‘I didn’t wanna do it but I did it’: Everything we know about the tragic case of Alexis Gabe so far
Alexis Gabe disappeared two years ago, kicking off a massive search, homicide investigation and outpouring of grief and assistance from the East Bay community, which closely followed the controversial whodunit every step of the way.
Gabe, a 23-year-old Oakley resident, seemingly dropped off the face of the earth after showing up to the Antioch home of her ex-boyfriend, Marshall Curtis Jones III, at around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2022. Jones, 27, became the prime suspect almost instantly, and his suspicious movements, Google searches and a handwritten note would only deepen those suspicions.
Jones would die in a hail of police gunfire before police ever got a confession out of him. But his words, captured on a Ring camera at his mother’s Antioch home shortly after the killing, might be the closest anyone will ever get.
“I didn’t wanna do it but I did it,” Jones muttered to himself as he loaded seemingly heavy garbage bags from his car into his mother’s home hours after Gabe’s last confirmed sighting, according to police.
With an episode of “On the Case with Paula Zahn” focusing on Gabe’s disappearance set to premier April 24, here’s a look at what we know about her case thus far.
An uncharacteristic disappearance
Gabe had a Facetime call with a close friend at around 6 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2022, which gave police a description of what she was wearing that evening. During the call she mentioned she was going to Antioch to meet with Jones, an ex-boyfriend who Gabe occasionally hung out with despite their breakup roughly two months earlier.
Later that night, family members grew concerned that Gabe wasn’t answering texts or her calls. When her whereabouts were still undetermined by 1 p.m. the following day, Gabe’s family reported her missing to Oakley police.
Police found Gabe’s blue Infinity parked a few blocks from her home on Carol Lane, with the keys still in the ignition. But it wasn’t Gabe who left it there. Video surveillance showed a man wearing a medical face mask with a beard sticking out and dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt walking away from the parked vehicle.
An Oakley police officer showed up to Jones’ Antioch home to interview him, and Jones freely admitted that Gabe had shown up around 6:30, but claimed she left roughly three hours later on her own volition. He denied leaving the house at all that evening.
The officer left, but noticed Jones’ black Ford SUV with the license plate “DJSPOON” parked in the driveway. He made note of several large black garbage bags and some blankets that could be seen through the window, authorities said.
A cloud of suspicion forms around ex-boyfriend
Jones also claimed he’d spoken to his dad in Washington on the night of Gabe’s disappearance, but his father denied this, police said.
Police interviewed Gabe’s boyfriend — a tow truck driver who met her in December 2021 after someone slashed Gabe’s tires — who was cooperative but couldn’t account for her whereabouts, police said.
Police returned to Jones’ home a second time, got partial consent to search it and took Jones’ phone with his permission. A forensic search revealed he had Googled things like “what is conspiracy to commit murder” and “how long would it take for a fish to eat a body,” authorities said.
Then investigators snagged the Ring camera data from the Antioch home of Jones’ mother, Alicia Coleman-Clark, who lived on Honeysuckle Circle. The footage showed Jones pulling up in the Ford Explorer, and unloading what police referred to in their reports as the same “heavy, bulky bags,” the Oakley officer had noticed earlier.
“I didn’t wanna do it, but I did it,” Jones allegedly said to himself as he passed the Ring camera.
A short time later Coleman-Clark came home, police said. The camera captured her telling her son, “they’re ice cold, like they just came out of a refrigerator,” and “it wasn’t (my teenage daughter), I have (her),” according to police.
Police searched the Honeysuckle Circle home, and found plane tickets to Washington, as well as a missing persons flyer for Gabe at the bottom of a trash can, authorities said. They later confirmed Jones flew to Seattle on Feb. 2, 2022.
A search of Jones’ home yielded drops of Gabe’s blood, as confirmed by a DNA test, according to authorities.
When police interviewed Coleman-Clark’s boyfriend, he told them he’d affixed a tracking device to her vehicle due to “issues” they were having in their relationship. He allowed investigators to view the data on his laptop, which showed the car had recently traveled to the Delta, authorities said.
Police also reviewed pings from Jones’ cellphone showing he’d traveled to his sister’s home in Vacaville on Jan. 28, and turned off his phone. When Jones’ sister learned the cops searched their mother’s home, she called detectives and pleaded with them not to knock down her door if they came there with a warrant, authorities said.
When investigators went to her home, she revealed two key things relevant to the investigation: That when Jones visited, she found a pistol in the couch cushions where he’d been sleeping and kicked him out. And when she was putting away Christmas decorations, she’d stumbled upon a handwritten note containing directions to Pioneer, a remote part of Amador County. Police searched the area and found nothing.
But the lead would prove useful. In November 2022, after an exhaustive search, Gabe’s partial remains were found in two parts of Amador County, about 10 miles apart. Her exact cause of death remains under investigation.
A police shooting and controversy over filing decision
By then, Jones was dead. When U.S. Marshals showed up to Washington, with a murder arrest warrant in hand, he allegedly charged at them with a knife. The marshals shot and killed him.
But the case wasn’t over. Coleman-Clark was arrested on suspicion of accessory, but Contra Costa prosecutors declined to charge her. Gabe’s family has pressed them to revisit the case, which they’ve indicated may happen when the extensive forensic investigation of Gabe’s remains is complete.
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 Gabe family is planning to watch the show at an Oakley pizza parlor on Wednesday evening.