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223. “Clandestine Operation” The Case of the Skelton Brothers - Morenci, Michigan [Part 1] · Least of These

0:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to least of these, where I cover the cases that need it most because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
0:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Leah D. and today I'll be bringing you part one of the case of the skeleton brothers in Marinsey, Michigan.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get right to it.
0:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Nestled near the Ohio border, Lorenzi, Michigan, is a kind of small town where everyone seems to know everyone else.
1:00
[SPEAKER_00]: A quiet community surrounded by farmland and the slower them of rural life.
1:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a laid-back place where the biggest news is usually who won the high school football game, the kind of place where neighbors help neighbors and families have known each other for generations.
1:20
[SPEAKER_00]: 43-year-old Tanya Skeleton was born in raised in Marancy, and it's where she chose to bring up her three boys with her husband, 39-year-old John Skeleton.
1:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania and John had both been married previously and brought children from their previous marriages into the relationship.
1:37
[SPEAKER_00]: John had one daughter and Tania too.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But neither John nor Tania had custody of their girls when they married in September of 2002.
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Visitation, sure, but not full custody.
1:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So it must have felt like a fresh start when they settled down in their two-story home
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: The skeletons had one son together when they married, Andrew, who was born in November of 2001, but they went on to have a total of three.
2:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was Andrew and then Alexander born in November of 2003, and the baby Tanner born October of 2005.
2:14
[SPEAKER_00]: The boys were also close in age.
2:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya would later recall that they were like built-in best friends.
2:26
[SPEAKER_00]: John was a long haul truck driver, and because he was often on the road for weeks at a time, Tanya stayed home and took care of the boys.
2:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The couple was very active in the local United Methodist Church.
2:39
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Tanya and later testimony, her marriage to John for the most part was a happy one, at least for the first seven years or so.
2:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But then things began to unravel,
2:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania would later say it was like John Skeleton became someone else overnight.
3:00
[SPEAKER_00]: John started a binge drink and he became very jealous of Tania's relationships with other people, like everyone, to include her family, her kids, her mom and her sisters.
3:11
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the Charlie project, in 2009, John Skeleton was fired from his job after he was convicted of drunk driving.
3:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, was something like that on his record, finding a job as a trucker was near impossible.
3:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And for the next year, John Bounce from maybe an odd job here or there, but for the most part was unemployed.
3:32
[SPEAKER_00]: By the fall of 2010, John was still struggling to find work.
3:36
[SPEAKER_00]: He mentioned to Tania about moving and starting over near his family in Jacksonville, Florida.
3:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he'd be able to find work there.
3:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But Tania wasn't so sure about the idea.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Her family all lived close by in Moranci, and the boys had been raised there.
3:51
[SPEAKER_00]: They had friends, played soccer, went to a great school, and Moranci was all they had ever known.
3:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew was now nine and in the third grade, Alexander was seven and in first grade, and Tanner was five and had just started kindergarten.
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: He was excited to finally be going to big school like his older brothers.
4:12
[SPEAKER_00]: All the boys attended Morince Elementary, the only elementary school in town.
4:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides the fact that moving to Florida would be uprooting the boys from their home,
4:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, Tanya Skelton had a disturbing criminal history, one that would follow her for the rest of her life.
4:34
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1999, when Tanya was 32 years old, she was convicted of 4th degree criminal sexual conduct.
4:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Way back then, Tania Skeleton was Tania Derby.
4:45
[SPEAKER_00]: She was still married to her first husband, but that would soon change.
4:50
[SPEAKER_00]: ABC7 News reported that Tania was caught having sex with a 14-year-old boy who was doing handyman work on rental property she and her at the time husband owned.
5:00
[SPEAKER_00]: As you can imagine, shortly after those allegations surfaced, Tania's first husband filed for divorce.
5:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya pled guilty to the lesser charge of 4th-degree criminal sexual conduct.
5:11
[SPEAKER_00]: She served time in jail and lost custody of her two daughters, and she was labeled a sex offender, because she was one.
5:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow Tanya had been convicted served her time and since Marancy was such a small town, everyone in their brother knew about it.
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But according to Tanya herself and later court testimony, after she served her time, she
5:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Moving to a new place as a sex offender comes with rules and regulations and a well-deserved stigma.
5:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And Tanya wasn't ready for all that.
5:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So she kind of took the whole moving to Florida thing away.
5:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But John, John was dead set on packing up and getting out of town.
5:52
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the time, Tanya had no clue just how serious John's skeleton was about starting over in Florida.
5:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But all of that changed on the morning of September 13, 2010.
6:06
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
6:28
[SPEAKER_00]: On September 13, 2010, Tanya Skelton got a call from Lorenzi Elementary, according to Court testimony, a school administrator called Tanya and told her that she was concerned.
6:39
[SPEAKER_00]: She explained that John had just come and signed Andrew Alexander and Tanner out of school, and said he was taking them to Florida on vacation.
6:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He said he was taking the voice for vacation, but also made mention that the boy school records may need to be forwarded
6:56
[SPEAKER_00]: The school administrator said that the whole interaction was off, and John was acting odd.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: This, of course, set off a alarm bells for Tanya.
7:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, sure they talked about moving, but Tanya hadn't agreed to any of this.
7:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And she had no knowledge that John was checking the boys out of school that day.
7:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And certainly no knowledge that they were heading to Florida without her.
7:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya texted John and told him to bring the boys home, and when he didn't, she called the marancy police.
7:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The at-the-time chief of police Larry Weeks was the one who responded to the call.
7:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Since Merenzie was such a small town, Chief Weeks knew Tanya and John.
7:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya explained the situation in Larry Weeks' call John and threatened him with a rest for parental kidnapping if he didn't come back to Michigan and at least sit down and talk with Tanya.
7:45
[SPEAKER_00]: John must have not gotten too far in his drive-down South because not long after that phone call
7:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Chief Weeks later testified that it was obvious a couple were having marital problems.
7:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It was clear that John had his mind made up that they were moving to Jacksonville, Florida, but of course, Tanya didn't want to do that.
8:07
[SPEAKER_00]: After meeting, it seemed like things calm down, at least in the moment, and Tanya convinced John that if they were going to move, they'd have to do things the right way.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to find a new school for the boys figure out what her restrictions were as a sex offender moving to a new state and get all of the proper paperwork together.
8:26
[SPEAKER_00]: After the meeting, John Tania and the boys went to their home on Congress Street.
8:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania began collecting paperwork for the boys, their birth certificates, social security cards, and things like that, preparing for this sudden move to Florida.
8:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But really, Tania was just buying time.
8:42
[SPEAKER_00]: In the hours after John took the boys, she was told that the only way she could get custody of them was to file for divorce.
8:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Scared that John would try to take off with the boys again, that's exactly what Tanya said out to do.
8:56
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, she had already retained an attorney.
9:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that attorney just so happened to be the same attorney John had previously consulted with.
9:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Consulted about what I couldn't tell you, but apparently his John was in another room in the house, the attorney called him and let him know that he wouldn't be able to represent him because Tanya had already retained his services.
9:18
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when John exploded, according to Tanya's testimony in court, John came out of his computer room and yelled at her,
9:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He ordered the boys to get into his van, they were crying an upset but Andrew and Alexander, the older two, that is they were told.
9:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanner, the youngest, was standing behind Tanya.
9:40
[SPEAKER_00]: She scooped him up and he stayed behind, but John left with Andrew and Alexander.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: That very same day, Tanya filed for divorce.
9:49
[SPEAKER_00]: The following day she filed for emergency custody.
9:52
[SPEAKER_00]: The Michigan Courts granted her ex-parte or temporary custody of the boys.
9:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Permanent custody would be decided after a court hearing at a later date.
10:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the time being, Tanya had custody.
10:04
[SPEAKER_00]: She took the order and immediately headed down to Jacksonville, Florida, to get the boys back.
10:09
[SPEAKER_00]: When she made it to Florida, she had to jump through a few legal hoops to get the judge in Florida to order John to return the boys to her.
10:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But ultimately, the children were returned to Tanya and they all went back to Michigan.
10:21
[SPEAKER_00]: All of this took place in the span of a week.
10:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The week of September 13, 2010.
10:29
[SPEAKER_00]: When Tanya got back to Michigan, she and the boys moved out of the house on Congress Street and in with her parents temporarily, until she found a house
10:40
[SPEAKER_00]: On September 27, 2010, John Skeleton filed a motion for custody, citing the fact that Tania was a registered sex offender.
10:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania, countered the fact that John was a long haul trucker and spent weeks away from home.
10:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Custody of the boys are made with Tania, and through their attorneys, John and Tania were able to negotiate an agreement for visitation.
11:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the time, they were actually talks of a reconciliation between the couple.
11:07
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the Charlie project, though Tanya had filed for divorce, she had only done that to get custody of the boys and prevent John from leaving with him again.
11:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya and John were encountering with hope-superparenting their marriage, and for a moment in time and late September and early November, it seemed the custody arrangements were working out just fine.
11:28
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was only for a moment.
11:30
[SPEAKER_00]: As a separation continue, John and Tanya argued.
11:34
[SPEAKER_00]: First over a curio cabinet, and then according to Tanya's testimony, over the fact that John had told the boys that she had been to jail.
11:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Things were contentious as they often are during a separation and it was looking a whole lot like that reconciliation thing wasn't going to happen.
11:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to the week of Thanksgiving 2010.
11:56
[SPEAKER_00]: John and Tania had agreed to split the holiday.
11:58
[SPEAKER_00]: John would had the boys from November 24th through the 26th.
12:02
[SPEAKER_00]: that would have been the day before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, and then he would return the boys to Tania the day after Thanksgiving, the 26th on Black Friday at 3 in the afternoon.
12:13
[SPEAKER_00]: While the boys were celebrating the holiday with John, Tania went to her sister's house in Cunkel, Ohio.
12:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And that sounds like a really long distance away, but it's actually not.
12:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, Morincy is on the Ohio Michigan border, so really, Tania was about a 25-minute
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, as Tanya was celebrating with her family on Thanksgiving Day, John repeatedly called her phone.
12:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Initially, Tanya ignored those calls.
12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: She was spending time at her sister's house and didn't want to be bothered.
12:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But that evening, she picked up the phone.
12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: John was angry at her for ignoring him and she and John argued.
12:52
[SPEAKER_00]: John then asked her, do you still love me?
12:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there a chance that we could get back together?
12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, Tanya had enough, and she told John no, she was done and there was no chance of making their marriage work.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya didn't hear from John again that night.
13:08
[SPEAKER_00]: That following Friday, she reached out to him via text to see if she could maybe get the boys a little earlier than they had planned.
13:15
[SPEAKER_00]: She was supposed to pick them up at 3pm, but she asked if she could come earlier.
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Her nephew was playing in a football game that Tanya, her family and the boys, were gonna attend that evening.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: The boys had been particularly excited to go to the game, but they didn't have any Hudson Tiger gear to wear.
13:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So Tania wanted to take them shopping before the game.
13:36
[SPEAKER_00]: When she texted John, according to Tania's testimony, he responded with something along the lines of, well, we're not home right now.
13:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We went to my friend's house in the north of Jackson.
13:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know when we'll be home.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember when I said the home tenure was staying and was close to the home she once shared with John on Congress Street?
13:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was close enough that Taney could see the driveway of their old home.
13:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And when she looked, she could see John's blue minivan in the driveway.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And then she saw two people come out of the house and leave.
14:07
[SPEAKER_00]: That was weird, so Tanya message John again and asked if he was home.
14:12
[SPEAKER_00]: John responded stating, things are real complicated right now.
14:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on the way to Fulton Hospital.
14:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't honest with you.
14:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been waiting for the boys to come home too.
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on to explain that his three sons were still with his friend, and that friend would be bringing them home at 3 p.m.
14:30
[SPEAKER_00]: He told Tanya that he was on his way to the hospital because he had fallen off of a ladder
14:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Tanya was worried, but what could she do?
14:39
[SPEAKER_00]: She had agreed for him to keep the boys until 3pm, so she just have to wait.
14:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Three o'clock came and went, and there was still no sign of John of the boys, and then 4pm, and nothing.
14:52
[SPEAKER_00]: At 401pm, Tanya called 911 and explained that John had not returned to children to her.
14:57
[SPEAKER_00]: She was told that an officer would call her back.
15:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania was growing more suspicious by the minute, so she and her sister went over to the home on Congress Street.
15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: They walked around outside looking in to see what if anything they could.
15:11
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no sign that anyone was at the house, but she did notice something strange.
15:18
[SPEAKER_00]: A two by four had been wedged against the door to prevent the door from opening.
15:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania got tired of waiting on a callback from police, and with the board wedged in the door,
15:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Tania, her brother-in-law and her father drove into town and found Officer Hillard with a emergency police department.
15:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And after hearing her story, he headed to the home to do a welfare check.
15:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Officer Hilard forced entry into the skeleton home and found it in complete disarray.
15:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It looked like a bomb had been set off.
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Glass was shattered all over the place.
15:52
[SPEAKER_00]: The curio cabinet John and Tanya had once argued about was tipped over.
15:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything inside of it had been broken.
15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: The electrical cords to all the appliances had been cut.
16:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And the master bedroom the mattress had been completely shredded with a knife.
16:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Keys to the home and car had also been cut.
16:10
[SPEAKER_00]: There was nothing of value that hadn't been absolutely destroyed.
16:14
[SPEAKER_00]: It was as if John wanted to make sure that if Tanya went through with the divorce, she'd be able to get nothing.
16:22
[SPEAKER_00]: and the children's rooms, toys were thrown all over and notably one of the mattresses which was just lying on the floor had been stripped of its sheets.
16:31
[SPEAKER_00]: There were two other beds for the children, complete with sheets and stuffed animals, but this one, this mattress was completely bare.
16:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It only got more disturbing from there, a notebook with a three-page suicide note was also found.
16:47
[SPEAKER_00]: The suicide note was addressed to Tanya and it read in part.
16:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to be strong now.
16:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry I hurt you yet again.
16:53
[SPEAKER_00]: This time it was on purpose and to kill my pain of losing you.
16:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I had no one here.
16:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess my actions today will guarantee you won't have to see me again or in heaven.
17:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray God will forgive me, but I know it won't happen.
17:08
[SPEAKER_00]: May you find peace in the days to come.
17:10
[SPEAKER_00]: You will hate me forever and I know this.
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Signed, love, John.
17:16
[SPEAKER_00]: A rose was found attached to a wall in the home with a note.
17:20
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the first rose Tanya ever gave me.
17:22
[SPEAKER_00]: A second rose was also affixed to the wall, indicating it was the last rose Tanya had ever given John.
17:29
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a Bible lying on the living room table with a verse circle.
17:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But perhaps most disturbing of all was the news, still dangling from the second story balcony.
17:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Police had walked into a scene that was beyond disturbing, but for all that they had found, there was no sign of nine-year-old Andrew, seven-year-old Alexander, or five-year-old Tanner.
17:54
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Tanya's later testimony, she called the hospital in Fulton County where John was being treated and asked to speak to the nurse caring for him.
18:02
[SPEAKER_00]: With her still technically being John's wife, the nurse was able to tell her that John wasn't
18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: He was there because he had tried to kill himself.
18:16
[SPEAKER_00]: That was shocking, but Tanya didn't have time to be concerned for John or his well-being.
18:21
[SPEAKER_00]: At that point, all she wanted to know was if he had their three children with him.
18:25
[SPEAKER_00]: The nurse informed her that there were no children at the hospital.
18:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew Alexander and Tanner were missing.
18:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The race to find the skeleton boys was on.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: After failing to locate the boys at the home on Congress Street, Officer Hillard went to the hospital to speak to John Skeleton, who of course was there being treated for that ankle injury he claimed he had acquired while trying to kill himself.
19:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And just like everyone else, Officer Hillard wasn't worried about John Ray's ankle injury.
19:19
[SPEAKER_00]: He just wanted to know where the boys were.
19:22
[SPEAKER_00]: But John was acting erratic.
19:25
[SPEAKER_00]: When asked where the boys were all the officer could get out of him, was that Andrew Alexander and Tanner were with some woman named Joanne Taylor, whose husband mark was a pastor.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Officer Hillard was disturbed by John and his strange story, so he reached out to chief weeks, and the police chief called in all the resources.
19:44
[SPEAKER_00]: For Lorenzi being such a small town, the immediate response from chief weeks in the police department was nothing short of incredible.
19:52
[SPEAKER_00]: From the moment they learned that the boys were missing, everyone came together and used every resource at their disposal to try and find these boys.
20:00
[SPEAKER_00]: An Amber Alert was issued.
20:01
[SPEAKER_00]: The Michigan State Police were called in.
20:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The FBI and the National Center for missing and exploited children as well as other agencies.
20:09
[SPEAKER_00]: While this should always be the case, we know that all too frequently it's not, but in this case there was no lapse in response and no stone was left unturned.
20:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators were now not only looking for the boys, but also Joanne Taylor and her husband Mark.
20:26
[SPEAKER_00]: John told police he'd met Taylor and her husband a few years earlier after he helped them when their car broke down, and then he and Joanne Taylor began emailing each other.
20:36
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, John Scalton's family began to come to investigators with information, starting with a Zanchar Lane.
20:43
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Court testimony, Charlene brought in a suitcase with a laptop in it and told police that John had frequently used a computer.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: She told investigators to do whatever they needed to with the laptop to help find the boys.
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And then she told a story that sent chills down the spines of police.
21:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Charlene said that John had come to her house around 715 that morning of Black Friday and dropped off some personal items of both his and the boys.
21:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Most notably, John let the boys toothbrushes and winter coats.
21:14
[SPEAKER_00]: He told her that they wouldn't need them anymore and to make sure his mother got the items.
21:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this was late November and Michigan.
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It was cold.
21:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The boys would have obviously needed their coats and their toothbrushes.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: What did he mean?
21:30
[SPEAKER_00]: They wouldn't need them anymore.
21:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean if John had really hinted the boys over to this Joanne Taylor woman, they'd still need their winter coats and toothbrushes, right?
21:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Charlene had given police permission to look at the laptop, and she had willingly hinted it over to investigators, so they did just that.
21:50
[SPEAKER_00]: A quick search of the laptop pretty much confirmed what investigators already suspected.
21:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Joanne Taylor didn't exist.
21:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators could see from a simple search that an email address in the name Joanne Taylor had been accessed from the computer by John.
22:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Joanne Taylor had likely been created by John himself,
22:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Back at the hospital investigators kept interviewing John, hoping that he'd break and tell the truth.
22:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But when pressed, John stuck to the Joe Antaler story.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Desperate to find the boys, police switched up the tactics.
22:25
[SPEAKER_00]: John's pastor, Pastor Donna Galaway, drove to the Fulton County Health Center to speak with him.
22:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, John was heavily involved in his church.
22:34
[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone could get the truth out of him, maybe it would be his pastor.
22:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But John Skeleton told her the same story, adding that between 10 and 11 a.m. that morning, Joanne Taylor picked the boys up and the boys were still with Joanne.
22:49
[SPEAKER_00]: At around midnight on November 26, Pastor Galloway spoke to John again.
22:54
[SPEAKER_00]: This time he was upset.
22:56
[SPEAKER_00]: He told her, I missed them so much.
22:59
[SPEAKER_00]: She asked them where they were and he responded, their home, their at home.
23:05
[SPEAKER_00]: the following day so that brings us to November 27th, Pastor Galois spoke to John again, and she asked yet again where the boys were.
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: John responded, nobody believes me.
23:16
[SPEAKER_00]: They think I made up Joanne.
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Galois asked, so the boys didn't go with Joanne in the morning on Friday.
23:24
[SPEAKER_00]: John told her that the boys actually went with Joanne Thursday night, but then Pastor Galloway asked John directly where he took the boys.
23:34
[SPEAKER_00]: John responded, I sent them home.
23:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you understand?
23:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I sent them home.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: With each passing day, Hope was dwindling that Andrew Alexander and Tanner would be found alive.
23:47
[SPEAKER_00]: John was ultimately transferred from the hospital in Fulton County
23:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Police were able to confirm that the boys had last been seen outside of the family at approximately 2.30 pm on Thanksgiving Day, the 25th.
24:04
[SPEAKER_00]: One of John's neighbors Adam told investigators that he saw two of the boys playing in the backyard around that time.
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on to tell police that he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but he had
24:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators also spoke to a friend of John who received a voicemail message from John at approximately 415 pm on Thanksgiving Day.
24:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Children could be heard in the background as John left the message.
24:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So the last time the boys were physically seen was 2.30pm, and the last time they were heard was around 4.15pm.
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Police turned a John's phone records to track his locations after November 25th, and when they did, a disturbing picture began to emerge.
24:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The phone records showed that at 4.13am on November 26th, John was at home on Congress Street.
24:57
[SPEAKER_00]: At 4.29 a.m., the phone began moving away from the home.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: At 5 a.m., the phone pinged off a tower near Pioneer, Ohio.
25:05
[SPEAKER_00]: At 501 to 504 a.m., John was near Lazy River Camground in Pioneer.
25:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Pioneer, Ohio is near Holiday City, Ohio, keeps that thought in your mind.
25:18
[SPEAKER_00]: After 504 a.m., John's skeleton was unaccounted for until 6.46 a.m. when the phone picked back up in the
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: What was John Skeleton doing during the hour and 45 minutes he was on account for?
25:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And why had he turned off his phone?
25:36
[SPEAKER_00]: With that information in hand, investigators went back to talk to John.
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And an interview on the 27th of November, John was asked where he had gone in those early morning hours.
25:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He claimed he didn't remember going anywhere.
25:49
[SPEAKER_00]: When directly confronted with the fact that police knew he was lying and believed he had made up Joe Antehler, and he himself was actually Joe Anne, John never outright denied it.
26:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators then asked John to walk them through Thanksgiving day with the boys.
26:06
[SPEAKER_00]: According to court testimony, John claimed he had been at home with the boys baking and cooking.
26:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And later that day, he was online researching ways to kill himself by breaking his neck.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to that evening around 9 p.m. John claimed that he was playing with the boys helping them get into their pajamas.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: One boy was doing a puzzle in the other two playing video games.
26:28
[SPEAKER_00]: He said he then wrapped them in blankets, gave each boy a stuffed animal, and then buckled them into the minivan, the two youngest and booster seats.
26:37
[SPEAKER_00]: John described this whole scenario in great detail, even down to what the children were wearing.
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Telling investigators that Andrew was in brown pajamas with an orange stripe on the side.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Alexander was in black pajamas and a gray shirt, and Tanner was in Camo pants and a scuba do shirt.
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: But then things got weird.
26:56
[SPEAKER_00]: John began describing an old brick schoolhouse with a chain link fence around it and cuncle Ohio.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Telling police that he used to meet Tanya's sister
27:06
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on to say that the boys had been wrapped in blankets and placed inside the old school house.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: As he was recounting this story, a team in Kunkel, Ohio was already out searching the two old schoolhouses in the area.
27:19
[SPEAKER_00]: The boys were not at either place, and when investigators told John that the schoolhouse had been searched and the boys had not been found, his demeanor and his story changed again.
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Joanne Taylor came back into the picture.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: John claimed he had a nightmare that he was standing in holiday city Ohio on Highway 15 across a street from a hotel he had stayed at in the past with Tania.
27:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, Holiday City is very close to the last place John's phone pinked in by an ear.
27:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, John went on with a story.
27:52
[SPEAKER_00]: He said as he was standing across the street from the hotel, he saw his van pull up next to a dumpster at a nearby restaurant.
27:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Joanne Taylor got out of his car and placed the boys into that dumpster.
28:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators push back in question, John, asking him if he was actually joined Taylor.
28:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And John began to cry heavily in hyperventilate.
28:13
[SPEAKER_00]: He complained that he was hot and is chester.
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: He was reacting so viscerally that agents were concerned this could actually turn into a medical emergency.
28:22
[SPEAKER_00]: He began to question himself, stating that if he created Joanne Taylor, then the person who
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: John became even more erratic and demanded that investigators go and search a dumpster.
28:36
[SPEAKER_00]: He shoved an agent and told her to go and get his boys.
28:40
[SPEAKER_00]: He stated, you're going to find the boys in there.
28:43
[SPEAKER_00]: The boys are not in an open field.
28:46
[SPEAKER_00]: He told police he was 95% sure they were in the dumpster.
28:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He also said, I need you to go search this dumpster to find out if I'm a child killer.
28:56
[SPEAKER_00]: John was concerned that if the boys were found, everyone would think he was a child killer and a monster.
29:01
[SPEAKER_00]: A team was already headed out to find the location and search the dumpster, John had drawn a map.
29:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't take long for investigators to find it.
29:11
[SPEAKER_00]: The dumpster was searched, but it had already been emptied.
29:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Investigators went to waste management of Ohio and were able to trace exactly where that dumpster would have been dumped.
29:22
[SPEAKER_00]: The location was searched thoroughly, but nothing relating to the boys was ever found.
29:28
[SPEAKER_00]: At some point during that interview, John Skelton requested an attorney, and that interview on the 27th would be the last interview he gave without an attorney present.
29:39
[SPEAKER_00]: ABC News reported that on November 29, 2010, John Skeleton was arrested and taken into custody at this charge from the psychiatric hospital until Lito, Ohio.
29:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He was charged with three counts of parental kidnapping.
29:55
[SPEAKER_00]: One count for each of the three boys.
29:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Three additional counts of unlawful imprisonment were later added.
30:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Skeleton was extradited back to Michigan and held
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: After Skeleton was taken into custody, Morrenzi Police Chief Larry Weeks told the world that it wasn't likely the boys would be located alive.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: He stated to ABC, based on the information we have, we do not anticipate a positive outlook here.
30:23
[SPEAKER_00]: We have asked a number of people where the boys are.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We have not been able to locate them.
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And of Joanne Taylor, the chief stated, a reported relationship between Mr. Skeleton and
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Though investigators doubted they'd find the boys alive, that didn't slow down their search.
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They would soon uncover a trail of evidence miles long, and Joanne Taylor wouldn't be the only person John Skeleton accused of taking his boys.
30:53
[SPEAKER_00]: As he sat behind bars, he can cop to a home-nother story.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's a story for next week, because unfortunately, we are running out of time
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we go, I just got to say that if you have any information about the disappearance or whereabouts of Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skeleton, you were urged to contact the Michigan State Police at 1517-636-0689, or the National Center for Missing and Exploded Children at 1-800-the-Loss, that's 1-800-843-5678.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Since this is definitely going to be two parts, there will not be a hot take tonight, but I'll be back next Thursday for the conclusion of this case.
31:38
[SPEAKER_00]: At least the conclusion so far.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Believe me, you don't want to miss it.
31:43
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31:50
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31:54
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31:59
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32:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening.
32:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for caring.
32:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know something, say something.
32:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time,