This Thanksgiving marks 10 years since Skelton brothers went missing in Michigan
(FOX 2) - This Thanksgiving marks 10 years since brothers Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton went missing in Morenci, Michigan at just 9, 7, and 5 years old.
To mark the date, forensic artists at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) have created these new age-progression images to show what the brothers might look like today, at 19, 17, and 15 years old.
The brothers disappeared in Morenci, a city on the border of Michigan and Ohio, on Nov. 26, 2010.
Investigators say on that night the boys’ father, John Skelton, took the boys in the midst of a divorce and custody battle with their mother, Tanya Zuvers.
Police say in those early morning hours, John’s phone could be tracked leaving his Morenci, Michigan home, traveling 25 miles southwest into Holiday City, Ohio, and returning. Andrew, Alexander and Tanner haven’t been seen since.
John Skelton was charged with unlawful imprisonment of his three sons and is currently housed at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Iowa after just being denied parole at his first hearing this past September.
The search is still on for the brothers and this year, NCMEC and the Michigan State Police hope that these new images debuting on the decade-marker will revamp long-held public interest in the case and finally bring in the tips they need to bring these boys home to their searching mother.
“I will never quit looking,” says Tanya Zuvers, the boys’ mother. “I will continue to fight on their behalf for justice.”
“The age progressions are always the hardest for me,” said the boys’ aunt, Tennille McCain. “In my mind I still see them as 5, 7, and 9. Their faces are etched in my mind. I just wish answers could be given. Anyone who potentially knows anything -- and I believe more than one person knows something, I believe that it’s not just John who has the answers-- could find it in themselves to come forward.”
“Every so often we’ll get a tip that makes a lot of sense to us,” said Detective Lieutenant Jeremy Brewer with the Michigan State Police. “We’ll throw everything at it, all our resources… If anyone recalls anything from 10 years ago, maybe about a blue Dodge Caravan over in [the Morenci, Michigan or Holiday City, Ohio areas], that would be helpful. We rely on the public quite a bit to be our eyes and ears on the ground.”
If anyone has information about the disappearance or whereabouts of Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton, you are urged to contact the Michigan State Police at 1-517-636-0689, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST, that’s 1-800-843-5678.