A missing California woman’s family says that according to police, her alleged killer left behind handwritten notes on where to dispose of her body.
The loved ones of Alexis Gabe, who was 24 when she went missing in January, are holding out hope that she is still alive. Police think she is dead, however, and tried to arrest her ex-boyfriend Marshall Curtis Jones, 27, on June 1. They shot and killed him, saying he had charged them with a knife.
The search for Alexis is ongoing.
“Until we find a body,” said Alexis’ father Gwyn Gabe said, according to KGO. “We’re just going to keep believing that she’s still alive.”
Alex was last seen January 26 in the city of Antioch, California. Her vehicle was found abandoned with the keys in the ignition on Trenton St. in Oakley, a nearby city to the east of Antioch, officers said. A missing person notice described her as having long black hair and brown eyes with glasses. She stood 5 feet, 7 inches and weighed 170 pounds. She was last wearing a tank top, black jeans, and white and green Jordans.
Alexis Gabe
But police think it is too late to save her life. They attempted to arrest her ex-boyfriend Jones for murder up in Seattle, Washington. They say he lunged at authorities with a knife, so they had to shoot.
“Law enforcement officers from Seattle Police Department, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Marshals Service were attempting to arrest Jones,” cops said. “As he produced a knife and charged at officers, marshals discharged their service weapons, killing Jones.”
You can watch video here, in this age-restricted link to YouTube (Warning: This depicts a fatal shooting). In footage, two officers stand before the door of an apartment complex unit. A man in a white shirt approaches them suddenly from the front door. They open fire. A slowed-down, close up of that encounter shows the man holding what police described as a knife. Officers showed a close up of the knife, measuring it at about a foot from tip to the bottom of the handle.
“Marshall Jones is our only suspect in the homicide of Alexis Gabe. However, I do believe he had help along the way,” Oakley Police Chief Paul Beard said at the time, according to CBS News. “I need the public’s help. I need the public to get motivated to bring forth information that will tell us where we need to search. And again, I’m hoping our $100,000 reward will motivate the public to bring that information to us.”
Gabe’s family said Thursday that police told them about finding Jones’ handwritten notes while executing a search warrant..
In a police letter shared by Alexis’ father Gwyn, Sgt. James Stenger of Antioch police said that Jones turned off his phone for several hours when driving to the city of Pioneer but turned it on after getting lost.
“We know that Marshall Jones wrote these directions to Pioneer and believe he used them to dispose of Alexis’ body near where the directions end,” the letter stated.
A friend stepped forward to police after Jones died, the sergeant wrote. According to the friend, Jones said he was thinking about killing Alexis and wanted to know the best place to hide a body. The friend–who never met Alexis and just believed Marshall was just joking–agreed with him that the best place would be in a septic tank, or buried in a forest, the sergeant wrote.
Police said that they could confirm Jones was in the Pioneer area, according to CBS News. They said they were able to confirm Jones was the note author by doing handwriting comparison.
Law&Crime left a message with Antioch police.
Alexis’ father voiced shock at what Jones was accused of doing.
“They were together for three years,” Gwyn reportedly said. “He got along with the two brothers and his cousins. He became part of our family. We had no idea he was capable of doing something like this to her. We didn’t want him dead. We wanted him arrested to pay for his sins. We wanted to meet with him face to face. We wanted to look him in the eye and ask him ‘Why?’ Ask him, ‘Where is Alexis?'”
[Image via the city of Oakley, California]