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.

Johnson said the two looked trustworthy and brought their own car seat, and that they said they could keep baby Gabriel without anyone noticing.

Jack and Tammi Smith, a couple who said they were in talks to adopt Gabriel before he disappeared, have since been named persons of interest.

Police have said they believe the two may be withholding information and took their phone records and laptop.

Tammi Smith is free on bond on charges of conspiracy to commit custodial interference and forgery, according to Tempe Police.

According to The Associated Press, Smith had allegedly tried to adopt Johnson to in turn gain custody of baby Gabriel.

h4>Babysitter Says Gabriel Was 'Acting Scared' Gabriel 's babysitter, Analisa Urias, one of the last known people to see the missing baby, said he seemed sad and frightened the night she took care of him in a Texas hotel room.

Johnson hired Urias through a Craigslist ad to babysit Gabriel while she was escaping the custody dispute.

"Elizabeth told me if anyone came knocking on the door, not to answer it," said Urias.

Tempe, Ariz., police released the photographs of Gabriel taken by Johnson in the same Texas hotel room in hopes it would help them find the missing baby.

Although Gabriel appears to be healthy and active, lying on a bed with toys and a pacifier, investigators fear that Gabriel is holding a medicine dropper in two of the photos.

"Elizabeth told me to give him a bottle in about an hour and then her exact words were to 'Give him more medicine if he started crying to shut him up,'" Urias said.

"Gabriel wasn't acting like a normal baby," she said. "He was acting scared, he didn't want to play. He acted like he was sad."

The photographs were found on Johnson's camera following her arrest Dec. 29 in Miami.

In another claim, Urias said she found a large knife next to the bed in the motel room.

"It looked like a butcher type of knife and, you know, I thought that was weird because why would she have it next to her bed? It's something that would belong in the kitchen," Urias said.

The photographs were date-stamped Dec. 26, the last day anyone saw Gabriel.

Anyone with information about Gabriel Johnson is asked to call the Tempe Police Department at (480) 350-8311.