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

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?

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.”

The mother of the missing Baby Gabriel is in even more trouble.
Elizabeth Johnson is now facing assault charges after allegedly
attacking an inmate at the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona, where she's
being held in the child's disappearance.
Jail video shows her spraying a cleaning solution in an inmate's
face.
Johnson, who still refuses to answer questions about the
disappearance of Baby Gabriel, has been in jail since January.
She's accused of kidnapping her son and leaving him here in San
Antonio. The baby's whereabouts remain unknown.
Johnson is now undergoing a mental evaluation.

Baby Gabriel Johnson is 1 year old, but the search for him continues.
May 3 is his first birthday, and more than four months following the
child's disappearance, his mother Elizabeth Johnson, is still behind
bars and investigators are trying to determine whether Gabriel is alive
or dead. A friend of the boy's mother, says he believes Gabriel
is still alive. 23-year-old Sorin Stanescu stands by
Elizabeth and says he's one of the only friends she has left. "Her
parents passed away, friends are against her. I think we are the only
good friends..she has, me and my sister.." said Stanescu. Johnson
is accused of kidnapping her son and leaving Phoenix. Stanescu
met Johnson a few years ago. Two nights before the baby disappeared,
Elizabeth stayed at his apartment with Gabriel. He offered to take care
of them. "I have a second room. I said I will support the
baby..I will buy everything..don't worry about the money. I told her I
was going to do all of that for her." Stanescu said. On the
morning of December 18, Stanescu woke up and found that Johnson was
gone. He received a couple of phone calls from her while she was
on the move. One from Texas and another from Florida. He didn't
see her again until she was behind bars at the Estrella jail in
Phoenix. Stanescu says he strongly believes Johnson would never
have hurt her child. "I said is the baby alive and she said yes,
she said yes." said Stanescu. He also says Johnson lied to the
police in the beginning, to protect the people that helped her to have
the unknown couple take care of Gabriel. She has since given all the
information she knows to police. "She only tell me she gave the
baby to these people..and she didn't ask for information. She didn't do
it because she trusted them with her heart." Stanescu said. When
asked if he thought if Elizabeth is a killer, Stanescu said, "No she's
not. She's a very nice person." Elizabeth Johnson remains behind
bars.

The mother of missing baby Gabriel Johnson is not competent to stand
trial, Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Steven Holding ruled
today. But with treatment and therapy, she could be tried at a later
date.
Holding made the ruling after two court-appointed doctors submitted a
psychological evaluation that found Elizabeth Johnson could not assist
her attorney in her own defense. She is accused of kidnapping, child
abuse and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. Gabriel, who was
born a year ago, has been missing since December.Superior Court spokesman Vincent Funari said there will be another
hearing August 12 to decide the length and conditions of the
rehabilitative process, which could take up to nine months.
If after that time, doctors are unable to restore her to competency, a
judge must drop charges against her and commit her to state hospital.
Johnson's attorney, Nicholas Alcock, filed a request for the court
evaluation, also known as a Rule 11. Alcock said he felt Johnson was
mentally ill since his first meeting with her, and was concerned she
would be unable to help him prepare her defense.
"A criminal defendant has to be able to assist their attorney," he
said. "We're talking about complicated matters of law and fact, and
there's a minimal standard a defendant has to pass."
Johnson will continue to be held in Maricopa County Jail until the
hearing.
The case began in Tempe, where Johnson lived with the child and her
boyfriend, Logan McQueary. She was arrested Dec. 30 in Miami Beach.
Gabriel has not been seen since she checked into a hotel in San Antonio
on Dec. 26.

She is so incompetent that she was able to drive from arizona to florida with a baby and probably kill or give the baby to someone...that takes planning in my opinion...she is so incompetent that she planned giving her baby away to that couple for a while....

I think she is just BS'ing the dr....I worked at a mental health clinic and saw how people can get over on the docs....Just BS. in my opinion...

I also think she is BSing her way out of this.....she needs to be given a harsh dose of reality. She seems to believe that she will not be punished, that if she plays enough games she will simply walk away scott free....

roseyg76 wrote:I also think she is BSing her way out of this.....she needs to be given a harsh dose of reality. She seems to believe that she will not be punished, that if she plays enough games she will simply walk away scott free....

---Gee, now I WONDER where she may have gotten that idea from? Hmmmm.... Maybe ESOTD???

Elizabeth Johnson, the incarcerated mother of missing baby
Gabriel Johnson, was deemed competent to stand trial and her mental
restoration process complete, according to information from the
court, but a Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner on
Thursday granted her attorneys an evidentiary hearing to contest
the findings in the report.

The report, conducted by two court-appointed doctors, was released
to Johnson’s defense attorneys Thursday morning, just hours before
the hearing, and specific details in it will not be discussed until
a hearing on Sept. 23.

Johnson’s attorneys also will present discovery including new
evidence involving the case before the court at that time, The
findings in the report will be discussed during a competency
hearing before commissioner Steve Holding on Sept. 27, so a ruling
could be made on Johnson’s level of competency. Holding ruled in
early June that the Tempe woman was incompetent to stand trial
based on the findings in the report, including a psychological
evaluation, but ruled that her level of competency could be
restored through medication and counseling by therapists.

Johnson, who turned 24 last month, drove to San Antonio in
mid-December with her son Gabriel, who was 5 months old at the
time, in the midst of a custody battle with her estranged boyfriend
and father of the baby, Logan McQueary. On Dec. 27, Johnson told
McQueary she killed Gabriel and stuffed his body in a diaper bag
and placed it in a Dumpster. At the time of her arrest in Miami
Beach, Fla. on Dec. 30, Johnson also told the FBI that she gave
Gabriel to a couple at a HomeGate Inn and Suites Motel where she
was staying a day after meeting them at a park in San Antonio,
according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.

Johnson has continued to refuse to reveal Gabriel’s whereabouts.
She is being held in Maricopa County’s Estrella Jail on a $1.1
million cash bond on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, custodial
interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. She
has been held in the jail since her extradition from San Antonio in
early January, and restrictions remain on her privileges to receive
visitors after she recently was disciplined a second time,
according to her grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale, who was
present at Thursday’s hearing.

Adam Feldman, who is one of Johnson’s attorneys, and fellow
attorney Nick Alcock, said after Thursday’s hearing it’s common
procedure for the judge or commissioner to allow defense attorneys
to contest findings in a competency report, but would not comment
on what they disagree with until they further read it.

“We still have a great deal of concerns about her mental health and
level of competency in being able to assist us in her defense,”
Feldman said. “We have issues with findings that were generated in the report.”

Feldman also said that Johnson is being seen by therapists in jail,
and visits likely will continue. If a judge rules that Johnson
again is incompetent to stand trial, other options could be
considered, such as dismissing the case or institutionalizing her,
Feldman said.

“Prosecutors likely would re-integrate another process to determine
whether she is competent if that were to happen, but that’s too early to tell,” Feldman said.

Alcock, who did not attend the hearing on Thursday, told the
Tribune he had not read the report and likely would not comment on
its findings until next week.

Alcock also would not comment on what San Antonio police detectives
discussed with Johnson and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
deputies at the county jail in May when at least one detective from
San Antonio flew to Phoenix to interview her, according to court records.

However, in June, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled that San
Antonio police and the MCSO had to provide Johnson’s attorneys with
details of what was discussed.

Pending the final outcome of the competency hearing in September, a
Maricopa County Superior Family Court judge could rule that Johnson
is in contempt of court for refusing the answer the court’s
questions of Gabriel’s whereabouts, his well-being and when she last saw the child.

Johnson’s grandfather has said he firmly believes that she gave Gabriel away.

Gabriel turned a year old in May.

It's been more than a week since two court-appointed doctors released
their findings in a report that determined the mother of missing Baby
Gabriel Johnson is competent to stand trial, but her attorneys still do
not want to comment on why they contend she is not.
However, the missing baby's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, knows what she's
doing and needs to start accepting responsibilities for her actions,
according to her grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.


Elizabeth Johnson, 24, of Tempe is being held in Maricopa County's
Estrella jail on a $1.1 million cash bond on charges of kidnapping,
child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial
interference in connection with the disappearance of her son, who was 5
months old at the time he was last seen on Dec. 26, and now is 1 year
and 3 months old.


In the midst of a custody battle with her estranged boyfriend and father
of the baby, Logan McQueary of Gilbert, Johnson drove to San Antonio
with her son in mid-December. On Dec. 27, Johnson told McQueary via text
message and telephone call that she killed Gabriel, stuffed his body in
a diaper bag and threw it in a trash container, according to court
documents.


When she was arrested on Dec. 30 in Miami Beach, Fla., Johnson told
authorities that she gave Gabriel to a couple in the parking lot of a
motel she was staying at in San Antonio a day after meeting them in a
park there.


Johnson has refused to tell authorities the whereabouts of Gabriel and
has refused to answer a judge's questions in Mariciopa County Superior
Court family court about the child's whereabouts and well-being.


She could be found in contempt of court, pending the outcome of Maricopa
County Superior Court commissioner's decision on her level of
competency expected to be ruled on Sept. 27.


In San Antonio, police claim they are continuing to investigate
Gabriel's disappearance as both a homicide and a missing persons case,
but no photographs of Gabriel are listed on the police department's
missing persons website.


Johnson's attorney's Nick Alcock and Adam Feldman said they have read
the report about Johnson that includes her psychological evaluation, but
have to discuss it further before they comment on it.


In a recent proceeding in the criminal case involving Gabriel's
disappearance, Johnson thought she was going to get out of jail, her
grandfather said.


"Elizabeth's attorney had her convinced that the charges were going to
be dropped because of some kind of procedural error on the prosecution
so her grandmother paid the attorney $50,000 thinking the charges were
going to get dropped," Johnson said after last week's court hearing,
referring to Elizabeth's maternal grandmother, Sylvia Puckett.


"Elizabeth was all happy, smiling and in good spirits, thinking she was
going to get out of jail, but that didn't happen," he said. "She went
back to acting like her old self.


"She needs to realize that if she's ever going to get out of jail, she
needs to tell authorities what she did with that baby. She must like
staying in jail."

Puckett could not be reached for comment.

For the second time this year, Johnson currently has restrictions placed
on her jail visitation rights because of behavioral issues, but the
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office refused to say why.


Tammi Peters Smith, 38, who was interested in adopting Gabriel, still is
facing charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial
interference. Smith and her husband Jack Smith were interested in
adopting Gabriel, but McQueary said he did not want to sign the
paperwork to give up custody of his son.


During a recorded jailhouse phone call between Johnson and Tammi Smith
early in the case, Smith told Johnson that she was going to sue her for
"ruining her life," but Johnson implicated Smith by telling her over the
phone that she was the one who set the deal up for the couple to pick
up Gabriel and was the one who knew them.


Smith has denied Johnson's claims that she brokered an adoption deal for
Johnson, but Tempe police believed that the Smiths had a plan in place
or were organizing a plan to get custody of Gabriel and possibly pick
him up in Tennessee.


Smith is scheduled to appear in court with Johnson on Sept. 27.

"I have no fear of the charges," Smith said. "Elizabeth knows what she
was saying is a lie, and she was doing it for a reason. I know I am
completely innocent."