MORENCI, MI — A preliminary hearing for John Skelton begins Monday in Lenawee County as prosecutors seek to move forward on murder and evidence-tampering charges in the disappearance of his three sons more than 15 years ago. Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton vanished around Thanksgiving 2010 while they were with their father in Morenci, a small city near the Ohio border.
The brothers were 9, 7 and 5 at the time. Their disappearance has remained unsolved despite searches in Michigan and Ohio and tips from across the country. In March 2025, a judge declared the boys dead at the request of their mother, Tanya Zuvers, even though their bodies have never been found.
The court hearing is expected to last several days and will determine whether the case can proceed toward trial.
How the boys disappeared and why the case has lasted for years
The timeline in the case centers on the day after Thanksgiving in 2010, when Zuvers was supposed to pick up the boys from Skelton after holiday visitation. Instead, she could not reach him and later learned he was at a hospital after breaking his ankle.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Skelton told hospital staff he injured himself while attempting suicide. Police later entered the home and found it damaged, with the boys gone. Investigators say Skelton gave multiple explanations for where the children were, including claiming they were with friends, then saying an unknown woman had them, and later saying he gave them to an underground group meant to protect them.
The brothers were also the focus of an alleged custody and divorce dispute. Authorities say Skelton had removed the boys from school two months before they disappeared and told people he was taking them to Florida, where his parents lived.
What charges John Skelton now faces in Lenawee County
Skelton was charged in November 2025 with murdering each of his sons and tampering with criminal evidence. Those accusations came years after he had already been sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for unlawful imprisonment after pleading no contest in the case.
He was the only person convicted before the new charges were filed. He became eligible for parole in 2020, but the parole board denied his requests for release. The murder case followed years of testimony and investigative statements from officials who believed he was responsible for the boys’ disappearance, though no death-related charge had been filed until last year.
Lenawee County Judge Catherine Sala previously ruled that the boys were dead but said there was not enough evidence at that time to prove Skelton killed them.
Evidence presented in the death ruling included a note and internet searches
During the legal proceeding that declared the boys dead, prosecutors presented a three-page suicide note that the FBI said Skelton wrote to Zuvers. In it, he expressed regret and said his actions meant she would not see him again, adding that he prayed for forgiveness and knew she would hate him forever.
Investigators also cited laptop searches attributed to Skelton, including questions about whether rat poison can kill a person and whether it is odorless and tasteless. Those details became part of the record as the court weighed whether to declare the children legally dead.
Zuvers has said Skelton once claimed the boys would hibernate until they graduated. The boys are now old enough that they would have finished high school.
Family members say they still want answers as the hearing unfolds
Zuvers said she will keep searching for answers and for justice for the boys. Their aunt, Tennille McCain, said the hardest part is seeing age-progressed images of Andrew, Alexander and Tanner and still remembering them as children.
McCain also said she believes more than one person knows what happened and urged anyone with information to come forward. Her comments came as the hearing opened and witnesses began describing events from the days leading up to the boys’ disappearance.
On the first day of testimony, Zuvers spent much of the day on the stand, and prosecutors also called Pastor Donna Galloway, who served at the family’s Methodist church in Morenci at the time. The hearing is set to continue over several days.
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