The family of a woman missing since January has obtained handwritten letters from her suspected killer — letters authorities say appear to be directions to where he hid her body.
Alexis Gabe, 24, went missing earlier this year. After she was last seen in Antioch, California in late-January, her abandoned car was located in another city nearby, unlocked and with the keys inside. Authorities soon honed in on ex-boyfriend Marshall Curtis Jones III and obtained a warrant for his arrest — but he was shot and killed by police during an attempted arrest in June, with police saying he charged at them with a large knife.
Seattle Police Department released video footage from the incident, which shows Jones III emerging from his home with what appears to be a knife in his hand. At the time of Jones’ death, police said he was their “only suspect in the homicide of Alexis Gabe,” but added they believe “he had help along the way.”
Last week, the Gabe family shared on the Help Bring Alexis Gabe Home Facebook Group that authorities provided them with handwritten directions recovered during a search of Jones’ sister’s home back in February, which he allegedly had thrown in the trash. The post included full scans of the notes, photos of the original crumpled up paper and a note from Sergeant James Stenger from Antioch Police Department.
Stenger writes that the directions led to a remote location in Pioneer, Northern California and it’s believed Jones “used them to dispose of Alexis’ body near where the directions end.”
“A friend of Marshall’s came forward after Marshall was killed and gave a statement that Marshall called the friend about two weeks before Alexis disappeared,” wrote Stenger. “During that conversation, Marshall told the friend that he was thinking about killing Alexis and wanted to know where the best place to dispose the body would be.”
“The friend and Marshall decided the best place to dispose of a body would be by placing it in a septic tank or burying the body in a forest area,” he continued, adding that the friend in question “thought Marshall was joking about wanting to kill Alexis” and had never met Gabe themself.
Stenger said they don’t know why Jones chose that location and added that local search and rescue teams have searched the area where the directions end, with the assistance of cadaver dogs, to no avail. “I want you to know that we have not given up on finding Alexis and we are continuing to search and continuing to follow up on any leads that we get,” concluded Stenger.
The handwritten letter itself consists of step-by-step directions, with a few additional notes like “PAY ATTENTION TO SIGNS” and “elementary school not far.”
Gwyn Gabe, Alexis’ father, also shared that Detective Horn from the Oakley Police Department drove the family to Pioneer last week, “to show us all the locations they’ve searched and what they’ve done out there for the last 4-5 months.”
“They’ve done a lot of work. They’ve pretty much covered and searched close to 200 acres. They’ve been there more than 20 times searching with over 100 experienced search teams from Contra Costa, Amador County, Placer County, and El Dorado County,” he wrote.
“He showed us the 2 ponds that they drained. The first one was small but the other one was huge. 8.5 million gallons of water. They had to camp out there for a few days till it’s empty,” he continued. “Before draining they hired divers to search and rented a sonar from PGE that gives better images of what is in the bottom of the body of water and what is under the surface. This costs the city 15k but unfortunately, they found nothing.”
He added that the only other area to be searched is a nearby forrest, with Gwyn calling off a planned volunteer search because it “looks very dangerous for non-professionals.”
Gabe told ABC 7 that police “strongly believe she is there,” while Alexis’ family is still keeping hope alive. “I don’t think Alexis is there … my wife strongly believes she’s still out there. That she’s still alive,” said Gwyn. “Until we find a body. We’re just going to keep believing that she’s still alive.”
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