Michigan mother wanted her three sons declared dead after they vanished 15 years ago. Her heartbreaking request was just granted

Three Michigan brothers have been declared dead more than 14 years after they disappeared at Thanksgiving in 2010 in a small-town tragedy that remains unsolved despite an explicit belief by investigators that their father is responsible.

Lenawee County Judge Catherine Sala granted the request that was made by the boys’ mother Tanya Zuvers, who said they deserve the respect that they didn’t get at the end of their young lives.

“We may not have their bodies, but their life still meant something,” Zuvers testified near the end of the hearing in Lenawee County in southern Michigan this week.

The judge set Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton’s date of death for November 26, 2010.

“This is a case of terrible and longstanding impact on the community of Lenawee,” Sala said. “No condolences will ever be enough for such loss suffered.”

Zuvers told the court that this legal declaration will allow her to pay respect to her sons and put a date on their headstone.

“Because their dad showed them no respect,” she said. “Because any loving father would not have done what he did, and I owe them the respect.”

The boys were ages 9, 7, and 5 when they disappeared while they were with their father, John Skelton, at Thanksgiving in 2010. Skelton and the boys’ mother had been going through a divorce at the time.

They were supposed to return to Zuvers the next morning. Instead, they were gone. Police later determined Skelton’s phone was in Ohio at 4:30 a.m. before it was turned off and then turned back on at 6 a.m. in Morenci.

Investigators searched Skelton’s home that day while he was in the hospital for an ankle injury and found a mess of broken glass, severed appliance cords and a noose hanging from the second floor.

FBI agent Corey Burras testified that a note had been left for Zuvers that read: “You will hate me forever and I know this.”

“That was his passive admission to killing the children,” Burras said.

Skelton denied harming his sons and said they were with an underground group for their safety, among other murky explanations, according to investigators.

When Skelton was confronted by his church pastor about the three boys, he told him: “I sent them home,” Burras told the court, quoting Skelton as referring to heaven.

The court also heard testimony from the police chief that Skelton’s computer showed searches for whether rat poison can kill people and instructions for how to break a neck.

In an interview with investigators, Skelton mentioned an old schoolhouse in Kunkle, Ohio, and a dumpster in Holiday City, Ohio, but once searched, nothing was found.

The boys have not been located, despite countless searches of woods and water in Michigan and Ohio and tips from across the country.

While police believe Skelton is responsible for the deaths of his sons, he has not been charged.

By November, Skelton is expected to complete a 15-year prison sentence for his failure to return the boys to Zuvers, the only conviction in the saga.

On Wednesday, the judge rejected a request to also acknowledge that the boys’ father murdered the children.

“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.

Skelton had previously declined to participate in the hearing to have the brothers declared dead, stating in a video from prison: “Anything I say isn’t going to make a difference.”

Since November 2010, Zuvers has prayed someone “would cure her broken heart” with news about their whereabouts or that John Skelton would explain what really happened, attorney R. Burke Castleberry said in a court filing.

“Heartbreakingly, none of that has occurred,” he wrote.

Years have passed, but people in Morenci have not forgotten the Skelton brothers. A plaque with their names and images is attached to a rock at a park near Bean Creek. It says, “Faith, Hope, Love.”