricopa County Superior Court
She remains free on $15,000 bond.Tempe police say they believe that Smith is withholding information
about the baby's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, who has been charged with
kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to
commit custodial interference.
Johnson and the baby, then 8 months old, disappeared in December in
the middle of a custody dispute with the baby's father. Johnson was
later arrested in Miami and remains in custody. The baby has not been
found, and investigators
have not determined whether the child is alive. San Antonio police are
searching a landfill in that city because the baby and Johnson were
last seen together there, shortly after Christmas, and because Johnson
had initially told the boy's father that she had killed him and thrown
his body in the trash.
She later recanted the story.
Police and prosecutors believe that Smith, 37, provided Johnson with
adoption advice and contacts for a place to stay after she fled with
Gabriel. And the forgery charge comes from an allegation that she
falsified documents as to who isthe child's father.
Smith had no comment as she left the courtroom Thursday, but her
attorney Amy Nguyen, said that they do not know why Smith has been
charged.
"We know it has nothing to do with the disappearance of baby
Gabriel," Nguyen said. "It's all speculation at this point. We haven't
been given any information by the state."
Nguyen said that Smith was "anxious to get it behind her."

San Antonio, TX—San Antonio police continued their search for a missing Arizona baby at a landfill on Thursday.

Gabriel Johnson, 9-months-old, was last seen December 26th in San
Antonio with his mother Elizabeth Johnson. She now faces charges of
kidnapping and child abuse.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshall’s Office are assisting with the search.

Phase two of the search could begin later this week. The second
phase will involve sifting through layers of garbage in search of
possible evidence.

Logan McQueary does not put much stock in claims his son may be a murder victim.
Gabriel Johnson has been missing since late December when
authorities said his mother, Elizabeth, brought him to San Antonio. The
child has not been seen since.
San Antonio police launched a capital murder investigation in
conjunction with the toddler's missing person case. In fact, they will
begin sifting through the Tessman Road Landfill for evidence of his
murder Thursday morning.
"I'm really not worried about it that much because I don't think Gabriel's there at all, " McQueary said.
The 25-year-old has searched from Arizona to San Antonio for his missing son.
The baby's mother reportedly wanted to put their child up for adoption. He allegedly disagreed.
Police said that evolved into the 23-year-old mother going on the run. She ended up in Miami without her son.
Johnson was arrested on child custody charges for skipping a hearing
regarding Gabriel's custody. Investigators said she was not helpful in
determining the child's whereabouts.
She alleged her son was given to a couple in a San Antonio park. But police have found no evidence that ever happened.
McQueary said she reportedly sent him an e-mail claiming she
murdered their son, put him in a bag and threw him in a Dumpster before
she left town.
That's why the authorities are searching an east-side landfill. The
trash from the hotel where she stayed in San Antonio comes to the area
they plan to sift for several days.
But Gabriel's father believes his son is at the center of an illegal adoption, not murder.
"It's looking like Elizabeth handed him off to somebody," he
claimed. "I don't think Elizabeth did what she said. I think she just
said that to hurt me."
The distraught father bases his belief on several clues he's dug up
on his own. The most recent revelation is a $20,000 ruby and diamond
ring. She reportedly had it in her pocket when she was arrested.
"Sometimes when they give the baby away for adoption they hand over jewelry to the mother," he said.
McQueary believes that unlike cash, the trail for pawned jewelry is
more difficult to trace. He's still trying to figure out who gave her
the ring.
The Arizona father said Elizabeth had low-paying jobs. In addition,
McQueary said in the two years they lived together he never saw that
ring.
The expensive piece of jewelry was allegedly handed over to
Johnson's grandfather, Arizona authorities said. However, McQueary said
the grandfather denies any knowledge of the ring.
"I'm gonna keep searching until they prove me wrong," he said.
"Gabriel's still out there. He got handed off to somebody, and we're
going to find him."

Authorities have rummaged through more than
100 tons of debris in their search for a missing Arizona baby at an
East Side landfill.
The second phase in the search for 9-month-old Gabriel Johnson
started Thursday when 35 officers with the San Antonio Police
Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI began looking through
piles of trash for anything of “evidentiary value,” officials said. The
officers are also getting help from six cadaver dogs.
Officials anticipate the second phase could take several weeks to complete.
During the first phase, which started last week, workers removed about 45,000 tons of debris to be searched.
Although a homicide investigation was opened, the missing-person
case is still ongoing, and authorities are optimistic the child could
be found.
“We remain hopeful baby Gabriel is still alive,” department spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez stated in an E-mail.
After spending about a week in San Antonio searching for clues in
his son's disappearance, Logan McQueary returned to his home in
Arizona, said private investigator Jay J. Armes, who plans to return to
San Antonio with the father soon.
Gabriel Johnson was last was seen Dec. 26 in San Antonio with his
mother, Elizabeth Johnson, who was indicted on charges of kidnapping,
child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial
interference.

AVONDALE, AZ -- A national children's organization is holding a fundraiser this weekend for the father of a missing Tempe boy.

Jessica's Law Now helped organize the event at Manny's Mexican Restaurant
located at 12345 W. Indian School Road in Avondale Saturday and Sunday.

The organization helps the families of missing and exploited children by
connecting them with lawyers, investigators and contacts who can help
in their search. It also provides support so families, like Gabriel's
father Logan McQueary, can investigate on their own, and aims at
changing legislation that will better protect missing and exploited
children.

Manny Lafarga, owner of Manny's, hopes to raise at
least $5,000 to help support Logan McQueary as he searches for his son,
9-month-old Gabriel.

Money raised will support McQueary with hotel costs and travel as he continues searching for Gabriel.

Jessica's Law Now Executive Director Mark Palmer said McQueary's journey has been fruitful so far.

"They found a couple people who saw Elizabeth, they found witnesses," said
Palmer. "They shared the information, they forwarded it to the
authorities."

Gabriel went missing with his mother in late
December. The boy's mother, Elizabeth was arrested in Florida; Gabriel
was last seen in San Antonio, Texas on December 26.

Palmer said a new clue has surfaced in the investigation-- a $20,000 ring
investigators found in Johnson's possession when she was caught.

McQueary's family is operating on the assumption that Gabriel is alive, and that
the ring is evidence that Johnson may have sold Gabriel, since she was
unemployed and did not have a lot of money when she took the baby to
Texas.

"We were very surprised about the ring, and for us, it's
telling us what we've always thought, that Gabriel is alive, that
somebody has him," said McQueary's aunt, Kelli McQueary.

The development comes even as San Antonio police begin a mostly
volunteer-run effort to dig through a landfill where Gabriel's body may
have ended up more than two months ago.

San Antonio police said they could not begin the landfill search until the investigation was
ruled a homicide. Palmer said it is unacceptable that the landfill
search took so long, and is trying to change legislation he sees as red
tape.

"When you have a child missing, you need to use every
avenue you have to find that child," he said. "Number two, there should
not be any ruling that has to be ruled a homicide or this type of case,
because it just prolongs what needs to be done."

Jessica's Law
Now and the Kelli McQueary also said an Amber Alert should have been
issued the minute investigators knew Johnson was headed to Texas with
the baby, and say they are going to work on uniform legislation for
Amber Alert requirements throughout the country.

Among fundraising items to be auctioned off is a football autographed by
former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner. The cost for each
ticket is $5.

Donations will be accepted and Manny's will donate 10 percent of their sales Saturday and Sunday.

Tom, this post above is Aja, not Gabriel. Same surname. BTW shouldn't Gabriel's still be in the missing thread?
Thank you so much for all your hard work Tom. LYLAB

kiwimom wrote:Tom, this post above is Aja, not Gabriel. Same surname. BTW shouldn't Gabriel's still be in the missing thread?
Thank you so much for all your hard work Tom. LYLAB

---I had misgivings about moving this topic (thread). I feel that we should use the topic that is the worst case scenario as detailed by LE. Gabriel was in the Missing forum until the LE has to open the Murder investigation in order to process Trash Mountain. It would be unweildy to have him listed in both topics, so, as a matter of "style" I am using LE's worst case scenario as the destination for now. I would love to move this whole topic to "Found" but for that we can only hope and pray!

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

kiwimom wrote:Tom, this post above is Aja, not Gabriel. Same surname. BTW shouldn't Gabriel's still be in the missing thread?
Thank you so much for all your hard work Tom. LYLAB

---I had misgivings about moving this topic (thread). I feel that we should use the topic that is the worst case scenario as detailed by LE. Gabriel was in the Missing forum until the LE has to open the Murder investigation in order to process Trash Mountain. It would be unweildy to have him listed in both topics, so, as a matter of "style" I am using LE's worst case scenario as the destination for now. I would love to move this whole topic to "Found" but for that we can only hope and pray!

You're right Tom

A wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain caused
the San Antonio Police Department to postpone the search for a missing
Arizona infant in an East Side landfill Tuesday.
“They resumed the search this morning, but have since stopped due to inclement weather,” said spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez.
If weather allows, authorities plan to continue to search the
Tessman Road Landfill Wednesday for 9-month-old Gabriel Johnson, she
said.
A 35-person search team, comprised of San Antonio police, federal
agents and cadaver dogs, sifted through debris excavated from the
landfill last week and looked for anything of evidentiary value, police
said.
Meanwhile, police continued to search for Gabriel, the subject of a
missing person case. Gabriel was last was seen in San Antonio the day
after Christmas with his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, who was indicted in
Arizona on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference
and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.