(CNN) – Investigators searching for a missing 8-month-old boy began an intensive excavation and search effort Tuesday at a Texas landfill.

"Let me say this, that we do remain hopeful that baby Gabriel is alive," William McManus, chief of the San Antonio Police Department, said at a news conference at the landfill.

"We are, however, conducting both a missing persons investigation as well as a homicide investigation," he said, adding that aspects surrounding Gabriel Johnson's disappearance involve elements of a possible homicide.

Gabriel Johnson

Gabriel has been missing since December 26 and was last seen in San Antonio, with his 23-year-old mother, Elizabeth Johnson, who has refused to disclose information on his whereabouts.

She told Gabriel's father she killed the boy and has also said she gave him away to a couple in San Antonio, police said. Johnson drove Gabriel to San Antonio from Tempe, Arizona, and to Florida a week later, according to investigators.

Johnson was arrested in Florida and extradited to Maricopa County, Arizona, where she remains behind bars, charged with kidnapping, custodial interference and child abuse.

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Are investigators growing more convinced that an 8-month-old Arizona baby who goes missing without a trace on a road trip with his mother is no longer alive? At this hour, investigators searching a Texas landfill for any signs of Gabriel’s body. The extensive dig is happening at the Tessman Road landfill, located just 12 miles from a San Antonio motel where baby Gabriel is last seen alive.

Gabriel Johnson

The same motel mommy claims a random couple she meets at a park came to pick up the baby. The landfill dig will be a two-fold process taking at least a week to complete, including the removal of 45 feet of debris and search teams plus cadaver dogs combing over every piece of trash.

Even as the landfill search begins and investigators reveal they are conducting a homicide investigation, San Antonio police announce they are also still hopeful baby Gabriel is alive. Gabriel’s father, Logan McQueary, says he’s leaning more toward the theory his baby boy was taken in an underground adoption.

In the meantime, stunning new details emerge after the arrest of would-be “adoptive” parent, Tammi Smith. Smith facing conspiracy to commit custodial interference and forgery charges in connection with Gabriel’s disappearance.

Tammi Smith

According to a probable cause statement we’ve just obtained, investigators made contact with Elizabeth Johnson while she was on the run. During a phone conversation on December 27, police advised her to go to a Texas police station so they could confirm Gabriel was alive and safe. But Johnson refused and eventually was arrested, without her baby, in Miami Beach, Florida. The documents also reveal Johnson’s threat to Gabriel’s father that she killed the baby boy was caught on tape on December 27, the same day she was advised to take the baby to a Texas police station. Logan McQueary recorded that phone call, but the tape has yet to be released.

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After boy's slaying, brother missing for 19 years

New York (CNN) – Basil Abdul'Faruq and his brother, Jamal, begged their mother to let them go outside to play. It was spring break, April 16, 1990, and the boys wanted to join other kids in their Richmond, Virginia, neighborhood.

Their mother, Tambar Ellis, was tired after working the night shift at the nearby DuPont factory. She didn't worry about Basil, 8, and Jamal, 7, playing outside. They walked to school on their own every day.

"Jamal was the one who asked could they go out," Ellis said. "I said, 'of course.' "

It was the last time she would see her children.

Basil & Jamal Abdul’Faruq

She said she took a short nap, about 30 minutes. Then she walked outside to call the boys in for dinner.

"I called them, and I didn't get a response," she said. She searched the grounds surrounding the 600-unit apartment complex and then a playground about a block away.

As the minutes passed, she started to panic.

"After about maybe four or five minutes of looking for your kids, you go through a wave of a different emotions," Ellis said. "You know they're not up in someone's house, because they knew I wouldn't have allowed it. ... I couldn't believe they weren't within hearing distance."

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