DETROIT — A michigan man has long been blamed for The disappearance of his three children They were charged in their deaths on Thanksgiving 2010, court records show.
John Skelton faces three counts of murder and tampering with evidence in the deaths of 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner Skelton, according to Lenawee County court records. They were never found.
The charges, filed on Wednesday, came just days before Skelton, 53, was released from prison after a 15-year sentence for failing to return the boys to their mother, the only conviction in the saga so far.
A message seeking comment from the district attorney’s office was not immediately returned.
The brothers disappeared while with their father for Thanksgiving in Morenci, a small town near the Ohio border, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Detroit.
Skelton and his wife, Tanya Zuffers, were having problems and living separately in Morenci. The boys were supposed to return to Zovers the next day. Instead, they are gone.
The brothers were never found, despite countless searches in the woods and waters of Michigan and Ohio and reports from all over the country.
Police said Skelton fed them a long string of lies about the boys’ whereabouts, sending investigators to an old school in Kunkle, Ohio, and a dumpster in Holiday City, Ohio. Police said allegations that the boys had been handed over to other people for their safety also turned out to be untrue.
The lead investigator, Michigan State Police Detective Lt. Jeremy Brewer, said in March that he had “absolutely no doubt” that Skelton killed the brothers. He was giving evidence at a hearing to declare the boys legally dead.
Skelton refused to participate in the court hearing.
“Anything I say won’t make a difference,” he said on March 3 via video conference from prison.