Gabriel Johnson #4 2/16/10 - 2/20/11

[N2WISHN]

I still have hope that baby Gabriel will be found alive, but have serious doubts….I can’t get over this mother telling the father about Gabriel’s dead, blue body. It makes me think she may have drowned him. Also, if she gave him away to strangers as revenge against the father it would be counter productive to be locked away in jail as the result of that revenge. The whole purpose would have been to hurt the father, make a few bucks, live the beautiful life and not punish herself.  It seems that if a mother could give her child to strangers then she might also be capable of ending his life. So, if baby is still alive it would seem she would do anything to get out of jail, and that includes telling where he is. I’m afraid she hasn’t told because she did do away with him (shades of Casey Anthony). She seems to be one of those “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it even if I spend the rest of my life in jail” types. That mentality doesn’t equal revenge as she is paying for it by losing her freedom. Too bad water boarding is reserved only for terrorists…….

[mariloo]

I still have hope that baby Gabriel will be found alive, but have serious doubts….I can’t get over this mother telling the father about Gabriel’s dead, blue body. It makes me think she may have drowned him. Also, if she gave him away to strangers as revenge against the father it would be counter productive to be locked away in jail as the result of that revenge. The whole purpose would have been to hurt the father, make a few bucks, live the beautiful life and not punish herself.  It seems that if a mother could give her child to strangers then she might also be capable of ending his life. So, if baby is still alive it would seem she would do anything to get out of jail, and that includes telling where he is. I’m afraid she hasn’t told because she did do away with him (shades of Casey Anthony). She seems to be one of those “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it even if I spend the rest of my life in jail” types. That mentality doesn’t equal revenge as she is paying for it by losing her freedom. Too bad water boarding is reserved only for terrorists…….

What is water boarding?  I would love to get my hands around her throat myself.  I cannot wait till she goes to general population.  One thing about most prison women, they bate baby killers!!!!!!!

[mariloo]

I still have hope that baby Gabriel will be found alive, but have serious doubts….I can’t get over this mother telling the father about Gabriel’s dead, blue body. It makes me think she may have drowned him. Also, if she gave him away to strangers as revenge against the father it would be counter productive to be locked away in jail as the result of that revenge. The whole purpose would have been to hurt the father, make a few bucks, live the beautiful life and not punish herself.  It seems that if a mother could give her child to strangers then she might also be capable of ending his life. So, if baby is still alive it would seem she would do anything to get out of jail, and that includes telling where he is. I’m afraid she hasn’t told because she did do away with him (shades of Casey Anthony). She seems to be one of those “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it even if I spend the rest of my life in jail” types. That mentality doesn’t equal revenge as she is paying for it by losing her freedom. Too bad water boarding is reserved only for terrorists…….

What is water boarding?  I would love to get my hands around her throat myself.  I cannot wait till she goes to general population.  One thing about most prison women, they hate baby killers!!!!!!!

had to correct my spelling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mariloo]

When EJ said, "little blue body", I immediately thought she put him in a freezer.  I don't know where that thought came from.  I guess just seeing these sick mommas doing sick things to their children.

[Missiontoconvict]

Please light a candle for Gabriel. 

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=BGM

[Northern Rose]

Police: Intensity has not declined in Gabriel search

Chief William McManus says the San Antonio Police Department has not pulled back any resources from their search for Baby Gabriel.

“We are pushing forward with this case as fervently as when we started. We have not pulled back one bit.” said McManus.

Police have searched through 1200 tons of landfill garbage and have 3000 tons left to search, but just because nothing has been found does not mean they have given up according to the chief who says they hope to find Gabriel alive, but will pursue the case until a conclusion is reached.

"Some people say the longer you are in law enforcement, the more callous you become and the less these cases affect you, I'm here to tell you I've been in this business for 35 years and the more I'm in it, the more it affects me."


http://www.kens5.com/news/Police-Intensity-has-not-declined-in-Gabriel-search-86435147.html

[labubske]

I haven't looked through the many pages regarding little Gabriel Johnson...so if I repeat something...sorry!

Before I found this group I forwarded some information to Nancy Grace...it may not be of great importance but anyhow...

When looking at Tammi Smiths myspace page and pics... and her husband...something felt OFF...She goes to other countries to perform cleanses...with other people...something just doesn't FEEL right when I look through it and also when I listen to her talk...Jack (I think is his name...I haven't looked through the stuff in awhile) but his page is FULL of porn stars and young women...it just FEELS OFF...has anyone else felt like this?

[seahorse]

Hello Monkey's & Guest,

Misty said March 8 (tomorrow) she had a scheculed court date.  Do the Monkey's know why?  Thank-you.

[Nut44x4]

wrong thread??

[Missiontoconvict]

Police: Intensity has not declined in Gabriel search

Chief William McManus says the San Antonio Police Department has not pulled back any resources from their search for Baby Gabriel.

“We are pushing forward with this case as fervently as when we started. We have not pulled back one bit.” said McManus.

Police have searched through 1200 tons of landfill garbage and have 3000 tons left to search, but just because nothing has been found does not mean they have given up according to the chief who says they hope to find Gabriel alive, but will pursue the case until a conclusion is reached.

"Some people say the longer you are in law enforcement, the more callous you become and the less these cases affect you, I'm here to tell you I've been in this business for 35 years and the more I'm in it, the more it affects me."


http://www.kens5.com/news/Police-Intensity-has-not-declined-in-Gabriel-search-86435147.html

IMO they were far from fervently searching in the beginning...........wonder what is definition of fervent is? 

[newfie]

Hi ALL    Some interesting reading, it appears Tammi was married to two men at the same time as well as an exotic dancer.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/151556
When Tammi Smith and Elizabeth Johnson met for the first time in August at Boston’s Logan International Airport, Johnson no longer wanted to be a mother.

And Smith badly wanted to be a mother again.

That first meeting — as Smith approached the young mother while she was crying with her infant son, Gabriel — was the start of a relationship that has placed the pair at the center of a national search and criminal cases involving the missing child, who was last seen Dec. 26 at a San Antonio motel that authorities have said is a “purported” meeting place for underground adoptions.

Timeline of events

Smith, 37, of Scottsdale, and Johnson, 23, of Tempe, have troubled pasts, similar dysfunctional histories in their relationships and criminal records, according to police reports and court documents.

They are scheduled to appear for separate hearings in Maricopa County Superior Court on Tuesday , both on felony charges in connection with the missing child that Johnson initially said she killed but later claimed hat she had given to an unknown couple in the parking lot of a motel, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.

Johnson’s attorney, Vanessa Smith, who works for the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office, has filed a motion with the court to ban any media coverage of the court proceedings, arguing that it would infringe on Johnson’s right to a fair trial and jeopardize her safety.

Repeated requests for interviews with Smith and her lawyer in recent weeks were declined. Requests for jailhouse interviews with Johnson also were denied.

For eight weeks, the Tribune has combed through police reports and court records from numerous jurisdictions across the country and conducted interviews with more than a dozen people related to the case and the pair’s pasts.

Together, the documents and interviews reveal the story of a troubled young mother eager to be free from her baby and a woman desperate for a second chance at motherhood.

Troubled pasts

Smith once worked as an exotic dancer in New Orleans, aspired to be a country music singer pursuing fortune and fame in Nashville, Tenn., and at one time was married to two men at the same time, according to police reports and court records.

In 2001, she paid to give her three children up for adoption to her ex-husband and his wife after a costly 2½-year custody battle, according to Smith and the second of her five husbands, Kieth Facio. More recently, Smith tried to adopt children from China and Africa, according to her MySpace page, which has since been blocked from public view and Facio.

“She’s trying to fill a gap,” said Facio, who lives with their three teenage children near New Orleans. “Tammi knows she screwed up with her own children and is trying to make up for it. She’s tried to adopt other children for several years, but it always falls through for some reason and she can’t. It’s likely because of her past.”

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Elizabeth Johnson graduated from a college preparatory high school in Boston with a 4.0 grade-point average and earned a full-ride scholarship to Southeastern University in New Hampshire — a $160,000 value — but walked away from it after two weeks because she didn’t like her roommate, her grandfather said.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

He does not believe his granddaughter killed her own baby, and he can’t understand why she won’t tell him where her baby is or help the authorities find Gabriel.

“She wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer,” Robert Johnson said. “She had the smarts. Now, her life is a hell of a mess. I’ve tried to tell her to cooperate with authorities and tell them what she did with Gabriel so she could get on with her life.”

A mother’s rage

In the last year alone, Johnson’s relationship with Gabriel’s father, Logan McQueary, was marked by her outbursts of rage as she destroyed three apartments by tearing up clothes and a couch with a large knife before demolishing a baby bed, smashing a television set and breaking windows, according to Tempe police reports.

When Gabriel would cry, McQueary said that Johnson would shout at him: “Shut that damn baby up!” according to a police report.

On Dec. 9, Johnson was arrested on suspicion of providing false information to law enforcement. She lied to authorities about where Gabriel was after she told Tempe police that McQueary kidnapped the baby.

Instead, Gabriel was at Smith’s residence, where police permitted the baby to stay after the Smiths showed officers a document in which Johnson had signed over temporary guardianship of the boy to the couple.

However, McQueary said he never supported giving up Gabriel for adoption, and the Smiths gave Gabriel back to Johnson on Dec. 18, the day Johnson left for San Antonio in the midst of a custody battle, according to court documents.

During another incident, police had to restrain Johnson in the back of the cruiser as she was slamming her head into windows of the vehicle, according to the police report. Authorities believed Elizabeth had a mental disorder, according to reports. But she was never diagnosed with anything and never received professional care, according to her grandfather.

Of the three apartments and the contents within them Johnson destroyed, one item that survived was a picture of her and her twin brother with their mother as young children, according to Johnson’s grandfather.

“You can’t measure the love between a mother and a child,” Robert Johnson said. “Although Elizabeth’s mother was a drug addict and had other problems, there was still that love between a mother and her child, and Elizabeth loved her mother.”

'Gut feeling’ Gabriel is alive

Since the beginning of the year, the story of “Baby Gabriel” has been in the national media spotlight as McQueary, of Gilbert, remains steadfast in finding his son. For reasons yet to be told, Johnson took Gabriel to San Antonio in late December in the midst of the custody battle.

On Dec. 27, Johnson told McQueary via text message that she killed Gabriel and, in a phone call later that day, told McQueary she stuffed Gabriel’s body in a diaper bag and threw him in a dumpster. But at the time of her arrest three days later at a hostel in Miami Beach, Fla., she told an FBI agent that she gave the boy away.

McQueary’s quest to find his son also includes the pro bono help of renowned private investigator Jay J. Armes, who said his “gut feeling” is that Gabriel is alive and the victim of an underground adoption that possibly has whisked the baby south of the border into Mexico.

The child has blond hair and blue eyes and would have turned 10 months old on March 3.

San Antonio police are conducting a missing persons case parallel to a homicide investigation, not knowing whether the child is alive or dead. More than 30 people currently are searching a section of a landfill to see if they can find anything in connection with the case. Witnesses at the motel also told authorities that they saw Johnson with a Hispanic male and that they appeared to be a couple. However, authorities have been unable to locate him, according to police.

In the ongoing investigation, authorities have compiled 1,575 pages of discovery and 52 CDs of recorded interviews, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents. As the story of “Baby Gabriel” has played out on national television shows, the Web search engine “Google News” shows more than 1 million hits, mostly originating from media outlets throughout the Valley, according to Maricopa County Superior Court records. On the social networking site Facebook, five pages dedicated to the search for Gabriel have at least 14,000 members.

Smith is facing charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference and is free on $15,000 bond. Smith and her husband, Jack, who were interested in adopting Gabriel, were named by Tempe police as persons of interest in the case because authorities believed the Smiths withheld information that could have led to the whereabouts of the boy.

Johnson has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. She is being held in a Maricopa County jail on a $1.1 million cash bond.

The Smiths have maintained their innocence and have been adamant that all they tried to do was talk Johnson into returning to Arizona with the baby. They have never been suspects in the baby’s disappearance.

Desperation and deception

Investigators said it was Tammi Smith’s “desperate attempts” to adopt the child that hindered the investigation. Police allege that the Smiths had a plan in place to adopt Gabriel or were developing a plan to somehow pick up the child in Nashville, Tenn., and her contradictory statements to police and to the media led to her arrest. Jack Smith, a former pedal steel guitarist in the Grand Ole Opry’s House Band in Nashville and a former studio musician for country music singer “Whisperin’ Bill” Anderson, was cleared in the case.

Smith’s attempts to acquire custody of the boy included trying to persuade a Maricopa County Family Court judge into letting her adopt Gabriel as she told the judge during a recorded phone message that she believed Johnson would bring the child back to Arizona if she knew he would be “safe.”

Smith also researched the possibility of changing the jurisdiction of Johnson’s custody hearing and the possibility of adopting both a child and an adult so she could adopt Johnson and Gabriel in order to have custody of her child, according to court documents.

Smith also wrote the name of her first cousin, an ex-convict named Craig Cherry, as being a potential father to Gabriel on a paternity-test petition before she drove Johnson to the courthouse, according to court documents, which lead to the forgery charge against her.

In late 1996, Smith was arrested in another forgery case — for stealing checks from Facio and signing his name to them, according to St. Bernard Parish District Court documents in Louisiana. Smith was not authorized because her spending habits had put the family in financial straits before, according to a police report. The charges against Smith were later reduced to attempted theft, misdemeanors, and she was ordered to repay Facio $1,149 in restitution, according to court records.

“Hey, the money was mine, too,” Smith said in a brief telephone interview with the Tribune.

She claimed that the fourth man she married — Michael Edwyne Riddle — forced her into marrying him at the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville on Nov. 30, 1998, according to court records. Smith said Riddle beat her so badly that she knew she was at the courthouse but didn’t realize she was getting married, the documents state. When Smith married Riddle, she became married to two men at the same time — Mikel Sikora of Phoenix was the other, according to court records.

When Sikora was contacted by the Tribune, he replied, “I think I’ll stay out of this one.”

Smith, who said she could not track down Riddle, had the marriage annulled in Maricopa County Superior Court in 2001, according to court records.

When Smith was asked by the Tribune about Riddle or if she has been in contact with him, she said, “Who’s Mike Riddle? And why would I want to contact him?”

During 2006 and 2007, Smith operated a colon-cleansing business in Nashville for 15 months without a license before the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners ordered her to close and fined her, according to a document from the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners.

Neglect and silence

Smith’s oldest daughter, Gabriele Victoria Facio, 19, recently wrote in a Facebook message to a Tribune reporter that she only considers Tammi her biological mother and not her “real mother.”

“She neglected us,” Gabriele Facio said. “She took us, sorta kidnapped us, right before I turned 6. After that, my dad had enough and divorced her. She wanted money and fame. She didn’t like working or taking care of children. It was never her thing. She wanted to make an album, be a country singer. That’s when she met Jack and left her guy.

“In the end, it was us or him. She chose him.”

Gabriele also said she helped raised her siblings.

“I remember being mom,” she said. “I helped my dad raise my brother and sister. I cared for them even when Tammi was around. She neglected us, didn’t always feed us, didn’t always change diapers. She spanked us for crying or doing something little. We were children.”

Although Smith does not express any regrets for giving up the rights to her children, she said, “I love my children very much and I always will.”

Robert Johnson isn’t sure if his granddaughter feels the same way about her child. He said he never heard Elizabeth express “any particular joy” in having Gabriel, and he said he never heard her say that she loved him.

Nearly three months after she fled Arizona with Gabriel, Elizabeth Johnson still refuses to reveal his whereabouts.

The longer the case continues without Johnson revealing where Gabriel is, concern increases that the case will have a “tragic outcome,” according to Dr. Erin Nelson, a forensic psychologist who has worked for Steven Pitt and Associates in Scottsdale on national cases such as the Columbine school shootings in Colorado, the rape allegations against Kobe Bryant and the Baseline Rapist case in Phoenix.

“It’s not an accident she’s keeping her mouth shut. Denial is a powerful psychological defense mechanism,” Nelson said. “But there can be a number of factors that can ultimately compel someone to cooperate.”

A “significant person,” Nelson said, might be able to get Elizabeth Johnson to talk. Or, she added, an attorney telling the young mother what she’s facing might prompt her to cooperate.

Johnson’s attorneys are urging her to remain quiet as part of their legal strategy. But her grandfather wants her to come clean — now.

“Tell them where the baby is and get on with it,” Robert Johnson said. “If the baby is alive and well, she’ll be able to get out of jail, but she seems content with staying there.

“I just don’t understand. I still don’t understand why she won’t say where that baby is

[seahorse]

Hi ALL    Some interesting reading, it appears Tammi was married to two men at the same time as well as an exotic dancer.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/151556
When Tammi Smith and Elizabeth Johnson met for the first time in August at Boston’s Logan International Airport, Johnson no longer wanted to be a mother.

And Smith badly wanted to be a mother again.

That first meeting — as Smith approached the young mother while she was crying with her infant son, Gabriel — was the start of a relationship that has placed the pair at the center of a national search and criminal cases involving the missing child, who was last seen Dec. 26 at a San Antonio motel that authorities have said is a “purported” meeting place for underground adoptions.

Timeline of events

Smith, 37, of Scottsdale, and Johnson, 23, of Tempe, have troubled pasts, similar dysfunctional histories in their relationships and criminal records, according to police reports and court documents.

They are scheduled to appear for separate hearings in Maricopa County Superior Court on Tuesday , both on felony charges in connection with the missing child that Johnson initially said she killed but later claimed hat she had given to an unknown couple in the parking lot of a motel, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.

Johnson’s attorney, Vanessa Smith, who works for the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office, has filed a motion with the court to ban any media coverage of the court proceedings, arguing that it would infringe on Johnson’s right to a fair trial and jeopardize her safety.

Repeated requests for interviews with Smith and her lawyer in recent weeks were declined. Requests for jailhouse interviews with Johnson also were denied.

For eight weeks, the Tribune has combed through police reports and court records from numerous jurisdictions across the country and conducted interviews with more than a dozen people related to the case and the pair’s pasts.

Together, the documents and interviews reveal the story of a troubled young mother eager to be free from her baby and a woman desperate for a second chance at motherhood.

Troubled pasts

Smith once worked as an exotic dancer in New Orleans, aspired to be a country music singer pursuing fortune and fame in Nashville, Tenn., and at one time was married to two men at the same time, according to police reports and court records.

In 2001, she paid to give her three children up for adoption to her ex-husband and his wife after a costly 2½-year custody battle, according to Smith and the second of her five husbands, Kieth Facio. More recently, Smith tried to adopt children from China and Africa, according to her MySpace page, which has since been blocked from public view and Facio.

“She’s trying to fill a gap,” said Facio, who lives with their three teenage children near New Orleans. “Tammi knows she screwed up with her own children and is trying to make up for it. She’s tried to adopt other children for several years, but it always falls through for some reason and she can’t. It’s likely because of her past.”

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Elizabeth Johnson graduated from a college preparatory high school in Boston with a 4.0 grade-point average and earned a full-ride scholarship to Southeastern University in New Hampshire — a $160,000 value — but walked away from it after two weeks because she didn’t like her roommate, her grandfather said.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

He does not believe his granddaughter killed her own baby, and he can’t understand why she won’t tell him where her baby is or help the authorities find Gabriel.

“She wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer,” Robert Johnson said. “She had the smarts. Now, her life is a hell of a mess. I’ve tried to tell her to cooperate with authorities and tell them what she did with Gabriel so she could get on with her life.”

A mother’s rage

In the last year alone, Johnson’s relationship with Gabriel’s father, Logan McQueary, was marked by her outbursts of rage as she destroyed three apartments by tearing up clothes and a couch with a large knife before demolishing a baby bed, smashing a television set and breaking windows, according to Tempe police reports.

When Gabriel would cry, McQueary said that Johnson would shout at him: “Shut that damn baby up!” according to a police report.

On Dec. 9, Johnson was arrested on suspicion of providing false information to law enforcement. She lied to authorities about where Gabriel was after she told Tempe police that McQueary kidnapped the baby.

Instead, Gabriel was at Smith’s residence, where police permitted the baby to stay after the Smiths showed officers a document in which Johnson had signed over temporary guardianship of the boy to the couple.

However, McQueary said he never supported giving up Gabriel for adoption, and the Smiths gave Gabriel back to Johnson on Dec. 18, the day Johnson left for San Antonio in the midst of a custody battle, according to court documents.

During another incident, police had to restrain Johnson in the back of the cruiser as she was slamming her head into windows of the vehicle, according to the police report. Authorities believed Elizabeth had a mental disorder, according to reports. But she was never diagnosed with anything and never received professional care, according to her grandfather.

Of the three apartments and the contents within them Johnson destroyed, one item that survived was a picture of her and her twin brother with their mother as young children, according to Johnson’s grandfather.

“You can’t measure the love between a mother and a child,” Robert Johnson said. “Although Elizabeth’s mother was a drug addict and had other problems, there was still that love between a mother and her child, and Elizabeth loved her mother.”

'Gut feeling’ Gabriel is alive

Since the beginning of the year, the story of “Baby Gabriel” has been in the national media spotlight as McQueary, of Gilbert, remains steadfast in finding his son. For reasons yet to be told, Johnson took Gabriel to San Antonio in late December in the midst of the custody battle.

On Dec. 27, Johnson told McQueary via text message that she killed Gabriel and, in a phone call later that day, told McQueary she stuffed Gabriel’s body in a diaper bag and threw him in a dumpster. But at the time of her arrest three days later at a hostel in Miami Beach, Fla., she told an FBI agent that she gave the boy away.

McQueary’s quest to find his son also includes the pro bono help of renowned private investigator Jay J. Armes, who said his “gut feeling” is that Gabriel is alive and the victim of an underground adoption that possibly has whisked the baby south of the border into Mexico.

The child has blond hair and blue eyes and would have turned 10 months old on March 3.

San Antonio police are conducting a missing persons case parallel to a homicide investigation, not knowing whether the child is alive or dead. More than 30 people currently are searching a section of a landfill to see if they can find anything in connection with the case. Witnesses at the motel also told authorities that they saw Johnson with a Hispanic male and that they appeared to be a couple. However, authorities have been unable to locate him, according to police.

In the ongoing investigation, authorities have compiled 1,575 pages of discovery and 52 CDs of recorded interviews, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents. As the story of “Baby Gabriel” has played out on national television shows, the Web search engine “Google News” shows more than 1 million hits, mostly originating from media outlets throughout the Valley, according to Maricopa County Superior Court records. On the social networking site Facebook, five pages dedicated to the search for Gabriel have at least 14,000 members.

Smith is facing charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference and is free on $15,000 bond. Smith and her husband, Jack, who were interested in adopting Gabriel, were named by Tempe police as persons of interest in the case because authorities believed the Smiths withheld information that could have led to the whereabouts of the boy.

Johnson has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference. She is being held in a Maricopa County jail on a $1.1 million cash bond.

The Smiths have maintained their innocence and have been adamant that all they tried to do was talk Johnson into returning to Arizona with the baby. They have never been suspects in the baby’s disappearance.

Desperation and deception

Investigators said it was Tammi Smith’s “desperate attempts” to adopt the child that hindered the investigation. Police allege that the Smiths had a plan in place to adopt Gabriel or were developing a plan to somehow pick up the child in Nashville, Tenn., and her contradictory statements to police and to the media led to her arrest. Jack Smith, a former pedal steel guitarist in the Grand Ole Opry’s House Band in Nashville and a former studio musician for country music singer “Whisperin’ Bill” Anderson, was cleared in the case.

Smith’s attempts to acquire custody of the boy included trying to persuade a Maricopa County Family Court judge into letting her adopt Gabriel as she told the judge during a recorded phone message that she believed Johnson would bring the child back to Arizona if she knew he would be “safe.”

Smith also researched the possibility of changing the jurisdiction of Johnson’s custody hearing and the possibility of adopting both a child and an adult so she could adopt Johnson and Gabriel in order to have custody of her child, according to court documents.

Smith also wrote the name of her first cousin, an ex-convict named Craig Cherry, as being a potential father to Gabriel on a paternity-test petition before she drove Johnson to the courthouse, according to court documents, which lead to the forgery charge against her.

In late 1996, Smith was arrested in another forgery case — for stealing checks from Facio and signing his name to them, according to St. Bernard Parish District Court documents in Louisiana. Smith was not authorized because her spending habits had put the family in financial straits before, according to a police report. The charges against Smith were later reduced to attempted theft, misdemeanors, and she was ordered to repay Facio $1,149 in restitution, according to court records.

“Hey, the money was mine, too,” Smith said in a brief telephone interview with the Tribune.

She claimed that the fourth man she married — Michael Edwyne Riddle — forced her into marrying him at the Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville on Nov. 30, 1998, according to court records. Smith said Riddle beat her so badly that she knew she was at the courthouse but didn’t realize she was getting married, the documents state. When Smith married Riddle, she became married to two men at the same time — Mikel Sikora of Phoenix was the other, according to court records.

When Sikora was contacted by the Tribune, he replied, “I think I’ll stay out of this one.”

Smith, who said she could not track down Riddle, had the marriage annulled in Maricopa County Superior Court in 2001, according to court records.

When Smith was asked by the Tribune about Riddle or if she has been in contact with him, she said, “Who’s Mike Riddle? And why would I want to contact him?”

During 2006 and 2007, Smith operated a colon-cleansing business in Nashville for 15 months without a license before the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners ordered her to close and fined her, according to a document from the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners.

Neglect and silence

Smith’s oldest daughter, Gabriele Victoria Facio, 19, recently wrote in a Facebook message to a Tribune reporter that she only considers Tammi her biological mother and not her “real mother.”

“She neglected us,” Gabriele Facio said. “She took us, sorta kidnapped us, right before I turned 6. After that, my dad had enough and divorced her. She wanted money and fame. She didn’t like working or taking care of children. It was never her thing. She wanted to make an album, be a country singer. That’s when she met Jack and left her guy.

“In the end, it was us or him. She chose him.”

Gabriele also said she helped raised her siblings.

“I remember being mom,” she said. “I helped my dad raise my brother and sister. I cared for them even when Tammi was around. She neglected us, didn’t always feed us, didn’t always change diapers. She spanked us for crying or doing something little. We were children.”

Although Smith does not express any regrets for giving up the rights to her children, she said, “I love my children very much and I always will.”

Robert Johnson isn’t sure if his granddaughter feels the same way about her child. He said he never heard Elizabeth express “any particular joy” in having Gabriel, and he said he never heard her say that she loved him.

Nearly three months after she fled Arizona with Gabriel, Elizabeth Johnson still refuses to reveal his whereabouts.

The longer the case continues without Johnson revealing where Gabriel is, concern increases that the case will have a “tragic outcome,” according to Dr. Erin Nelson, a forensic psychologist who has worked for Steven Pitt and Associates in Scottsdale on national cases such as the Columbine school shootings in Colorado, the rape allegations against Kobe Bryant and the Baseline Rapist case in Phoenix.

“It’s not an accident she’s keeping her mouth shut. Denial is a powerful psychological defense mechanism,” Nelson said. “But there can be a number of factors that can ultimately compel someone to cooperate.”

A “significant person,” Nelson said, might be able to get Elizabeth Johnson to talk. Or, she added, an attorney telling the young mother what she’s facing might prompt her to cooperate.

Johnson’s attorneys are urging her to remain quiet as part of their legal strategy. But her grandfather wants her to come clean — now.

“Tell them where the baby is and get on with it,” Robert Johnson said. “If the baby is alive and well, she’ll be able to get out of jail, but she seems content with staying there.

“I just don’t understand. I still don’t understand why she won’t say where that baby is

Newfie,

Thank-you.  This is interesting and mind-boggling, you can't make this stuff up!  We found she was married to two guys at the
same time, exotic dancer? 

[Missiontoconvict]

Thank you Newfie - very interesting indeed.  Snipped from your post above;

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

So her mother was not murdered but rather drowned?  I wish they would have given more info such as the year and a name but that is interesting.

The other interesting thing is the that EJ was looking to sell her eggs??????  Hmmmm could that be how her and Tammi Smith met?  I am thinking that may be the connection - I have never been able to wrap my arms around the airport story.  Wow.
 
As far as Tammi goes I would not doubt for one minute she was an exotic dancer in NO may have to dig on that one a bit.  Tammi has a deep dark past IMO, she had absolutely no right to involve herself with EJ and Gabriel when her past speaks for itself, she is a hypocrite, a liar and a fraud. For her to desperately seek a child to adopt when she is not even allowed to do by law, considering she gave up her own children, speaks volumes to me, she would more than likely do whatever it took to get her hands on Gabriel, she hooked her wagon to a star and now the star is gone.  I hope this woman pays dearly for what she has done. 

[mymonkey]

Thank you Newfie - very interesting indeed.  Snipped from your post above;

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

So her mother was not murdered but rather drowned?  I wish they would have given more info such as the year and a name but that is interesting.

The other interesting thing is the that EJ was looking to sell her eggs??????  Hmmmm could that be how her and Tammi Smith met?  I am thinking that may be the connection - I have never been able to wrap my arms around the airport story.  Wow.
 
As far as Tammi goes I would not doubt for one minute she was an exotic dancer in NO may have to dig on that one a bit.  Tammi has a deep dark past IMO, she had absolutely no right to involve herself with EJ and Gabriel when her past speaks for itself, she is a hypocrite, a liar and a fraud. For her to desperately seek a child to adopt when she is not even allowed to do by law, considering she gave up her own children, speaks volumes to me, she would more than likely do whatever it took to get her hands on Gabriel, she hooked her wagon to a star and now the star is gone.  I hope this woman pays dearly for what she has done. 

I would feel safe to say Tammi was in for the money....not for the love of children...Jack is probably the one that wanted to adopt Hannah...jmo

[Northern Rose]

Thank you Newfie - very interesting indeed.  Snipped from your post above;

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

So her mother was not murdered but rather drowned?  I wish they would have given more info such as the year and a name but that is interesting.

The other interesting thing is the that EJ was looking to sell her eggs??????  Hmmmm could that be how her and Tammi Smith met?  I am thinking that may be the connection - I have never been able to wrap my arms around the airport story.  Wow.
 
As far as Tammi goes I would not doubt for one minute she was an exotic dancer in NO may have to dig on that one a bit.  Tammi has a deep dark past IMO, she had absolutely no right to involve herself with EJ and Gabriel when her past speaks for itself, she is a hypocrite, a liar and a fraud. For her to desperately seek a child to adopt when she is not even allowed to do by law, considering she gave up her own children, speaks volumes to me, she would more than likely do whatever it took to get her hands on Gabriel, she hooked her wagon to a star and now the star is gone.  I hope this woman pays dearly for what she has done. 

Now I really wonder if EJ sold her embryos to Jennalee Ryan aka Jennifer Potter
and re connected with her to get Gabriel adopted.  I posted about her in the first thread

Jennalee Ryan aka Jennifer Potter

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-06-07/news/ringing-up-baby/

Jennalee Ryan, Abraham Center of Life, Jennalee Ryan CEO and Founder Abagails Silver Spoon Adoptions, Inc. Adoption Placement Service and the World’s First Donor Created Human Embryo Bank, Connected to James Webb Agent of the Adoption Center of Choice in Orem Utah!

http://babyselling.com/bryn/2008/01/14/jennalee-ryan-abraham-center-of-life-jennalee-ryan-ceo-and-founder-abagails-silver-spoon-adoptions-inc-adoption-placement-service-and-the-worlds-first-donor-created-human-embryo-bank/

[Missiontoconvict]

Thank you Newfie - very interesting indeed.  Snipped from your post above;

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

So her mother was not murdered but rather drowned?  I wish they would have given more info such as the year and a name but that is interesting.

The other interesting thing is the that EJ was looking to sell her eggs??????  Hmmmm could that be how her and Tammi Smith met?  I am thinking that may be the connection - I have never been able to wrap my arms around the airport story.  Wow.
 
As far as Tammi goes I would not doubt for one minute she was an exotic dancer in NO may have to dig on that one a bit.  Tammi has a deep dark past IMO, she had absolutely no right to involve herself with EJ and Gabriel when her past speaks for itself, she is a hypocrite, a liar and a fraud. For her to desperately seek a child to adopt when she is not even allowed to do by law, considering she gave up her own children, speaks volumes to me, she would more than likely do whatever it took to get her hands on Gabriel, she hooked her wagon to a star and now the star is gone.  I hope this woman pays dearly for what she has done. 

I would feel safe to say Tammi was in for the money....not for the love of children...Jack is probably the one that wanted to adopt Hannah...jmo

ITA mymonkey and what a better way to be tied to his purse strings than through children - she is disgusting.

[Missiontoconvict]

Thank you Newfie - very interesting indeed.  Snipped from your post above;

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up with her twin brother in five different foster homes before the age of 10 due to her drug-addicted mother drowning when Elizabeth was about 12 and her father dying of liver cancer in 2007, according to Johnson’s grandfather, Robert Johnson of Scottsdale.

Robert Johnson said his granddaughter has always been “secretive,” and when she was a teenager, she flew from Boston — where she was living with her grandmother — to California to sell her reproductive eggs for cash to someone she contacted on the Internet.

So her mother was not murdered but rather drowned?  I wish they would have given more info such as the year and a name but that is interesting.

The other interesting thing is the that EJ was looking to sell her eggs??????  Hmmmm could that be how her and Tammi Smith met?  I am thinking that may be the connection - I have never been able to wrap my arms around the airport story.  Wow.
 
As far as Tammi goes I would not doubt for one minute she was an exotic dancer in NO may have to dig on that one a bit.  Tammi has a deep dark past IMO, she had absolutely no right to involve herself with EJ and Gabriel when her past speaks for itself, she is a hypocrite, a liar and a fraud. For her to desperately seek a child to adopt when she is not even allowed to do by law, considering she gave up her own children, speaks volumes to me, she would more than likely do whatever it took to get her hands on Gabriel, she hooked her wagon to a star and now the star is gone.  I hope this woman pays dearly for what she has done. 

Now I really wonder if EJ sold her embryos to Jennalee Ryan aka Jennifer Potter
and re connected with her to get Gabriel adopted.  I posted about her in the first thread

Jennalee Ryan aka Jennifer Potter

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-06-07/news/ringing-up-baby/

Jennalee Ryan, Abraham Center of Life, Jennalee Ryan CEO and Founder Abagails Silver Spoon Adoptions, Inc. Adoption Placement Service and the World’s First Donor Created Human Embryo Bank, Connected to James Webb Agent of the Adoption Center of Choice in Orem Utah!

http://babyselling.com/bryn/2008/01/14/jennalee-ryan-abraham-center-of-life-jennalee-ryan-ceo-and-founder-abagails-silver-spoon-adoptions-inc-adoption-placement-service-and-the-worlds-first-donor-created-human-embryo-bank/

I remember that article very well, a good read. I think you are right - this could be the person she connected with because this woman also did a lot of adoptions out of Texas, in fact she worked across state lines because the laws were more lenient on various things ie adoption, stripping fathers of their parental rights etc.  I wonder if Logan and JJ Armes are aware of this woman???

[Northern Rose]

El Paso's secret agent still on the job: Latest case focuses on 8-month-old Arizona boy

EL PASO -- Jay J. Armes, El Paso's controversial and flamboyant private investigator, is back in the spotlight -- just as he likes it.

This time he is trying to find out what happened to 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson of Tempe, Ariz., who was last seen on Dec. 26 in San Antonio with his mother, Elizabeth Johnson. The mother was arrested in Florida and extradited to Arizona, where she faces charges of kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.

The baby was not with her when she was arrested, so the boy's father, Logan McQueary of Tempe, hired Armes.

Armes, 77, said he took the case because he believes the baby is alive, was probably sold and is most likely in Mexico.

"The baby is still out there; I know that," Armes said. "I got so many agents working on it that I know we'll find him. I selected these agents myself. They are top-notch."

Among those helping Armes are Bill Dear, a private investigator from Dallas who ran for governor in last week's Democratic primary election, and the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

"When I'm on a case, I'm on it all-out and full-time," Armes said. "It's what I do."

It's that braggadocio, coupled with his limousine-riding lifestyle, that for five decades has made Armes one of the most well-known El Pasoans and one of the most scrutinized.

MORE....

http://**/ci_14527879?source=most_viewed

[Northern Rose]

Elizabeth Johnson set to appear in court, but refusing to leave her cell

PHOENIX - A Tempe mother is back in court this morning to face charges stemming from the disappearance of her baby.

Police, along with the FBI, believe Elizabeth Johnson was the last person to see her son, 10-month-old Gabriel Johnson.

Elizabeth Johnson is facing a judge this morning for a pre-trial conference on a long list of charges related to baby Gabriel's disappearance.

It's been more than two months since Gabriel Johnson has been seen and while the search continues for the toddler, the court proceeding against his mother will move forward.

Johnson is being charged with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference.

She has entered a not guilty plea.

This all stems from the disappearance of her son back in December.

At one point she told the baby's father she killed their son and then turned around and told investigators she gave the little boy away to complete strangers in a San Antonio park.

Johnson is expected to physically be in court this morning, but reports have indicated she is refusing to leave her cell

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Elizabeth-Johnson-set-to-appear-in-court-but-refusing-to-leave-her-cell-87113417.html

** They don't have tazers in the jail?

[Northern Rose]

Court is at 9:30 this morning.

No news if cameras are allowed in court

Court will go on with or without her there

Video http://www.azfamily.com/news/Elizabeth-Johnson-set-to-appear-in-court-but-refusing-to-leave-her-cell-87113417.html