IONIA, Mich. – John Russel Skelton, the father of the Skelton Brothers who went missing in 2010, is nearing the end of his jail sentence.
Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton were 9, 7 and 5 years old when they disappeared from Lenawee County in November 2010. The boys were last seen with their father.
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John Skelton had spent time with the boys over the Thanksgiving holiday amid a divorce and custody dispute with their mother, Tanya Zuvers.
He was supposed to return them to their mother on Black Friday, Nov. 26, 2010.
The brothers have never been found, and their whereabouts remain unknown.
Police said they tracked John Skelton’s phone leaving his Morenci home and traveling about 25 miles southwest into Ohio before returning to Morenci.
For more than a decade, there have been more questions than answers in the disappearance of the three Skelton brothers.
John Skelton claimed he gave the boys to “a group,” at times mentioning the Amish as that group. However, no such group has been identified or come forward, and Skelton’s story has changed since his initial claim.
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A judge declared the boys dead in March of this year, but stated there wasn’t enough evidence to prove they were murdered.
John Skelton was sentenced in 2010 to 10-15 years for unlawful imprisonment. The earliest time he could have been paroled was 2020. He was denied.
He remains incarcerated at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan, located roughly halfway between Lansing and Grand Rapids.
He is scheduled to be released from the Michigan Department of Corrections on Nov. 29, 2025, almost exactly 15 years since the boys were last seen.
Anyone with information about the case or the boys’ whereabouts is asked to call Michigan State Police at 1-517-636-0689 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.