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

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.

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

by KENS 5 staff

Posted on February 26, 2010 at 8:20 AM

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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