It has been 15 years since Alexander, Andrew, and Tanner Skelton vanished without a trace. But this year, we may be closer to getting answers as murder charges were filed against their father, John Skelton, weeks before his release from a Michigan prison.
Rewind to November 26, 2010, when the boys were last seen playing in the backyard of their father’s home in Morenci. John and the boy’s mother, Tanya Zuvers, were in the middle of a divorce, but Zuvers, who had sole custody, allowed them to spend Thanksgiving with their father.
Zuvers called the police when John did not return their sons. John was later found at the hospital, where he claimed he broke his ankle during a suicide attempt. He provided authorities with varying accounts of what happened to his three sons — from giving them to a stranger, to handing them off to an underground organization for protection. None of his claims were corroborated, and the three boys remain missing years later.
When Crime Online covered the Skelton brothers’ case in 2020 (and in 2017), there were a few new developments. John was still imprisoned for his sons’ unlawful imprisonment despite repeatedly seeking parole. However, with the boys still being unaccounted for, it looked like he was going to leave prison without ever having to answer for what happened to them.
Then, things changed.
The Backstory
Police learned through a series of interviews that John had traveled to Holiday City, Ohio, 25 miles from his home, around the time Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner were last seen alive.
Cellphone records suggest John made the trip between 4:29 a.m. and 6:46 a.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Police were hyper-focused on that timeframe, as they believe that is when he killed his sons or dumped their bodies.
After trying to hang himself, John provided multiple stories about what happened to his sons. He claimed that he gave the boys to a woman named Joann Taylor, but police determined that the woman did not exist. Further, an email associated with the fictitious woman was linked to an IP address traced to John’s home. This discovery led to his arrest.
John continued to provide more accounts to police as their search spanned Michigan and Ohio. He not only claimed that he gave his sons to an underground organization in Ohio to protect them from Zuvers’ abuse (which she denies), but that Moses Gingerich, an Amish TV personality, would be able to locate his sons. Authorities reportedly facilitated a meeting between John and Gingerich, who said it was unlikely the Amish could have hidden three boys for this span of time. The meeting ended with John never asking Gingerich if and how he could help find his sons.
A search of John’s laptop offered a more grim story. FBI Detroit Field Office Special Agent Corey Burras said the device was used to search phrases like “Can rat poison kill a person?” and “Is it odorless and tasteless?” Burras also alleged that John left behind a suicide note to Zuvers, stating, “You will hate me.”
The boys’ disappearance shifted to a murder investigation in early 2011.
Murder Charges Filed
It is still unclear what led to Lenawee County prosecutors charging John with open murder. By all accounts, the Alexander, Andrew, and Tanner’s bodies have not been found. Presumably, there was an urgency to charge John as his prison release was set for November 29 and he is the only person who knows what happened to his sons.
In December 2023, Zuvers petitioned to have her three sons declared legally deceased. She explained that she wanted to formally put death dates on the boys’ headstones as a step closer towards closure.
“At the end of the day, one person is responsible for the disappearance of my sons. That person, at one point, claimed the boys would hibernate until they graduate. As of today, June 14, 2024, all 3 boys are over 18, and all would have graduated high school, yet they have not been returned to me and are still missing,” she said.
“At the end of the day, one person is responsible for the disappearance of my sons.
The court approved her petition in March 2025. However, the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence proving they were murdered on or about November 26, 2010, or that their father killed them.
John appeared virtually at the court procedures, but still refused to divulge his sons’ whereabouts.
“I’m at a disadvantage. Anything I say isn’t going to make a difference,” he said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors were building a murder case against him.
The Next Steps
Many questions remain as John faces murder charges in his sons’ deaths.
Sources told WTOL that investigators spent two years reviewing the Skelton brothers’ disappearance. According to a probable cause affidavit from early November, state police interviewed John, but he became uncooperative and refused to disclose his sons’ whereabouts. The document described him as “inconsistent and misleading” for the past 15 years.
READ: Crime Online’s continuing coverage of the Skelton Brothers case
“This development marks a significant moment in a long and painful journey. While I understand the public interest in this case, I ask that my family’s privacy be respected as we process this news and continue to grieve the loss of Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner,” Zuvers said in light of the murder charges against John.
There is no indication that Alexander, Tanner, and Andrew’s bodies have been found.
A probable cause hearing, which was initially scheduled for November 24, was pushed back to December 17 to give defense attorneys more time to review the breadth of evidence in this case.
John is also charged with evidence tampering. He remains jailed in Lenawee County on $60 million bond.
Anyone with information regarding Alexander, Andrew, or Tanner Skelton’s whereabouts is asked to call Michigan State Police at 1-517-636-0689 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.
