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

TomTerrific0420 wrote:PHOENIX - A blog entry from early January is sparking some interest in the case of a missing Arizona infant.

Eight-month-old Gabriel was last seen on December 26 in San Antonio, Texas.

Investigators
say his mother, 23-year-old Elizabeth Johnson, drove there from her
home in Tempe, stayed about a week, then took a bus to Florida without
Gabriel.

In reply to a web post on BeckyHiggins.com,
blogger "Beth" wrote, "I live in WI, but am currently in San Antonio,
TX. My husband and I are adopting a handsome baby boy that was placed
into our care on January 1. I've decided to make my project life about
Baby Gabriel. Even though I won't be home when my project arrives I am
clicking away taking his photo here in San Antonio."

The entry is timestamped on January 4th. There's no contact info listed for Beth.

Elizabeth Johnson was arrested on December 30 and returned to Arizona to face kidnapping and child abuse charges.

Her baby is still missing.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for the safe return of Gabriel.

Anyone with information about Gabriel can call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP or online at http://www.sacrimestoppers.com.

A news conference with Tempe Police is scheduled for 1 p.m. today.

---IMHO, this COULD be somebody's idea of a practical joke. The original arrest of Lizzie was several days before this post. Certainly enough time for some crumb-bum to formulate this entry. HOWEVER, this blog is a site for Mom's who are creating a year by year resource of their family's life. It is not what many would refer to as "mainstream". Like our blog it is very specific in its intentions and would only attract people who have the same goals or ideals. If someone was going to "prank" (used loosely) they would have, in my mind, picked a higher profile blog site.
After all, it took 10 days to discover this post...

Tempe Police spent Thursday night searching
the home of Jack and Tammi Smith. The Scottsdale couple is considered
"persons of interest" in the case of missing Gabriel Johnson. Police
believe the couple is withholding information that could help with the
investigation. Sgt. Mike Horn of the Tempe Police Department said, "The
warrant is specific to the investigation for Gabriel Johnson".

The Smith's took a lie detector test last week that came back
inconclusive. They were told they may be asked to take another
polygraph test to obtain conclusive results. Tammi Smith said she is
willing to take another test.

Tammi Smith spent Thursday afternoon at police headquarters. She
told members of the media she requested the meeting to try and help
police with the investigation.

Gabriel's mother Elizabeth Johnson is being held at the Estrella
Jail in Maricopa County on charges of kidnapping, child abuse and
custodial interference . So far, she has refused to cooperate with
authorities, in fact talking more to Tammi Smith in a jailhouse meeting
on Wednesday afternoon.

Johnson told police she took the child out of state on December 18th
to prevent the boy's father, Logan McQueary, from having custody.
Elizabeth borrowed her grandfather's car, sold her dogs, a laptop and
cashed an unemployment check before heading to San Antonio, Texas.
Police believe she stayed at a hotel in Texas for about a week with
Gabriel before boarding a bus by herself to Miami, Florida.

A baby-sitter came forward on Wednesday saying she watched Gabriel
for about two hours while Elizabeth left the hotel.
The woman says Gabriel appeared dirty and lethargic, "He had stains
around his mouth and dried boogers around his nose," said Alisa.
She also said Elizabeth told her "She had already drugged the baby but
if he started to cry to give him more Tylenol".


Elizabeth continues to say that she gave Gabriel to a San
Antonio couple after hanging out with them for two days. Elizabeth said
the couple really wanted a baby and was willing to hide him from
police.

After allegedly giving Gabriel away she sent the boy's father, Logan McQueary, a text message saying she killed the baby.
Tammi Smith says Elizabeth called her several times from San Antonio and she urged her to come back with the baby.

Crime Stoppers of San Antonio is offering a $5,000 reward for the
baby's safe return. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at
210-224-STOP (210-224-7867).

PHOENIX -- The brother of Elizabeth Johnson,
jailed since her son Gabriel went missing around Christmas, was denied
a jail house visit today. Robert Johnson attempted to visit his sister,
who is being held in the Estrella Jail in Maricopa County on more than
$1 million bond on charges of custodial interference, kidnapping and
child abuse."I just want all this resolved whatever it takes," said Johnson as he walked into the jail lobby.Robert
is the uncle of 8-month-old Gabriel who was last seen on Dec. 6, 2009
in San Antonio, Texas. A nationwide search has been ongoing since
Elizabeth notified the baby's biological father that she killed the
boy. She has since said that she said that only to hurt father Logan
McQueary and that the truth is she gave the child away to a couple she
had just met in Texas. "I'd love Gabriel back but, you know, it is what it is, so I just hope for the best," said Johnson.Robert
Johnson showed up for the visit with his grandfather Bob Johnson. The
elder Johnson said they were there to support Elizabeth but also to try
to get her to come clean. "It was our intention to ask her to give up
the location of the baby and settle this thing. Life goes on. We can't
be playing around with this. There's better ways to settle this than
how she's going about it," said the jailed woman's grandfather.Less
than 5 minutes after walking into the jail, both Johnson men came out.
They were refused a visit with Elizabeth. Corrections officials said
Elizabeth's visitors for the day were restricted to legal advisers."The
thought going through my head is that her lawyers had told her that she
is not to be giving any more interviews. But that has nothing to do
with her visiting family," said the older Johnson.Twin brother
Robert said he was highly disappointed he didn't get to see his sister.
"It's pretty messed up. Love to see her and I don't know why we can't,"
said Robert.Repeated calls to the public defender assigned to
the Elizabeth Johnson case to determine why her visitation was pulled
went unanswered.

From Body Language Expert Dr. Lillian Glass' Blog, re: Lizzy Johnson

The Baby Gabriel case, where his 23 year old mother said she gave
this beautiful baby away to a couple whom she didn’t know is beyond
disturbing and confusing. It didn’t make any sense to me until I looked
at Elizabeth Johnson’s Body Language while she was wearing her red jail
outfit and was facing the court for the first time. To me, her body
language revealed a lot. It was telling. To me the signals showed
someone who may possibly have been on drugs. Perhaps she sold the baby
or traded the baby to support her drug habit if she indeed had one.
I also want to add that in analyzing her voice and the content of
her speech in the jailhouse audiotape that was released, it appeared to
me that she did tell the Baby Gabriel’s father that the baby was dead
in order to hurt him and get back at him. However, based on her tone
and the content, it did appear to me that the last time she saw Baby
Gabriel, he was alive.

Much more here: http://drlillianglassbodylanguageblog.wordpress.com/

This
photograph of Gabriel Johnson was retrieved from Elizabeth Johnson's
camera, which was impounded when she was arrested in Miami Beach. Based
on the background, investigators believe this photo was taken at the
Home Gate Studios and Suites motel in San Antonio.

SUBMITTED PHOTO


Tempe police searched the home Thursday of a Scottsdale couple
considered "persons of interest" in a missing Arizona baby case.
The search warrant was specific to the investigation of 8-month-old
Gabriel Johnson, whose mother, Elizabeth Johnson, 23, said she gave the
baby away in San Antonio, said Tempe Police Department spokesman Sgt.
Mike Horn.
Evidence was taken from the residence, Horn said, but he would not
say specifically what the items were.
However, homeowner Tammi Smith told reporters on Friday that
authorities took computers from the house and a notarized document
claiming to have given the Smiths custody of Gabriel.
"I'm just glad that they were able to get the computers," Tammi
Smith said. "I had been wanting them to take them so they can see what
I've been telling them corroborates with what's on the computers.
"Johnson was last seen with the baby on Dec. 26 in San Antonio. On
Friday, Tempe police released photographs of Gabriel, believed to have
been taken inside a HomeGate motel room in San Antonio, according to
the time stamp on the photos.
Johnson was arrested at a youth hostel in Miami Beach, Fla. on Dec.
30. Authorities say she has remained uncooperative about revealing the
whereabouts of the child.
On Dec. 27, Johnson told Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, through a
text phone message and cell phone call that she killed the baby and put
the body in a trash bin inside a diaper bag, according to a Maricopa
County Superior Court document.
Horn said Friday investigators believe Gabriel is still alive and
detectives are not releasing any further information at this time.
"Priority No. 1 remains on finding Gabriel," Horn said.
Jack and Tammi Smith have said Johnson wanted to give up her baby
for adoption, but McQueary wouldn't go along with it. Police believe
they are withholding information that could lead them to the baby boy.
Tammi Smith spent Thursday afternoon at Tempe police headquarters.
She told members of the media she requested the meeting to try and help
police with the investigation.
Johnson remains locked up in Maricopa County's Estrella jail
and is being held on a $1.1 million cash bond.
Tammi Smith visited Johnson in jail on Wednesday, and said that
Johnson told her she gave the baby to another couple inside a San
Antonio motel room and placed him in their baby car seat before signing
papers, claiming the couple knew it was not a legal state adoption.
Johnson was indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury on Thursday, on
felony charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference
through a direct complaint filed by the Maricopa County Attorney's
Office, according to court documents.
Johnson's grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale, told reporters
on Friday that he "absolutely" believes his granddaughter gave
the baby away, she knows the whereabouts of Gabriel, or at least could
put authorities on the trail to recover him.
"We want her to work with these people to bring the baby back,"
Johnson said. "We want her to come clean, get her life back on track
and move on, and deal with the custody issue later."
Johnson lost custody of the baby to McQueary when she failed to show
up for a custody hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court on Dec. 28.
After graduating from high school in Boston, Johnson had a
four-year, full-ride scholarship to Northeastern University in
Manchester, N.H., and had once talked about becoming a doctor or a
lawyer, her grandfather said.
"She gave it all up," Johnson said of her college scholarship. "She
didn't like her roommate and quit after two weeks. Good Lord. Logan
wouldn't be the worst person to have that baby. Now, she's in a helluva
mess."
Crime Stoppers in San Antonio is offering up to a $5,000 reward for
anyone who can lead them to Gabriel's safe return. Crime Stoppers can
be reached at (210) 224-7867.
Tips can also be submitted online at www.sacrimestoppers.com,
or by text-messaging "Tip 127 plus your tip" to CRIMES (274637).
If anyone knows of Gabriel's whereabouts, they also can call the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

PHOENIX -- A grand jury handed up an indictment
Friday against Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of a missing 8-month-old
dubbed "Baby Gabriel," less than 24 hours after Tempe police officers
searched the home of two persons of interest in the case.Johnson
was charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and
conspiracy to commit custodial interference, authorities said.Police
will not elaborate as to who Johnson's alleged co-conspirators are, and
they said Jack and Tammi Smith remain persons of interest.
The Smiths called the police search of their home Thursday night a "scare tactic.
"Detectives searched two computer hard drives and confiscated a laptop, the couple said."They
took and just duplicated everything that was on (the hard drives),"
said Jack Smith. "They took a laptop that hadn't been turned on in
about eight months."Though they said the search was unexpected,
the Smiths said they have nothing to hide.The Tempe Police Department
said its goal is simply to find Gabriel."Based on (Johnson's) statements,
she either killed him or handed him off to someone else," police spokesman Mike Horn.

Police Release Photographs Of Baby Gabriel

On Friday, the Tempe Police Department released photographs of Gabriel taken from Johnson's camera.
According to an e-mail from Horn, time stamps from the camera indicate the final
photographs were taken Dec. 26. Gabriel was reported missing Dec. 27.
Investigators believe the photographs were all taken in a room at the Home Gate Hotel
in San Antonio, Texas, Horn said.Authorities impounded Johnson's digital camera when she was arrested in Miami Beach, Fla.

PHOENIX -- It's been more than a week since we've heard from Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of missing 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson.Gabriel
has been missing for nearly a month, and Johnson sits behind bars at a
Valley jail. She made one phone call Saturday night to her grandfather.
Bob Johnson. It was the first time they've spoke in nearly a week. The
two only spoke for a couple of minutes, talking about items she wanted
him to pick up from jail. Johnson asked her grandfather to pick up the
$300 she had when she was arrested in Florida, as well as an expensive
ring she said she was wearing.The call came just minutes after Bob said he wasn't sure his great-grandson was still alive.Bob
Johnson said, "The more days that go by, the more concerned I get for
the health and welfare of baby Gabriel. It would seem that whoever she
gave the child to, under the assumption she did indeed give the child
to someone, those people would be scared out of their mind by now."Johnson
also said he's having trouble getting the car Elizabeth took off in
back to Arizona. He said FBI agents gave him the all clear to come to
Texas and pick it up, but Johnson said Tempe police told him they're
going to hang onto it in case this turns into a homicide.Elizabeth
Johnson was officially charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial
interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference Friday.

The longer 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson is
missing, police say, the less likely it is that authorities will find
him - dead or alive.
The chubby-cheeked, towheaded baby has captured the attention of the
nation, and his disappearance nearly a month ago has puzzled police.
For three weeks, Tempe Police have been following up leads locally and in Texas.
The FBI has fanned out across Nashville, Boston and Louisiana. The San Antonio Police
Department has opened its own missing-person case. Together, they are
getting 20 to 30 tips a day.
"If the child is in good hands, and that's a big if, then the child
will still be around," said Tempe police Cmdr. Kim Hale. "But the
longer we go, it doesn't help us as far as trying to recover him,
wherever the child is, whether that is in a home, or the child has been
taken across the border to Mexico, or if he's in the bottom of a
landfill."

A broken family

Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, 23, is a product of the Boston
foster-care system. She lived with five different families before
coming back to the Valley at the age of 12 to stay with her father, a
recovering drug addict, according to her grandfather, Bob Johnson.
Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, 25, has a felony record that
includes burglaries dating to 2004 and was in jail on parole violations
before and after his son's birth.
Johnson and McQueary first met at Mohave Middle School in Scottsadle
She was later expelled from Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, although
Bob Johnson said she was a high-achieving student with a nearly perfect
grade-point average. She enrolled in a charter school in Tempe and
transferred to a school in Boston for her senior year.
Her path would cross McQueary's again after he became friends
with Johnson's twin brother, Richard.
McQueary and Johnson grew closer, Bob Johnson said, when McQueary's
mother died about a year after Elizabeth's father died. Logan and
Elizabeth were together off and on when they could afford it. She
sometimes worked at a CVS in Scottsdale. He took work as an
electrician.
After McQueary had a falling out with his boss,
he and Elizabeth moved to Fort Smith, Ark., Bob Johnson said.
It was there that Gabriel was conceived.
When the couple returned to Arizona, Johnson told her grandfather
she had considered terminating the pregnancy. After Gabriel was born,
the couple discussed adoption before deciding to raise the boy, the
grandfather said. The next time he heard the word "adoption" from his
granddaughter, it was December.
It seemed the life she and McQueary tried to build together was crumbling.


Relationship deteriorates

In custody documents filed in December in Superior Court~Maricopa County
McQueary said he ended the relationship. In July, he alleged, she
became enraged when he didn't return home from work on time and took a
knife to his clothing, the couch and the baby crib. She broke dishes
and took a cooking pan and smashed the TV while the baby was in the
Tempe apartment.
They were forced to move into another apartment.
McQueary said Johnson got out of control again in September when she
got mad at her brother on the phone. She cut up the baby's clothes and
the crib and broke every window in the apartment. Johnson spent the
evening in jail and went through a diversion program on the
criminal-damage charges, according to Tempe Municipal Court records.
McQueary wrote in custody documents that he tried to work out their
differences, downplaying the order of protection he got against Johnson.
It wasn't enough.
When he broke up with her in mid-December, she told him to take the
baby. Then she called police to report Gabriel had been kidnapped.
McQueary petitioned for full custody of Gabriel on Dec. 11 and
followed up three days later with an emergency request for temporary
custody without notice to the mother.
"She has said several times in the past that she doesn't want the
baby," he wrote in his petition, filed on Dec. 14. "She's yelled and
screamed at him when I would go to work. When I would go to work, I
would put the baby in his room and when I would get home five hours
later he would still be in the room (with) no changed diaper and crying
and I would ask her what she was doing and she would just yell at me
and say go shut that thing up."
He asked again for temporary full custody six days later and told
the court she "will run with Gabriel Johnson and hide."
On Dec. 21, in a petition to enforce child-custody determination, he
wrote, "When Elizabeth gets mad, she can and will hurt the baby."
By then, she had been away from her home in a Tempe trailer park for three days.


Media frenzy

Since the first news release, when Elizabeth Johnson was found
without her baby in Miami, Fla., the media circus has focused on an
eager cast of characters.
McQueary was the first to come in front of the cameras, speaking to
local reporters and then making brief appearances on cable-news
telecasts and network morning shows, pleading for the return of his
son.
Then came Jack and Tammi Smith, who met Johnson and Gabriel in the
summer in a Boston airport, where Tammi offered to adopt the boy. Smith
spent months working with Johnson to gain custody of Gabriel, but
McQueary never agreed to surrender his rights.
The Smiths' role in the story never quite seemed clear to police,
who on Thursday executed a search warrant on the Smiths' upscale home
in the north Scottsdale desert. The search came after investigators
named the couple "persons of interest" and insisted the pair knew more
than they let on.
Then there's Elizabeth Johnson, perhaps the only one who can shed
light on the case. She was seen with her son by motel clerks in San
Antonio. She is seen on surveillance footage leaving town on a bus
without him. There are the text message and phone call in which she
told her estranged boyfriend she had killed Gabriel.
Since Johnson's arrest, she has refused to speak to investigators,
and it's unclear whether the mystery will ever be solved.
"Time is not on our side when it comes to the recovery of this
child," Hale said. "The recovery chances grow much more dim as time
goes on."

JMO this is one case where "waterboarding" would be helpful. This girl needs to come clean and tell the truth about this baby. And if someone does have him, then they need to come forward and face the consequences of hiding this child. again JMO

PHOENIX -- Elizabeth Johnson hasn't said much since she was booked into a Maricopa County jail.She
hasn't seen many people, either -- just her lawyers and Jack and Tammi
Smith, the couple who tried to adopt baby Gabriel and police named
'persons of interest' in this case.On Monday, she saw her grandfather for the first time.Elizabeth
Johnson refuses to say where 8-month-old Gabriel is, even though her
friends and family keep asking her to open up. She told her grandfather
her lawyers say helping find her baby won't help her.Bob Johnson
hasn't been face to face with his granddaughter since police said she
took off with her little boy last month. On Monday, Johnson sat down
with Elizabeth Johnson in the Estrella Jail.The 23-year-old's grandfather had a lot of questions for Elizabeth.Johnson said, "Most of the things I wanted to ask her, she said she can't talk about."Johnson
said for the most part, Elizabeth is keeping her mouth shut. He said
she told him her lawyers told her not to say anything.Johnson said, "They told me kidnapping is kidnapping and she's gonna get 20 years ."Bob
said Elizabeth doesn't know why she'd help investigators since her
lawyers told her she's going to prison for 20 years no matter what she
does to help them.At best, this is a kidnapping case with a
child found. At worst, this could turn into a murder investigation. Bob
hopes that isn't the case. He said Elizabeth may be the only one who
can answer questions about her son's whereabouts."That's the message I left today," Johnson said. "Quicker they find that baby, quicker you get out of here; it's that simple."

TEMPE, Arizona -- Police in Arizona are now looking into an online
posting from someone claiming to have adopted a child they called "Baby
Gabriel."

Gabriel Johnson was last seen in San Antonio December
26th. Investigators said Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson abducted
him from Tempe, Arizona eight days earlier.

The online posting
is said to be from a woman from Wisconsin named "Beth" who claims she
was here in San Antonio January first to adopt a little boy. Elizabeth
Johnson was already in jail in Florida by that time. She claims she
gave the boy to a couple she met here at a park. Elizabeth Johnson
remains in an Arizona jail on multiple charges.

If you have any
information about Gabriel Johnson, please immediately call
1-800-THE-LOST or Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP (7867). Crime Stoppers
is offering a reward for information leading to the safe return of
Gabriel Johnson.

TEMPE, AZ -- Police confirm there are two, separate, yet
parallel investigations involving the disappearance of 8-month-old
Gabriel Johnson.

According to Tempe Police Lt. Mike Horn, a team
of detectives are working a missing persons investigation and a
homicide investigation at the same time because it is unknown if boy's
mother gave the child away or killed him.

Tempe detectives have
also released photos taken of the baby boy who has been missing since
his mother left Tempe with him in late December.

Horn said in an
e-mail that the pictures were taken from Elizabeth Johnson's
camera when she was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida nearly two weeks
after the pair went missing.

Horn says a group of
investigators from the FBI, San Antonio Police Department, Maricopa
County Attorney's Office and other agencies are actively involved in
the case across the country.

Johnson was indicted by a grand jury Thursday.

Horn
says investigators believe all the photographs were taken at a Home
Gate Hotel and that the last two photos have a date stamp of December
26.

Johnson was indicted on charges of kidnapping, child abuse,
custodial interference, and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.

A well-known TV show, America's Most Wanted, featured the Gabriel Johnson case,
but Horn would not discuss any tips generated by the publicity, only
that investigators continue to get tips and are using every means
possible to get information.

Officials say Johnson fled the state with her son during the week of December 22 in an apparent custody dispute.

Thursday
night detectives searched the home of a Scottsdale couple considered
'persons of interest' in the case of missing 8-month-old Gabriel
Johnson.

Jack Smith said police took his laptop computer and
made a copy of his business computer's hard drive. He said they also
took brochures they had for a foster agency.

Jack Smith said he had "a hard time understanding" the timing of the police activity at his home.

"If
they had got here at 6 in the morning, they could have had coffee with
me and spent the day with me," he said. "But yet, they had to keep my
daughter from going to bed last night until midnight. My daughter is
always in bed before midnight."

He said police arrived around
7:30 p.m. to secure the home until the search warrant arrived. Smith
said detectives began searching around 11 p.m., finishing around 1 a.m.

The Smiths say they offered to allow police search the home weeks ago.

"Let me tell you how worried I was," said Jack Smith. "I fell asleep on the couch."

The search warrant came just hours after Tammi Smith voluntarily met with Tempe detectives for more than two hours Thursday.

As she walked out of Tempe Police Department Headquarters, Smith could be heard saying, "That was rough."

She
went on to talk to reporters and quickly admitted that she played a
role in manipulating paperwork with Elizabeth Johnson, the mother of
baby Gabriel.

"I made a poor decision back when I met
Elizabeth," said Smith. "I helped her (Elizabeth) file her paperwork
so she could get her child support and things like that. There was
another name put on there and I helped her (Elizabeth) fill out that
paperwork, and because of that it obviously doesn't make me look good."

The
name on the paperwork was apparently Craig Cherry, Tammi Smith's
cousin, which prompted Tempe police detectives to look into the
possibility Cherry was Gabriel's father.

When contacted by
phone Friday, Cherry said he does not blame Tammi Smith for helping
Johnson use his name on the paperwork, suggesting he was a "potential
father" of Gabriel. He said he believed Tammi Smith was trying to
protect the baby from his biological father, based on what Johnson told
her about him.

"Instead of putting a false name there, I helped her (Elizabeth) put another name," said Tammi Smith.

With
her husband, Jack, waiting nearby, Tammi went on to say she and her
husband do not have attorneys, but were considering calling one.

While
the Smiths are labeled "persons of interest" in the case by Tempe
Police, Elizabeth Johnson is considered the prime suspect in her son's
disappearance and is not cooperating with detectives.

Police
released several photographs of Gabriel Friday, which they said were
taken in Johnson's San Antonio motel room and were found on Johnson's
camera.

Logan McQueary's family has been keeping relatively
quiet about the case, his father Frank McQueary spoke out about the
case Friday, asking the public for help finding his grandson.

He
asked people to keep an eye out for, "that next door neighbor buying
stuff for a baby and they didn't have a baby before. Let somebody know."

He
said the family is confident Gabriel is alive, despite phone calls and
text messages from Johnson to McQueary saying she had killed the baby
and that his "blue" body was in a diaper bag in a dumpster.

"The
people that have Gabriel don't want to give him up, that it's somebody
that Elizabeth for some reason or another has this arrangement with,
that they want to keep him, and we want him back," said McQueary. "I
want my grandson back."

Officials say Tammi, who had wanted to a adopt Gabriel, spoke to Elizabeth Johnson in jail Wednesday.

Smith said she is confident that baby Gabriel is still alive after meeting with Elizabeth Johnson.

According to Smith, Johnson left the toddler with an unknown couple in San Antonio, Texas on the day after Christmas.

She
told reporters after the meeting that "according to Elizabeth, these
people are going to try to hide this baby because they believe that in
a few years nobody will notice who this baby is."

Smith also
said Elizabeth told her the couple came to Elizabeth's hotel room in
Texas with a new car seat, placed Gabriel in the car seat, and abruptly
left.

"She did definitely describe the people and what they look
like, they're definitely in San Antonio, she (Elizabeth) did sign
paperwork, but they did not notarize it or anything like that," said
Smith.

According to Smith, Elizabeth also told her during the
nearly 45-minute jail house visit that the couple did not "buy" Gabriel
and the man and woman were both white in their 30s.

In the
meantime, police say a reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for the
safe return of the Tempe toddler who disappeared with his 23-year-old
mother last month.

The reward is being offered through Crime Stoppers in San Antonio, Texas.

Anyone with information about Gabriel can call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP or online at http://www.sacrimestoppers.com.

Johnson
was arrested last month in Miami and according to the Maricopa County
Sheriff's Office, she was booked into an Arizona jail on charges of
custodial interference and kidnapping.

Her cash-only bond is set at $1,100,000.

The
Tempe Police Department is leading the investigation. According to
spokesperson Steve Carbajal, investigators believe Tammi and Jack Smith
have undisclosed information that will lead them to baby Gabriel
Johnson.

"We should have been persons of interest from day one,"
Jack said. "We are persons of interest. We were probably the last
people to see Gabriel before he left town."

The Smiths had
apparently tried to adopt the 8-month-old from mother Elizabeth last
month, but Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary refused to sign the
adoption papers.

"When Gabriel disappeared, they said basically,
if you really care about your son and you want him back, and you want
Elizabeth to bring him back, that you'll sign the paperwork and then
she'll bring him back to us, and you'll know he's safe," said McQueary.
"And I said, no, I'm not signing any paperwork."

The Smiths said they were just relaying messages from Johnson to McQueary after she had taken off with the baby.

"Let's
do this paperwork, and maybe she'll tell us where the baby is," Tammi
said. "It's not legal anyway, but does she have to know that? I mean,
I'd rather get the baby back and sign the phony papers, but I guess the
detectives don't want us to do that."

When McQueary tried to gain custody of Gabriel, Elizabeth apparently disappeared with the infant.

Carbajal
said Elizabeth initially told authorities she gave her baby to a couple
she met in San Antonio while on the run after skipping out on a
custodial hearing in Phoenix.

"They wanted the baby and she
simply gave it to them," said Bob Johnson, Elizabeth's grandfather. "It
sounded like a pretty weak story. It was almost on the border of
unbelievable that a person would do that with an 8-month-old child."

But Johnson also said he doesn't believe the Smiths had anything to do with Gabriel's disappearance.

"That's ridiculous... no, God, no," he said.

Bob
said his daughter met Tammi at an airport when Gabriel was just a month
old. He said Gabriel was fussing and Tammi came to help Elizabeth, and
then cared for Gabriel the entire flight home. After that, they
apparently kept in touch.

In a Facebook message posted by Tammi
on December 23, she said, "Please keep praying for Gabriel and his
Mommy's safety on the road! She has found underground help in TX that
has given her formula/diapers, etc. and all the legal formalities...
Keep praying for his safety.

Appearing on the Nancy Grace show again Friday, Tammi said the message was directed at Gabriel's father.

"At
first she mentioned that it was a domestic violence shelter, and she
had used the word 'underground' maybe once in the conversation," said
Tammi. "And instead of saying 'domestic violence,' I didn't want that
to make Logan think that he was violent towards her."

Despite
reports that they wished to adopt Gabriel, the Smiths now say they have
nothing to hide, and that they're doing all they can to reunited
Gabriel with his father.

"We were actually just thinking of
maybe just getting a dog," joked Tammi. "It seems to be a hard process
adopting, and I don't know that we want to go through this again,
unless the courts said, here's a baby and the parents both signed.
That's different."

Police are also working with the FBI, along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and are taking tips from all over the country from anyone who may have spotted the baby.

Police say Elizabeth left Arizona with Gabriel on December 18. There
have been no signs of her child since the day after Christmas.

Police did find Elizabeth in Florida and arrested her for failing to appear at her custodial hearing.

But Gabriel was not with her and detectives said she refused to tell them where he is.

"She
was confronted, arrested and interviewed exhaustively about the
whereabouts of the child," said Wayne Jones, with Miami Beach Police.

Gabriel's father, Logan McQueary, has pleaded to get his son back.

"Please don't be afraid of getting into trouble, just drop him off at a fire station, help me get my son back," he said.

McQueary said he had previously received text messages from Gabriel's mother saying she had killed the child.

"She basically said, 'there's no way in Hell you're ever seeing your son again,'" he said.

But
McQueary says he believes Gabriel is still alive, considering he and
Johnson were last seen at a park after McQueary received the
threatening messages.

Elizabeth's twin brother, Robert Johnson, said he doesn't believe his sister's story, but also said he has to support her.

"She's
stubborn and hard headed. If she doesn't want Logan to have the baby,
she will do everything she can to keep Gabriel from Logan."

Elizabeth has a history of eratic behavior.

In September of 2009, police arrested her for criminal damage.

According
to a police report, she broke several of her apartment's windows and
mirrors, destroyed a television, and a video game system.

The report also said she used a knife to cut McQueary's clothes.

Then
in December of 2009, another police report revealed Elizabeth called
police and told them McQueary had taken Gabriel and would no give him
back.

Police later accused her of filing a false police report after learning Johnson herself gave Gabriel to Tammi and Jack Smith.

(Phoenix, AZ) -- The father of a missing eight-month-old Arizona baby
held an emotional press conference Monday, pleading for the safe return
of his son.While fighting back tears, Logan McQueary said he was
worried about Gabriel Johnson after the last known photos of his son,
taken in Texas, show the baby holding a bottle of prescription
medication and appearing drowsy.Gabriel was last seen with his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, on December 26th in San Antonio.She'd been involved in a custody dispute with McQueary.Police
in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe says Johnson, who still sits in the
Maricopa County jail, continues to be uncooperative and their hopes
that the child is still alive are beginning to grow dim.

Did a Texas DV Shelter Hide Baby Gabriel?



Tuesday, January 19, 2010
By Robert Franklin, Esq.


The
Tempe, Arizona police and the FBI are still hunting for Baby Gabriel.
A reward for information leading to his recovery has been promised.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is helping out.
Police have questioned Tammi and Jack Smith extensively. Elizabeth
Johnson remains in jail on a $1.1 million cash bond.
But Baby Gabriel is still missing. Here's a bet: Baby Gabriel will
never be found. If someone were to have produced him, it would already
have happened.
Gabriel's mother, Elizabeth Johnson is clearly an inveterate liar.
Before she ever left with Gabriel, she told Tempe police that the boy's
father, Logan McQueary, had kidnapped him. Tempe police charged her
with filing a false police report in that incident. Johnson also lied
to the family court in documents filed in the custody case against
McQueary. She claimed that either McQueary or a man named Craig Cherry
might be Gabriel's father. But it turned out that Cherry had never met
Johnson. Both her brother and her father disbelieve Johnson's story
about leaving Gabriel with a couple in a park in San Antonio.
And while we're on the subject of those for whom the truth is too
big a burden, Tammi Smith facilitated Johnson's lie about Cherry.
Indeed, given that Cherry is related to Smith, it seems likely that she
suggested the name to Johnson to use in her false filing with the
court. What is certain, however is that Smith both copied and filed
the documents on Johnson's behalf.
But what really got my attention in this article was this (ABC15, 1/15/10):

In a Facebook message posted by Tammi on December 23,
she said, "Please keep praying for Gabriel and his Mommy's safety on
the road! She has found underground help in TX that has given her
formula/diapers, etc. and all the legal formalities... Keep praying for
his safety.
Appearing on the Nancy Grace show again Friday, Tammi said the message was directed at Gabriel's father.
"At first she mentioned that it was a domestic violence shelter, and
she had used the word 'underground' maybe once in the conversation,"
said Tammi. "And instead of saying 'domestic violence,' I didn't want
that to make Logan think that he was violent towards her."

Let's see. Johnson found "underground help" in Texas which just may
have been a domestic violence shelter. Hmm. The plot, already thick,
thickens more. She got help with "formula/diapers... and all the legal
formalities." Can I envision Johnson going to a DV shelter, telling
them she's been abused by McQueary, telling them she's too young to
raise this child and needs to find adoptive parents? Yes, I believe I
can. Can I imagine the kind folks at the DV shelter facilitating
everything to separate the father from his child? Yes, that too. Do I
believe that the DV shelter had available to it not only some legal
documents, but adults willing to take a child via a none-too official
process? Yes.
And if all of that is true, is there a larger problem? DV shelters
are essentially unregulated. We know precious little about what goes
on behind their doors. What we do know (as for example, via a German
study I reported on in October) tells us that the people who operate
them are often political ideologues who perceive their main goal to be
the separation of women from men and children from fathers. Can DV
shelters serve as rabbit holes down which children sometimes disappear
and then reappear with different parents and different names? My
antennae tell me that an enterprizing female reporter, with a baby in
one arm and a tape recorder in her purse, could strike gold.

SAN ANTONIO - A woman here who babysat for Gabriel Johnson is one of the last people to see the little boy in San Antonio.

Analisa
Urias said, "I am hoping and praying that he is alive and
that whoever has him does come forward to return him safely to the
family."

Urias babysat Gabriel on December 20 or 21, just days
before he disappeared. She posted an ad on Craig's List offering her
babysitting services and says she was contacted by Gabriel's mother,
Elizabeth Johnson.

Johnson is now in jail in Arizona charged
with kidnapping the boy. Police there say she has refused to cooperate
with their investigation and is not giving detectives any information
about where the boy is or what happened to him.

Urias says she
watched Baby Gabriel at the Homegate Studios and Suites near I-10 and
Huebner. The boy and his mother were staying there. Urias says the
hotel room was dirty and Johnson kept a butcher knife on a table near
the bed.

The babysitter says she was concerned about instructions she says she was given on how to get the baby to quiet down.

Urias
says, Johnson "told me that she had already drugged him up with
medicine, but that if he started crying, just to give him some more to
shut up."

Urias remembers Baby Gabriel seemed unhappy. There were no toys in the room.

"I was
trying to play with him, to make him happy while I was there, but
everything I was doing didn't seem to work," she said. "He wouldn't
cry, but just had this sad look on his face."

She watched the
child for about two hours around mid-day and says Johnson explained
that she needed a babysitter because she had an "important
appointment." She was gone for about two hours. Urias says Johnson
seemed angry and irritated before she left, but was happy and in a much
better mood when she returned.

The babysitter didn't have any
other information about where Johnson went that afternoon except that
she looked like she was dressed to go to a party. Urias has been
interviewed by the FBI and is hoping that others with information about
baby Gabriel will come forward. If you have any information, please
call Crime Stoppers at 224-STOP.