March 14, 2025 • 42 mins
Elizabeth Johnson gives birth to a boy on May 3.
She and Logan McQueary name him Gabriel. Logan says Johnson has trouble adjusting to motherhood. When Gabriel cries, Johnson sometimes puts him in a room by himself so she does not have to hear him.
After a heated argument with Logan in June over her parenting, Johnson flies to Boston with Gabriel to visit her grandmother. Returning to Arizona in August, she meets Tammi Peters Smith during an airport layover in Indianapolis. Johnson, crying and holding Gabriel, attracts Smith’s attention, leading to a conversation about Smith and her husband adopting the baby.
Johnson returns to Arizona without Gabriel. The baby is later found safe at the Peters Smith residence. After Gabriel’s return to Arizona, a family court judge grants joint custody to Johnson and Logan, with Johnson having Gabriel first. Three days later, when Logan tries to pick him up, Johnson tells him he will never see his son again.
Johnson initially claims she smothered Gabriel and dumped his body, but Logan does not believe her. Police confirm Johnson drove with Gabriel from Tempe to San Antonio, Texas, and was last seen with him nine days later. The next morning, she boards a Greyhound bus to Miami alone. She later tells officers she gave Gabriel to a couple at a park near their hotel. Despite extensive searches and investigations, Gabriel, who would now be 15, has never been found.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Logan McQueary - Father of missing Gabriel Johnson
- Sandy Peters - Great Aunt of missing Gabriel Johnson
- Tim Maloney - Logan McQueary’s Lawyer, Law Offices of Maloney & Campolo;@MaloneyCampolo (X, FB)
- Caryn Stark - Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; @carynpsych (Insta), Caryn Stark Private Practice (FB)
- Abel Peña - Former FBI Agent, Director of Project Absentis [a nonprofit organization with a mission to offer investigative assistance to families of missing persons]; Project Absentis (FB, TikTok, Linkedin)
- Yami Virgin - Anchor / Reporter at KABB and WOAI in San Antonio; Facebook: @yamivirgintv (FB) @Yami_Virgin (Insta)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace new clues in the San
Antonio mystery of a tout boy's disappearance. Where is Baby Gabriel?
I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us. Childhood friends Elizabeth and Logan have kindled
(00:21):
a romantic relationship and welcome to baby boy by the
name of Gabriel in Arizona. But the happy family is
troubled by Elizabeth and Logan's strained and rocky relationship, which
soon leads to disaster. Tonight, Where is baby Gabriel? Has
mommy sold the taut boy? Everyone? Thank you for being
(00:44):
with us, but for a straight out to the biodad.
Logan mcquarie is joining us. The father of baby Gabriel.
You and the mom had a very very tumultuous relationship ship.
Where do you believe baby Gabriel is tonight?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Didn't tell you. Just hope he's out there and he's
doing good wherever he's at.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
How did the whole thing start? Listen?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Elizabeth graduates from a college preparatory high school in Boston
near her grandmother, with a four point zero GPA and
a full ride scholarship to Southeastern University in New Hampshire.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Elizabeth Johnson's grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale, Arizona, says, two
weeks into her first semester at Southeastern University, Elizabeth drops
out because she doesn't like her roommate. Johnson says his
granddaughter is impulsive, prone to fits of rage, and secretive
as a team. When she was living with her grandmother
in Boston, Elizabeth flew from Boston to California to sell
(01:45):
her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted online.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I know that she sold her eggs for cash when
she was a very very young woman, still actually a teen,
But does that indicate in any way that she would
have sold baby Gabriel as she now admits that she did.
(02:12):
Let's start at the beginning, joining me an all star
panel to make sense of where is baby Gabriel tonight
and can we bring him home? Let me give you
the tip line too, one zero to zero seven seven
six six zero repeat two one zero two zero seven
seven six six zero or the FBI two one zero
(02:36):
two two five six seven four one. We're convinced if
baby Gabriel is alive, he has been taken across state lines.
You know, I want to go quickly out to or
now a psychologist joining us from Manhattan today, Karen Stark. Karen,
very often, she actually tried to give the baby away.
(03:01):
She tried to sell the baby. We know that she
has an mo motus operandi method of operation dating back
to her teen years when she sold her eggs for money. Right,
not judging, I'm just trying to find maybe Gabriel. What
does this indicate to you, Karen Stark?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
It indicates that she doesn't see this baby as a
real human being separate from her. It's like a narcissistic
attachment nancy where this baby is an extension and she
could do whatever she wants, like sell her eggs or
sell the baby. And so you wonder the psychological state
that she actually is in, just the fact that she's
(03:42):
so impulsive and keeps remarrying over and over again, using people, manipulative,
and she's smart, she's really smart. So she was able
to get away with this. And it's just confounding that
all this time has and this woman is not really
(04:03):
revealing what happened to this child. Who has this child?
If the child is alive, she doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Did mommy sell her? Tap? Boy, Gabriel. Back to Gabriel's dad,
Logan McQuary, by all accounts a very loving and attentive
dad to Gabriel. Isn't it true that quite often she
would lash out at you and use baby Gabriel as leverage.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, she would several times, like what if he was
crying too much or anything like that, She would just
say shut him up, and she would get really mad
if I wanted to do something, She wouldn't let me
and man have to stay home and take care of him.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Guys, you're seeing shots off baby Gabriel. Now, this is
how the whole thing started. Listen.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Elizabeth Johnson gives birth to a boy on May third,
and she and Logan McCreary him Gabriel. At times when
the baby is crying, Elizabeth places baby Gabriel in a
room by himself and goes to a different room so
she doesn't have to hear him crying. With Gabriel crying,
Logan asks Elizabeth what she's been doing. She replies for
him to quote shut that thing up.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So Logan, it seems like although she gave birth to
baby Gabriel, he was more of a problem for her
to quote deal with rather than like we expect moms
to do right or wrong, to love the baby, to
be attached to the baby, baby heart, mind, and soul.
(05:36):
She did not have that attachment to baby Gabriel at all.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, it was more like he was a thorn on
her hip. She didn't really want to do the things
if she needed to do to take care of him.
She just didn't want him around.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Was the pregnancy intentional or was it an accident?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It definitely was an accident. We didn't plan on getting pregnant.
We talked about back and forth if we wanted to
keep it. Ultimately it was her division. Then she said
that she wanted to keep him. What happened afterwards was
not what I was expecting.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
When did you first notice, Logan that she seemed disconnected
to baby Gabriel.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Once we got home from the hospital and she just
didn't want to get up and beat him or do anything.
I just kind of took over and I had to
go to work too, But whenever I was home, I
was helping her out with whatever I could and let
her just kind of lay in bed just I don't
(06:40):
know how to explain it. Leaving for work in the
morning and Gabriel would be in his crib and then
coming home and he would be in the same closed
diaper everything, and it's like she didn't get up and
take care of him at all.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Joining me is Tim Maloney. This is Logan's attorney. You
guys have been through it trying to find Gabriel, baby Gabriel.
What do you make of what Logan is telling us
that the baby would still be in the crib where
the baby was when Logan went to work, when do
we get home?
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Well, I think it's indicative of he's got a very
troubled young woman, and I think ultimately what played out
was the fact that she just couldn't bomb with this child,
and we have those kind of narcissistic tendencies that she
was clearly demonstrating that it was just a matter of
time for a disaster was going to happen. You know,
the saddest part of this whole thing, besides the obvious,
(07:33):
is that I think a lot of these answers could
have had at the beginning of this investigation, that there
was some competent work done by the police departments in
the various jurisdictions. You have Jami on with you today.
When she and I have been really with this story
from the very beginning, and we have done probably as
much investigation along with Abel than any police departments looking
(07:58):
for Gabriel. And that part is really is that there
are so many clues early on that could have given
Logan answers. That's what we promised him, was to just
give him some answers, and to this day, that's what
we'd still like to do for him. The hope and
dream is a Gabriel stood out there. We've had some
recent events of children who've been disappeared for many years
(08:21):
who have materialized, and that is the hope. But really,
one of the saddest things I think about this is
the fact that there are so many clues, so many
things that could have been done early on in the
investigation that could have gotten answers.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You are seeing shots right now of baby Gabriel, and
you're hearing Tim Maloney. This is the dad Logan McQuary's lawyer,
who was joined in the search to find baby Gabriel.
Is baby Gabriel out there? Did Mommy give him away
as she said she did? Did she sell him? Would
this be just another incident of her disassociation with her baby,
(08:59):
treating him like he's an object to be sold or
given away. You heard Tim Maloney refer to Yammy Verrhim
joining us anchor reporter K A. B. Fox twenty nine
is San Antonio, Yammy, thank you for being with us.
Tell us how the whole thing started.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
It started New Year's Day, you know, photographer and myself
sitting in the newsroom when we got that facts that
came in saying that they were looking for a missing
child out of Arizona and that they believe he may
have been near the Fiesta, Texas area, which is iten
(09:40):
runs from you know, the east coast to the west coast,
and you know that there's a park there. So we
decided to go out and start looking. And I mean,
I don't even have the words to explain to you
how massively law enforcement has dropped the ball. And I'm
going to say it for the family because they've been
(10:02):
more than fair. Law enforcement has dropped the ball on
this case. It is two different jurisdictions. All we've heard
is it's not our case.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That case belongs to.
Speaker 7 (10:13):
Tempe, Tempe, that case belongs to San Antonio. I mean,
we even did a report where in Aunt Sandy call
asking about the case and missing persons in San Antonio,
told her, Oh, that's not our case, that's a Tempee case.
This may be part of the reason why they have
no idea what happened to Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And Sandy, as Yami just refers, is with us. Sandy
Peters is the aunt of baby Gabriel. Sandy, take me
back to the beginning what happened.
Speaker 8 (10:47):
Logan had called me the first of December and told
me that things were going bad. He was trying to
get partial custody of Gabriel and Elizabeth was fighting, and
he called it that he thought Elizabeth was going to
take Gabriel and run and he would never see Gabriel again.
I didn't I couldn't fathom that that.
Speaker 9 (11:10):
Would really happen.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
I'd known Elizabeth through the last year and a half
for maybe two years, and I guess year and a half,
and I knew.
Speaker 9 (11:20):
She was reluctant to have a child, but I also.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Knew that she was very against having an abortion, and
she made it sound like she was going to try.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
To make this work. So when Logan called me and
said that he thought.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
She was going to run with Gabriel and he'd never
see Gabriel again.
Speaker 9 (11:41):
I told him that that just wasn't going to happen.
To hang in there and we'd.
Speaker 8 (11:47):
Get it figured out, and within a couple of days
she was gone. We weren't aware of the relationship that
Elizabeth had, that she had somebody who she was thinking
that she wanted to get Gabriel too. She had met
this Timmy and Jack in an airport. They appeared to
(12:10):
have a lot of money. They had offered her some
kind of a deal because they were interested in adopting
Gabriel and getting Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Guys, you are hearing Gabriel's and also with us is
bio Dad, a very loving and supportive father joining me now.
Special guest able Penya the director for Project Abcentists, composed
of former members FBI and federal agencies to find missing children,
(12:42):
their FBI agents of twenty six years experience able. Thank
you for being with us. So with the dad, the
bio dad, the legal father of the baby, she was
looking up people to give the baby too, and she
makes him at an airport, a couple she's never seen
(13:03):
in her own life and decides to give the baby
to them.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
Yeah, that's sort of understanding is that she she made
efforts to give the baby away. We've undertaken just a
lot of efforts to interview witnesses, friends, acquaintances, family members
to try it and get answers for the family, and it's.
Speaker 11 (13:26):
Just been.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Very difficult.
Speaker 10 (13:29):
We've gotten various answers from different people about what happened
to Gabriel. We have the story that you know, Elizabeth
met strangers in a park and gave Gabriel away here
in San Antonio. There's also other stories circulating that Elizabeth
(13:49):
did harm to Gabriel. So at this point, we're still
searching for answers for the family. We're still talking to people.
We've traveled to Arizona a few times and met with
the additional witnesses that we believe are helpful, and we're
going to continue searching and talking to people until we
get the answers.
Speaker 12 (14:09):
Logan mcquery and Elizabeth Johnson argue often over her treatment
of baby Gabriel. After an extremely heated argument in June,
Elizabeth flies to Boston with Gabriel to visit her grandmother.
Returning to Arizona in August, Johnson meets Tammy Peter Smith
during an airport layover in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Smith initiates
a conversation that leads to a discussion about Smith and
her husband adopting Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Baby Lisa Irwin vanishes from our crib in the middle
of the night. Then a key witness sees a suspicious
man that night carrying a baby. This potential suspect has
never been interviewed before, but Megan Kelly tracks him down.
Megan Kelly Investigates is a five part series releasing every
(14:57):
weekday beginning Monday, March ten, Available on YouTube Series six
XM and wherever you listen to The Megan Kelly Show podcast.
Click the link in the description of this episode for more.
Speaker 13 (15:10):
Arizona mom Elizabeth Johnson wants to put her month old
son Gabriel up for adoption and believe she may have
found the right couple at an airport, but father Logan
strongly disagrees and a heated custody battle ensues.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Give the baby to a couple you meet at the airport.
Let me understand, Yemmy Verrheim with us Kabb. He's been
on the story from the very beginning. That's been confirmed, right.
We know that mom wanted to give the baby away
probably I would say taking a fee while guess from
(15:49):
a couple. She just meets at the airport. That's been confirmed, correct,
that's been confirmed.
Speaker 7 (15:53):
And Nancy, actually I'm going to take you back a
little bit. You interviewed Tammy and Jack Smith when this
first happened. They went on air with you and they
were talking about them trying to help to find Elizabeth,
and pretty much we found them on my Space. Back then,
it was my Space, there was no Facebook. So when
(16:16):
we found we started sending messages and getting information from them,
and they told us that yes, he had traveled to
San Antonio, that they were trying to find her, that
they wanted to get them back, that they basically had
wanted to adopt him, but when they were told that
they couldn't adopt him, that they were just trying to
(16:38):
get her back to Tempe and get the baby back
to Logan because at that point it was custodial interference
since Logan.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Was supposed to have the baby back back to Abel
Pinya joining us from Project absentis Abel. I know in
your line of business, you know what EMO, Mitrosoft and
I method of operation means, and with practically every criminal
I took to trial, there was a precursor. You could
(17:09):
see a pattern emerging before the ultimate crime. And here
we see her all the way back to her teen
years when she was selling her eggs. She had no
intention of ever having children, not judging, don't care. I
just want to find baby Gabriel. And then it goes
on from there. It graduates to her trying to give
away to the baby to strangers in an airport, which
(17:32):
leads me to think that is what she did. Again.
Speaker 10 (17:35):
Well, I have had conversations with Tammy Smith, lengthy conversations
with her, and at that time she was somewhere in Africa.
She's back, actually back in the United States. I believe
she's living in an Arizona again. But I came to
the conclusion that, you know, Gabriel, that Tammy was did
(17:56):
not have custody of Gabriel over there in Africa. I
don't believemmy. I think Tammyan and Jack wanted Gabriel. I
think they were making, I mean efforts to get Gabriel,
but for some reason, things just didn't materialize, and Elizabeth
had maybe some other you know, ideas about what she
was going to do with Gabriel. But the things I
(18:17):
don't believe happened that way, that Tammy and Jack wanted it,
And I do not believe that Tammy and Jack ever
took custody of Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Guys, where is baby Gabriel? What does that mean? What
does that mean? Probatively to Tim Maloney, the dad Logan
mcquarie's lawyer, I've argued this a million times to jury.
When you don't know what someone is going to do,
you look at what they've already done. This wasn't the
(18:47):
first time she tried to give the baby away.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
The thing about it is her pattern of history is
so erratic that and also you do un a fan,
you know, audience does the stand that she did an
effect of path to the murder itself, and then we can't.
And you know, that's what we're getting back to the
issue of that night that as you know that critical
forty eight hours, you have to really make a decision
(19:12):
as to where the investigation is going to go.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I think the current incident of baby Gabriel potentially being
given away or sold goes back to something that happened
on December nine.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Listen on December ninth, Johnson is arrested on suspicion of
providing false information to law enforcement when she lies to
authorities about where Gabriel is, telling Tempe Arizona police that
McCrary kidnapped the baby Gabriel has found at Tammy Smith's residence,
but police let Gabriel stay after Smith shows police a
document in which Johnson signed over temporary guardianship of Gabriel
(19:45):
to Smith.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Logan McQuary baby Gabriel's dad. Did you have any idea
at the time that she was trying to give your
baby away, even pretend somebody else was the bio dad?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
No, I didn't know that at all.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Did you ever agree to putting your child up for adoption?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
No, there's no way I was going to. I told
her I wanted to try to raise Gabriel on my own.
If she didn't want to be a part of it,
then that was up there.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Logan mcquery says he never supported giving up Gabriel for
adoption and seeks custody of his son and family court
or a judge awards joint legal custody of baby Gabriel
to Johnson and McQuary on December seventeenth. On December eighteenth,
the Smith's return Gabriel to Elizabeth Johnson. The judge orders
McQuary to have physical custody of his son for a
(20:32):
period beginning December twentieth, but when McQuary calls Johnson to
make arrangements to pick up his son, Johnson tells him
he will never see his son again. When McQuary goes
to Johnson's home, the place has been completely emptied.
Speaker 13 (20:45):
Against his dad's wishes. Baby Gabriel is left in the
care of an Arizona couple Mommy Elizabeth, met while at
an airport in Indianapolis. As Logan tries to gain custody
of the child, Elizabeth leaves a worrying message on Logan's phone.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It seems as if this mom, Elizabeth, will do anything
to strike out at the biodad Logan mcquarie, who is
joining us tonight, Police desperately try to put together a timeline.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Putting together a timeline police determine after the custody hearing
on December seventeenth, where Logan McQuary is granted shared physical
custody of Gabriel, Johnson borrows her grandfather's nineteen ninety five
Olds Delta eighty eight meets up with Tammy Smith, who
had been taking care of Gabriel, and drives to San Antonio, Texas,
arriving on December twenty two. Elizabeth and Gabriel stay at
the Quality Innfiesta Park, then moved to the Homegay Studios
(21:38):
in Suites, hiring a babysitter on Craiglist to watch Gabriel
at the hotel, Johnson instructs the sitter to give Gabriel
a bottle about every hour and if he cries, give
him medicine to shut him up.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Logan mcquery, did you have any idea where she was
at that time with baby Gabriel and hiring a babysitter
online and telling the babysitter, Hey, if he christ too much,
just give him me so we'll quote shut up. Did
you have any idea any of this was going on?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, I had no clue at all. I mean, we
were looking for the whole time, but just I wouldn't
even imagine that was going on at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Logan, did she ever threaten to hurt baby Gabriel to
get at you?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
One time he was bouncing in his chair and screaming
and crying, and she went over and kind of flicked
the back of the chair and he flipped over on
his face, and I got really pissed off and told
her she can't do that, and she just yelled at
me shut them up.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
So I'm trying to make sense of what this woman
Elizabeth Johnson did with baby Gabriel, because she gave so
many conflicting accounts. Every time she would speak to Logan McQuary,
the bio dad should give another painful explanation of where
is baby Gabriel? But isn't it true to Abel Pinya
(22:52):
joining US director a Project Absentis, who is dedicated to
finding baby Gabriel, that her phone pain where she says
she handed the baby off to this couple at a park.
Speaker 10 (23:05):
Yes, there were pings in the area. I know that
police made efforts to try to locate the park, and
I believe it was Winging Rinker's Park that they here
in San Antonio that they identified.
Speaker 11 (23:19):
They went out there, they.
Speaker 10 (23:21):
Checked for any kind of evidence, forensic evidence. I believe
they even home the area for anything out there just
suggested that she was out there again, she described what
she did. She describes the park, I guess to describing
the parking lot where she sat. So I mean, we
do know that she liked going out to the park.
(23:43):
She could have visited that park at some point in time.
There would have been pings that she was out there again.
You know, we just don't know who she met, you know,
what she did with Gabriel, or where Gabriel was taken
to After.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
That listen, In San Antonio, investigators looking for baby Gabriel
focus on the hotels where Johnson state after arriving in town.
Investigators did find Elizabeth Johnson's grandfather's car, the Delta eighty
eight she drove from Arizona to Texas. It was discovered
parked at the Motel six near Interstate thirty five, close
to a bus stop. Inside the vehicle, investigators found a
(24:21):
baby seat, but no visible signs of violence.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And we learn more the story about a surptitious adoption
of sorts.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
This story involves underground adoption of children and that she
met a couple in a park in San Antonio who
took Gabriel, and that's the story she's still sticking with today.
When investigators talked to her, she was able to describe
the park in San Antonio, including the parking lot that
would hold about twenty.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Cars, Yami verhim joining us. Kabb tell me about her
description of that parking lot and what she says happened there.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
It was actually in her journal the directions how to
get there, like when someone calls you and you're writing
down directions. That was inside the journal that the FBI has,
So she had directions on how to get there, and
once she got there, she described it in these recordings
that you're playing exactly what she did, that the baby
(25:18):
was sitting in the car seat, that she went to
the park and was waiting for the couple. But more
interesting to me is the fact that we actually got
to that hotel that she had been at before the
police even got there, and we were able to talk
to a clerk who described a couple that she had
(25:39):
seen at the hotel talking to Elizabeth a few days
before police tell me that, oh no, that's not true.
I talked to the clerk. It was a young woman
that was going to school here in San Antonio from
the Rio Grande Valley, and she remembered specifically seeing Elizabeth
with a cup. Now again, Elizabeth claims that she gave
(26:03):
the baby to a couple in the park, handed over
the bag, handed over the baby and that was the
last time that she saw him.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That gives me hope. That gives me hope, Logan that
baby Gabriel is still alive and he's out there. He
may not even know that his parents are not his bioparents.
He may not know what Yammy Verhem is telling me
(26:33):
corroborates what Elizabeth said.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yes, And that's why this whole time, you could convince
me either way, it's fifty to fifty. For me. I
want to believe he's out there, and well, you know,
we're searching for him and just hopefully we find him someday.
I mean, we just we try to hold a faith
and that he'll come home from.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
There very often. And I think that Abel and Tim
Maloney will agree with me that when you have a
statement rich in detail by a witness, that it is
more believable. I want you to listen to what else
bio Mom Elizabeth Johnson said.
Speaker 14 (27:14):
At the at the bench that that you met this couple,
that where were they were they at a bench that
was seated next to anything in particular like a DIMENSIONE
water home, dimensioneer treat.
Speaker 11 (27:30):
Or the johnle Jim said or.
Speaker 14 (27:37):
Anything else about this heart that even be call it
and this is you know, this is this is the
important thing. So I want you to take a take
a miment to to relive that moment so fast. Okay, well,
I know it's a fast moment, but it's also a
very crucial moment.
Speaker 11 (27:54):
In your life.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
He's right, the investigator there saying, yes, it was a
fast moment, but it was a crucial moment. We all
have those moments that stick with us forever, and they
are just that a moment, not a minute, not an hour,
a moment. Listen to what else? She says, I looked
a little park.
Speaker 11 (28:18):
Shit as bead walking. I saw a couple sitting down
on the bench, and I show the second TI walk
the other thing. He said my name, So it wasn't
the bench.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Was the bench that she saw a couple in basically
within your vision pretty much as soon as you.
Speaker 11 (28:34):
Got to her, Oh Sam Way Park. I have walked
out of my mom into the park and walked around.
I saw them my heart looking around.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
She says. She walked into the park and was looking
around for them, which tells me Yami Verhem that this
was set up ahead of time, and I'm thinking back
to what was in her journal, and those notes in
her journal were contemporaneous to that time where she was
(29:10):
writing out directions to get to this park. Now, at
the park, is it true? There's a bench that has
been described. Yes, there is a bench.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
There are picnic tables, there's an area for the kids
to play, there's I mean, it's a normal park. You
do have to walk a little bit to get to
some of those picnic tables and benches that are there.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Now.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
Again, if you look at her journal, it's there. But
even more important, if you look also, we have the
log of calls between Jack Smith, Tammy Smith, Elizabeth Logan.
We were able to get all of that from the film,
and there's a flurry of activity going on. I mean,
(29:54):
it's there. It is there if you look at the
phone logs and right before she went, who did she
talk to?
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Again, it was in that journal.
Speaker 7 (30:04):
Now do we believe that, you know, maybe it was
set up and it never happened. That could be, or
it was set up and she did meet a couple
in the park.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Karen start with me, renowned
as psychologist, TV radio trauma expert at Karenstark dot com.
That's Karen with the sea if you were looking for her, Karen.
This woman, Elizabeth Johnson, seems to manipulate everyone around her,
(30:44):
And I could see this couple, Tammy and Jack believing
everything she said. She's very believable and believing that it
was up to them to save baby Gabriel and helping
her her. Janni Rahem believes that Jack, who would have
(31:06):
been an adoptive dad except biodad, was not adopting his
son out. He wants the baby. He wants Baby Gabriel.
So with this flurry of phone calls between her bio
mom and Jack trying to help her, that tends to
(31:29):
give support to the story that she later told that
she gave the baby away to the couple she met
in this part. How is it narcissistic? People can manipulate
others so well, Nancy.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
They're really so adepted being able to convince people. They
they're charming, they're smart, they're able to let you feel like, wow,
I really need to help this person. And yet if
you hear her talking, you don't get any sense of
attachment to this child. You had the twins, I mean,
(32:05):
you love them, you care about them. This woman is
all over the place, trying to get rid of her
baby like it's a dog, not a real person, and
very convincing to people around her that they need a
help because they're worried. They probably have more connection to
the baby than she ever did, so it is plausible
(32:27):
that this actually did happen. She wanted to get rid
of him, She really wanted someone to take him, and
people are always looking for babies, aren't.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Where is baby Gabriel? Did his mother actually give him
away to a couple in apart It would not have
been the first time she tried to give him away
or adopt him out without his dad having any idea
what she was up to. Now here's her description of
the couple that took baby Gabriel with a couple.
Speaker 14 (33:04):
Didn't didn't describe the metaphor me again, this is this
is some of that. Gim me you know, there's a
group of time, and so I take as much time.
And again, middle ages, I know, you know, let me.
Speaker 11 (33:18):
I just want to ask you what lay.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
A middle aged Yeah?
Speaker 14 (33:28):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
To Abel Pina joining us, the director of Project absentis
on the search for baby Gabriel. What's the best description
we have of the couple that she gave baby Gabriel to.
Speaker 10 (33:42):
Yeah, we don't have much of a description of that couple.
I think she's very vague in the descriptions she gives,
and I think really just the interview that was conducted.
We've listened to the interview, uh that she had with police,
and quite honestly, it's it's the there needed to be
more open ended questions rather than there were kind of
(34:04):
a lot of lead on questions. I mean, how many
park benches are in a park. I mean there's park
benches in parks, there's playgrounds in parks. She could have
described any park in the United States.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
I think there were.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Didn't her phone paying in that area where the park was?
Speaker 9 (34:22):
It did ping there.
Speaker 10 (34:24):
She could have been at the park. But all this
and she could have certainly described Raymond Rincus Park because
the way she described it was Raymond Rincus. But it's
also a description of many parks here in San Antonio.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
So okay, let me understand something to Yammy vere him
following up on what Abel is telling us. I want
to gather quickly, Marshall, what we know about that park.
Her phone painged at the park. She describes the park.
She describes going in and looking around and finally seeing
the couple. Another thing in her journal there handwritten descriptions
(35:03):
about how to get to the park. And not only that,
an employee at that motel described seeing her speaking to
a couple beforehand that resembles the description we're given. Is
all of that correct? Correct?
Speaker 7 (35:20):
A lot of those things do match up also with
what the clerk said. And I'm telling you I talked
to that clerk. She gave the description she said where
they were standing. The other thing that stands out about
all of this someone was with Elizabeth while she was here.
(35:40):
That clerk told me that when she went to knock
on the door to tell her that they had to
move to the hotel room upstairs, that there was a
man that answered that door. So who was the person
that was with Elizabeth. There's many questions that have yet
to be answered to the rest of the world. Maybe
the police department in San Antonio knows more about it.
(36:03):
But when I've asked, the person who used to be
the lead investigator who's now one of the deputy chiefs, oh, no,
that wasn't really anything. Well, I talked to the clerk
before they did. I know what she told me, and
this young woman had no reason to lie. She was
actually quite scared to even talk to us then.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And yet another effort to lash out at the bio
dad Logan McCreary, bio mom throws out the worst possibility.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Even though Elizabeth Johnson told Baby Gabriel's father she killed
his son, many people believe she only said that to
her Logan McCreary. At the time of her arrest. Three
days after leaving San Antonio by bus, she tells the
FBI she gave the baby away.
Speaker 9 (36:51):
She gave Elizabeth her diamond ring.
Speaker 8 (36:55):
It was about a three five thousand dollar ring, her
wedding ring.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
I was from care that day, but my granddaughter was
at her house and so she shot her give it
away to Elizabeth.
Speaker 9 (37:10):
That was before the baby disappeared, so.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
There was a money exchange. A thirty five thousand dollars
ring was given to Elizabeth Johnson just before baby Gabriel disappears.
All of this supporting the theory that Baby Gabriel was
given away or sold by mommy. Yet there's this I
(37:36):
would do you know that?
Speaker 9 (37:41):
So I don't yeah before my baby.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Boy to Sandy Paters joining us this is baby Gabriel's aunt, Sandy.
I know when you and Logan hear that, it's like
a dagger in your heart. But what do you make
of her reason for telling Logan she had killed the
(38:14):
baby when all the evidence tends to point to the
fact that she gave or sold the baby, gave away
or sold baby Gabriel.
Speaker 8 (38:23):
When I first heard the recording of Elizabeth and her
saying that she killed Gabriel, I believed her, and so,
like you said, it was unbelievably emotional. However, I think
Elizabeth she was very close to Logan and very jealous
(38:47):
of Logan's relationship with Gabriel, and I believed that at
the beginning, when Elizabeth told Logan that she killed the baby, she.
Speaker 9 (38:57):
Thought Logan would Logan would be able.
Speaker 8 (39:02):
To fix their relationship, go back to what it used
to be like Gabriel wouldn't be with them anymore, and
things would be fine. She had no idea that Logan
would take this to the police and that it would
go national and be the story that it ended up being.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
To Yami Verrheim joining us Kabb Fox twenty nine, San Antonio,
it wouldn't have been the first time that she lashed
out at Logan, lying or even in her behavior, her
physical behavior, just to get back at him, just to
hurt him. So much of the evidence points to the
(39:41):
fact that she sold her own baby.
Speaker 7 (39:44):
That may be the case, and there was a ring
that was found in her possession of San Antonio police
department downplayed it, said that wasn't worth anything, but when
we went back and looked at the records from Tempe,
we were told that that ring was worth a certain
amount of money. Now, we also had an adoption specialist
(40:05):
that I had found independently, and she told us in
San Antonio, San Antonio is known to be an area
where children can be adopted out a little bit easier
because of Texas loss number one and number two, that
it is customary for the birth mom to get some
sort of a quote unquote gift. So the gift cannot
(40:29):
be money, but it could be a ring, it could
be a car, it could be something that comes from
the adoptive parents. So that's why we believe that that
part of the story is also true, that something was
given to her in exchange for the baby. Did she
give the baby for sure to a couple we don't know,
(40:51):
and I think that's part of the reason why Logan
says fifty to fifty. I'll be honest with you, I'm
fifty to fifty to.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Logan mcquery, Logan, what is your message tonight in your
attempt to find your baby?
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Just if anybody knows anything, come forward. The littlest thing
could help. You know, we still want to believe that
Gabriel's out there and we just want to meet him.
See how we doing.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Do you ever dream about Gabriel?
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Definitely, what what do you dream Someday he'll be found
and can meet my kids, me and my family. You know,
he has brothers and sisters that you know still wonder
where he is and wonder they're ever going to meet him.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
If you know or even think you know, where is
a baby Gabriel? Please dial two one zero to zero
seven seven six six zero. And now we remember an
American hero patrol with David Evans, San Antonio PD shot
(41:59):
and killed the line of duty thirty years with l
E law enforcement, leaving behind a grieving wife, Elizabeth, children, Jennifer,
Jeffrey and Julie. American hero Patrolman David Evans, Nancy Grace
signing off goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace new clues in the San
Antonio mystery of a tout boy's disappearance. Where is Baby Gabriel?
I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us. Childhood friends Elizabeth and Logan have kindled
(00:21):
a romantic relationship and welcome to baby boy by the
name of Gabriel in Arizona. But the happy family is
troubled by Elizabeth and Logan's strained and rocky relationship, which
soon leads to disaster. Tonight, Where is baby Gabriel? Has
mommy sold the taut boy? Everyone? Thank you for being
(00:44):
with us, but for a straight out to the biodad.
Logan mcquarie is joining us. The father of baby Gabriel.
You and the mom had a very very tumultuous relationship ship.
Where do you believe baby Gabriel is tonight?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Didn't tell you. Just hope he's out there and he's
doing good wherever he's at.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
How did the whole thing start? Listen?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Elizabeth graduates from a college preparatory high school in Boston
near her grandmother, with a four point zero GPA and
a full ride scholarship to Southeastern University in New Hampshire.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Elizabeth Johnson's grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale, Arizona, says, two
weeks into her first semester at Southeastern University, Elizabeth drops
out because she doesn't like her roommate. Johnson says his
granddaughter is impulsive, prone to fits of rage, and secretive
as a team. When she was living with her grandmother
in Boston, Elizabeth flew from Boston to California to sell
(01:45):
her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted online.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I know that she sold her eggs for cash when
she was a very very young woman, still actually a teen,
But does that indicate in any way that she would
have sold baby Gabriel as she now admits that she did.
(02:12):
Let's start at the beginning, joining me an all star
panel to make sense of where is baby Gabriel tonight
and can we bring him home? Let me give you
the tip line too, one zero to zero seven seven
six six zero repeat two one zero two zero seven
seven six six zero or the FBI two one zero
(02:36):
two two five six seven four one. We're convinced if
baby Gabriel is alive, he has been taken across state lines.
You know, I want to go quickly out to or
now a psychologist joining us from Manhattan today, Karen Stark. Karen,
very often, she actually tried to give the baby away.
(03:01):
She tried to sell the baby. We know that she
has an mo motus operandi method of operation dating back
to her teen years when she sold her eggs for money. Right,
not judging, I'm just trying to find maybe Gabriel. What
does this indicate to you, Karen Stark?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
It indicates that she doesn't see this baby as a
real human being separate from her. It's like a narcissistic
attachment nancy where this baby is an extension and she
could do whatever she wants, like sell her eggs or
sell the baby. And so you wonder the psychological state
that she actually is in, just the fact that she's
(03:42):
so impulsive and keeps remarrying over and over again, using people, manipulative,
and she's smart, she's really smart. So she was able
to get away with this. And it's just confounding that
all this time has and this woman is not really
(04:03):
revealing what happened to this child. Who has this child?
If the child is alive, she doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Did mommy sell her? Tap? Boy, Gabriel. Back to Gabriel's dad,
Logan McQuary, by all accounts a very loving and attentive
dad to Gabriel. Isn't it true that quite often she
would lash out at you and use baby Gabriel as leverage.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, she would several times, like what if he was
crying too much or anything like that, She would just
say shut him up, and she would get really mad
if I wanted to do something, She wouldn't let me
and man have to stay home and take care of him.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Guys, you're seeing shots off baby Gabriel. Now, this is
how the whole thing started. Listen.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Elizabeth Johnson gives birth to a boy on May third,
and she and Logan McCreary him Gabriel. At times when
the baby is crying, Elizabeth places baby Gabriel in a
room by himself and goes to a different room so
she doesn't have to hear him crying. With Gabriel crying,
Logan asks Elizabeth what she's been doing. She replies for
him to quote shut that thing up.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
So Logan, it seems like although she gave birth to
baby Gabriel, he was more of a problem for her
to quote deal with rather than like we expect moms
to do right or wrong, to love the baby, to
be attached to the baby, baby heart, mind, and soul.
(05:36):
She did not have that attachment to baby Gabriel at all.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, it was more like he was a thorn on
her hip. She didn't really want to do the things
if she needed to do to take care of him.
She just didn't want him around.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Was the pregnancy intentional or was it an accident?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It definitely was an accident. We didn't plan on getting pregnant.
We talked about back and forth if we wanted to
keep it. Ultimately it was her division. Then she said
that she wanted to keep him. What happened afterwards was
not what I was expecting.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
When did you first notice, Logan that she seemed disconnected
to baby Gabriel.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Once we got home from the hospital and she just
didn't want to get up and beat him or do anything.
I just kind of took over and I had to
go to work too, But whenever I was home, I
was helping her out with whatever I could and let
her just kind of lay in bed just I don't
(06:40):
know how to explain it. Leaving for work in the
morning and Gabriel would be in his crib and then
coming home and he would be in the same closed
diaper everything, and it's like she didn't get up and
take care of him at all.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Joining me is Tim Maloney. This is Logan's attorney. You
guys have been through it trying to find Gabriel, baby Gabriel.
What do you make of what Logan is telling us
that the baby would still be in the crib where
the baby was when Logan went to work, when do
we get home?
Speaker 6 (07:10):
Well, I think it's indicative of he's got a very
troubled young woman, and I think ultimately what played out
was the fact that she just couldn't bomb with this child,
and we have those kind of narcissistic tendencies that she
was clearly demonstrating that it was just a matter of
time for a disaster was going to happen. You know,
the saddest part of this whole thing, besides the obvious,
(07:33):
is that I think a lot of these answers could
have had at the beginning of this investigation, that there
was some competent work done by the police departments in
the various jurisdictions. You have Jami on with you today.
When she and I have been really with this story
from the very beginning, and we have done probably as
much investigation along with Abel than any police departments looking
(07:58):
for Gabriel. And that part is really is that there
are so many clues early on that could have given
Logan answers. That's what we promised him, was to just
give him some answers, and to this day, that's what
we'd still like to do for him. The hope and
dream is a Gabriel stood out there. We've had some
recent events of children who've been disappeared for many years
(08:21):
who have materialized, and that is the hope. But really,
one of the saddest things I think about this is
the fact that there are so many clues, so many
things that could have been done early on in the
investigation that could have gotten answers.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
You are seeing shots right now of baby Gabriel, and
you're hearing Tim Maloney. This is the dad Logan McQuary's lawyer,
who was joined in the search to find baby Gabriel.
Is baby Gabriel out there? Did Mommy give him away
as she said she did? Did she sell him? Would
this be just another incident of her disassociation with her baby,
(08:59):
treating him like he's an object to be sold or
given away. You heard Tim Maloney refer to Yammy Verrhim
joining us anchor reporter K A. B. Fox twenty nine
is San Antonio, Yammy, thank you for being with us.
Tell us how the whole thing started.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
It started New Year's Day, you know, photographer and myself
sitting in the newsroom when we got that facts that
came in saying that they were looking for a missing
child out of Arizona and that they believe he may
have been near the Fiesta, Texas area, which is iten
(09:40):
runs from you know, the east coast to the west coast,
and you know that there's a park there. So we
decided to go out and start looking. And I mean,
I don't even have the words to explain to you
how massively law enforcement has dropped the ball. And I'm
going to say it for the family because they've been
(10:02):
more than fair. Law enforcement has dropped the ball on
this case. It is two different jurisdictions. All we've heard
is it's not our case.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
That case belongs to.
Speaker 7 (10:13):
Tempe, Tempe, that case belongs to San Antonio. I mean,
we even did a report where in Aunt Sandy call
asking about the case and missing persons in San Antonio,
told her, Oh, that's not our case, that's a Tempee case.
This may be part of the reason why they have
no idea what happened to Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And Sandy, as Yami just refers, is with us. Sandy
Peters is the aunt of baby Gabriel. Sandy, take me
back to the beginning what happened.
Speaker 8 (10:47):
Logan had called me the first of December and told
me that things were going bad. He was trying to
get partial custody of Gabriel and Elizabeth was fighting, and
he called it that he thought Elizabeth was going to
take Gabriel and run and he would never see Gabriel again.
I didn't I couldn't fathom that that.
Speaker 9 (11:10):
Would really happen.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
I'd known Elizabeth through the last year and a half
for maybe two years, and I guess year and a half,
and I knew.
Speaker 9 (11:20):
She was reluctant to have a child, but I also.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Knew that she was very against having an abortion, and
she made it sound like she was going to try.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
To make this work. So when Logan called me and
said that he thought.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
She was going to run with Gabriel and he'd never
see Gabriel again.
Speaker 9 (11:41):
I told him that that just wasn't going to happen.
To hang in there and we'd.
Speaker 8 (11:47):
Get it figured out, and within a couple of days
she was gone. We weren't aware of the relationship that
Elizabeth had, that she had somebody who she was thinking
that she wanted to get Gabriel too. She had met
this Timmy and Jack in an airport. They appeared to
(12:10):
have a lot of money. They had offered her some
kind of a deal because they were interested in adopting
Gabriel and getting Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Guys, you are hearing Gabriel's and also with us is
bio Dad, a very loving and supportive father joining me now.
Special guest able Penya the director for Project Abcentists, composed
of former members FBI and federal agencies to find missing children,
(12:42):
their FBI agents of twenty six years experience able. Thank
you for being with us. So with the dad, the
bio dad, the legal father of the baby, she was
looking up people to give the baby too, and she
makes him at an airport, a couple she's never seen
(13:03):
in her own life and decides to give the baby
to them.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
Yeah, that's sort of understanding is that she she made
efforts to give the baby away. We've undertaken just a
lot of efforts to interview witnesses, friends, acquaintances, family members
to try it and get answers for the family, and it's.
Speaker 11 (13:26):
Just been.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Very difficult.
Speaker 10 (13:29):
We've gotten various answers from different people about what happened
to Gabriel. We have the story that you know, Elizabeth
met strangers in a park and gave Gabriel away here
in San Antonio. There's also other stories circulating that Elizabeth
(13:49):
did harm to Gabriel. So at this point, we're still
searching for answers for the family. We're still talking to people.
We've traveled to Arizona a few times and met with
the additional witnesses that we believe are helpful, and we're
going to continue searching and talking to people until we
get the answers.
Speaker 12 (14:09):
Logan mcquery and Elizabeth Johnson argue often over her treatment
of baby Gabriel. After an extremely heated argument in June,
Elizabeth flies to Boston with Gabriel to visit her grandmother.
Returning to Arizona in August, Johnson meets Tammy Peter Smith
during an airport layover in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Smith initiates
a conversation that leads to a discussion about Smith and
her husband adopting Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Baby Lisa Irwin vanishes from our crib in the middle
of the night. Then a key witness sees a suspicious
man that night carrying a baby. This potential suspect has
never been interviewed before, but Megan Kelly tracks him down.
Megan Kelly Investigates is a five part series releasing every
(14:57):
weekday beginning Monday, March ten, Available on YouTube Series six
XM and wherever you listen to The Megan Kelly Show podcast.
Click the link in the description of this episode for more.
Speaker 13 (15:10):
Arizona mom Elizabeth Johnson wants to put her month old
son Gabriel up for adoption and believe she may have
found the right couple at an airport, but father Logan
strongly disagrees and a heated custody battle ensues.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Give the baby to a couple you meet at the airport.
Let me understand, Yemmy Verrheim with us Kabb. He's been
on the story from the very beginning. That's been confirmed, right.
We know that mom wanted to give the baby away
probably I would say taking a fee while guess from
(15:49):
a couple. She just meets at the airport. That's been confirmed, correct,
that's been confirmed.
Speaker 7 (15:53):
And Nancy, actually I'm going to take you back a
little bit. You interviewed Tammy and Jack Smith when this
first happened. They went on air with you and they
were talking about them trying to help to find Elizabeth,
and pretty much we found them on my Space. Back then,
it was my Space, there was no Facebook. So when
(16:16):
we found we started sending messages and getting information from them,
and they told us that yes, he had traveled to
San Antonio, that they were trying to find her, that
they wanted to get them back, that they basically had
wanted to adopt him, but when they were told that
they couldn't adopt him, that they were just trying to
(16:38):
get her back to Tempe and get the baby back
to Logan because at that point it was custodial interference
since Logan.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Was supposed to have the baby back back to Abel
Pinya joining us from Project absentis Abel. I know in
your line of business, you know what EMO, Mitrosoft and
I method of operation means, and with practically every criminal
I took to trial, there was a precursor. You could
(17:09):
see a pattern emerging before the ultimate crime. And here
we see her all the way back to her teen
years when she was selling her eggs. She had no
intention of ever having children, not judging, don't care. I
just want to find baby Gabriel. And then it goes
on from there. It graduates to her trying to give
away to the baby to strangers in an airport, which
(17:32):
leads me to think that is what she did. Again.
Speaker 10 (17:35):
Well, I have had conversations with Tammy Smith, lengthy conversations
with her, and at that time she was somewhere in Africa.
She's back, actually back in the United States. I believe
she's living in an Arizona again. But I came to
the conclusion that, you know, Gabriel, that Tammy was did
(17:56):
not have custody of Gabriel over there in Africa. I
don't believemmy. I think Tammyan and Jack wanted Gabriel. I
think they were making, I mean efforts to get Gabriel,
but for some reason, things just didn't materialize, and Elizabeth
had maybe some other you know, ideas about what she
was going to do with Gabriel. But the things I
(18:17):
don't believe happened that way, that Tammy and Jack wanted it,
And I do not believe that Tammy and Jack ever
took custody of Gabriel.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Guys, where is baby Gabriel? What does that mean? What
does that mean? Probatively to Tim Maloney, the dad Logan
mcquarie's lawyer, I've argued this a million times to jury.
When you don't know what someone is going to do,
you look at what they've already done. This wasn't the
(18:47):
first time she tried to give the baby away.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
The thing about it is her pattern of history is
so erratic that and also you do un a fan,
you know, audience does the stand that she did an
effect of path to the murder itself, and then we can't.
And you know, that's what we're getting back to the
issue of that night that as you know that critical
forty eight hours, you have to really make a decision
(19:12):
as to where the investigation is going to go.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I think the current incident of baby Gabriel potentially being
given away or sold goes back to something that happened
on December nine.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Listen on December ninth, Johnson is arrested on suspicion of
providing false information to law enforcement when she lies to
authorities about where Gabriel is, telling Tempe Arizona police that
McCrary kidnapped the baby Gabriel has found at Tammy Smith's residence,
but police let Gabriel stay after Smith shows police a
document in which Johnson signed over temporary guardianship of Gabriel
(19:45):
to Smith.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Logan McQuary baby Gabriel's dad. Did you have any idea
at the time that she was trying to give your
baby away, even pretend somebody else was the bio dad?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
No, I didn't know that at all.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Did you ever agree to putting your child up for adoption?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
No, there's no way I was going to. I told
her I wanted to try to raise Gabriel on my own.
If she didn't want to be a part of it,
then that was up there.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
Logan mcquery says he never supported giving up Gabriel for
adoption and seeks custody of his son and family court
or a judge awards joint legal custody of baby Gabriel
to Johnson and McQuary on December seventeenth. On December eighteenth,
the Smith's return Gabriel to Elizabeth Johnson. The judge orders
McQuary to have physical custody of his son for a
(20:32):
period beginning December twentieth, but when McQuary calls Johnson to
make arrangements to pick up his son, Johnson tells him
he will never see his son again. When McQuary goes
to Johnson's home, the place has been completely emptied.
Speaker 13 (20:45):
Against his dad's wishes. Baby Gabriel is left in the
care of an Arizona couple Mommy Elizabeth, met while at
an airport in Indianapolis. As Logan tries to gain custody
of the child, Elizabeth leaves a worrying message on Logan's phone.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
It seems as if this mom, Elizabeth, will do anything
to strike out at the biodad Logan mcquarie, who is
joining us tonight, Police desperately try to put together a timeline.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Putting together a timeline police determine after the custody hearing
on December seventeenth, where Logan McQuary is granted shared physical
custody of Gabriel, Johnson borrows her grandfather's nineteen ninety five
Olds Delta eighty eight meets up with Tammy Smith, who
had been taking care of Gabriel, and drives to San Antonio, Texas,
arriving on December twenty two. Elizabeth and Gabriel stay at
the Quality Innfiesta Park, then moved to the Homegay Studios
(21:38):
in Suites, hiring a babysitter on Craiglist to watch Gabriel
at the hotel, Johnson instructs the sitter to give Gabriel
a bottle about every hour and if he cries, give
him medicine to shut him up.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Logan mcquery, did you have any idea where she was
at that time with baby Gabriel and hiring a babysitter
online and telling the babysitter, Hey, if he christ too much,
just give him me so we'll quote shut up. Did
you have any idea any of this was going on?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, I had no clue at all. I mean, we
were looking for the whole time, but just I wouldn't
even imagine that was going on at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Logan, did she ever threaten to hurt baby Gabriel to
get at you?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
One time he was bouncing in his chair and screaming
and crying, and she went over and kind of flicked
the back of the chair and he flipped over on
his face, and I got really pissed off and told
her she can't do that, and she just yelled at
me shut them up.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
So I'm trying to make sense of what this woman
Elizabeth Johnson did with baby Gabriel, because she gave so
many conflicting accounts. Every time she would speak to Logan McQuary,
the bio dad should give another painful explanation of where
is baby Gabriel? But isn't it true to Abel Pinya
(22:52):
joining US director a Project Absentis, who is dedicated to
finding baby Gabriel, that her phone pain where she says
she handed the baby off to this couple at a park.
Speaker 10 (23:05):
Yes, there were pings in the area. I know that
police made efforts to try to locate the park, and
I believe it was Winging Rinker's Park that they here
in San Antonio that they identified.
Speaker 11 (23:19):
They went out there, they.
Speaker 10 (23:21):
Checked for any kind of evidence, forensic evidence. I believe
they even home the area for anything out there just
suggested that she was out there again, she described what
she did. She describes the park, I guess to describing
the parking lot where she sat. So I mean, we
do know that she liked going out to the park.
(23:43):
She could have visited that park at some point in time.
There would have been pings that she was out there again.
You know, we just don't know who she met, you know,
what she did with Gabriel, or where Gabriel was taken
to After.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
That listen, In San Antonio, investigators looking for baby Gabriel
focus on the hotels where Johnson state after arriving in town.
Investigators did find Elizabeth Johnson's grandfather's car, the Delta eighty
eight she drove from Arizona to Texas. It was discovered
parked at the Motel six near Interstate thirty five, close
to a bus stop. Inside the vehicle, investigators found a
(24:21):
baby seat, but no visible signs of violence.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And we learn more the story about a surptitious adoption
of sorts.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
This story involves underground adoption of children and that she
met a couple in a park in San Antonio who
took Gabriel, and that's the story she's still sticking with today.
When investigators talked to her, she was able to describe
the park in San Antonio, including the parking lot that
would hold about twenty.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Cars, Yami verhim joining us. Kabb tell me about her
description of that parking lot and what she says happened there.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
It was actually in her journal the directions how to
get there, like when someone calls you and you're writing
down directions. That was inside the journal that the FBI has,
So she had directions on how to get there, and
once she got there, she described it in these recordings
that you're playing exactly what she did, that the baby
(25:18):
was sitting in the car seat, that she went to
the park and was waiting for the couple. But more
interesting to me is the fact that we actually got
to that hotel that she had been at before the
police even got there, and we were able to talk
to a clerk who described a couple that she had
(25:39):
seen at the hotel talking to Elizabeth a few days
before police tell me that, oh no, that's not true.
I talked to the clerk. It was a young woman
that was going to school here in San Antonio from
the Rio Grande Valley, and she remembered specifically seeing Elizabeth
with a cup. Now again, Elizabeth claims that she gave
(26:03):
the baby to a couple in the park, handed over
the bag, handed over the baby and that was the
last time that she saw him.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That gives me hope. That gives me hope, Logan that
baby Gabriel is still alive and he's out there. He
may not even know that his parents are not his bioparents.
He may not know what Yammy Verhem is telling me
(26:33):
corroborates what Elizabeth said.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yes, And that's why this whole time, you could convince
me either way, it's fifty to fifty. For me. I
want to believe he's out there, and well, you know,
we're searching for him and just hopefully we find him someday.
I mean, we just we try to hold a faith
and that he'll come home from.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
There very often. And I think that Abel and Tim
Maloney will agree with me that when you have a
statement rich in detail by a witness, that it is
more believable. I want you to listen to what else
bio Mom Elizabeth Johnson said.
Speaker 14 (27:14):
At the at the bench that that you met this couple,
that where were they were they at a bench that
was seated next to anything in particular like a DIMENSIONE
water home, dimensioneer treat.
Speaker 11 (27:30):
Or the johnle Jim said or.
Speaker 14 (27:37):
Anything else about this heart that even be call it
and this is you know, this is this is the
important thing. So I want you to take a take
a miment to to relive that moment so fast. Okay, well,
I know it's a fast moment, but it's also a
very crucial moment.
Speaker 11 (27:54):
In your life.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
He's right, the investigator there saying, yes, it was a
fast moment, but it was a crucial moment. We all
have those moments that stick with us forever, and they
are just that a moment, not a minute, not an hour,
a moment. Listen to what else? She says, I looked
a little park.
Speaker 11 (28:18):
Shit as bead walking. I saw a couple sitting down
on the bench, and I show the second TI walk
the other thing. He said my name, So it wasn't
the bench.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Was the bench that she saw a couple in basically
within your vision pretty much as soon as you.
Speaker 11 (28:34):
Got to her, Oh Sam Way Park. I have walked
out of my mom into the park and walked around.
I saw them my heart looking around.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
She says. She walked into the park and was looking
around for them, which tells me Yami Verhem that this
was set up ahead of time, and I'm thinking back
to what was in her journal, and those notes in
her journal were contemporaneous to that time where she was
(29:10):
writing out directions to get to this park. Now, at
the park, is it true? There's a bench that has
been described. Yes, there is a bench.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
There are picnic tables, there's an area for the kids
to play, there's I mean, it's a normal park. You
do have to walk a little bit to get to
some of those picnic tables and benches that are there.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Now.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
Again, if you look at her journal, it's there. But
even more important, if you look also, we have the
log of calls between Jack Smith, Tammy Smith, Elizabeth Logan.
We were able to get all of that from the film,
and there's a flurry of activity going on. I mean,
(29:54):
it's there. It is there if you look at the
phone logs and right before she went, who did she
talk to?
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Again, it was in that journal.
Speaker 7 (30:04):
Now do we believe that, you know, maybe it was
set up and it never happened. That could be, or
it was set up and she did meet a couple
in the park.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Karen start with me, renowned
as psychologist, TV radio trauma expert at Karenstark dot com.
That's Karen with the sea if you were looking for her, Karen.
This woman, Elizabeth Johnson, seems to manipulate everyone around her,
(30:44):
And I could see this couple, Tammy and Jack believing
everything she said. She's very believable and believing that it
was up to them to save baby Gabriel and helping
her her. Janni Rahem believes that Jack, who would have
(31:06):
been an adoptive dad except biodad, was not adopting his
son out. He wants the baby. He wants Baby Gabriel.
So with this flurry of phone calls between her bio
mom and Jack trying to help her, that tends to
(31:29):
give support to the story that she later told that
she gave the baby away to the couple she met
in this part. How is it narcissistic? People can manipulate
others so well, Nancy.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
They're really so adepted being able to convince people. They
they're charming, they're smart, they're able to let you feel like, wow,
I really need to help this person. And yet if
you hear her talking, you don't get any sense of
attachment to this child. You had the twins, I mean,
(32:05):
you love them, you care about them. This woman is
all over the place, trying to get rid of her
baby like it's a dog, not a real person, and
very convincing to people around her that they need a
help because they're worried. They probably have more connection to
the baby than she ever did, so it is plausible
(32:27):
that this actually did happen. She wanted to get rid
of him, She really wanted someone to take him, and
people are always looking for babies, aren't.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Where is baby Gabriel? Did his mother actually give him
away to a couple in apart It would not have
been the first time she tried to give him away
or adopt him out without his dad having any idea
what she was up to. Now here's her description of
the couple that took baby Gabriel with a couple.
Speaker 14 (33:04):
Didn't didn't describe the metaphor me again, this is this
is some of that. Gim me you know, there's a
group of time, and so I take as much time.
And again, middle ages, I know, you know, let me.
Speaker 11 (33:18):
I just want to ask you what lay.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
A middle aged Yeah?
Speaker 14 (33:28):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
To Abel Pina joining us, the director of Project absentis
on the search for baby Gabriel. What's the best description
we have of the couple that she gave baby Gabriel to.
Speaker 10 (33:42):
Yeah, we don't have much of a description of that couple.
I think she's very vague in the descriptions she gives,
and I think really just the interview that was conducted.
We've listened to the interview, uh that she had with police,
and quite honestly, it's it's the there needed to be
more open ended questions rather than there were kind of
(34:04):
a lot of lead on questions. I mean, how many
park benches are in a park. I mean there's park
benches in parks, there's playgrounds in parks. She could have
described any park in the United States.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
I think there were.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Didn't her phone paying in that area where the park was?
Speaker 9 (34:22):
It did ping there.
Speaker 10 (34:24):
She could have been at the park. But all this
and she could have certainly described Raymond Rincus Park because
the way she described it was Raymond Rincus. But it's
also a description of many parks here in San Antonio.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
So okay, let me understand something to Yammy vere him
following up on what Abel is telling us. I want
to gather quickly, Marshall, what we know about that park.
Her phone painged at the park. She describes the park.
She describes going in and looking around and finally seeing
the couple. Another thing in her journal there handwritten descriptions
(35:03):
about how to get to the park. And not only that,
an employee at that motel described seeing her speaking to
a couple beforehand that resembles the description we're given. Is
all of that correct? Correct?
Speaker 7 (35:20):
A lot of those things do match up also with
what the clerk said. And I'm telling you I talked
to that clerk. She gave the description she said where
they were standing. The other thing that stands out about
all of this someone was with Elizabeth while she was here.
(35:40):
That clerk told me that when she went to knock
on the door to tell her that they had to
move to the hotel room upstairs, that there was a
man that answered that door. So who was the person
that was with Elizabeth. There's many questions that have yet
to be answered to the rest of the world. Maybe
the police department in San Antonio knows more about it.
(36:03):
But when I've asked, the person who used to be
the lead investigator who's now one of the deputy chiefs, oh, no,
that wasn't really anything. Well, I talked to the clerk
before they did. I know what she told me, and
this young woman had no reason to lie. She was
actually quite scared to even talk to us then.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And yet another effort to lash out at the bio
dad Logan McCreary, bio mom throws out the worst possibility.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Even though Elizabeth Johnson told Baby Gabriel's father she killed
his son, many people believe she only said that to
her Logan McCreary. At the time of her arrest. Three
days after leaving San Antonio by bus, she tells the
FBI she gave the baby away.
Speaker 9 (36:51):
She gave Elizabeth her diamond ring.
Speaker 8 (36:55):
It was about a three five thousand dollar ring, her
wedding ring.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
I was from care that day, but my granddaughter was
at her house and so she shot her give it
away to Elizabeth.
Speaker 9 (37:10):
That was before the baby disappeared, so.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
There was a money exchange. A thirty five thousand dollars
ring was given to Elizabeth Johnson just before baby Gabriel disappears.
All of this supporting the theory that Baby Gabriel was
given away or sold by mommy. Yet there's this I
(37:36):
would do you know that?
Speaker 9 (37:41):
So I don't yeah before my baby.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Boy to Sandy Paters joining us this is baby Gabriel's aunt, Sandy.
I know when you and Logan hear that, it's like
a dagger in your heart. But what do you make
of her reason for telling Logan she had killed the
(38:14):
baby when all the evidence tends to point to the
fact that she gave or sold the baby, gave away
or sold baby Gabriel.
Speaker 8 (38:23):
When I first heard the recording of Elizabeth and her
saying that she killed Gabriel, I believed her, and so,
like you said, it was unbelievably emotional. However, I think
Elizabeth she was very close to Logan and very jealous
(38:47):
of Logan's relationship with Gabriel, and I believed that at
the beginning, when Elizabeth told Logan that she killed the baby, she.
Speaker 9 (38:57):
Thought Logan would Logan would be able.
Speaker 8 (39:02):
To fix their relationship, go back to what it used
to be like Gabriel wouldn't be with them anymore, and
things would be fine. She had no idea that Logan
would take this to the police and that it would
go national and be the story that it ended up being.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
To Yami Verrheim joining us Kabb Fox twenty nine, San Antonio,
it wouldn't have been the first time that she lashed
out at Logan, lying or even in her behavior, her
physical behavior, just to get back at him, just to
hurt him. So much of the evidence points to the
(39:41):
fact that she sold her own baby.
Speaker 7 (39:44):
That may be the case, and there was a ring
that was found in her possession of San Antonio police
department downplayed it, said that wasn't worth anything, but when
we went back and looked at the records from Tempe,
we were told that that ring was worth a certain
amount of money. Now, we also had an adoption specialist
(40:05):
that I had found independently, and she told us in
San Antonio, San Antonio is known to be an area
where children can be adopted out a little bit easier
because of Texas loss number one and number two, that
it is customary for the birth mom to get some
sort of a quote unquote gift. So the gift cannot
(40:29):
be money, but it could be a ring, it could
be a car, it could be something that comes from
the adoptive parents. So that's why we believe that that
part of the story is also true, that something was
given to her in exchange for the baby. Did she
give the baby for sure to a couple we don't know,
(40:51):
and I think that's part of the reason why Logan
says fifty to fifty. I'll be honest with you, I'm
fifty to fifty to.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Logan mcquery, Logan, what is your message tonight in your
attempt to find your baby?
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Just if anybody knows anything, come forward. The littlest thing
could help. You know, we still want to believe that
Gabriel's out there and we just want to meet him.
See how we doing.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Do you ever dream about Gabriel?
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Definitely, what what do you dream Someday he'll be found
and can meet my kids, me and my family. You know,
he has brothers and sisters that you know still wonder
where he is and wonder they're ever going to meet him.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
If you know or even think you know, where is
a baby Gabriel? Please dial two one zero to zero
seven seven six six zero. And now we remember an
American hero patrol with David Evans, San Antonio PD shot
(41:59):
and killed the line of duty thirty years with l
E law enforcement, leaving behind a grieving wife, Elizabeth, children, Jennifer,
Jeffrey and Julie. American hero Patrolman David Evans, Nancy Grace
signing off goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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