Missing Baby Gabriel Mom Elizabeth Johnson Held on Cash-Only $1.1 Million

January 10, 2010. Missing eight-month-old Gabriel Johnson's mother, Elizabeth Johnson is in Arizona, say the Tempe police. After processing out of a Dade County Florida jail, Johnson was shunted to Maricopa County's 4th Avenue Jail, in Phoenix, where she was booked not only on the original charge of custodial interference but also on new charges: conspiracy to commit custodial interference; charges of kidnapping; child abuse.

Johnson seems to have preferred strangers to take her blue-eyed fair-haired bouncing baby boy, Gabriel, rather than to let his alleged father, Logan McQueary have him. The police say she will not co-operate with them. This gives the appearance that she would rather rot in jail than tell McQueary where Gabriel is.

Sighting reports of Gabriel Johnson are coming from Nashville, Tennessee where 'persons of interest' Jack and Tammi Peters Smith- who had hoped to adopt Gabriel- once resided and still have close family. Friends of Johnson say she has no connection with Nashville. FBI Special Agent Keith Moss, in Nashville, has said, 'We have been unable at this point to locate the child'.

Events leading up to another location where baby Gabriel might be.
On the night of December 8, 2009. Elizabeth Johnson and Logan McQueary argued. She called Tammi Smith, whom she hadn't seen since they had first met at an airport seven months earlier. Depressed and crying, Johnson had considered back then giving up her then-one-month-old baby.

On December 11, McQueary filed for full custody of Gabriel, without visitation rights for Johnson, at Maricopa County Superior Court. On December 14, Johnson petitioned to subpoena for a paternity test for McQueary.

On December 17, the court ignored the paternity request, declared McQueary to be the natural father, and awarded joint custody to the couple. The day after, on December 18, Johnson and drove Gabriel from Tempe Arizona in her grandfather's Oldsmobile Delta 88. They reached San Antonio, Texas on December 20.

Missing baby Gabriel was last seen on December 26. Eyewitnesses are said to have seen him with his mother in San Antonio at a hotel and the pair were caught on a surveillance camera at Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement park. On December 27, Johnson sent a text message to McQueary saying she had killed Gabriel. She ceased making cell phone calls to Jack and Tammi Smith but did send them a text message saying she and Gabriel were fine.

On the same day, Yami Virgin of KABB from Fox 29 told Tammi Smith that the Garmin navigation system in Johnson's Oldsmobile had shown a signal in Victoria, Texas, which is 96 miles (156km) south of San Antonio. Yet, surveillance video showed Johnson on December 26 in San Antonio- without Gabriel- boarding a bus bound for Florida. Some authorities conclude the baby is in Victoria. The Garmin was found with the Oldsmobile. Police are analyzing it.

A court document states that a cell phone signal (or the Garmin signal?) for Johnson was last caught moving toward Mexico. Johnson was arrested on December 30. Was her cell phone on her? Authorities did not find her Oldsmobile until six days later, January 5, 2010. Between those dates, was car really sitting outside a Motel 6 near a Tornado Bus Station off Interstate 35 for the entire time that authorities were searching for it?

Jack and Tammi Smith, who have a four-year-old daughter, say they no longer expect to adopt baby Gabriel. They say they want to help authorities find the baby.

Events leading up to Johnson's extradition. On December 28, Johnson failed to show for a custodial hearing in Tempe, Arizona. The court awarded full custody of Gabriel to McQueary and issued a warrant for custodial interference for Johnson. On December 30, police arrested her at a youth hostel in Miami Beach, charged her with custodial interference, and put her in jail. Her abandoned car was found on January 5 outside a San Antonio Motel 6. In her motel room were baby clothes and a high chair. On January 7, police named the Smiths as 'persons of interest'. On January 8, the Smiths took polygraph tests. On January 9, Johnson waived extradition to Arizona. Yet, on January 10, Johnson was back in Arizona- held in jail on new criminal charges and a cash-only bond of $1.1 million.

Of the many questions, here are a few. Did Elizabeth Johnson have a planned destination when she left Arizona with Gabriel? Did she really give him to a mystery Texas couple- as she said in the exclusive interview with CBS affiliate KPHO? Or to a domestic 'underground' violence shelter, as she told Tammi Smith? As a jobless single mother, where did she get the money for her road trip? Did she sell Gabriel? After Florida, where was she planning to go?

Nancy Grace producer, Matt Zarrell, said, "We do know that the mother told the father that the baby was dead, was blue-colored. She put it in a baby bag in a dumpster. Now, she said that she was leaving the United States, and when she left the country, she was going to tell the father where the body was."

Marc Klaas of Klaas Kids Foundation told Nancy Grace, "You know, she wasn't interested in keeping the baby safe, she was interested in extracting some kind of retribution on the bio [biological] dad. If the baby is alive, what she did is one of the cruelest and most manipulative moves that one could imagine, telling him that his child is dead. If the baby's alive, she needs to come forth and let the authorities know where the baby is so that they can put this case to rest." He also said, "The father deserves it, and certainly, the baby deserves it." Note: It has not been proven that McQueary is the biological dad.

Elizabeth Johnson's grandfather, Bob Johnson, has said that his granddaughter suffered post-partum depression and temporarily took medication for it. On Nancy Grace, clinical psychologist Patricia Saunders referenced Bob Johnson's statements and went on to say "There are only about 200 child homicides by mothers every year. About 1/3 of those are committed by mommies who have post-partum depression or post-partum psychosis. So I think the baby is very much at risk."

_{Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information leading to the safe return of Gabriel Johnson. Call 210-224-7867 or CLICK HERE to submit your tip online. Or text a tip to 274637: Tip 127 plus your tip. Or call the FBI with your information at 210-225-6741. Or call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at their 24-hour tip line: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).}

^{_{Sources: cnn.com; kpho.com; abc15.comRead HERE about Tammi Fay Peters Smith.}}