Shortly before Johnson disappeared with Gabriel, she met Arizona couple Jack and Tammi Smith while at an Indianapolis airport. “I saw her distraught and crying with a newborn baby,” Tammi told Good Morning America. “And that doesn’t look like a mother that wants to be a mother.”

Tammi helped Johnson comfort Gabriel and purportedly offered to adopt the child — an idea that Johnson seriously entertained. She let the Smiths, who also lived in Arizona, care for the baby for nine days before McQueary learned of the potential adoption. Once he found out, he took Johnson to court and was awarded shared custody of the then-8-month-old on December 17, 2009, according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

Then, the day after Christmas, Johnson left the state, traveling from Tempe, Arizona to San Antonio, Texas. In the process, she missed a scheduled custody hearing and lost custody of Gabriel. 

When confronted by McQueary about their whereabouts, Johnson said that she’d never let him have custody of the child. 

“She basically said, ‘There is no way in hell you will see your son again,'” McQueary said, according to Good Morning America. “She put in the text, ‘I killed him.'”

Read Related Also: Teacher Sarah Jayne Duncan hid meth in scrunchie: Cops

In a recorded phone call, Johnson claimed to have killed the baby, saying, “I suffocated him, then I put him in a diaper bag and I put him in a trash can,” Inside Edition reported.

She added that she was motivated to kill Gabriel after learning that McQueary had allegedly cheated on her. “You want to talk to girls, that’s the price you pay,” Johnson said. “Don’t you care about me? All you care about is Gabriel and he’s gone now. You know what I’m capable of and you pushed me anyway. You destroyed my life.”

Additionally, the Smiths reached out to McQueary, asking him to relinquish custody to Johnson, who, in exchange, would return Gabriel. They said that Johnson asked them to make this request, according to Good Morning America. 

“The father and Jack and I were in constant contact when we found out Elizabeth fled with the baby,” Tammi said. “When we finally got to speak to Elizabeth, she was so angry with the whole situation and told me, ‘I have one message to give to Logan.'”