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Mon, 03 Mar 2025 20:35:21 -0800
marlon from private IP, post #15357297
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seeking to have missing sons declared dead
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/03/03/skelton-brothers-legally-dead-probate-court-hearing-lenawee-county-morenci/75847167007/
Mom testifies about why she's seeking to have missing sons declared deadin Lenawee
Portrait of Julia CardiJulia Cardi
The Detroit News
Adrian — The mother of three Lenawee County brothers, missing since 2010, said she's now seeking to have them declared legally dead so she can have a date to
put on headstones, acquire death certificates and show them a respect she believes their father — who she accuses of killing them — did not have for them.
The boys' mother, Tanya Zuvers, took the stand late Monday afternoon in Lenawee County Probate Court as part of a hearing to have them declared legally dead.
She remained composed as she described feeling like she was "living somebody's nightmare" after her sons went missing.
Zuvers requested the hearing in December 2023 and it was delayed several times before starting Monday. Smiling occasionally, she described each of her sons:
Andrew, "smart as a whip" who'd never met a video game he couldn't beat; Alex, an "inquisitive" boy who loved tinkering and was a pint-sized ladies' man; and
Tanner, her "baby" who was so excited to have just started "big school" like his brothers.
“Their father showed them no respect," Zuvers said. "I shouldn’t even say their father. John Skelton showed them no respect.”
The brothers were last seen in the backyard of their father's home in Morenci, near the Michigan-Ohio border, on Thanksgiving Day.
Tanner Skelton, 5, from left, and his older brothers, Alexander, 7, and Andrew, 9, have been missing since 2010.
A former Morenci police chief testified Monday that police never found any record of a woman John Skelton had told Zuvers was caring for the boys when they went
missing. Another official testified that records showed John Skelton had conducted internet searches on how to break someone's neck and rat poison, according to
testimony Monday.
Larry Weeks, a former Morenci police chief, testified that John Skelton, the boys' father, told Zuvers that the children were with a woman named Joann Taylor.
But police could not find any evidence Taylor existed, Weeks said, even after an investigator was assigned specifically to trying to find her.
An email address supposedly belonging to Joann Taylor appeared to have been created at John Skelton's home, based on the associated IP address.
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Skelton also made statements to investigators indicating he thought he was Joann Taylor, and used that name to communicate with Zuvers on a social media site
for parents called CafeMom.
"There's never been any discovery of a Joann Taylor?" Castleberry asked.
"No such person was ever discovered," Weeks replied.
Burke Castleberry, Zuvers' attorney, said Michigan's law under which he's seeking to have the boys declared dead presumes a person's death if they are missing
for more than five years and their absence can't be explained.
"We are beginning this case with the presumption that the three children are deceased," he said.
Married to John Skelton since 2002, Zuvers said things between them turned dark in September 2010 when he signed the boys out of school for a "family trip" to
Florida she had no idea about. She managed to quickly get a court order granting her sole custody of the boys and drove to Florida after Skelton, immediately
going to the Jacksonville police station.
Once back in Michigan, the two parents agreed shortly before Thanksgiving John Skelton could have the boys for half of their school vacation, and she was to get
them back Friday.
Zuvers called 911 when Skelton did not bring the boys back to her by 4 p.m. on Friday. She discovered "mass destruction" at her ex-husband's house — a
mattress shredded, an overturned china cabinet cords to appliances cut — when she went there with a police officer for a welfare check.
She learned a short time later her husband had gone to a hospital in Fulton County, Ohio, because of a reported suicide attempt that day, and that her children
were not with him.
Zuvers said she held out hope for a long time her sons might still be alive. But she knew they were smart, and believes one of them would have found a way to
call for help had they been kidnapped by someone they didn't know.
She choked up on the stand Monday when Castlberry told her he's proud of the courage she has shown.
"Thank you," she replied.
The boys' disappearance led to an extensive search in Ohio and Michigan. John Skelton gave police conflicting accounts of what happened to his children,
including telling police on Nov. 26 he was "95% sure" the boys were in a dumpster in Holiday City, Ohio.
He also said they were wrapped in blankets in an old schoolhouse. But searches of those locations turned up nothing, Weeks testified.
Skelton now is serving a 10-to 15-year sentence for unlawful imprisonment, having been charged the year after they disappeared. He is scheduled to be released
in November 2025.
Castleberry asked Weeks directly if he believes John Skelton killed his sons. Weeks said he does, and confirmed there's no evidence the boys are alive.
Castleberry also asked him how he interpreted a statement Skelton made to a local pastor that he had "sent them home."
"You’re speaking to a person of faith; a person that believes in God," Weeks said. "The impression it leaves me with is that he sent them to heaven.”
"He murdered them?” Castleberry asked.
“That’s certainly a conclusion," Weeks replied.
'You will hate me'
Weeks was one of five people who testified Monday.
An FBI agent, Corey Burras, testified about a suicide note Skelton wrote to Tanya coupled with an unsuccessful attempt to take his own life that included
statements such as, "You will hate me." Burras said he had "no doubt" about the implication of Skelton's note.
FBI special agent Corey Burras testifies during a hearing by Tayna Zuvers to have her sons Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton be officially declared
deceased, at Lenawee County probate court, in Adrian, March 3, 2025.
He believed Skelton was trying to say, “Tanya, I killed the boys.”
Burras testified Skelton had made Internet searches in November for phrases like "How to break a neck," and also looked up information about potassium cyanide
and rat poison.
"What does that mean to you?" asked Castleberry.
“Definite interest in finding something that could harm or kill someone," Burras said.
Given to an underground organization?
Remains of three children discovered in 2017 in a backyard in Missoula, Montana turned out not to belong to the Skelton boys. The children apparently were of
similar ages.
The lead Michigan State Police detective on the case met with John Skelton many times once the agency took over the investigation in 2013.
Michigan State Police lieutenant Jeremy Brewer gives testimony during a hearing by Tayna Zuvers to have her sons Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton be
officially declared deceased, at Lenawee County probate court, in Adrian, March 3, 2025.
Jeremy Brewer testified he went into those meetings only with the motivation of finding the missing boys, not having known much about the case previously, and
wanted to form a rapport with Skelton. But he said Skelton would shut down anytime Brewer tried to turn the conversations toward his sons.
Skelton gave only one piece of information to Brewer, the detective said: Skelton stated he had given the boys to an "underground" organization and that Mose
Gingerich, a writer and documentarian formerly in the Amish community, knew where his children were. Brewer said he may have heard of Gingerich from seeing one
of his shows while in prison.
The state police quickly tracked down Gingerich, who seemed eager to help and find out why this person he'd never met had mentioned his name, and flew him to
Michigan to meet with Skelton. Brewer described Skelton as "white" with shock when he saw Gingerich in person.
“John never thought in a million years we would call his bluff on this," Brewer said of how he interpreted Skelton's reaction.
When police found John Skelton's home "destroyed" on Nov. 26, 2010, a noose hung from a second-floor window, but both Brewer and Burras said it was made from
cord so thin it would not have been possible for a person to hang themselves from it.
Brewer said he believes Skelton had torn the home apart to prevent Zuvers from getting anything of value out of it.
“Do you believe that this was the same thing he did with the boys, basically?” asked Allexis Stang, an attorney representing the three sons.
“Absolutely," replied Brewer.
Castleberry finished questioning witnesses Monday afternoon. Probate Judge Catherine Sala said she plans to make her ruling Wednesday on the request to declare
the Skelton boys dead after going through the case's evidence again.
“It’s both a unique and chilling experience as an attorney to have three clients who I’ve never had the opportunity to meet with, and will never meet
with," Stang said in her closing statement, "Because they are deceased.”
Tue, 04 Mar 2025 05:46:09 -0800
whiteguyinchina from private IP
Reply #17662690
Awful story, it's why child killers don't last long in prison
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