SAN ANTONIO, Texas (NewsNation Now) — It was 12 years ago when 8-month-old baby Gabriel Johnson vanished from Arizona. He’s not been seen since.

The search began in San Antonio, Texas on Dec. 27, 2009. Gabriel’s mother, Elizabeth Johnson, admits she took him there, but what she did with him is still unknown.

She apparently told her estranged husband, Logan McQueary, she “suffocated” the infant during a recorded phone call.

“I told you, you made me do this,” Johnson said on the call.

McQueary told NewsNation he “didn’t really want to believe it.” After the call, Johnson changed her story — she now claims she gave the baby to a couple seeking to adopt him.

There have been no credible leads on who that couple might be, and, despite exhaustive searches, police never found Gabriel’s body.

“Now it’s 12 years later,” said Sandy Peters, Gabriel’s aunt. “And I’m realizing that I don’t care how long it is. I just want Gabriel.”

Peters has spent 12 years pushing investigators, private eyes and even online sleuths who follow the case on Facebook to action. She has even considered taking matters into her own hands.

“If I could just talk to Elizabeth, Gabriel’s mom, and find out the truth, no matter what it is, and swear I would never share it with anybody but Logan, I would be content with that,” Peters said.

She admits, however, that Gabriel is “probably” not alive.

“I think the not knowing is really what gets you,” McQueary said. “And I want to say that he’s still alive out there. I want him to meet my family that I have now. I want him to meet his brothers and his little sister. I hope someday that we can do that.”