SAN ANTONIO -- Sources have revealed to KENS 5 that when Elizabeth Johnson vacated her hotel room at the Homegate Inn & Suites in late December, she left behind all of her son's personal belongings.
But there reportedly was one item investigators could not find: a green diaper bag that belonged to Gabriel Johnson. Of course, the 8-month-old was missing, too.
A joint investigation involving authorities in San Antonio and Arizona led to a portion of the Tessman Road Landfill being roped off.
Johnson allegedly sent the baby's father, Logan McQueary, a text message saying she had killed their child, placed him in a bag and put his body in a dumpster. Trash from her hotel would come to the area where San Antonio police are currently searching.
That's where sources said police are looking for a green diaper bag or suitcase that could contain the child's body.
San Antonio police have called the case both a missing person case and a capital murder investigation.
Sources said the young mother's text to Gabriel's father declared she would direct him to their child's blue body if the garbage does not take him prior to that alert.
Johnson allegedly came to San Antonio trying to elude child custody issues with McQueary. Sources said she wanted to adopt little Gabriel to a Tempe, Arizona, couple, Jack and Tammi Smith.
KENS 5 has learned that police have evidence of communication between the Smiths and Johnson while she was in San Antonio.
According to sources, they allegedly were discussing ways to conduct an illegal adoption. But police reportedly have not been able to conclude that such an adoption ever happened.
Sources said police did find witnesses who saw Johnson shopping without Gabriel the day she abandoned her grandfather's vehicle at a south-side Motel 6.
Investigators say that's when she used a fake last name to buy a bus ticket to Miami, Florida. Sources said the child did not make the trip. Johnson was arrested on child custody charges in Florida.
Police have said the mother was uncooperative. She reportedly said Gabriel was given to a couple in a San Antonio park, but sources said subsequent questioning of the toddler's mother revealed inconsistencies in her story.
