Baby Gabriel case

Jury selection has begun in the trial of the mother of an infant who was 8 months old when he was last
seen almost three years ago. But the Baby Gabriel case is not a murder case. Elizabeth Johnson is facing charges of kidnapping, custodial interference and child abuse only.

No one has any idea if Baby Gabriel is alive or dead.

At one point, Johnson claimed that she had killed the child and put his body in a dumpster, but later changed her story and gave her son to a couple she did not know in San Antonio at the direction of a woman named Tammi Smith who wanted to adopt Gabriel.

Tammi Smith Convicted

Adding some credence to Johnson's latter story was the conviction in May of Smith by a jury for forgery and conspiracy to interfere with the infant's custody. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail followed by probation.

But Smith's conviction had nothing to do with Gabriel's disappearance, only actions that she took to falsify adoption papers so that it seemed that someone other than Logan McQueary was the boy's father.

"I pray every day that Gabriel is alive and that he is found," Smith told the court when she was sentenced in July.

Johnson Once Rules Incompetent

The only person who knows what really happened to Gabriel is Johnson, who at one point was ruled incompetent to stand trial by an Arizona judge.

Johnson's legal problems began after a judge awarded joint custody to Johnson and McQueary on Dec. 17, 2009. Rather than obey the court order, Johnson fled the state and took Gabriel to Texas.

Several days later, McQueary received several text messages from Johnson, which have now been released by the court:

"I killed him. U will never see Gabriel again, I made sure of that. And you can spend the rest of ur pathetic life wondering about him."

"U will never find me im already bording a plane. Out of the country. When im safe ill email u the exact location of dead gabriels little blue body. If the garbage don't come first."

'I Put Him in the Trash

Johnson repeated the claim in a phone call that McQueary recorded:

Johnson: "You made me do this."

McQuery: "You did not hurt Gabriel."

Johnson: "Yes, I did. I suffocated him. I suffocated him and he turned blue. And I put him in his diaper bag and I put him in the trash can."

Court observers and family members are hoping that the trial will provide some answers to what really happened to Baby Gabriel.

Source : http://crime.about.com/b/2012/09/06/baby-gabriel-trial-set-to-begin.htm