Gabriel Johnson -- Missing 12/26/09

I guess she doesn't like fruit cake!!!!

Friend Says Missing Baby is Alive

Updated: Monday, 03 May 2010, 8:09 AM MDT



PHOENIX - 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 says 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.

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/phoenix/baby_gabriel_case_050310

Court: Johnson incompetent to stand trial in missing Baby Gabriel case

Updated: 5:57 pm, Thu Jun 3, 2010.



The mother of missing Baby Gabriel is not competent to stand trial now but can be rehabilitated and possibly stand trial at a later date, a Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner ruled on Thursday.

Commissioner Steven Holding handed down the ruling based on determinations made by two court-appointed doctors who conducted a psychological evaluation of Gabriel Johnson's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, who remains incarcerated in a Maricopa County jail on $1.1 million cash bond in connection to the disappearance of her son.

The ruling excuses Johnson, 23, from participating in further court proceedings regarding the disappearance of Gabriel, who has been missing since December. Originally, Johnson said she killed the baby, according to police and court documents; later, she said she gave Gabriel to a couple in San Antonio.

Attorney Nicholas Alcock, who is representing Johnson in the criminal portion of the case in which Johnson is charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference, told the Tribune he received the results from Johnson's psychological evaluation on Wednesday and is reviewing the report.

Johnson and the boy's father, Logan McQueary, also are proceeding through a custody hearing in Maricopa County Superior Family Court in which Judge Michael McVey placed a hold on whether Johnson will be found in contempt of court for refusing to say what she did with Gabriel and reveal where he is, pending the outcome of her psychological evaluation.

"Both (court-appointed) doctors believe she is not competent to stand trial," Alcock said. "They have determined that Elizabeth cannot control her thought process and that she is not able to think in a linear fashion, meaning that she is not able to think logically or make decisions."

Johnson left Arizona for San Antonio with her son in mid-December, and on Dec. 27, told McQueary, her estranged boyfriend and father of Gabriel, that she killed the boy, stuffed his body in a diaper bag and then threw it into a dumpster, according to court documents. When Johnson was arrested in Miami Beach, Fla. on Dec. 30, she told an FBI agent that she gave Gabriel to a couple at a motel she was staying at a day after meeting them at a park in San Antonio, according to court records.
The case of Baby Gabriel has received national media attention and has been the subject of numerous national television news programs in the months following Johnson's arrest.

If alive, Gabriel would now be 1 year old.

Alcock, who requested the a psychological evaluation or Rule 11 hearing to be held for Johnson, said he "had some deep concerns" that Johnson could not think clearly and believed she would not be able to think logically or assist an attorney in preparing a defense. Alcock also noted that doctors at the jail had placed Johnson on psychiatric medication after a recent incident in which she assaulted two inmates, resulting in solitary confinement. Johnson has since been returned to the general jail population.

"The court won't allow anyone who is incompetent to stand trial," Alcock said.
Alcock said he expects that Johnson likely will be placed in a "restoration process," in which she would receive therapy and medication.

"It is very rare for someone to be determined incompetent, but not be restorable or rehabilitated through therapy and medication," Alcock said.

A restoration hearing regarding the status of Johnson's mental condition will be held in Maricopa County Superior Court on Aug. 12.

"Everything is very doctor driven," Alcock said after Thursday's ruling. "It will be up to the doctors to determine her mental state and how she's doing. The defense and prosecution both are in agreement that there are competency issues."

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_466d72ce-6f51-11df-b59e-001cc4c002e0.html

I'm glad that it is still possible that she can still stand trial at a later date once she is rehabilitated and deemed competent by the court.

Six months later, no answers in missing Baby Gabriel case

Thursday, June 24, 2010 3:32 pm
Mike Sakal, Tribune



Where is Baby Gabriel?

Gabriel Scott Johnson has been missing for six months, and his whereabouts and well-being remain a mystery. His mother, Elizabeth Johnson, remains incarcerated in a Maricopa County jail on a $1.1 million cash bond on charges in connection to his disappearance and currently is incompetent to stand trial.

In the midst of a custody battle, Johnson, 23, of Tempe, told Logan McQueary, her estranged boyfriend and the child's father, on Dec. 27 that said she killed the then 7-month-old baby, stuffed his body in a diaper bag and threw it into a dumpster in San Antonio, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.

She later told authorities that she gave Gabriel to a couple she had never met in the parking lot of motel in San Antonio a day after meeting them in a park, sparking national media attention and a search that included the FBI, two renowned private investigators and McQueary himself. For reasons unknown, San Antonio was the first destination entered into a GPS device Johnson had that was confiscated by police.

The boy was last seen at a HomeGate Studios and Suites in San Antonio on Dec. 26, purportedly a meeting place for underground adoptions, according to authorities. Johnson, who was arrested in Miami Beach, Fla. on Dec. 30 without the child, is charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.

Sandy Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for the San Antonio Police Department, told the Tribune on Thursday that there have been no developments in the case since March 12. That was the day investigators ended a 16-day excavation of a landfill in San Antonio after sifting through 4,260 tons of trash in an attempt to find any of the boy's remains or evidence that would help the case. Police also would not say whether they were able to locate a young Hispanic man, a known drug dealer, seen with Johnson at a motel in San Antonio where she was staying, according to authorities. Nor did they release the man's name.

Gutierrez also said that the police department has received very few tips in the last three months.

"As unfortunate as it may be, nothing new has developed," Gutierrez said.

But by nearly all accounts, the search for the missing child remains ongoing and active and still is being investigated as both a homicide and a missing persons case. The family of McQueary said they remain in contact with authorities at least once a week, but could not release details of the investigation.

A statement issued to the Tribune from the McQueary family said, "We are unable to comment any further regarding the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Gabriel, except to confirm that law enforcement continues to investigate all leads."

Two Internet Facebook pages for Gabriel, Find Baby Gabriel and Pray for Baby Gabriel, each have more than 1,400 members.

Gabriel Johnson, who has light brown hair and blue eyes, now would be 1-year-old.

Tammi Smith, 38, of Scottsdale, the woman who had expressed interest in adopting Gabriel and provided false and misleading statements to Tempe police during their investigation, has been charged with forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference in connection with the case.

Smith is waiting to resume court proceedings after Johnson's competency level is restored through medical treatment and counseling, which she now is undergoing.

McQueary, 25, of Gilbert, had spent a short time living in San Antonio searching for clues that had been overlooked in his son's disappearance, but has since returned to Valley where he has obtained a job, according to his aunt, Kelli McQueary. He could not be reached for comment.

Jay J. Armes, a private investigator based in El Paso, Texas, and his associates initially had assisted McQueary in the search. Later on, Australia-based private investigator Ken Gamble also participated in the search, but he resigned from the case on June 5 due to lack of funding, according to Kelli McQueary and Gamble. Both Armes and Gamble strongly believed through evidence and information they reviewed from the case that Gabriel still is alive.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_4bcf19f8-7fe0-11df-b171-001cc4c002e0.html

This whole case still astounds me. I believe it is this thursday that is the deadline for her to have been rehabilitated and found competent. If she is not found to be the charges will be dropped and she will be commited to a state hospital. How could the father have not known how mentally unstable she was or the grandfather she and the baby lived with.How did he just disappear without a trace and this sicko get away with it? I just don't understand with all of today's technolgy etc how she could have pulled this off!

The father or grandfather might have known that she was mentally unstable. I know from personal experience that knowing a person is mentally unstable is often not enough to get the child away from the mother or even to get CPS to take the situation seriously until it is too late.

Attorneys: Missing baby’s mom not competent for trial

Posted: Thursday, August 12, 2010 6:15 pm
Mike Sakal, Tribune

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.

Read more: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_0d4f8464-a66a-11df-bbb7-001cc4c03286.html

Lawyers for missing kid’s mom won’t detail competency dispute

Posted: Saturday, August 21, 2010 3:00 pm
Mike Sakal



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.

Read more: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/tempe/article_b4e011a2-acb5-11df-a5e8-001cc4c03286.html

How frustrating it must be for the authorities that they can't BEAT out of Elizabeth what she did with Gabriel!

Something is just wrong with our system when we can allow people to just REFUSE to say what has happened to a child. Much like someone else we all know and love to hate.....

Sadly, it seems to be a recent trend, doesn't it?

I think everyone is taking lessons from KC.

I don't know about you, but I don't think she killed Baby Gabe...That's just my thought...I might be wrong but I just have a feeling that he's still out there somewhere...

Estee, I too think he is out there. I think she gave him to someone, and doesn't even know them.

I tend to agree that there is a possibility little Gabriel is still alive, but it does make one wonder why whomever has him hasn't gone to the authorities. Unless they are trying to protect themselves from a crime. An honest, innocent person would surely have come forward by now.

I think Grandpa knows her very well and I'm pleased to see he's not afraid of admitting it:

"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."

Baby Gabriel's mom quiet about his whereabouts

by Laurie Merrill - Sept. 4, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

As the Baby Gabriel case enters its ninth month, one constant has remained: His mother, Elizabeth Johnson, still refuses to say where he is.

Her stubbornness is so steadfast that even her grandfather, Bob Johnson, is beginning to have his doubts.

"The sooner they find that baby, the sooner she gets out (of jail)," Johnson, 80, of Scottsdale, said Wednesday. "She has not been cooperating with them in Gabriel, which is scary."

The disappearance of the chubby-cheeked, towheaded Gabriel captured the nation's attention when it was first reported in December.

Since then, Elizabeth Johnson, 24, of Tempe, has been arrested and is being held without bond in the Estrella Jail; a Scottsdale woman has been charged with conspiracy to commit custodial interference; and Logan McQueary, the boy's father, has been awarded full custody of Gabriel, who would now be 15 months old. McQueary has moved out of his Tempe home and has not spoken publicly for months about his son's disappearance.

Despite this, McQueary told his child-custody attorney over a month ago that he still has hope his son is alive.

"Last I talked to him, he absolutely believed it," Phoenix attorney Craig Mehrens said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2010/09/04/20100904arizona-baby-gabriel-missing.html

Baby Gabriel mystery becomes social-networking phenomenon

by Laurie Merrill
Sept. 17, 2010 10:25 AM
The Arizona Republic



The case of missing Baby Gabriel has become an Internet wildfire with thousands of people across the country devouring every electronic detail and pages on the sensational topic springing up across social media sites.

"Bring Home Gabriel Johnson," "Gabriel Scott Johnson Missing - Psychic Discussion" and "The other side of the story, Elizabeth Johnson jail house communications" are but three of at least 20 Facebook pages dedicated to the case of the missing Tempe baby. Some users spend hours a day following the case via the Internet.

In a digital-age media phenomenon, the case of Gabriel Johnson, last seen in San Antonio on Dec. 26, has become an Internet cause celebre. Rapt followers are taking sides in a free-for-all debate about the baby, the mother and the woman who wanted to adopt him.

"Like never before, a huge swath of the American public is online and connected one way or the other," said Aretha Hill, director off the New Media Innovation Lab at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/17/20100917baby-gabriel-social-networking-phenomenon.html

Deal Possible For Smith In Baby Gabriel Case
A Key Player In Disappearance Might Be Bargaining With Prosecutors

Elizabeth Erwin
Reporter, KPHO.com
POSTED: 3:41 pm MST September 20, 2010

~Snipped~

Tammi Smith, the wife of the couple who has been involved in the Gabriel saga since the beginning, on Monday said her attorneys are looking at a possible plea bargain on her forgery charge.

Police said Smith used a phony name on paternity documents when Gabriel Johnson's mom, Elizabeth Johnson, was trying to keep the baby from his father, Logan McQueary.

Read more: http://www.kpho.com/news/25091292/detail.html

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