Alexis Gabe, 23, is seen in this undated handout photo in Oakley, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022.
OAKLEY — The grief is always there, but for the family of an Oakley woman brutally killed more than two years ago, finding justice will help to bring some closure they have long hoped for.
Alexis Gabe, then 23, vanished on Jan. 26, 2022, after visiting her ex-boyfriend in Antioch. Her case drew national attention, including help from the KlaasKids Foundation, as volunteers near and far searched the East Bay and the Sierra Foothills looking for her remains.
Police early on suspected Gabe’s ex-boyfriend, Marshall Curtis Jones, but on June 1, 2022, he was fatally shot when, armed with a knife, he charged at police who had come to his Washington apartment to arrest him for murder.
Now, more than two years later, the Gabe family is hoping a new “On the Case with Paula Zahn” true crime show will shed some light on what Jones did and who might have helped him along the way.
“They (the viewer) are gonna see everything that we saw,” Alexis’ father, Gwyn Gabe, said of the evidence. “That’s something that people haven’t seen yet.”
The “Where is Alexis?” documentary was filmed in Concord, Antioch and Oakley last May. Alexis’ parents, Gwyn and Rowena Gabe, and youngest son, Gwyn Austin, along with Antioch and Oakley police were interviewed for the segment. The show was set to air this spring, but the Gabe family later learned it would be delayed.
After hundreds of followers of the “Justice for Alexis Gabe” Facebook page flooded the show’s social media with comments and sent emails, the show’s producers decided not to delay the broadcast, Gwyn Gabe said.
The “Where is Alexis?” documentary will now air on Investigation Discovery channel at 7 p.m. April 24. It will also be streamed on Discovery Plus, Hulu +Live TV, YouTube TV and other streaming services, and can be viewed a day later online at www.investigationdiscovery.com.
The family is hoping Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton will review the case again and has focused their attention on Jones’ mother, who was arrested in May 2022 but not charged with aiding and abetting her son.
Still, the family believes Jones had help following the homicide. Surveillance cameras show that two days after Gabe was killed, Jones placed “several large, heavy garbage bags” at his mother’s Antioch home, and went with her to get a new phone on Jan. 28, 2022. Jones later returned to retrieve the bags from the garage while his mother was hosting a karaoke party.
Alexis’ partial remains were found in November of 2022 near Plymouth in Amador County and in January of 2023 near Amador City about 10 miles away, but about a quarter of her body has never been recovered.
Gabe said there’s a lot more that he and his wife know but are unable to share because the investigation is ongoing.
“There’s just so many things that we know that we couldn’t say anything about because the police and the DA told us not to say anything,” he said. “And that’s the reason why we’re fighting it, because we know what happened.”
Some details are still unknown, including the exact manner of the homicide, because of the condition of the remains, Gabe said. He and his lawyers are hoping they can get Alexis’ tan top, which was found with a hole in it, retested for additional evidence.
With the autopsy completed and a new interim Antioch police chief in place, the family is confident they will get all the reports they believe are needed for their attorney to present their case to prosecutors. In the meantime, Gabe said he and his family are not going to stop looking for the rest of her remains or fighting for justice in her case.
“We are not able to move on from this” until there is closure, he said.
Originally published at Judith Prieve