A Michigan father who was just days away from being released from prison is now facing new charges in the long-running case of his missing children.
John Skelton, 53, was arrested on November 12 and charged with the murders of his three sons—Andrew, 9; Alexander, 7; and Tanner, 5. He is also charged with evidence tampering. Skelton is being held at the Lenawee County Jail on a $60 million bond.
The boys disappeared in November 2010, shortly after Thanksgiving. Skelton had refused to return them to their mother, Tanya Zuvers, following a court-ordered parenting time visit. Their whereabouts remained unknown for years, and Skelton offered shifting stories to investigators—including a claim that he handed the children over to a secret “underground sanctuary” for protection. Investigators later confirmed such a group did not exist.
Skelton was convicted of unlawful imprisonment in 2011 and has been incarcerated since. He was scheduled for release in early December 2025. Investigators had attempted to interview him again ahead of his release, hoping he might provide information on what happened to the children, but according to an affidavit, Skelton refused to cooperate.
The new charges come months after the boys were legally declared dead. Authorities say Skelton repeatedly misled investigators and made efforts to conceal his sons’ remains to prevent the cause of death from being discovered. Prior court documents revealed that in the days before the children vanished, Skelton had been researching various ways to kill people online.
Skelton was briefly hospitalized in 2010 after attempting to take his own life following the boys’ disappearance. Once stabilized, he offered conflicting accounts of their fate, prompting Zuvers to report them missing. The children disappeared just two months after Zuvers filed for divorce and sought full custody.
Skelton is set to appear in court on November 24.
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