Sixteen years after 8-month-old Gabriel Johnson went missing, police have new leads to look into regarding the baby’s disappearance.
Gabriel was last seen in San Antonio, Texas, on December 27, 2009, after his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, fled Arizona with him despite a court order, according to Fox San Antonio. Elizabeth was later arrested and was sentenced to serve more than five years in the Arizona Department of Corrections for crimes related to her son’s disappearance, per the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Despite Elizabeth’s arrest, Gabriel’s whereabouts have remained unknown and his body has not yet been recovered.
Gabriel’s family has expressed frustration over the lack of charges pressed against Elizabeth, as she previously admitted to killing Gabriel in a recorded confession before. However, she later retracted the statement and insisted she did not kill her son.
“She’s in prison for years and never tells us anything. That’s what makes this so hard,” Gabriel’s great aunt Sandy Peters told Fox 9.
Authorities found a new lead in the case when they received a call in which someone said, “There are things Elizabeth told me that have been tormenting me for years. She told me she killed the baby. I really thought she was taking it to the grave.”
Despite getting the call, the individual refused to have a conversation with authorities when they traveled to Arizona to speak with them, according to Fox 9.
In light of the update, Gabriel’s family has urged the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) to transfer the case to the Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons’ Unit to continue investigating his disappearance. “The Attorney General’s Office … offered to do that in our case… but they wouldn’t let the Attorney General’s Office come in and help,” Peters told the outlet.
Meanwhile, the SAPD issued its own statement confirming that the investigation has continued as Gabriel has remained missing. “Leads are very few, but all are followed. The case is pending further investigation,” a SAPD spokesperson said.
Another potentially hopeful update in the case came when Lois Gibson, a former forensic artist for Houston PD, reviewed images of another child and found that he resembled Gabriel’s father, Logan McQueary.
“The match between that child and Logan is uncanny. That gives us hope,” Peters said of the discovery, implying she’s hopeful that Gabriel is alive out there.
Peters concluded that she and her family are still holding out hope that Gabriel, who would now be 16 years old, will be returned to them safe.
“Merry Christmas, Gabriel. If you’re out there, know you’re loved, you’re missed, and we hope nothing but the best for you in your life,” she told the outlet of what she would like to tell him.
Gabriel’s family has never stopped looking for him, and Sandy told Fox 9 that they were hopeful he would be found back in 2022 on his 13th birthday. “We’ve never stopped looking for Gabriel, we never will. Every single day the first and last person we think about when every day is Gabriel,” she told the outlet at the time. We are working with people around the United States to find you Gabriel.”
The San Antonio Police Department did not immediately respond to Us Weekly’s request for comment.
