# Three young US brothers declared dead 14 years after their disappearance

## Michigan

### Three young US brothers declared dead 14 years after their disappearance

Judge says ‘no condolences will be enough’ as tragic murder mystery is unsolved despite police’s suspicions of the father.

A judge declared three young  brothers dead on Wednesday, more than 14 years after they disappeared at Thanksgiving in a tragic murder mystery that remains officially unsolved despite police believing that their father was responsible for their deaths.

The Lenawee county judge Catherine Sala granted a request by Tanya Zuvers, the mother of Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton, and set the date of death as 26 November 2010.

“**This is a case of terrible and longstanding impact on the community of Lenawee**,” Sala said. “No condolences will ever be enough for such loss suffered.”

But at the same time, the judge rejected a request to also acknowledge that the boys’ father, John Skelton, murdered the children. “To make such a finding, the court would only be joining those voices offering such speculation and theory given the lack of information,” Sala said.

Skelton, 53, has not been charged with killing his sons. By November, he is expected to complete a 15-year prison sentence for his failure to return the boys to Zuvers, the only conviction in the case so far.

Taking the stand in Lenawee county probate court, Zuvers testified on Monday that a formal declaration of death would give her closure and provide “respect” to the boys, who were nine, seven and five in 2010. They disappeared while with their father at Thanksgiving in Morenci, a town along the Ohio border.

Burke Castleberry, Zuvers’ attorney, said at the hearing: “We are beginning this case with the presumption that the three children are deceased.”

Skelton and Zuvers were having problems and living apart in Morenci. The boys were supposed to go back to their mother the next day. Instead, they were gone.

Zuvers testified that she believed Skelton killed her sons, according to . “Their father showed them no respect,” Zuvers said. “I shouldn’t even say their father. John Skelton showed them no respect.”

Larry Weeks, a former Morenci police chief, testified that Skelton told Zuvers that the children were with a woman named Joann Taylor. But police were never able to find any evidence that Taylor existed, Weeks said. Indeed an email address supposedly belonging to Taylor appeared to have been created at Skelton’s residence based on the associated IP address.

Skelton also gave police several different conflicting accounts of what happened to his children, including telling police he was “95% sure” the boys were in a dumpster in Holiday City, Ohio.

On another occasion, he told the police they were wrapped in blankets in an old schoolhouse in Kunkle, Ohio. But Weeks testified that searches of the locations given by Skelton turned up nothing.

The boys have not been found, despite countless searches of woods and water in  and Ohio and tips from across the country.

At the hearing, Zuvers described each of her sons, according to the Detroit News. Andrew was “smart as a whip” who had never met a video game he couldn’t beat; Alex was an “inquisitive” boy who loved tinkering and was a young ladies’ man; and Tanner was described as her “baby” who was so excited to have just begun “big school” like his brothers.

Skelton declined to participate in the hearing to have the brothers declared dead.

“**Anything I say isn’t going to make a difference**,” he said by video conference from prison.

_Associated Press contributed reporting_
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