Dad of 3 Michigan boys missing since 2010 charged with murder

By Kara Berg, kberg@detroitnews.com

A Lenawee County man linked to the disappearance of his three younger sons 15 years ago has now been charged with homicide, simply weeks earlier than he was scheduled to be released from jail on another charge.

John Skelton, 53, was serving a 10- to 15-year jail sentence for illegal imprisonment in reference to the disappearance of his sons, Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton. He was scheduled to be launched from the Bellamy Creek Correction Facility in Ionia on Nov. 29, based on the Michigan Division of Corrections’ on-line inmate database.

Though police have stated they consider Skelton killed his kids, he has by no means beforehand been charged in reference to their deaths, partly as a result of their our bodies have by no means been discovered. The boys, ages 5, 7 and 9, had been final seen at Skelton’s residence in Morenci on Thanksgiving Day 2010. declared dead this year after their mom requested a listening to in Lenawee County probate courtroom.

Lenawee County Prosecutor Jackie Wyse didn’t instantly reply for remark concerning the allegations. Skelton, who had not but been charged as of Thursday afternoon, didn’t have an lawyer listed within the courtroom filings.

Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez despatched remark to the prosecutor’s workplace.

In an announcement on the Fb web page “Lacking ~ Skelton Brothers, Morenci, Michigan,” the boys’ household stated they ask for privateness and respect as they course of the brand new developments within the case.

“It has been fifteen lengthy years since our three boys – Andrew, Alexander and Tanner – went lacking. Throughout this time, our household has lived with unimaginable ache, unanswered questions and the fixed hope that someday we might study the reality about what occurred to them,” the household wrote.

“At the moment we realized that an arrest warrant has been issued for John Skelton, who has been incarcerated for the previous fifteen years and is because of be launched in simply over two weeks. This newest improvement has as soon as once more left us shocked and heartbroken. Our precedence has at all times been – and stays – discovering out what occurred to Andrew, Alexander and Tanner and searching for justice for them. We ask that the investigation be allowed to proceed totally and with out interference in order that the reality can lastly come to mild.”

Within the aftermath of the boys’ disappearance, John Skelton informed their mom, Tanya Zuvers, {that a} lady he knew had cared for them once they went lacking. At an April 2025 listening to to declare the boys lifeless, police testified that that they had by no means discovered any proof of such a lady.

Zuvers had been married to John Skelton since 2002 and stated their relationship took a flip for the more serious in September 2010 when John dropped the boys off faculty with out her information for a “household journey” to Florida. In line with testimony, she subsequently obtained a courtroom order granting her sole custody.

In November, Zuvers and Skelton got here to an settlement that the daddy might take the boys for the Thanksgiving vacation and that he would flip them over to Zuver the subsequent day.

Once they did not return the subsequent afternoon, Zuvers referred to as 911 and went with police for a welfare test at John Skelton’s residence. There, based on testimony, they discovered unexplained destruction, together with a torn mattress, an overturned china cupboard and severed equipment cords.