Part 1 of 2
On January 26, 2022, 24-year-old Alexis Gabe disappeared from Northern California.
By the following day, her family knew something was terribly wrong.
Calls went unanswered.
Messages received no response.
Alexis had seemingly vanished.
Her disappearance would soon trigger an enormous search across Northern California and an investigation that eventually centered on one person.
Her former boyfriend, Marshall Curtis Jones.
Alexis lived in Oakley, California.
Investigators determined that on the evening she disappeared, she had gone to Jones’ home in nearby Antioch.
She had reportedly gone there to see him and exchange belongings.
She never returned home.
Her vehicle was later found abandoned in Oakley.
But there was no sign of Alexis.
For her family, the uncertainty was unbearable.
They organized searches.
Volunteers distributed flyers.
Her photograph spread across social media.
People searched roadsides, wooded areas and remote locations, hoping for any clue that might explain where she had gone.
At first, her family still hoped she would be found alive.
But investigators were beginning to piece together a much darker timeline.
Surveillance footage and other evidence became important parts of the investigation.
Authorities increasingly focused on Jones and his movements after Alexis disappeared.
Investigators came to believe Alexis had been killed.
On June 2, 2022, Oakley police publicly announced that the disappearance was being investigated as a homicide.
Police identified Jones as the suspect.
But by then, he was no longer in California.
Authorities tracked him to the Seattle area in Washington State.
Officers arrived to serve an arrest warrant.
According to authorities, Jones emerged carrying a knife and moved toward officers.
Police opened fire.
Jones was killed.
The man investigators believed could answer the most important questions in Alexis’ disappearance would never stand trial.
But the investigation was far from over.
Detectives still needed to find Alexis.
And evidence recovered during the investigation pointed them toward remote areas of Amador County.
Investigators said they found handwritten directions believed to have been created by Jones.
The directions contained specific landmarks, travel times and turns leading toward rural terrain near Pioneer.
The discovery shifted the search away from the East Bay and toward the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Alexis’ family and volunteers repeatedly searched those remote areas.
For months, they found nothing conclusive.
At one point, bones discovered during a volunteer search raised hope that Alexis had finally been located.
That hope quickly disappeared when authorities determined those remains belonged to an animal.
The family kept searching.
Then, in November 2022, everything changed.
A resident near Plymouth in Amador County noticed what appeared to be human remains off Jackson Road.
Authorities were called.
The area was secured.
Investigators returned the following morning for a more extensive search.
The remains were examined.
And through dental records, authorities confirmed the heartbreaking truth.
They belonged to Alexis Gabe.
She had finally been found.
But investigators discovered more than human remains at the site.
Items recovered nearby would add another disturbing layer to the case.
Among the evidence were personal items belonging to Alexis, pieces of black garbage bags and duct tape — discoveries that brought investigators even closer to understanding what happened after she disappeared.