It’s a missing child case with an odd twist — and, authorities believe, possibly a better outcome in store than many.
Tempe, Ariz., resident Elizabeth Johnson told her estranged boyfriend Logan McQueary she had killed their 8-month-old son Gabriel, then backtracked and claimed she had given the boy to a couple she met in Texas.
For now, the incarcerated Johnson isn’t talking, but Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal told Meredith Vieira live on TODAY Thursday they have evidence young Gabriel is alive — and, hopefully, well.
“We are very hopeful, and we are getting information that Gabriel is alive,” Carbajal said. “That’s what’s keeping us going in this investigation, to return Logan’s baby boy to him.”
A frightening message
The missing child case began to unfold Dec. 8, when McQueary split from Johnson and moved out of the couple’s home. The two had experienced relationship problems, many of them involving their child.
Shortly after the baby’s birth, Elizabeth Johnson tried to give the child up for adoption to an Arizona couple, but McQueary fought against it. When McQueary wouldn’t agree to the arrangement, a custody hearing was set for Dec. 28. But two days before the scheduled hearing, he received a text message that chilled him to the bone — Johnson wrote that she had killed their child.
Appearing with Sgt. Carbajal on TODAY Thursday, McQueary said that after receiving the text, he didn’t want to believe his former mate was capable of such an act.
“[I was] scared, and the first thing I did was call her,” McQueary told Vieira. “I kept asking her whether she did it or not. She said ‘yes.’ I didn’t know what to do, so I went to the police.”
‘Emotional wreck’
Police tracked Johnson down in Miami on Dec. 30, but after being arrested on charges of custodial interference, she has refused to give police any indication where the couple’s baby son is. However, Johnson did a phone interview with a Phoenix TV station in which she claimed she handed off Gabriel to a couple she met in a park in San Antonio, Texas. She said her text that she had killed the child was merely a vindictive act intended to hurt McQueary.
Still, the question remains: Where is baby Gabriel? Sgt. Carbajal was measured in his words to Vieira as the investigation continues, but he indicated the child was sighted in San Antonio on Dec. 26 — and that that sighting was after Johnson sent McQueary the text claiming she had killed him.
The priority: Gabriel
Johnson, 23, likely faces even more severe charges than custodial interference, but Sgt. Carbajal told Vieira that that isn’t the police focus right now.
While no one has come forward to say they have Gabriel in hand, McQueary told Vieira he is praying his ex’s story that she gave the child away, not killed him, is the true version of events.
“I’m hoping she did [give Gabriel away], and I’m hoping that they’re taking care of him, and I’m hoping they come forward,” McQueary told Vieira. “If they don’t want to get in trouble or anything, just drop him off at a hospital or fire station — anyplace. Just do the right thing.”
When Vieira asked McQueary if he believed his ex was capable of murdering their son, he replied, “She may be. I don’t want to think that she did it. I believe Gabriel is alive and well.”