Speaking with a brother blogger it came to our notice that an entire, albeit sad demographic ,could be benefited by our blogs. Missing Children. Just think about how if I post,repost or “Reblog” the face and facts about a missing child and my brother blogger does the same (actually he started this) and you do the same, and then so and so does so on his/her blog etc etc…. Can you imagine?
Tonight how many babies and children are not asleep where they belong? How many faces of children did you see today that are strangers to you? Is is possible? Could it be?
How would we even dream it possible without the facts and photos?
So here is my challenge today, this Sunday April 30th 2012. If you know God forbid, of a missing child share with us. And if you don’t know one thank God and now help us spread the facts and shining faces of those we do know about. Blog it. Post it. Repost it. Reblog it!
We can be force folks, if we put our energy together. Ever wanted to be a child advocate?
You just start here.
With little Gabriel
Posted: 04/16/2012 • By: ABC15.com staff, wire reports
PHOENIX – Jurors won’t get to hear a statement by the mother of a missing Arizona baby in which authorities say she told a police detective that she killed the boy in Texas, a judge ruled Monday.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie issued the ruling regarding the upcoming trial of Elizabeth Johnson, 25, saying her constitutional rights were violated when a San Antonio detective interviewed her in a Phoenix jail without her attorneys being there or even knowing about the interview.
“It was inappropriate, and I would go so far as to say an un-American-type of thing to do,” Johnson’s attorney, Marc Victor, told reporters after the hearing, which Johnson chose not to attend. “This is a real slap in the face of the Constitution and our justice system.”
A San Antonio police spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment about the ruling.
McMurdie declined a request by the lawyer to dismiss all the charges based on the constitutional violation.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty to child abuse, kidnapping and custodial interference in the case of her missing son, 8-month-old Gabriel.
Investigators said Johnson drove the boy to San Antonio from Tempe in December 2009, stayed about a week then took a bus to Florida without him. She was arrested Dec. 30 in Florida and returned to Arizona.
Gabriel has never been found, and police still don’t know if he’s dead or alive.
During an hours long interview with San Antonio police Detective Jesse Salame in a Phoenix jail, Johnson said she killed Gabriel, authorities have said.
Victor said Salame used coercion to get Johnson to make the statement and that his tactics included getting her shackles removed, comforting her throughout the interview by patting her shoulder and leg, and saying that her defense attorneys weren’t looking out for her and didn’t have the same kind of power he did.
Victor also said Salame only recorded parts of the interview and at the time, Johnson was still viewed as mentally unfit. She has since been found competent to stand trial and assist in her own defense.
“This is the kind of thing you would
expect to see in a Third-World
country,” Victor said. “This is not the
kind of thing you would expect to see
in the justice system in Arizona.”
Johnson has provided conflicting stories about what happened to Gabriel. Police say she texted the boy’s father that she killed Gabriel and put his body in a trash bin. She later recanted and said that she gave him to a couple in San Antonio.
Johnson’s statement to the boy’s father, Logan McQueary, could be used at her trial.
McQueary, who detectives do not suspect in the boy’s disappearance, also was in court Monday in a separate case. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of theft and was sentenced to a year of probation.
Tammi Peters Smith, a north Scottsdale woman who had been seeking to adopt Gabriel from Johnson, is set to be in court Tuesday for opening statements in her trial on charges of felony forgery and conspiracy to commit custodial interference related to Gabriel.
Associated Press
Recording:
Detective Says Elizabeth Johnson
Admitted Killing Baby Gabriel
In an audio recording obtained by CNN affiliate KPHO, a San Antonio police detective reportedly told missing baby Gabriel Johnson’s father that the boy’s mother admitted to killing him when he interviewed her in jail last summer.
According to KPHO, Detective Jesse Salame called Logan McQueary and attempted to explain why he questioned Elizabeth Johnson without her attorneys present—an action that the defense has tried to use as a basis for dismissing the kidnapping case against her.
On Monday, Johnson refused to attend a status conference in Maricopa County Superior Court where a judge scheduled arguments for March 1 on her attorneys’ motion to dismiss the case. A supplement to the prosecution’s response to that motion was ordered sealed, along with their objection to Johnson’s waiver of appearance at court hearings.
Johnson has been charged with kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference in connection with the disappearance of Gabriel, who was last seen with her in San Antonio on December 27, 2009. Though she initially told McQueary, her boyfriend, that she had killed Gabriel and thrown his body away in a diaper bag, she has since maintained that she actually gave him to an unidentified couple in a San Antonio park. Authorities have found no evidence to support that claim.
Also on Monday, a letter that Johnson wrote to Judge Paul J. McMurdie in December was entered into the record. In the handwritten letter, she acknowledges that contacting him is probably “inappropriate” but she is “against conformity,” and she does not care if her attorneys disapprove of her behavior “because I believe in myself and my case.”
Johnson complains about the “dreadful mugshot” that “’they’ love using” and the “great negative ‘stigma’” that the media has placed on her. She says that she hopes the judge—who she hears is “not the best, nor the worst judge I could have”—will give her a fair trial despite all of that. Still, she states that she believes that the legal system is “corrupt, unfair and unjust,” based on her experience so far.
Johnson closes the letter by telling McMurdie that “I am not what ‘they’ say I am. Not in the least! I will tell you what I am; I am love! And not one drop of cowardice runs in my blood! I was not born in vain, nor will I die in vain. (I may have lived in vain)”
Two other letters were filed with the court on Monday. In one, a former San Antonio telecommunications official claims to have evidence of criminal activity within the San Antonio Police Department that he says taints anything they are involved with, including this case. The second letter is from Elizabeth Johnson’s “Religious Advisor” at Maricopa County Jail, who says that Johnson has been “completely cooperative and responsive,” has “manifested willingness to learn and grow” and “manifests a spirit of genuine kindness and concern for others.”
Related articles
- Would-Be Adoptive Mom’s Trial Continues (myfoxphoenix.com)
- Missing Baby’s Father Gets Probation (myfoxphoenix.com)
- Missing Baby’s Mom to be in Court (myfoxphoenix.com)
Reblogged this on orples and commented:
This article is worthy of re-blog. I hope you will read it, and perhaps if enough people re-blog, this child might be found through joint effort, hopefully alive.
I too, am re-blogging this article in hopes that Gabrielle (with joint effort) will be found and returned home safely. I pray the child is not dead already.
I agree, I too pray that he has been adopted without the benifit of the law and is in hiding. That we all put our voices together and be one loud vocal voice that helps to put his picture out there so that some day soon a fellow or sister blogger spots him in a store for instance.
Thank you so much. Each person counts for so much more.
A good idea, i was thinking of doing one every month about Britons most wanted,
Fabulous Just imagine how powerful this could be? Oh My! I love your idea and let me know as I’d reblog in a heartbeat. We have this huge followings here at WordPress so it’s time we also use it as public service .
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and comment. I hope to see more of you. On your blog as well,
Thanks very much, baroness, I have re-blogged, a start well done..;)
I forgot to say thank you for the reblog on your post. You’re awesome. I see that others are reblogging from your post and this was just exactly what you & I are dreaming of. Isn’t this the coolest thing?
I’m watching the Tammy Smith trial now and Eliazabeth Johnson’s will start in September (bit of a trial junkie, attorney and judge groupie I am )I am hoping between more media coverage (including ours) that someone will come forward. I want to believe he is alive but illegally adopted so someone has him in hiding.
Just update as when, ‘cos I do not have the access etc you have as I will any this side of the pond….Always caring…
Absolutely a promise. I’m so passionate about this and have to say thank you to you again.
Be well~
Reblogged this on Gerry's Space. and commented:
Ditto to every thing being said by my friend Baroness
Reblogged this on Diabetic Redemption and commented:
I hope anyone who reads this reblog, from Lady Barefoot Baroness, will let me know if you know of someone who should be listed. Please feel free.
Yes, yes@ Lets post them all. We can create such a powerful voice, and our eyes could be everywhere all at once. How cool.
This is a good idea and very important – the novella I am writing is about this.
Oh you have perked my interest. I’ve always had an afinity for missing and abused children. Not sure why but knew it was a calling even before we had our girl’s. Raised our two with 3 other foster girl’s, have been stark raving lost without them since they grew up and out. I know this is why CASA, even being a NANA was not enough once they too were gettngolder.
So you speak to me. Can’t wait to read, be careful to not post it here. ~
I have, since Son was a baby, been haunted and devastated by the issue of child abduction and the horror of it is almost too much for me to bear – I guess that might be why I am writing the novella – not sure.
I’d love to know more about your hauntings. Your novella too of course but some things should remain belonging to the author until she is ready.
Did you read or hear about an abduction that has stayed with you all these what 20 years? How old is son? 19 or 20?
Can you share with me or is it much too private, cause I will understand. But ‘m so smitten with these kinds of things about our personalties. Does that make any sense?
Son is 18 but then he was a toddler an 11-year old boy was abducted in Australia and I became so obsessively upset … I will email you details – they keep opening and closing the case.
Thanks Jules. I hate it so much when a case like that cannot be closed. No closure for the family. Or even the investigators. sad