A Michigan probate court judge granted a mother’s request to declare her missing sons dead after 14 years but said there was not enough evidence for her to reach a legal conclusion that their father murdered them.
Judge Catherine Sala acknowledged the “terrible and longstanding” impact of the search for missing Skelton brothers Andrew, 9, Alexander, 7, and Tanner, 5. A neighbor was the last to see them alive on Thanksgiving Day 2010, when they were playing in the yard of their father’s Lenawee County home. Their father, John Skelton, failed to return them to their mother the next day and the boys have not been located or heard from since despite extensive law enforcement efforts.
Tanya Zuvers looks away as her former husband John Skelton appears via video from Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility during a hearing by Zuvers to have her sons Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton be officially declared deceased, at Lenawee County probate court, in Adrian, Mich., March 3, 2025. (David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP)
“It is with the gravest of condolences that it is ordered Alexander William Skelton, Andrew Ryan Skelton, and Tanner Lucas Skelton are presumed to be deceased,” the judge said, voice quivering.
The boys’ mother, Tanya Zuvers, listened to the judge’s long-awaited ruling from inside the courtroom with her head bowed. Zuvers told the judge earlier in the week that she was seeking a death declaration for her sons to bring closure and “respect” to their memory despite the fate she believes they suffered at their father’s hand.
Zuvers and law enforcement officers testified in the one-day hearing that there was “no doubt” in their minds that John Skelton had killed his sons.
Skelton was found in a hospital and arrested days after the boys went missing and pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful imprisonment. He declined to appear via video conference for the hearing on Zuvers’ petition to declare the boys dead.
But Sala said she could not reach the legal conclusion that Skelton murdered his sons based on the speculative and circumstantial nature of the evidence and the investigators’ opinion, noting it was based mainly on hearsay.
“Given their undisputed disappearance for over 14 years, the statutory presumption of death applies. The presentation of evidence, however, does not present clear and convincing evidence that John Skelton murdered these children. The information provided at this trial provides ample opportunity for speculation and theories, but 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.
When John Skelton failed to return his sons to the custody of their mother the day after Thanksgiving, he gave police several explanations for their whereabouts. Initially, he said a friend picked them up, but later said that was a cover story for a “clandestine operation” to move the kids to a secret underground group to protect them from their mother, who had served time years before for a sex offense involving a minor, former Morenci Police Chief Larry Weeks testified.
Weeks and three other law enforcement witnesses from Michigan State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation spent hours outlining the yearslong, painstaking investigation that led them to debunk John Skelton’s account and conclude he was a “liar.”
(L to R): Andrew, Tanner and Alexander Skelton. (NamUs)
Former Michigan State Police Det. Sgt. Jeremy Brewer described one such instance when Skelton gave him the name of a person he said was connected to the secret group. Authorities located the man, Mose Gingerich, an Amish-born television personality known for helping others leave the Amish community. He denied involvement or knowledge of Skelton’s claims, and authorities flew Gingerich to Michigan for a face-to-face encounter with Skelton in prison.
“He became white as a ghost. He couldn’t formulate a sentence,” Brewer testified in the hearing to declare the boys dead. “John never thought in a million years we would … call his bluff.”
Brewer and the other witnesses outlined the scope of incriminating evidence against John Skelton, which included:
- Web searches on his laptop for terms such as “can rat poison kill a person” and “how to break someone else’s neck with hands.”
- A three-page suicide note addressed to Tanya Zuvers in which he said things like, “I’m sorry to hurt you yet again but this time it was on purpose … I guess my actions today will guarantee you won’t have to see me again or in heaven… you’ll hate me forever and I know this…”
- When asked where the boys were, he told his pastor, “Home, I sent them home. “
- Cell tower data shows John’s phone traveling from the area of his Morenci home to a campground in Ohio and back between 4:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Friday, November 26, 2010, the morning after Thanksgiving.
- A relative passed by John’s house around 5 a.m. and saw his van was gone from the driveway.
- John dropped off a suitcase with the boys’ coats, toothbrushes and laptop at his aunt’s house on the morning of November 26, 2010, and said, “They didn’t need them anymore.”
Sala described the law enforcement presentation as “high-level” and lacking in supporting documentation to verify the witness’ claims, “undermining” their reliability.
“The impact of this ruling is not lost on this Court, for it is also a part of this community,” Sala said, pausing for composure. “But the Court must follow the law, and to ignore it in this case risks the very structures upon which our system of justice is built. “
