Baby Gabriel's Mom Says She Suffocated Son in Newly Released Audio Recordings

Dec. 20, 2010 — -- The mother of missing baby Gabriel is heard in newly released telephone recordings describing how she suffocated her son until he turned blue, stuffed him in his diaper bag and threw him in the trash.

The audio recordings come nearly a year after Gabriel was last seen on Dec. 26, 2009 with his mother, Elizabeth Johnson, in San Antonio, Texas.

Johnson, who is currently jailed in Arizona on kidnapping and child abuse charges that she has pleaded not guilty to, has long insisted that her 8-month-old son Gabriel is alive and that she handed him over to another couple in a San Antonio park.

But in the recordings released late last week by the Tempe Police Department, Johnson tells a different story.

"Gabriel is in the dumpster, I killed him this morning," Johnson is heard telling Logan McQueary, Gabriel's father, on Dec. 27.

According to Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal, the conversation was recorded by McQueary.

On the tape, Johnson tells McQueary that she "saw his Facebook page" and was angry that he had been talking to other women.

"You left me with no choice," says Johnson. "You'd be surprised what a person will do if you push them enough."

"You made me kill my baby boy," she says. "I suffocated him, he turned blue and that's when I put him in his diaper bag and put him in the trash can."

The chilling conversation is the latest twist in a case that has stumped authorities and led to the arrests of several persons of interest.

Johnson, 23, and McQueary, were in the middle of a custody dispute when she fled Arizona with Gabriel before Christmas. Johnson allegedly sent text messages to McQueary, saying she had killed their son and left his body in a trash bin.

She later changed her story and said she gave the baby to a random couple she met in a San Antonio park. Police have not been able to confirm that that couple exists.

Johnson described the couple as white and in their 30s. The man was tall with short black hair, and the woman was 5 feet 3 inches tall, with long blond hair.