[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, and welcome to Day by Day True Crime Stories, the podcast will re-explore different crime or justice milestone from this day in history.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Kona Gallagher, and today is November 25th.

[SPEAKER_00]: On this day in 2010, it was Thanksgiving Day, and three young brothers, Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton vanished while on a visit with their father in more in-see Michigan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew was nine, Alexander was seven, and Tanner was just five.

[SPEAKER_00]: For nearly 15 years, their disappearance has haunted the community, but in 2025, Justice or Father was about to be released from prison, the case took a major turn.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're talking about the disappearance of Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get started.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanksgiving 2010 seemed to start off as a routine visitation.

[SPEAKER_00]: The three skeleton brothers Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner were spending the holiday with their father, John Skelton.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lived in the small border town of Morensey, Michigan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their parents were separated, and their mother, Tanya Zoovers, had filed for divorce just two months earlier.

[SPEAKER_00]: Neighbors later recalled seeing the boys playing in the backyard that afternoon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that seemingly normal moment, three kids outside on a holiday, would be the last confirmed sighting of the boys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now the plan was that John would return the kids to Tanya the next day on Black Friday around 3pm.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when that time came and went, and there was no sign of her children, and no clear answers from John, Tanya reported them missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: An amber alert went out that night, and the search began.

[SPEAKER_00]: Through the weekend, investigators focused on the skeleton home in the surrounding area.

[SPEAKER_00]: By Sunday, federal agents had joined the search.

[SPEAKER_00]: John meanwhile was hospitalized in Ohio after what authorities described as a suicide attempt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Police quickly secured his home and began collecting early statements.

[SPEAKER_00]: In those first press briefings, Moranci's police chief laid out what became the foundation of the case.

[SPEAKER_00]: The boys were last known to be with their father and things giving.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were never returned, and most importantly, there was no evidence that they had [SPEAKER_00]: What followed was a massive cold weather search effort that stretched from southern Michigan into neighboring Ohio.

[SPEAKER_00]: Law enforcement agencies used helicopters, search dogs, ATVs, and hundreds of volunteers to scour open fields, wooded areas, and rural roads.

[SPEAKER_00]: By mid December, police had received over 900 tips, but behind the scenes, investigators were growing more and more certain that John Skeleton wasn't telling the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even without physical evidence, the direction of the case was becoming grim.

[SPEAKER_00]: John Skeleton's behavior and past decisions came under scrutiny almost immediately, just weeks before the disappearance he had taken the boys out of state without permission, first to Ohio, then to Florida.

[SPEAKER_00]: That custody violation now seemed like a warning sign.

[SPEAKER_00]: John Skeleton had been determined to do whatever he wanted with his children.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the days after Thanksgiving his story kept changing, at one point he claimed that he gave the boys to a mysterious woman, and another he mentioned some kind of underground sanctuary group.

[SPEAKER_00]: But police couldn't find any proof that such people or groups existed.

[SPEAKER_00]: By early 2011, the Moran Sea Police Chief made it official.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was no longer a missing person's case.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was now being treated as a homicide.

[SPEAKER_00]: While police and prosecutors believed that John Skeleton had killed his children, prosecutors didn't yet have a murder case.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they moved forward with what they could prove then.

[SPEAKER_00]: On July 29, 2011, John Skelton pleaded no contest to unlawful imprisonment.

[SPEAKER_00]: That plea deal dropped the more serious kidnapping charges that they had charged him with and kept his prison sentence at 15 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: At sentenceding that December, the judge imposed the maximum.

[SPEAKER_00]: 10-15 years behind bars.

[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't mince words, she called skeleton stories ridiculous and told him point blank, quote, because of you, Andrew Alexander and Tanner have been silenced, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: In court, prosecutors pushed him one last time to tell the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: He blamed the system.

[SPEAKER_00]: His lawyer even acknowledged that nothing in the plea protected him from future homicide charges.

[SPEAKER_00]: Over the years, John tried to appeal the sentence, but it didn't go anywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as the years passed, parole reviews came and went.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 2023, he was denied again with a projected release date set for November 29th, 2025.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 2017, hope briefly flickered when human remains were found in a shed in Missoula, Montana.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, the answer was no.

[SPEAKER_00]: In early 2018, dental records and forensic testing ruled out that possibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just another devastating dead end in a case already full of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then came 2025.

[SPEAKER_00]: In March, a judge in Lennowee County declared the boys legally dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: The courts set the legal date of death five years after the disappearance, which is consistent with Michigan Law.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya had requested the declaration for closure.

[SPEAKER_00]: John refused to take part in the hearing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then, this November, just as John's skeleton was about to finish his sentence, everything changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of letting him walk out of jail, Michigan authorities charged John's skeleton with three counts of open murder and three counts of tampering with evidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was transferred from prison to the Lenny County jail, and a judge set his bond at $60 million.

[SPEAKER_00]: Media outlets across Michigan and Ohio jumped on the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to the Associated Press, when investigators went to skeletons home after the boys' disappearance, quote, they found a mess with broken glass, severed appliance cords, [SPEAKER_00]: and a noose hanging from the second floor.

[SPEAKER_00]: A Bible was opened with a first circled and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: John had also left a note for his estranged wife that said, quote, you will hate me forever and I know this, and quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the March 2025 hearing to declare the boys legally dead, FBI agent Cory Burris testified, quote, that was his passive admission to killing the children, and quote, [SPEAKER_00]: Prosecutors have said that more details will be presented in court.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, 15 years after the voice relaxed scene, here's what we know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner were last seen on Thanksgiving Day, 2010, playing in their father's yard.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were never returned to their mother, and John Skeleton's stories about what happened to them have never held up under [SPEAKER_00]: He was convicted of unlawful imprisonment in 2011.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in 2025, he was finally charged with their murders.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even with all of that, the boys have never been found.

[SPEAKER_00]: What comes next is a legal process that has been 15 years in the making, and hopefully with it, the answers that Andrew Alexander and Tanner's mother have been so desperately seeking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining me on today's episode of Day by Day True Crime Stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you found today's episode compelling, please subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll help us grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And be sure to join me again tomorrow as we explore another significant event in True Crime History.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until then, stay safe and remember that behind every headline is a life worth remembering.

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