John Skelton of Morenci appears in Lenawee County Circuit Court for a hearing in 2011.

A Michigan father who was jailed after the disappearance of his three young sons nearly 15 years ago, was arraigned Nov. 17 in Lenawee County District Court on open murder charges in their deaths.

John Russell Skelton was transferred from the Bellamy Correctional Facility in Ionia on a writ hours before by the Michigan State Police.

He was nearing the end of a 15-year prison sentence for unlawful imprisonment in connection with the disappearance of his sons Andrew, Alexander and Tanner (9, 7 and 5) on Thanksgiving Day 2010 when new criminal charges for open murder and tampering with evidence were filed Nov. 12.

MSP troopers arrived at the Lenawee County Jail around 11 a.m. Nov. 17 bringing Skelton, originally from Morenci, back to his home county. Two unmarked cars followed, driven by detectives working the case.

Skelton plead not guilty to all charges and will be represented by a public defender. He was ordered to be held without bond.

A probable cause conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 24, followed by a preliminary examination hearing at 10 a.m. Dec. 1 in Lenawee County District Court.

Open murder charges leave a jury to decide whether a defendant is guilty of first or second-degree murder.

The three brothers were last seen at Skelton's home in Morenci on Thanksgiving Day 2010. Their mother, Tanya Zuvers, had sole custody, but allowed the boys to spend the holiday with their father. By the following day, they'd vanished.

In the years since, Skelton has claimed he gave his sons to an underground group to protect them from alleged abuse by their mother. He offered conflicting accounts, including that his sons were with a woman named Joann Taylor and, separately, with an Amish family. The stories was never substantiated.

Skelton was convicted on three counts of unlawful imprisonment in 2011, but authorities lacked physical evidence to charge him with murder. In 2023, the Michigan Parole Board permanently denied his parole, citing public safety concerns and a lack of cooperation.

MSP detectives never ceased their investigation, searching fields and wooded areas within 30 minutes of Morenci as recently as 2025. The brothers were declared legally dead in March.

— Contact reporter Corey Murray at cmurray@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @cmurrayhdn.

This story was updated to correct a typo.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Michigan father arraigned on murder charges for 2010 disappearance of three sons

Reporting by Corey J. Murray, The Daily Telegram / The Daily Telegram

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