A heartbroken Michigan mother will move a step closer to resolution Monday when an evidentiary hearing is scheduled for her petition to have her three sons, who have been missing for nearly 15 years, declared legally dead.
Tanya Lynn Zuvers’ sons, Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton, went missing in November 2010. They spent Thanksgiving with their father, John, and were last seen in his backyard in Morency, Michigan, a town of 2,200 near the Ohio state line. The boys, who were 9, 7 and 5 when they disappeared, have not been heard from since.
In the years immediately following the children’s disappearance, Zuvers They kept their Christmas gifts ready For them, in their final return.
Last month, Zuvers posted an announcement on its Facebook page Sharing her decision to submit the petition, which was set up to receive tips and hints from the public, the person said she chose to do so “after much thought and discussion with my family and friends.”
“This was not easy and was definitely a difficult decision,” Zuvers wrote. “No parent wants to lose their child, but for the courts to step in and declare them dead is unfathomable. At the end of the day, one person is responsible for my sons’ disappearance… As of today, June 14, 2024, all 3 boys are over 18 and would have all graduated from high school, yet they have not been returned to me and are still missing.”
According to the petition the Zuvers filed in Lenawee County Magistrate Court last December, John Russell Skelton, who is currently incarcerated, “was unable or unwilling to provide a reasonable explanation as to the whereabouts of these children.”
Skelton, 52, “did nothing to assist authorities, his family or his ex-wife’s family in what became an extensive search.” [the boys] “Since they disappeared in 2010,” the petition states. “In the hours immediately following the incident [they went missing]Skelton began a journey of misdirection and lies as the story of his sons’ whereabouts began to emerge.”
Zuvers could not be reached Monday. His attorney, R. Burke Castleberry, did not immediately respond. Independent‘s request for comment.
Skelton was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for three counts of unlawful imprisonment related to his three sons in September 2011. He was never charged in connection with their deaths and is scheduled to be released in November 2025. According to prison recordsSkelton and Zuvers, who had sole custody of the children, were in the midst of a rancorous divorce at the time.
Investigators used cellphone records to track Skelton’s movements during the period in question, which the petition said was “completely contradicted.”[ed] “He started telling the story to his wife and the authorities.”
The petition states that Skelton broke his foot while attempting suicide the next day and was taken to the hospital for his injuries.
When Zuvers called Skelton to ask where the children were, Skelton lied to him, telling him they were “with a friend” and would be home shortly.
“She later lied again and said she didn’t know where the children were because she wasn’t sure who had taken them,” the petition states. “Due to the many lies and strange circumstances that led to Tanya having these conversations with John while he was in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt, Tanya called the authorities and reported the children missing. John was taken into custody shortly thereafter.”
Skelton’s story changed several more times during police interrogations, telling them that he had given the children to “some kind of underground group” to keep them safe from the Zuvers, who he claimed were “dangerous.” Another story was that he had given the children to a non-existent woman named Joanne Taylor and that he “had a vision of the children being dumped in a dumpster at a site in Ohio,” according to the petition.
All of Skelton’s calls and letters from prison were monitored, but “nothing was ever said by John or anyone he came into contact with regarding the well-being or whereabouts of his children. No word was ever said about when the children would return. John never showed any emotion when his missing children were mentioned in conversation,” the petition said.
At one point “years later,” Skelton told investigators to talk to a local man who runs a boarding house for members of the Amish community who want to leave and enter the “real world,” to find out where the children were, the petition says.
But when detectives found the man Skelton named, he said he had never heard of his father before. It turned out Skelton had seen the man on a reality show on the cell block television and made up a completely fabricated story, the petition said.
“All the information provided by John Skelton, the last person to see the children, leads investigators to the following conclusion: [he] The petition concludes: “By this time, all three boys would have been over 18 years of age… If John Skelton’s lies were true, the boys could now have been rehabilitated back into society, but this has not happened and the authorities have not received any form of co-operation.” [him].”
Declaring the children legally dead would provide the Zuvers with some relief, Castleberry said, and would also allow him to resolve the various legal and financial issues that have arisen from the heartbreaking loss.