Skelton Brothers

Case background and investigation

Andrew Skelton, 9, Alexander Skelton, 7, and Tanner Skelton, 5, spent Thanksgiving 2010 with their father, John Skelton, at his home in Morenci, a small Lenawee County town on the Ohio line. Their parents were divorcing, and the boys were due back with their mother, Tanya, on November 26. According to CBS Detroit, they were last seen alive on November 25, 2010. They have never been found.

According to Wikipedia's summary of contemporary reporting, Skelton first said he had handed the boys to an acquaintance he called Joann Taylor, whom police could not find, and later said he had given them to an unnamed organization to protect them from their mother. He also said he had tried to hang himself the day after Thanksgiving. Searches were carried out in Michigan and Ohio, led by the Michigan State Police, CBS Detroit reported.

Prosecutors dropped kidnapping charges, and in June 2011 Skelton pleaded no contest to unlawful imprisonment. On September 15, 2011, Lenawee County Circuit Judge Margaret Noe sentenced him to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to WDIV ClickOnDetroit. At the hearing he repeated that he had given the boys to an organization and did not say where they were. He was later denied parole several times.

In March 2025, at their mother's request, a court declared the three boys legally dead. On November 12, 2025, shortly before Skelton was due to be released at the end of his sentence, he was charged with three counts of open murder and three counts of tampering with evidence, according to CBS Detroit and WDIV. Remains found in Montana in 2017 and in Tennessee in 2026 were determined not to be the Skelton boys, CBS Detroit reported.

A preliminary examination in Lenawee County 2A District Court began on August 24, 2026, and ran for seven days. On September 3, 2026, District Judge Laura J. Schaedler ruled that prosecutors had presented enough circumstantial evidence to send the case to circuit court for trial, although the defense argued that there were no bodies or physical evidence of a crime. Skelton waived arraignment on September 16, 2026, and a further hearing was set for October 14, 2026, according to WNEM. Skelton is presumed innocent of the murder charges unless proven guilty at trial.