The Skelton Brothers /// Part 2 | Forensic Files

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of the beers news. All right. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to everybody out there. Gather around, grab a chair, grab
a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Cheers. [Music] [Music] On yesterday's show, Captain, we started
off by going through the timeline of events of late 2010 regarding the missing three boys, regarding the
missing three skeleton brothers. Where we left off is talking about what's going on with Jon after this situation.
So, we do know that Jon is locked up, but during his lockup, he and Tanya, they do get a divorce. And Jon gets
charged in the disappearance of his kids and gets sentenced to 10 to 15 years for
unlawful imprisonment of his children. He goes to prison for this. February 1st, 2011, police announced that the
Skelton Brothers missing person's case is now a murder investigation. The chief of police, Larry Weekes, said, quote,
"He wanted to put an end to false hope." In November of 2013, the Morreny police
turned the investigation over to the Michigan State Police. And then there was this.
On December 18th, 2017, Michigan police are investigating whether the partial remains of three
children found in a shed of a rental home in Missoula, Montana, could belong to the brothers missing for more than 7
years at this point. The remains, which included fragments of bones and teeth, could be those of the brothers Alexander
Andrew and Tanner Skelton, who went missing in Michigan in 2010. Investigators set out to determine
whether this discovery would finally solve the mystery. A few things we need to discuss regarding this discovery.
One, the experts believe the ages of the boys could be consistent with the remains found. Police in Missoula found
the remains in the shed of a rental home after cleaners reported them to the police in September. According to the
Missoulan, that's a local newspaper, right? A spokesperson for Missoula Police Department, Sergeant Travis
Welsh, told the outlet there is no suspect, but they did want to interview a specific person. It was reported that
a tenant was evicted from the home over that last summer. When a cleaning crew was brought in, workers found a box
containing teeth and bones. According to the Associated Press, an anthropology professor at the University of Montana
estimated that the ages of the remains of the children's remains that were found were to be 2 to four years old, 5
to 8 years old, and 6 to 10 years old. Right? Meaning that if if John did give them to somebody and they took them out
to Montana, then they killed them there. Mhm. or maybe that John killed them and
then gave them to somebody that took them out there to be buried or to be hidden or whatever, but they would have
been dead roughly about the ages they went missing. Correct. Now, the tricky thing though, however,
is there is no known link between the Skeleton Boys and anyone in Montana. Right. And as you were pointing out, you
know, we have to remember law enforcement tracked John Skelton's phone. They believe they know his
movements and his whereabouts during the time in question. And this location, it's like a 25-hour drive from Morreny,
Michigan to Missoula, Montana. So for this for these remains to be the Skeleton Boys, somebody else would have
had to have been involved. Right. All right. But this is pieced together from some articles. So we'll get back to the
article here. Michigan State Police investigators are working with Missoula police to determine if there is any
connection to Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton who were reported missing from Morreny the day after Thanksgiving
in 2010. The state police announced in a statement, quote, "There has been nothing previously reported to the
police linking the brothers to Montana. Further forensic testing has been requested by police that may provide
more answers. Until this testing is completed, an additional investigation by law enforcement in Montana occurs. It
cannot be determined if these remains belong to the missing skeleton brothers. End quote.
Now, when's this testing going to be done, though? Well, this is going to be extensive. It's going to take months for
them to uh figure out if it is in fact the three boys. Mhm. Now, Tanya Zoover, the boy's mother, she took to Facebook
after this, and remind you, they are divorced by this time. Tanya goes to Facebook after police made the possible
link public and asked for prayers for her family, saying, quote, "This information has just been presented to
our family within the last several hours. We are processing it and hopeful that we will have answers soon. We are
thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers. According to the newspaper articles, Tanya has continued to buy
Christmas, birthday, and Easter gifts for her sons in in the hope that one day they would come home. Yeah, it's it's
weird cuz you see some interviews where she's breaking down and crying a lot. And then I saw one interview that I
thought was strange for a minute. She talked about how her boys wouldn't want to see her upset. her boys won't want to
see her stop living life, not progressing in life. So, she's been trying to do that. I thought that was
very strange at first until you see the multiple interviews where she is breaking down, where she can't control
it. So, you know, I I would assume that at some point when you break down that often, you'd have to tell yourself, hey,
I got to do this. Maybe it's not for me. Maybe it's for my children. Well, and police in that area are announcing that
they are trying to identify the remains, but they're also trying to determine the
causes of death regarding those remains. Right. And they state, quote, "We are working with the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children and other missing persons databases to see if that's a possibility." A spokesperson
for the Missoula Police Department told KPAX TV. They also added quote the thing is
there are missing children all over the world and the thing in this case we don't know that this particular case is
isolated to the city of Missoula. We don't know where the bones came from and if they were transported from one area
to another and then ended up here. you have, like you said, similar ages and the fact that there's three boys.
There's how many cases are like that, the percentage goes down a lot. The remains have been sent to the University
of North Texas Center for Human Identification for DNA testing, which runs the National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System. So, it took some time, as we stated, and I think it
was about 6 months for answers to be found regarding the remains in Montana. Here are their findings. The teeth and
bone fragments found inside a shed at a Missoula house in September are more than 99 years old. According to a report
from a national forensic lab, Missoula County Chief Deputy Coroner Lieutenant Jace Dickin said the Center for Human
Identification has concluded that the bone fragments and teeth are archaeological in nature and at least a
century old. The report stated that they likely were buried somewhere else for some time before being unearthed. So,
this is Don't Got him, right? Yeah. don't got him. And it makes me go back to what John's family says. They're 100%
convinced that what he's saying that he gave the boys to somebody and then they're alive, they 100% believe. And
his father even said, "When it's all said and done, we'll see who has the last laugh." Mhm. which is one a weird
thing to say because your your grandkids are missing, but that's how sure he is of what his son is telling him, right?
Well, and then think about this situation for a little bit. You know, Tanya is hearing about this. They found
the remains of three children, right? She has three children that are missing. Mhm. And I actually I'm not certain that
the the sex the gender of the remains was able to be determined at that time or if it ever was, right? But
what are the percentages? You know, I mean, we talked about that when we covered the the body barrel case, right?
Where you have multiple people that are missing and then multiple people that are found, their remains are found. What
are the percentages? It can't be very high. It can't be very high. So then she's this poor woman sitting there
wondering that's got to be the absolute hell of the parent of a missing child or
missing children to hear this information and go it could be them. I don't know. Nobody knows for certain.
Oh, and it's going to take because of science. It's nobody's fault. It's going to take months before they can give me
an answer. It's going to take 6 months. 6 to 8 months I think was the original estimated time that they expected to
Yeah. But if you don't find these and you don't have a test coming up, then you have no end date of possible answer,
right? And that's your real hell is when you just don't know. I mean, there's so
many parents that have their kids go missing and they'll say, "Look, we've kind of given up hope at this point, but
we still want to know." So, they'll take the death, but tell us why and how it happened. They'll take that over not
knowing anything. Well, and I remember when this story broke about the remains being found in Montana because we had
many people that requested that we cover the Skeleton Brothers case before those
remains were found. Right. And then when that happened, we were getting even more
requests to cover the Skeleton Brothers case. And by the way, what a lot of people in the media were saying is it's
got to be the boys. It's got to be the boys, right? I mean, that was the initial reaction by everyone that this
is these three missing boys. And again, to their to their credit to to vouch for
them, what is the percentages? It's it's got can't be very high at all. So, that's where you would go. But now that
we know that it was not these boys, so where does that leave us, Captain? You know, theories leaves us in the garage.
theories we're still here that we should explore, I think, is where it leaves us.
Okay. Okay. But we're going to explore them in the garage. Yes. Okay. Not in Montana or in that weird shed where the
remains were found. Okay. So, let's there there's multiple theories like smaller theories that will be inside of
one of four big ones. Okay. The first big one is are the boys still alive? Now, there are multiple avenues you
could take with this thought and theory, and a lot of them come from John's stories, and some of them come from
speculation uh from Tanya and from her family and from the media, from armchair detectives and message boards. So, let's
start with I want to start with an easy one, okay? Because some of these could be quite involved. The first one I want
to point out under the under the title of are the boys still alive? Could they be in Florida? We know that John had
ties to Florida. Now family there. Yeah. Yes. He has family there. He has friends
there. The first obstacle you have with that being a correct theory is one we know of
his cell phone movements. We know his cell phone didn't go down to Florida. So, this is similar to the idea of if
the remains in Montana were the boys that this would require some help, right? That he delivered the boys to
somebody or they were picked up at his home or some kind of location and then delivered to Florida. Now, this could
mean that they were picked up by family members of his or he met family members of his somewhere
or it could mean that he handed them off and they were transported to Florida. The major obstacle that I think you have
with this theory and where I think you can easily take it off of the dry erase board here
is I think that's too easy to trace for law enforcement. I think it's too easy to look into that and to determine if
that's correct or not. Well, law enforcement and FBI have they've said, "We don't even know if this person that
he claims he dropped him off to is real because there the lack of evidence that he had communications with somebody
else. They have his phone records. They have his Google searches. They have his computer and there doesn't seem to be
much uh contact with somebody else." Right? I do want to point out one thing here that I learned in a phone call last
night. So last night I spoke with Lynn Thompson. He's the author of the only book that I know to be out there
regarding this case. And one thing he had said during our phone call was he said that it is his understanding that
John's cell phone at the time that the boys went missing was relatively new to him. It was practically a brand new
phone. Okay. Makes me wonder like were they what happened with the old phone? What happened with that data? What
happened with that information? Were they able to track that? Were they able to comb through it? We know they were
able to check his computer, right? I feel like there's not a whole lot of weight to this Florida idea unless
they're with someone that somehow the police can't can't check into it, can't easily make the leap from John to family
to this person that has them. I think that's too easy to check out and too easy to check off the list.
One thing that's interesting, and Tanya said this in an interview, so this is off of her speculation.
She says, and this is kind of her wishful thinking, I believe, is what she says. Yeah. Is that maybe the boys are
in the Bahamas? Why? Well, that seems like a leap, right? Yeah. You think? Okay. So,
Michigan to the Bahamas. What she says is that John's father has a connection to the Bahamas. That he is that he goes
down there. He travels down there once or twice or maybe a couple times a year. I don't know how often, but according to
Tanya's words, he travels to the Bahamas and it's he's there to like service some
boats and things like that, right? And so her wishful thinking is that somehow John convinced his family that the abuse
that he claimed was real and that the family stepped in, got involved, helped John get the boys and take took
them to the Bahamas where they would be I mean the trail of breadcrumbs from Morreny, Michigan to the Bahamas, right,
is got to be but we don't know what the whereabouts are for the family, his family
in Florida, right? They're in Jacksonville, Florida. No, I mean, but we don't know like on that Thursday, did
he call up his dad and say, "Hey, meet me here." Yeah, that's an interesting thought there. You you have to believe
that they've that they were tracking or at least attempting to question the the parents, John's parents, right? Figure
out where they were. Can Do you have anybody that can vouch for you? Do you have an alibi for this time frame?
Right. But you know what's weird too is there was at least one instance where Tanya says that
John's parents came to the area where they live where Tanya and John lived visited friends and didn't even really
like they were there visiting and home and gone back home without even telling Tanya and John. So,
it's not crazy to think that they couldn't have moved into the area without Tanya knowing, especially once
they were separated, living in different residents, right? But that kind of thing
also makes me question, well, how tight really are John or were John and his parents? Yeah, cuz they Well, they live
so far apart, too. Mhm. Now, here's here's where things get a little more difficult.
So we have some kind of connection to that the boys are alive but could be in Michigan, Ohio or Indiana. Now this is
pieced together from different stories that John has told that they could be with a foster family in one of those
areas. Maybe Amish Menite or Reorganized Mormons, right? Those are the the groups
that he he suggests or that he lists for us regarding this. He does give some other names. So we have the name of
Joanne Taylor. But at one point he gives the name of four people. We have Joanne
Taylor, we have somebody named Virgil, someone named Sue and someone named Elijah.
These are people that he say works for this. You know, works for this is is the wrong
phrase, right? but is involved in this underground foster care system that the boys were being abused and he entrusted
these four people to assist him to get the kids to safety where they could go out and live and grow and become adults
and then go off on their own. He he we talked about all the cryptic messages. There's another quote that he has and I
think he's repeated this a few times. Okay, it's they and this is in reference to
the three boys. They will hibernate until they graduate. They will hibernate until they graduate, right? But that's
it's like if his parents did help him out in some way or somebody else helped him out, then you have to think that
that individual then also questioned the boys about what was going on. Mhm. And you have to think that whoever talked to
them that these allegations of sexual abuse or abuse would would be real or at least they believe them at least,
right? Yeah. And then that and then you wouldn't be coming forward to the authorities cuz look what they did to
John. John said, "Hey, I gave him to somebody and they arrested him." Mhm. Yeah. And you hope and you you you just
have to pray that there's not somebody out there sitting somewhere that assisted John Skelton only to later
believe that the abuse was not real and then refuses to come forward because they're afraid of being imprisoned right
for that action right I I mean if I could talk to that person I would I would beg them beg them please just come
forward tell us what happened or produce the boys and well the boys They're so big now that it's like they could be
getting on the internet. They could be reaching out for somebody eventually. Yeah. I mean, the oldest boy was nine at
the time of the disappearance in 2010. And they're I don't have their birth dates right in front of me, but they're
all towards the end of the year, the later part of the year. So, they all would have had birthdays at the end of
last year in 2018, right? So yeah, one of them, the oldest boy would be 17 years old going on 18. I
do think if they're with the Amish, because they had some reporters actually go talk to the Amish about this that
anything like in Ohio or Michigan that those Amish communities would have known that these boys were missing and they
would have probably contacted police. Did you listen to the um Shattered podcast? No, I didn't have a chance to.
Well, you know what was interesting? So, so for those that don't know, it's Shattered Podcast. It's created by a
group of people that work for Channel 4 News up in the Michigan area, right? And
they've taken on a few different Michigan cases. This is one of the cases that they looked into.
And one of the most interesting portions of their coverage of this case that I thought was what you just referenced
there about people going out and interviewing Amish people and and finding out one, were you aware of the
disappearance of these three boys? And two, what is your opinion? Would would an Amish person help in
regards to the situation, right? You know, help foster these boys. And I found it fascinating. They
interviewed just two two families I believe it was. But both of them had the same answer and was yes, we would help
if we thought that these boys needed help. We would take care of them. We would feed them. We would keep them
warm. But during that whole process, we would notify the police and say, "Hey, I
got these three kids that somebody dropped off today." Right. Which you should do, right? Right. Everybody
should do. And I it's not that I question that they wouldn't, but it was interesting to hear these uh reporters
and and people go out of their way to confirm, you know, would this be something that that Amish people or
people from any other walk of life would do, right? The other thing here regarding this though where there could
be some weight to this theory and to this this version of John's stories is if they are in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana
where I mean those states all touch each other. They're all very close, right? So
we know that John's cell phone went to Holiday City, Ohio. And in regards to the Amish Menanites reorganized Mormons,
Ohio does have a large Amish population as does Indiana. Well, at some point, I think that's what John starts claiming
is the group that they're with uh lives on the border of Ohio and Indiana, which
I actually lived on the border. Like I was in Indiana, but half a mile away was the Ohio border. Mhm. And a lot of that
is just acres upon acres of farmland. Well, and you know, Holiday City is north west of Columbus. We're right in
the middle of Ohio, right? So, northwest that's definitely going to put you closer to that Indiana State state line,
right? And just because he went to Holiday City doesn't mean that that's where they have to be. Somebody could
have picked them up and he could have met somebody halfway or or a part of the way there. The other thing too that's
that's interesting is if in fact they are handed off with the idea of them going into foster care because they were
in danger is sometimes these groups and when I say these groups I'm just kind of air quotes here referencing an
unknown group here that we're talking about. You got to believe that they have certain security measures involved that
they don't may not disclose everything to anyone involved on the surface so that they can keep the kids safe so that
they don't end up getting in trouble themselves. One, and two, losing the children to where they're returned to a
bad situation. Yeah. Cuz if I give John a fake name, then you can never track me
down. The other thing too that goes along the same lines is that John told investigators he gave the boys to a
group called and we have two names here. One is United Foster Outreach and Underground Sanctuaries
as everything that I could find public statements by law enforcement. No such group was found to exist.
[Music] [Music] [Music] All right, we're back. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. All
right. So, continuing on the idea of these different theories. Okay. So, second on the list, we have the boys
were handed off to someone as John said, but possibly he was duped. Now, this comes from this comes from an interview
that he did do where he does say, you know, I've not heard from these people. I've not talked to these people. I
handed them off to them and who knows, maybe I was duped. So, this would be the idea. There's a few different ideas
involved in this one. One, could they still be alive yet they were given to bad people for nefarious
reasons, right? Unbeknownst to John, or could they be no longer with us, handed off to bad people?
Or do one thing we've not discussed too, you know, we discussed the the percentages of what would it be that
there are three missing kids that are under the age of 10 and then three remains of children found that are
believed to be under 10. What's the chances of that? But what we didn't discuss is could the kids be separated?
Could they be alive and they've been separated? Well, if if they're bad people, yeah, because you can control
people better if you you know, you separate and then conquer. Or if they're if they're good people, are they
separated because they're less chance of detection? Less they're not as easy to be identified, right? Yeah. But again, I
think the duping part, okay, so if we believe John and we go, okay, well, this girl that he met randomly because her
car broke down and then they stayed in contact that this person Joanne Taylor just so happened to be, which that's not
her real name, but just so happened to be a person that was connected with child
pedophilia rings. And he said, "My kids are being molested." And she said, "I'll
take them." And then he gives them to her and then she sends them off to other pedophiles. Mhm. Like that seems so
far-fetched. Like you'd have to believe all the stuff that he said. Oh. Oh, of course. Yeah. I
mean, that's part of that theory is that he actually did hand them off and then unbeknownst to him, the people he gave
them to were actually bad people. Yeah. But I don't know. It's It's like if they're good people and
they're afraid of getting in trouble, it's like you could go to a heav he heavily populated area like McDonald's
or something and just go kids go in there and then tell them that you're missing and then they'll call
authorities and within a day we'll figure, you know, would figure out who they were. Mhm. Like there's so many
things if they went to good people how they could get back, right? If they went to bad people and they were duped, it
just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But if if it did happen, they're dead and we'll never find them. So,
right. I mean, well, and it goes back to what you said earlier where where is the
trace? Where is the breadcrumb trail between John and whoever he handed these people off to?
He says he maintained some kind of relationship with this Jo-Anne Taylor after they met on the side of the road
somewhere when he helped her when her car broke down. They maintained a relationship through
the internet. Where's the trace of that? Where's the, you know, they checked his
computer. He doesn't have her phone number, right? His phone doesn't reg, you know, he's not text her on his
phone. She's not text him. They've had no communication via phone, just the internet. But we can't find anybody that
Yeah. Was there a app like WhatsApp app or whatever where they can text through it? Well, and I think his response to
that was something to the effect of, well, maybe maybe this group is just really good at what they do. That that
they're the ones that they're the ones that clean this they cleaned it all up. They cleaned it all up and there's no
trace of them because they're like ghost. They're like phantoms. I didn't I didn't break anything in the house. They
broke it. That's what happened. They I was asleep. They must have went into the house and took my cell phone
and then drove down to Ohio. Mhm. He has a story. He has a He has an explanation
for everything. And look, if we had My Way, we'd have that game show called the Psychotic Clown
Interrogators, right? Mhm. And we would be we'd have a bunch of psychotic clowns
in a room with John right now getting answers. It's just, you know, well, that's
interesting, too, because you have a couple of different thoughts that I that I go to when I think of that. One, you
know, in the statement that he has an answer for everything. That's a very fair statement. He comes up with a nice
story for everything that you throw at him, right? And sometimes what's the most damn frustrating thing out there is
that sometimes he just goes, "I can't tell you that." Yeah. I Dude, I've never We've covered a lot of cases. I can't
remember another time where we have someone that's just like, "Nope, sorry. Can't tell you that." Yeah. And he's
cool with that. And and law it's Can you imagine how frustrated law enforcement has to be when they cuz they go back and
they talk to this guy. It's not like they don't know where he is. They go back and talk to him periodically.
What's going on, John? Tell us what really happened, John. And sometimes he gives him a story and other times he
goes, "Can't tell you that." Well, I tell him, John, every time you tell me you can't tell me something, go and
break one of your ribs. That's what I'd tell him. Well, you've been watching too
much True Detective because it can't do that. But the thing the thing where I go
with that is with him having an answer for everything is one, he's got no he's got nothing else going on. He's got
plenty of time to sit around and dream up answers for everything. Right. Right. The other thing though, it is a bit of a
police tactic. Not so much them because I mean it's the courts. It's technically
the court system that put John in prison 10 to 15 years. But what the state of Michigan police are hoping that someday
he's finally going to wake up and realize where he is, where he's been living for the last
seven, eight years, right, in prison. And he's going to realize that he has nobody. He has nothing else. and he has
nothing left to to do but to tell the truth. That is their hope. That is their hope. Yeah. And you know what I I wonder
about too regarding I think that's all of our hopes. Yes. And and I wonder regarding his prison sentence, I've
heard, you know, it's it's all it's always reported 10 to 15 years. I have read some speculation that
that they're awfully darn certain that he's going to serve the full 15 years. Mhm. But if we are in fact talking about
murder, if we are in fact talking about the worst possible thing we can come up with regarding this case, it's a triple
homicide of children. And that's a really light sentence. And it's nobody's fault. It's nobody's fault
for that light sentence. There's nothing really they can do unless there's evidence. But what's interesting to me
is can they I I would love for once in a while we get lawyers, prosecutors, judges, people that know the system
better than we do reach out to us. Yeah, I would love to. And if you go on the blog, you don't have to leave your real
name. Please do not leave Joanne Taylor. You will be banned. Um unless you are Joanne Taylor. But so how are we going
to know? Well, the thing is I would love to know if because of the charges, because of what he was sentenced to uh
or sent to prison for Uhhuh. can they charge him with something? And I know there's no statute of limitations for
murder. So obviously if there's proof, if they find additional evidence that that the kids were killed and they
believe he did it, of course they can charge him with murder. But let's say they never find anything. Is
there something else they can charge him with at a later time at at the end once
that 10 or 15 years expires? Can you charge him with kidnapping? Can you charge, you know, cuz he's charged right
now with unlawful imprisonment, I believe, is the exact term. Yeah. So, I'm curious. Can you go to jail for
being a douchebag? Is that possible? No, but there are prisons full of douchebags. Oh, yeah.
Uh, weird conundrum. So, that would be interesting to know if there's something left in the in the old knapsack. If
there's something left that they can charge him with once that 10, 15 years expires. Because again, that's what law
enforcement is hoping for, that he's going to wake up one day, realize he has nothing, nobody else, nothing left but
the truth, and he's going to feel compelled to finally deliver that to everyone. The other thing too with him
publicly stating, and I say publicly, it's just an interview, but with John saying, "Hey, I gave them away to this
underground foster care uh organization, maybe I was duped." Uhhuh. Is that him already setting up a defense for if he
did in fact kill them, hide the remains, and they were to be found? Now he can go, "That wasn't me. I didn't I wasn't
the one to see them last. I left them in the care of these people that I've been
telling you about for the last nine years, right? You know, so I mean, a real piece of [ __ ] either way.
I mean, it's like, look, even if you're to believe him and there was abuse happening and that you wanted to
protect your children, there's other ways about doing that. And you could have went to a judge. You could have
went to whoever and it's just, you know, but and you can't tell me that, oh well, he he tried to give them
to somebody else because he he was going to commit suicide, so he wanted to make
sure that they were protected. Mhm. It's like, no, this none of this really lines
up. None of this makes a lot of sense. And chances are, if he was going to kill himself, if he was suicidal, he's
probably also homicidal. And and it was almost like, oh well, if you're not going to be with me, then
you're not going to get my children either. And but for some reason, he's not man enough
to state what he did. Uhhuh. And he's not man enough to to have closure for everybody else and and
to accept uh the punishment for the crime he committed. The next thing on my list for possible
theories, and this is a very obvious one, one that we've all been hoping against since we first started
covering this story, but it's it's so obvious. It's what everybody is thinking. Did are the boys no longer
with us? Did John do something with the remains that he knows where in fact they
are? He knows exactly what he did with them and he's just refusing to to be cooperative because it punishes his
ex-wife and because it punishes the system because he thinks he's smarter than everybody else. I mean, there's
there's a a myriad of reasons why he's holding on to the truth, not just the fact of facing more jail time. Well,
what we do have is the cell phone pings. And yes, we do have um you know, a as John has a blackout
period, we have a blackout period as far as where John's whereabouts are. Mhm. But we can at least start breaking down
how how much area we'd have to search right within that time frame because we do know that he went back to his house.
So, I think if we focus more on that and we really started focusing and they they've claimed that they've, you know,
every barn that they could find that they that they uh they searched through and all all this stuff and and yes, it's
been seven years, but it's like I think they could do that. That's your key. If you could double down on those searches
and that area, I think that's the key to getting answers to this case. Well, and
that's what today's author of this week's recommended reading suggests in his book is that look at the area that
we know his phone to have been, right, for that 76 minutes is what Lynn calls it.
And Lynn has actually been heavily involved in the search efforts and also involved in trying to really
narrow that down to a specific location. And he's saying, you know, I'm going to
keep working on this. I'm hoping that I can narrow it down to about I think he said 200 acres, which is still a lot of
land. It's not that bad. It's not that bad considering I mean you've done the Google map fly over of this area of
Holiday City. It's they need to take the word city out of Holiday City. It's not
a city. It's a tiny little tiny little thing that you just pass through and you don't even know that you pass through
it. It's no no need to talk [ __ ] about Holiday City. Um, no. I I mean they're not there to blame anything, but what
I'm trying to to point out to everybody listening is that this small little, if it is even a one, you know, two traffic
light town, it's surrounded by a lot of open area, right? A lot of rural area. And so Lynn Thompson is and and to to
give credit where credit's due to the people that volunteered to search for these boys, be it in Michigan, be it in
Ohio. Yeah. The search effort, according to Lynn, was not fake. It wasn't just something that sounded good for the
papers. It was real. It was the real deal. And it was massive. It was massive. And they looked hard and long
for these these three boys. The fourth thing that I have on my list is kind of the most
kind of out of the box one of of all the possible theories, I think. Uhhuh. But we kind of touched upon this a
little bit earlier. What if John had a complete break with reality, right? What if what if he handed off the
kids to somebody? What if he did something terrible and they're no longer with us, but he doesn't know? Yeah. He
doesn't know because he he had a straightup break with reality. Mhm. Is that the Is that the the the black hole,
the big empty space that he referenced and that he offers up these tales or he's sticking somewhat to his
original story that he told his ex-wife in the beginning that he told investigators in the beginning and he
truly just doesn't know what happened. If he truly doesn't know, then maybe bring in like a some hypnotherapy or
something like that. Like at least offer that up as an option to try to figure out what happened, right? But I
think if you're not doing things like that, then really you're you're hindering the investigation. You're
hindering the possibility of finding out what happened. Though the thing here is, and this is
why I question this too, because of what he told his pastor, Donna Galloway, it seems like that could be a
possibility. If there's anyone that you're finally going to be honest with, it would be her for John, right? Maybe.
But the but the problem here is I feel like that's not what John's parents are saying. I almost feel like it I mean if
I were sitting in prison for any number of you know any reason at all and I have
my parents coming to me I have my pastor coming to me I have people coming to me
and going Nick what happened what the hell happened if I didn't know I'd straight up tell at least those people
tell my parents you know I I don't know right I might deserve to be here but I don't know what happened and what we
have his parents saying on record saying is that they believe part of their son's
story, at least part of it, that there could have been some abuse, that they that the boys are alive and that
that John gave them to somebody. Yeah. Yeah. So, I that makes me question this uh if he if he does not know, I almost
feel like by this time with the amount of time that has passed that we would probably have that or some form of that
statement from him. Yeah, it seems like the more you dive into this, the more questions that come out. And one of my
initial questions that we never really discussed is are we for sure that these three boys are his?
You know, that's the claim from the the mother and then obviously the father. But I I mean there I just get a sense
when I look at these three boys that these three boys are half siblings. That's that's the sense I get. And has
anybody looked into that angle? Well, it's an interesting thought to ponder. Um, when I look at the pictures
of the three boys, and there's there's plenty of them available, plenty of these pictures available on the
internet, so anybody can look them up and and I'm sure we'll put a couple on our website as well in hopes that
somebody might recognize them, be able to provide some kind of information. The two of the boys look very much like John
to me. This is just my own opinion. And one of the boys looks very much like like their mother, like Tanya. Yeah. Um
I again I think it's it is an interesting question to ponder. I don't know what that really means for the
state of our case because where my thoughts lie. And look, man, the the whole time I was researching this case,
the whole time I was looking into this, and I'm sure you felt the same way as I did, I wanted I wanted to I actually
started off hopeful. I started off hopeful and I for the first day or so, I was sitting there going, you know what?
It's probably an unpopular side to be on. It's definitely against my better judgment,
but for about 24 hours, the first 24 hours of looking into this thing, I'm like, I feel I think they're alive. My
brain tells me that that's probably not the case, but my gut, my heart was telling me these boys are alive, that he
did hand them off to somebody. I'm not I try not to do that anymore. And I try when we go into these cases, I'm a blank
slate and whatever I read and whatever rabbit holes it takes me down, I try not to ponder too far into it. I like I like
for it just to tell me what I'm supposed to know. What whatever that may be, if that makes any sense.
Makes a lot of sense. The thing that that I can't get over, and this is why I'm not as hopeful as when I started
off, is giving them away does not make a lot of sense. And what I mean by that is I understand
his side of his story is look, they were being abused. I did this in their best interest. I get that, John. The problem
is you're so out of control with what then happens or could happen to them once you hand them off, right? It just
doesn't it just doesn't ring true to me. It It's It seems like It seems like almost you would rather there there are
things you could have done before going to these great lengths. There are people
you could have spoke to and maybe he's totally off the rails. I don't know. And maybe this is all he could come up with.
It doesn't seem right to me, though. There could there was people you could have talked to. And at the very least,
if you run out of ideas, you go, you know what? I'm keeping the kids and I if if you send anybody to take them from
me, I'm going to tell them what's going on, and I'm going to let I'm going to let the law I'm going to let the law
look into it, right? And I'm going to let them figure it out. Because those are serious accusations. Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. And and let's be clear, I I do think there's there is a leap that you have to make from having a
relationship with a 14-year-old boy, which let's not get that twisted, that's child molestation, but then to molest
your own child, I think there would have to be a leap that you'd have to make on
some level. Yeah. And the only one that seems to be claiming that there was any kind of abuse is John. And you do have
some people siding with him after the fact, after this all goes down, right? But there doesn't seem to be any anybody
else alleging that other than him. And I do want to point out, we should point out um Tanya who I mean the nightmare
that she's had to face of this guy that she marries, right? I don't even feel great calling him their father, you
know? he no matter what the outcome at the end of the day he's responsible for why she
doesn't have her children and the thing here is she has two older daughters and they are very close with their
mother with Tanya and I think that that's probably the only thing that's kept her whole kept her together at this
point I can't imagine going through what she has had to go through. And I think law enforcement stated
that they're not as hopeful as they once were, but they are very confident that they're going to have answers to this
case very soon. Well, and to remind everyone, we do have three missing boys. They are still missing to this day. When
they went missing, Andrew was age nine, Alexander age seven, and Tanner age five. They're still missing. The family
is seeking help in searching for them. They are encouraging people to be aware of children and to watch for these three
boys. The police would like to remind everyone that it is a good possibility that the boys may not be together, so be
looking for individual faces as well. All three boys are Caucasian. The two older boys, Andrew and Alexander, both
have brown hair, brown eyes. The little boy, Tanner, has blonde hair and blue eyes. I do want to point out in some of
the pictures of Alexander, the middle child, he is wearing glasses, so he may require them. There is a large reward
for good information in this case, and police need your help, and they need tips. If you have any information at
all, please contact Morreny Police at 517-4587104 or call 1800 the lost. [Music]
Do we happen to have any recommended reading for this week? Actually, we do. And it actually came out just a few
weeks ago. It's a really good book. It's the only book that I could find on this
particular case on the Skelton Brothers case. It's called 76 Minutes, My Search for Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton
by author and new friend of the show, Lynn Thompson. Check that out. You don't have to write down that title right now.
You can go to true crimegar.com, click on the recommended page, and we have lots of books, including 76 Minutes by
Lynn Thompson listed right there for you to check out. Make sure you check out our weekly bonus show, Off the Record,
that's on Stitcher Premium, $5 a month. That gets you our show plus every show on Stitcher Premium. So, it's a great
deal. It's like the Netflix for podcasting. And make sure you check out our old episodes on the Stitcher app.
You just download it and they are for free. That's right. Well, thanks everybody for joining us here in the
garage today and this week. We will see you again next week. Until then, please be good, be kind, and don't litter.
[Music]

The Skelton Brothers /// Part 2

Episode: 281

Original Release: 2-19-2019

Part 2 of 2

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Andrew age 9, Alexander age 7, and Tanner age 5 were taken by the father from his Morenci, Michigan home during the Thanksgiving holiday visitation back in 2010. Their father John, claims the boys were abused by their mother and he was getting them out of a bad situation. However John’s story does not add up. Law Enforcement does not believe him and today John sits behind bars. This week we crack a beer and discuss this stranger than fiction true crime story.

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the Skelton brothers' disappearance, investigation updates, and theories about their fate.

Key points

The Skelton Brothers Case Turns Murder Investigation. Police announce the Skelton Brothers case is now a murder investigation, ending false hope.
Possible Remains Found in Montana. Investigators look into whether remains found in Montana belong to the missing Skelton brothers.
Remains Found Are Not The Boys. Forensic lab concludes the remains found are over 99 years old, not the Skelton brothers.
Forensic Testing Timeline. Forensic testing on the remains could take months, leaving families in uncertainty.
Amish Community's Response. Amish families express willingness to help missing boys but would notify police.
John's Doubt. John admits he might have been duped after handing off the boys.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He wanted to put an end to false hope.

Chief of police Larry Weekes on the Skelton Brothers case.

3:33WatchJul 2, 2025

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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