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8:00 central on WGN America [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever
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you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man that needs no
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introduction but we do a unique one every week anyway because it would just be weird not to he is the camera yeah
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but maybe I could stop coming out from behind the curtain every week because that's getting a little weird
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it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend this week we are
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episodes are available on the very free very awesome stitcher app all right captain that's enough of the business
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everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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[Music] [Music] all investigators from multiple agencies spent all evening here at the home and
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Morenci where the boys were last seen on Thanksgiving evening they took evidence
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from the home there's also concerned tonight because of a posting on Facebook from the boy's
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father John skeletons last Facebook post reads I love my wife very much may God and Tanya forgive me a cryptic message
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that police are now trying to decipher meanwhile FBI Michigan State Police and Morenci police brought out the chopper
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and searched John Skelton's home late into Saturday night skeletons house was the last place his
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three sons were seen alive five year old Tanner seven year old Alexander and 9 year old Andrew have not been seen or
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heard from since Thursday night anytime you have children this old that are not with a caring loved one I think you you
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have to assume they're in some kind of Jeopardy everybody is it's still like I said
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hoping and praying and trying to remain positive so we're hoping that the community can still stay
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with us and be positive and be there and be our support police say the three little boys disappeared after a bizarre
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chain of events reported by their father Morenci police say john skelton tried to
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kill himself in his home on friday but before doing so Skelton says he handed off the kids to a woman he met years ago
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on the side of the road Skelton is telling investigators the woman Jo Ann Taylor had car trouble so
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he pulled over to help her and has maintained contact with her over email Skelton says jo-ann picked up the kids
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Friday morning at the house before he attempted suicide police are not sure this story adds up up to this point we
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have not been able to locate a jo-ann Taylor or confirm that she even exists skeletons neighbor said he recently lost
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his job and separated from his wife but they didn't know his troubles had reached a boiling point if my husband
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was in the yard they'd be over seeing what he was doing and helping and just seemed like a very normal family police
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say they do appreciate the many tips they have received from the community so far though the whereabouts of little
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boys are not known [Music] the key persons in this case are john skelton his wife Tanya and their three
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sons Andrew Alexander and Tanner the boys are young ages nine seven and five and in late 2010 it's important to know
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that the parents John and Tanya are living in separate residences and in the process of ending the marriage let's
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jump right into the timeline of some of the key events in the second half of 2010 on Monday September 13th 2010 John
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says he's leaving for work but instead of going to work john skelton takes the three boys out of school he signs the
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mountain drives them to Florida John's parents live in Jacksonville Florida Tanya finds out about this this is
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because the school called her to say that they are confused about what's going on because Tanya brought the kids
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to school that morning and she even dropped off medicine when dropping off the kids they called because later John
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shows up and checks the boys out telling the school that the family was going on
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vacation to Florida John is weird about the whole thing when Tanya reaches out to him this is just after noon that day
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and John and the kids are still in the area with the attempt of going to Florida so they're not in Florida
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they're still in Michigan at this time he first says that they are going to Florida for a three-week vacation but he
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also adds that he will put the kids in school once he's down in Florida so this doesn't sound much like a vacation to
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their mother Tonya Tonya calls an attorney and she finds out the only way she can prevent John from taking the
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kids to Florida is for her to file for a divorce and request emergency custody of
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the children a judge signs papers granting custody to Tonya but before John could be served the papers he
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catches wind of what is going on and he orders the boys into vehicle.now he only gets the two oldest
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boys into his vehicle and John then drives those two kids down to Florida leaving the youngest boy Tanner back in
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Michigan with his mother the next day John has the boys call home to speak with their mother now after this phone
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call Tonya jumps into action and she goes down to Florida and she gets the Jacksonville Sheriff's Department
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involved in this whole situation they serve John a custody order then they have to meet with a judge this is down
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in Jacksonville this judge orders John the boy's aunt Anna to return to Michigan and states that the two parents
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will have joint custody for the drive home until they reach the Michigan State Line there the boys are to be in the
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custody of their mother per the Michigan judge's previous order this whole process from the time the boys were
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taken on Monday September 13th until they get back to Michigan this takes a little over a week this was not a quick
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process this was not a quick turnaround and the mother had to go to great lengths to make sure that her two oldest
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sons were returned back to Michigan well it's not the best foot to start a divorce on I mean these kind of battles
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yeah and this whole battle is super-weird because from both stand points because you have Tanya who's kind
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of left there going what's going on why is my soon-to-be-ex-husband just taking the kids and going down to Florida right
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and John has parents there so I mean he has family there so it's not super weird
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on that level but what is weird is that this was not like talked about between the two of them I mean two two at Great
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Lengths we do have John at some point who suggests that maybe the whole family should go move down to Florida and Tonya
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says you know I can't really do that right now I can't do that mind you she's thinking that the marriage is ending why
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would the whole family you know pick up roots and go down to Florida and the whole statement to of well we're
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going on a three-week vacation but while I'm down there because now mind you this
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is September right school starts around that time for these boys so tanya is wondering what are you doing taking the
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kids out of school school just started you're taking them on a three-week vacation that's like the guy that just
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signs up for a new job and then goes on vacation the second week after he started working there it just doesn't
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make any sense mm-hmm you know asking why would you go on this three-week vacation yeah I'm sure the kids would
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have fun down there but he's like oh well while I'm down there I'll just sign him up for school well that doesn't seem
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like a vacation who signs up people for school once they get to a new location sounds like you're moving yeah against
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her best wishes well then on Tuesday November 23rd 2010 all three boys were living with their mother Tanya according
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to Tanya John is still trying to determine if they could get back together they're not living together but
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Tanya believed it was in everyone's best interest that even though she had full custody at this time of the boys that
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they should be allowed to visit with their father tanya was not really interested in getting the marriage back
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together but the boys loved their father and she was not going to deny them seeing him or staying the night at his
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new place well it's kind of his new place it's now him living at their old place without her right it's his new old
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place right so the way that this works is Tanya goes and she has to live elsewhere because they're separating
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John's at the family's home with the three boys right now Tanya is staying with the help of some friends it sounds
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like somebody was selling a house or in the process of moving out regardless she's living at this house in the same
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neighborhood as John and it's two blocks away they're close enough that you can see portions of each of the properties
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from the other property if that makes sense well then this is good for them too because then they're close to their
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house yeah and it's I believe it's a rented house but that's the house they know and yeah like you said they know
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other kids in the neighborhood this is a familiar place for them I mean divorce is tough on children and
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Tanya seems to be going above and beyond and out of her way to make it easier on
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the children allowing them to see their father even though she has the custody rights one you could walk to your other
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house yeah walk to see your mom you should walk to see your dad and also like I said with it getting off to such
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a rocky start maybe they said hey we got to do something better you know for the
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kids well Tanya also does not fear at this time that John would attempt to leave to Florida again with the kids as
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she believed it appeared that he had learned his lesson the first time and that he was obeying the Michigan judges
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instructions Plus Daniel was recommending to John counselling and he seemed to be open to the idea remember
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it appears John had an interest in getting back together with Tanya Daniel wanted counseling both couples
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counseling and family counseling and they were going to counseling sessions together previous to this day tanya has
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agreed to let John have the boys for the Thanksgiving Day holiday the next day November 24 2010 the boys are at Tanya's
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parents home that morning until John can pick them up later that day around 5:00
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p.m. John picks up the three boys around the scheduled time from there they go to
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his home John would later say and mind you it's a little confusing if he is referring to Wednesday or Thursday right
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but he says while the kids are with him he cooked them one of their favorite meals fried chicken and baked them a
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cake then we have Thursday November 25th Thanksgiving my favorite day of the year
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food football a good amount of libations some bubbly yeah Tonya later states that on this day she
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is on the phone with John and according to her John is asking if there is any chance that they could get back together
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tanya is giving him the old I don't know probably not you know giving him that routine Tanya can hear her three sons in
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the background while talking with John and says it sounds to her like the boys are having a great time
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they're playing and such later Tanya would say she is not 100% certain that she spoke with John on this day on this
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Thursday she says there is a chance it was on Wednesday night but you know with the with the holidays going on there's a
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lot going on here so it does sound to me that she feels stronger that the conversation took place on this Thursday
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regardless of which day it actually was we do have a neighbor of John's this is the lady I believe she lived across the
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street she tells police later that she saw all three boys playing outside that afternoon most reports state this is
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around 5:00 p.m. on that Thursday November 25th Thanksgiving Day mm-hmm Friday November 26th Black Friday one of
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my least favorite days Tanya per the arrangements made before Thanksgiving is scheduled to pick the
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three boys up at John's place at 3:00 p.m. that morning however Tanya and John trade phone calls and texts the topic
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Tanya would like to pick the boys up earlier if possible she's asking if she could get them around noon John says he
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would however they are not at his home Tanya says to John what are you talking about from my place I can see your
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driveway and your van is parked in the driveway John says friends of his came and picked him up and the boys up and
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they were out having fun now please keep in mind as we go through this this is Tanya and John having multiple
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conversations that day because later that day he says the boys are still with his friends mm-hmm that he John is home
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and his friend is scheduled to drop the kids off at his place at 3:00 p.m. so they can be picked up by
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Tanya at 3:00 p.m. so Sonia is asking well can they just drop them off to me at my place you know that
00:17:05
I obviously live in the same neighborhood right unfortunately regardless of all of these conversations
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they never agree to a time for tani to pick up the boys in fact this is where it all falls apart
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the next time Tanya talks to John he says I'm on my way to the hospital I think I broke my leg Daniel wants to
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know where her son's are and how is she going to get them back John says they are not with me they are still with my
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friend and she is going to bring them back to my house he thinks Daniel wants to get in touch
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with this friend of John's or at least for him to do so but he is saying he does not have his friend's phone number
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on him and he doesn't know what will happen with the boys getting to Tanya's this very obviously upsets the boy's
00:18:00
mother and she calls her attorney the attorney advises Tanya to wait until after the scheduled time wait until
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after 3:00 p.m. before you do anything at 3:01 p.m. Tanya calls the police and reports her boys as missing so remember
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we said John was on his way to the hospital this is because he called a friend to drive him there once at the
00:18:25
hospital John checks himself in seeking treatment for an ankle injury I've seen this reported as everything from a
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sprained ankle a broken ankle it is first reported that John tried unsuccessfully to hang himself this
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either in a hotel or in his home in the course of this he suffered the leg injury in the process where are the
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three boys Andrew age 9 Alexander age 7 and tanner age 5 John says a friend of his Joanne Taylor was put in charge of
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returning the boys to Tanya's home Joanne of course never arrives in fact apparently John knows little to nothing
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about this Joanne person John was a truck driver by occupation according to John this is someone who he
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met when he came across her and Joanne's husband when they were having vehicle trouble their vehicle broke down and he
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stopped and helped them well John and Joanne then became friends afterward and maintain their relationship via the
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Internet Tanya does not believe John's story in fact she fears that her sons may be lying dead in John's home the
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Morenci police searched the home and they do not find the boys what they do find is a home of broken and destroyed
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furniture and household items we're talking broken glass smashed furniture a mattress cut and slash with a knife and
00:20:06
right and it's not clear if the stuff was like smashed on that Wednesday and Thursday or if it's been smashed for a
00:20:12
while Friday night at 11:00 p.m. an Amber Alert goes out for the three missing skelton boys
00:20:27
the following is an Amber Alert issued for the three sons of John and Tonya Skelton of Morenci police are searching
00:20:34
the neighborhood now the FBI is on the way an Amber Alert has been issued for three young boys in Lenawee County who
00:20:42
are believed to be in extreme danger Andrew Ryan Skelton aged nine Alexander William Skelton aged seven and
00:20:52
Tanner Lucas Skelton aged five were reportedly last seen Friday at 2:30 p.m. with Joann Taylor
00:21:01
a woman who their father john skelton met on the internet the suspect was to return the children
00:21:07
to their mother but the children have been missing since Taylor is believed to be a resident of either Jackson County
00:21:13
or Hillsdale County and drives a silver van police say the father of the three boys has been hospitalized following a
00:21:21
suicide attempt the missing children are all described as white males andrew is four foot one inch tall weighs 57 pounds
00:21:30
and has brown eyes and hair Alexander is three foot nine inches tall weighs 45 pounds has brown eyes and hair and has a
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scar on his hairline and on his chin Tanner is three foot six inches tall with blue eyes and blond hair the
00:21:49
Morenci Police Department is investigating and was to hold a news conference today if you have any
00:21:55
information regarding the three missing children the alleged abductor or the suspects vehicle please call 911 police
00:22:04
department at 574 five eight two three two three or Lenawee County dispatch at five one seven two six three zero five
00:22:15
two four at 1:30 a.m. early Saturday morning the Morenci police chief contacted tonya she was asked to get to
00:22:23
the police department as soon as possible to discuss the situation this is because the local authorities want to
00:22:30
try to get a handle on what was going on before the feds came in as you heard in
00:22:35
the Amber Alert they also say that they contemplated even doing a hamburger because that would set off everything
00:22:42
you're gonna have all these searchers come in you're gonna have FBI come in with this help or hinder what they're
00:22:50
trying to do well and we've seen this in plenty of other cases before where you have to get certain information out to
00:22:56
the public because you do need the public's help especially when you're looking for three missing persons
00:23:02
possible abductor and you have a description of the abductors vehicle mm-hmm but then the problem with that is
00:23:09
when you are racing for time when you feel like you are in a race against time to find these three missing children you
00:23:16
run into the problem of could you be getting just frantic tips from the public right tips that aren't valuable
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00:27:31
skelton story or stories regarding the location of the three boys mm-hmm is a very difficult portion of this case yeah
00:27:39
what is not difficult but as scary is a law enforcement work to track John's cell phone and if his phone was moving
00:27:47
at any point during the times when the boys were in his care so here's the scary part on Friday so the same day
00:27:55
that the boys would later be reported missing early Friday morning we know John's phone was on the move at 4:29
00:28:03
a.m. John's cell phone was approximately three miles from his home on Congress Street and moving at about 5:00 a.m. his
00:28:12
phone is near holiday city Ohio and Pioneer Ohio so holiday city is a tiny little town in Northwest Ohio near the
00:28:22
Michigan Ohio state lines Jim holiday City is about seven or eight miles south of Michigan and by
00:28:29
everything that's out there John travelled straight from his house to this area this is a place that he would
00:28:35
have drove through multiple times when he was a trucker yeah and if you check the approximate travel time on any
00:28:42
directions or Maps application you get depending on the route it's about a 24 to 25 mile one-way trip that would take
00:28:51
about 30 to 32 minutes of travel time which matching up perfectly with what the cellphone evidence shows for 29 a.m.
00:29:00
he is just about three miles from his house and then 31 minutes later his phone is in holiday city Ohio then at
00:29:09
6:46 a.m. according to the evidence his cell phone is back at his house so what we have here is John assuming he is with
00:29:20
his phone he is in this holiday city location for 70 some minutes and with no reason to be
00:29:27
there and then he returns home where later we are told after several communications with Tanya
00:29:33
he attempts to commit suicide fails injures himself and calls a friend to take him to the hospital yeah your
00:29:41
marriage has fallen apart you don't have custody of your children mm-hmm well you
00:29:46
have part-time custody of your children you lose your job and then something happens over this Thanksgiving and you
00:29:56
go to a town in Ohio that you're familiar with right but your story to the police is this person that you know
00:30:04
that you gave your kids to they met you they met you at your house they picked them up from your house right this
00:30:13
doesn't make a lot of sense at all well that's a big part of the difficulty with
00:30:19
his story and with this case so then the difficult thing becomes when did he hand
00:30:24
his children over to this woman and just how complicated is his story and could it possibly be true well there was this
00:30:34
report at this donut shop and sent duskie Ohio the three skeleton boys may offer the first glimmer of hope that the
00:30:43
brothers are still alive shop worker sandy Jones says she thinks she saw Tanner Alexander and Andrew in the store
00:30:50
three days after Thanksgiving the two older ones were really they didn't act like they even want to come through that
00:30:55
door when they first came in sandy says the three were with a woman that they looked tired and hungry the woman who
00:31:02
was with the boys even called Tanner by name I kind of huddled together the angry one kind of looked up and was
00:31:08
looking around he just didn't nobody wanted at first like he would wanted everything and she kept saying just pick
00:31:13
out your doughnut dinner just pick out your doughnut that's how I raised I know his name
00:31:17
and then it was funny when I saw the newspaper I'm like that's too much of a coincidence Jones says she didn't know
00:31:22
about the story until she saw it in the paper after the holiday weekend she then
00:31:27
told her co-worker these little boys I swear were in the donut shop the owner of the donut shop is a former police
00:31:33
officer after Jones and the owner talked it over they filed this report but not until several days after the sighting I
00:31:41
thought I was going crazy so I waited and talked to him and he the owner Terry and he was like you know what they do
00:31:50
look like that and we went around about the name again and then we didn't know what to do because we didn't have we
00:31:56
didn't know the car or license plates and we didn't know if it could be any kind of help or not
00:32:01
and the more we thought about the more we like know we need to call because it's a chance that could have been them
00:32:06
as for the woman Jones says she was disheveled she was about five foot five five foot six like I said she's still
00:32:14
why she was in her 40s very tired Haggard she had dark scraggly hair that the buddy has just been dyed so of
00:32:22
course police are working to confirm this tip that boy's father John Skelton was caring for the boys when they went
00:32:27
missing back on Thanksgiving his extradition hearing is scheduled for December 14th Governor Granholm is
00:32:33
already expediting all right so I know you're all chuckling but grow up yes a former police officer owns a doughnut
00:32:41
shop quit row up if you're laughing about it and you can't you can't hear it on the clip that portion of the clip
00:32:48
that we played but at the very tail end of that when he's done giving the report
00:32:53
and he's going to turn it back over to the you know the people in the studio the the news studio
00:33:00
he says Joanne that's the the news anchors name so kind of some ironic things inside that story itself so well
00:33:11
let's just go over this eyewitness account do is do we believe this at all well so it's interesting for a few
00:33:20
different reasons right and one it's a sighting of three boys hmm at a donut shop this is the house of donuts in
00:33:28
Sandusky Ohio it's not terribly far from Morenci Ohio it's about 100 miles east it's more East than southeast
00:33:37
but it's technically southeast and Sandusky's right on Lake Erie so about a hundred miles away three days after
00:33:47
Thanksgiving or three days after they went missing I'm a little uncertain of that point but of that portion but there
00:33:55
with a woman so there's some things that are lining up here to John's story three
00:34:00
boys not two not one you know no other people reported with them not a little girl not a grown man not anybody else
00:34:10
three boys that this woman at the doughnut shop believes to be of the appropriate age of the missing children
00:34:17
with a disheveled looking woman who looks tired and the kids look tired as well tired and hungry yeah it seems more
00:34:25
believable to me because yes the one there with a woman but that she's saying one of the kids names and that the
00:34:31
person behind the counter picked up on that yeah yeah and it must have I mean the three kids as well as the woman must
00:34:39
have stuck out like a sore thumb to this eyewitness because she's kind of recalling this after the fact she was
00:34:47
unaware at the time that there were missing people that could have been you know that or in the general area of
00:34:54
where this doughnut but this is lot of miles away not terribly far right but this is also one of the problems with
00:35:00
the AMBER Alert is that you will get so many sightings and that could be a bad thing because when they should maybe be
00:35:08
looking closer you like this search to me doesn't make a lot of sense they're searching so much of the hometown
00:35:14
they're searching the house but we have cell phone ping technology that puts him
00:35:21
in a whole nother state and a whole nother area that's very rural and we lose track of his cell phone pings for
00:35:31
about an hour and 45 minutes mm-hmm so the the phone either dies or gets turned off and we're in an area that there's
00:35:39
acres upon acres upon acres this would be a perfect dumping ground if you're trying to hide
00:35:45
hmm well I thought that we the downtime let's call it of the cellphone information or evidence right is closer
00:35:56
to like 70 75 minutes because we we have to factor in the travel time that's involved on the way to this location and
00:36:06
then on the return trip to his home right so we have that cellphone moving as you say and and as we know the
00:36:16
interesting thing here and you and I I agree with you because on the surface it's like well why are they I mean they
00:36:22
got hundreds of searchers looking at his neighborhood looking in the general vicinity of his home I mean we even have
00:36:29
helicopters flying over and they did thermal searches as well you know that's where they're going to be looking for
00:36:36
any indication thermally of where they could find these boys if they were being hid somewhere but I think what we can
00:36:44
deduce from this information that we have not knowing exactly what tactics police and searchers are going to
00:36:52
actually implement is the AMBER Alert and the phone call from the police chief to Tonya to the boy's mother where we
00:37:04
know the feds are coming in we know the FBI is coming in so what I believe we have here is a couple of things let's
00:37:12
not just limit ourselves to one search area I believe the feds the FBI was brought in because we do have
00:37:19
information that there's a possibility that these kids were taken against their will be it with their father or anyone
00:37:26
else and they were taken possibly across state lines from Michigan to Ohio right
00:37:32
therefore now we have an FBI situation kidnapping across state lines that's a double whammy for the FBI so you bring
00:37:41
them in and maybe they are the ones that are in charge of searching the area that
00:37:46
is across the state line we're on the local level where you have local jurisdiction
00:37:51
you can then police search grid search the neighborhood of john skelton well the area and Ohio it'd probably be
00:38:01
better if you just search by helicopter and maybe some kind of infrared yeah the
00:38:07
thermal yeah infrared so the other thing to to keep in mind here is as suspicious
00:38:14
as the movements of his cell phone are because of how early and the day that is that doesn't seem to be typical routine
00:38:21
he has no reason for being in that area as suspicious it's that seems you also have a bunch of information saying well
00:38:29
his cell phone was in the loke general area of his home for a much longer period of time when he had the children
00:38:37
so you can't overlook searching that immediate area right well then also it's not clear if he left with his vehicle or
00:38:47
did he get into somebody else's vehicle hmm right a situation where he says this
00:38:54
lady came and picked him up from me oh by the way I went with them for a while yeah and then she brought me back home
00:39:00
but also around this point isn't this where he starts stating hey I wanted to give them to this woman because my wife
00:39:10
was abusing them well that's where I think we need to go through his story a little bit as well as some background
00:39:17
information on the skeleton family right because let's say that sighting that we'd the clip that we just played and I
00:39:26
got it I gotta tell you captain hearing that I'm hopeful that there there's information in that sighting
00:39:33
that that eyewitness told us sounds more legitimate than most gives me cause for
00:39:39
hope gives me cause to believe that her story is his spot-on yeah makes me want donuts so if we are
00:39:47
to believe that this sighting is real in in and she was correct that she did see
00:39:52
the three boys then we have to believe John's story right his explanation regarding the whereabouts of the three
00:40:00
boys and here's what I here's what I will say to try to sum this up as best as I can
00:40:07
having looked at this for for a while now I don't feel like I can say that it's a changing story regarding John's
00:40:15
story in a sense that it contradicts his original story right but John's story to
00:40:22
me seems more to evolve rather than to change completely so he first tells Tanya he gave the kids
00:40:29
to a friend of his named Joanne and she was in charge of driving the boys to tan
00:40:33
his home he gave them to Joanne because he was going to commit suicide that's the first story then we hear John tells
00:40:42
investigators he gave the boys to a foster care home an underground foster care home because their mother tanya was
00:40:50
abusing the boys this is where we need the background information on the skeleton family so this is both John's
00:40:58
and Tanya's second marriages right they've both been married before John and Tanya they had their first child
00:41:06
together after one year of marriage so andrew is the oldest nine years old at the time of the disappearance he's
00:41:14
described as very smart and great in school he loves video and computer games in his
00:41:20
very competitive when playing he is very inquisitive and out of all the boys he is the most timid and quiet then you
00:41:28
have Alexander who was born just about two years after Andrew he was seven at the time of the disappearance Alexander
00:41:36
is the daredevil of the boys and he has a few stitches to prove it he enjoys riding and jumping on his bike playing
00:41:44
in the dirt starting water fights he's the one described as quote always getting into trouble but they say when
00:41:51
it comes down to it he is a lover and Alex loves cellphones working or not real or fake he loves cell phones or the
00:42:00
idea of a cell phone he often would play with a cell phone that were no longer in
00:42:04
service he enjoys charging them and using the camera feature Tanner is the little one the littlest one and he was
00:42:13
born just two years after Alexander and Tanner is by far the storyteller of the three boys he has a great imagination
00:42:21
good step from his father he can tell the most far-out stories or tell something that really happened he will
00:42:29
get you to believe it and then we'll tell you no it really didn't happen and it'll laugh at you he's pranking me yeah
00:42:36
Tanner doesn't like tomatoes he will not eat anything if there are tomatoes in it
00:42:40
or around it including ketchup Tanner really looks up to all of his siblings he doesn't want to be left
00:42:48
behind so he is always trying to keep up and do what everyone else is doing now John and Tania were married for 10 years
00:42:56
before this all went down John was married before and had a child daniel speculates that John may have freaked
00:43:04
out when it was likely that she and John were going to get a divorce and she was
00:43:09
going to get custody of the kids she cites that's what happened in his first marriage Tania's story is more
00:43:17
complicated Daniel was married before and had two daughters in that previous relationship
00:43:23
these two daughters are very very close to Tania to this day but are much older than her three boys Tania's first
00:43:31
marriage ended because of criminal charges Tania had some kind of inappropriate actions and behavior with
00:43:38
a 14 year old boy when charged she pled guilty and she did serve time in prison for this offense and she is a registered
00:43:48
sex offender in the state of Michigan yeah according to everything I could find this is not something that Tania
00:43:56
hid from John he knew about her background before they got married he knew about it before they had children
00:44:03
yeah so this is why that doesn't you know I mean it's good that she didn't hide that from him but at the same time
00:44:10
it's like that's that's a very odd situation and very gross situation yeah well yeah yeah and you know what's
00:44:20
difficult for for me as I sit here in this garage chair after we've covered so many cases and and I've been so hardcore
00:44:28
of saying you know once a child molester always a child molester and you know that that I may have put myself in a
00:44:38
difficult position when discussing this case because I feel like you know like we should I feel like we should give her
00:44:47
credit for not beat for not hiding this from him you know what I mean it deserves some credit because we have
00:44:54
seen situations where well she has to register where she lives yeah and stuff like that so he's gonna
00:45:00
find out official right she might not be able to find out and it's one of those things where look I mean it's a it's a
00:45:07
crime against a child the boy was 14 years old so that's that's awful yeah and but at the same time she in this
00:45:16
case she is a victim or possibly is a victim and so you don't want to have it come across as victim blaming right well
00:45:25
but ultimately this is why John tells law enforcement he gave the boys to someone else to raise either because he
00:45:32
feared losing them in the divorce or because he was planning to commit suicide and Tonya was abusing the boys
00:45:39
he didn't want them to live out the rest of their days with her right so now John
00:45:45
following his treatment for his injured leg he was sent to a facility for evaluation once released there he is
00:45:53
immediately taken into custody and held in jail because of the situation with the missing boys John's parents talked
00:46:01
to him and they believe his side of the story in fact at some point they say that John
00:46:07
told them previously about possible abuse in the household hence that's his reasoning for wanting to take
00:46:14
the boys to Florida to set up a new life there the police don't believe him they
00:46:21
they publicly announced that they are unable to confirm that a Joe and Taylor even exist at all well what we do know
00:46:28
is his mother believes him the father believes them yes and his sister believes him they believe that that John
00:46:35
is telling the truth correct right and not only does the not only does law enforcement come out and announce that
00:46:43
we don't believe that he gave his sons to this Joe Ann Taylor person right we can't confirm that she even exists the
00:46:51
difficult thing about that for law enforcement is you're kind of sitting on a fence
00:46:56
there right not so much in that statement but in the course of your investigation because you
00:47:02
have to be sitting there wondering well crap just because we can't confirm that this person exists doesn't mean that his
00:47:10
story's not true what if he gave them to someone claiming to be Joann Taylor right so the other thing though too that
00:47:19
they announced is that they fear that John has done something terrible terrible with the children they don't
00:47:25
believe that the outcome they publicly state this they don't believe that the outcome is going to be a good one
00:47:31
meaning we should be looking for bodies and of course they had good reason to yeah and I think the first part of that
00:47:42
good reasoning behind that comes from the cryptic Facebook post by John on that Wednesday on Wednesday November
00:47:50
24th that said may God and Tanya forgive me well that doesn't sound promising does
00:47:57
it right but you wonder if that is implying towards the suicide that he eventually is gonna do it try to commit
00:48:05
this yeah that's a good point that's a very good point because some religions claim that you know taking your own life
00:48:13
as a sin so maybe he's confessing his sin to his god and his wife well and the other thing too is keep in mind if it
00:48:24
was and asking for forgiveness because of the suicide or the attempted suicide on earth from every indication I could
00:48:33
find it seems like John was still very much in love with Tanya during this time that he was yeah focused on trying to
00:48:41
get the family back together or get his marriage back together so you could be very right that it could be for asking
00:48:50
for forgiveness for that act or I guess in a sense it could be asking for forgiveness for giving the children away
00:48:59
and then committing suicide right both right so or yeah and the thing too is you can love your wife but know that
00:49:08
she is sick on some level and that she's molesting the boys then you don't want her to be around but that doesn't mean
00:49:17
that doesn't mean he can just shut off all the feelings that he had for mm-hmm I mean I would I mean it would be
00:49:23
seconds oh you're molesting kids oh no feelings for you anymore you can die in rot in
00:49:29
hell yeah so so may God in Tana forgive me that was the John Skelton's Facebook message to the world two days before he
00:49:39
unsuccessfully tried to hang himself it was also two days before the disappearance of his three children
00:49:44
right again as he say it's he also apologizing for him murdering the children right when we didn't bring up
00:49:53
that aspect well and that's what I think most people take it as that that he's apologizing for murdering the children
00:50:01
and then also trying to take his own life well and I think that's the the common initial reaction that most would
00:50:09
have I know that that's the the initial reaction I had right now the other reason to believe that this outcomes not
00:50:17
going to be a good one as law enforcement stated is what they found on John's computer so the night before the
00:50:25
boys disappeared now keep in mind at this time John is considered by law enforcement and by his own admission to
00:50:33
be the only adult in the home in his home with the computer that we are going to talk about at the time of these two
00:50:41
searches okay and this is not verbatim but one search was something to the effect of how to
00:50:50
break a neck or can you break someone's neck using your hands another I mean that's dark as hell and again not very
00:51:02
promising well right but let me hold on play a little devil's advocate here yes sir the the night which we think was the
00:51:11
Wednesday or maybe it was the Thursday he claims that he made the boys his favorite dinner and that they got Fried
00:51:18
Chicken and he made a cake because it's could be one of the boys birthday soon and then they watched a karate movie
00:51:25
mm-hmm now kung fu well well they said karate movie so I was yeah actually guessing that they probably watched
00:51:32
Crotty kid or something but think about this way you're watching Karate Kid you're watching some kung fu movie you
00:51:40
see a guy maybe break somebody's neck with some move and then you google search it well that's his explanation
00:51:49
that's what Jon's explanation is when he's confronted with this information right why would you look that up if you
00:51:55
didn't do something terrible to these boys well we were watching a karate movie or a kung fu movie what he fails
00:52:02
to provide and I get I shouldn't fault him too much for this but again I've never been in a room being questioned
00:52:08
about a triple homicide that you're gonna admit on air what he what he is what he fails to provide in his defense
00:52:17
is the title of the movie that he claims they were watching yeah but anybody that
00:52:23
has kids knows that sometimes you throw on a movie or a movies on TV and kids are watching it they seem entertain and
00:52:31
you're in the kitchen cleaning dishes and you're not really part of the movie watching process process right so I'm
00:52:39
saying so it's like then if you went oh well what were they watching well I'm not really for sure I wasn't really
00:52:44
watching I was doing the dishes or I was cleaning the house or whatever was going
00:52:47
on well this seems like an awfully violent movie to be allowing your three children under the age of 10 to watch no
00:52:54
come on we mean yeah everybody watch you don't think that's a fair assessment of this
00:53:00
situation no I think I mean I'd be like telling children they showed watch WWE or something well but I'm I'm stating we
00:53:09
also don't know the title of the movie so if they're watching Karate Kid at the age of under 10 I'd say go go for it but
00:53:15
it can't be Karate Kid and I'll tell you why because of what John says in his defense he says the reason why that
00:53:24
there was a search on his computer for the phrase how to break a Necker can you break
00:53:29
someone's neck using your hands the they're watching a karate type kung-fu type movie right and in the
00:53:38
movie somebody breaks someone's neck just with their hands you know like what is that Steven Seagal Van Damme kind of
00:53:45
move there and he says that it was at the kids asking him or not believing that that was realistic what they were
00:53:55
seeing on TV you know oh you can't break somebody's neck with your bare hands or
00:53:59
her dad can you actually do that and so he says i google-searched it with the boys right to see if that was even a
00:54:07
real thing which sounds like I I know mr. Miyagi was pretty tough on those teenagers for a beaten-up Daniel son but
00:54:14
I don't remember any necks being snapped like any twisted one of their necks and
00:54:19
I I believe you did and then again we were talking about kids under the age of 10 they're coming up they don't have to
00:54:26
see something verbatim to come up with a question oh we saw this guy twist this guy's neck hey did he break his neck I
00:54:33
don't know can you break somebody's neck by twisting it right I don't know let's
00:54:37
ask dad that's all I'm saying so we have no clue what the title is we don't have
00:54:42
a clue how violent it was but again I wouldn't say that Karate Kid for example would be like a movie I wouldn't want a
00:54:51
ten-year-old to watch maybe blood sports something different but you know there are also little boys that's what kind of
00:54:59
movie said they liked yeah no I'm not saying that you've got to let young children watch Karate Kid I loved the
00:55:07
original Karate Kid the first one I did one of my favorite movies and my father who's pretty strict with what I could
00:55:13
watch when I was little sometimes his judgment was a little cloudy or my understanding understanding of his
00:55:20
judgment was a little cloudy because I recall watching Conan the Barbarian when I was in the destroyer when I was very
00:55:29
little and that's a pretty violent movie very violent but how you turned out so the other thing here is there's another
00:55:39
search on the computer and that is for something to the effect of rat poison or kin rat poison kill a
00:55:46
human okay also very dark dark is hell not very promising again John's explanation for this is this
00:55:58
search on the computer was again at the request of his three children that during the course of that same movie
00:56:05
somebody is killed by poisoning or rat poison according to the movie that he's watching with the kids and so they
00:56:12
searched this to figure out if that can actually happen yeah well my big problem
00:56:18
with this search there buddy is you made chicken you made your boys's a favorite
00:56:24
meal seems like if you're gonna make your boys's favorite me or you're gonna make a cake right for their birthday
00:56:32
these are things that are pretty simple to get them to eat did you make these favorite things form on purpose so you
00:56:41
can put poison in there and then you took their bodies once then once they were poisoned
00:56:48
you took their bodies in the morning when nobody else was up and he drove out to some field somewhere and he dumped
00:56:54
him off that that makes a lot of logical sense to me well and then on top of that
00:57:01
think about the state of the home when it was found when they entered the home it was it looked like it was destroyed
00:57:07
like somebody just you know tornado of rage just went through their uh pending furniture and in tossing things and
00:57:14
cutting things and breaking and smashing things is that a very you know true vinay lame attempt at hiding some
00:57:24
evidence or at least confusing the scene you know right or were you losing your [ __ ] for so long that you're busting
00:57:32
plates you don't want to get mad at them cuz because you couldn't control them mm-hmm cuz you weren't being such a good
00:57:38
parent and everything in your life is crumbling and your this guy seemed so worried about getting back together with
00:57:44
somebody that didn't seem to give a [ __ ] about him it's like you could you could
00:57:48
take that time and refocus on being on a better father a refocus that on your career or whatever yeah but
00:57:57
there's also guys that get into the state guys in and girls will get to the state where they're so desperate to be
00:58:04
with somebody that everything is collapsing around them and and and that's all that matters
00:58:09
so did is every time that you called her that she said that she don't want to get
00:58:13
back together are you going into some other room and smashing up you know or punching your hole through the wall or
00:58:19
or smashing some dishes or whatever right and and are you on who knows so yeah and did that that tornado of rage
00:58:29
did that take place after the phone call remember Tonya says that he at some point John speaks with her on the phone
00:58:37
and says are you sure there's no chance that we can get back together right you know did that occur immediately after
00:58:44
that or a result of something else and from the outside looking in it appears like you know like you said Tonya may
00:58:52
care for him and on some level but it appears that she only cares for him as being the father of her three bull right
00:59:01
but this [ __ ] can't see that and let me just give you some advice everybody out
00:59:04
there if you're with somebody and they don't know if they want to be with you here's what you do and here's what you
00:59:11
do every time 100% of the time you go okay well I'm gonna go over here and work on myself I'm gonna focus on myself
00:59:21
cuz if they come back you're going to be a better person anyways and you're gonna be better for
00:59:27
them and if they don't come back you're already going to be working on yourself and it just seemed like this guy's
00:59:34
world's collapsing and we've seen I was actually just listening to a show the other day where they're talking about
00:59:39
you know the the suicide rate for men jumps up dramatically after losing a job and so well I would argue that if this
00:59:49
guy is suicidal that he's possibly also homicidal yeah yeah I mean here's some advice for the flip
01:00:00
side of that coin if you are with somebody and they love you completely just let yourself go 100% well just let
01:00:07
yourself completely go so regarding the things as forgettable it's like Homer Simpson you don't just
01:00:17
let yourself account don't ever listen to him regarding the things to a kind of backup law-enforcement statement of not
01:00:25
feeling like we're going to have a good outcome in this situation there's another item and this is another cryptic
01:00:32
message if you want to call it that but this is in the form of what john skelton
01:00:36
tells his pastor donna galloway remember he's locked up shortly after the boys go
01:00:43
missing shortly after his failed suicide attempt and when he spoke when Donna Galloway spoke to him his statement
01:00:53
John's statement refers to when it comes to the time frame in question that we're
01:00:58
all wondering about John says there is a blank spot in his brain it was like a big dark hole now without going too far
01:01:08
into that as to what that could mean because with a lot of John statements all we're left with saying is well what
01:01:18
could this mean it doesn't straight up it's not it's not straightened to the point right
01:01:24
this is there's a big blank spot in my brain there's a big dark hole what does that mean well it sounds like OJ
01:01:30
actually yeah you know in oh geez book Werner he is confessing to the murders he states oh well then I blacked out
01:01:38
when I come to there there were dead blood everywhere it's like did he have a blackout for hours right I mean do we
01:01:47
have any evidence of him using drugs or possibly alcohol it's from the information I could find he was a
01:01:57
drinker I don't think he was a big big drinker mm-hmm no indication of drug use that I could
01:02:04
find but again this is not a promising statement and like you said you reference OJ we've we've read several
01:02:14
stories where somebody later states for some reason you know I feel like it did something bad I just don't know what it
01:02:21
is can't recall what it is there's a period of time I don't know what I was doing I
01:02:26
don't know if I was awake I don't know if I was asleep you know so this is another dark very dark statement well
01:02:34
you'd think they'd be able to test for fluids found at the scene and you would assume that if he let's say he did try
01:02:43
to poison these kids that a lot of the reaction would be through throwing up and that we'd at least have some
01:02:52
evidence of that happening at the house I mean yes you could clean that up but it didn't look like he cleaned up much
01:02:58
in that house right so there must not be any evidence of that and they did I mean they've searched
01:03:05
that place from top to bottom well what's also it's a small town so they probably know all his whereabouts
01:03:13
because of the cellphone things and they probably know everything he probably purchased so I'd be interested to know
01:03:22
if he even purchased poison or it's a kid again it's a logical answer you're you're
01:03:32
watching a movie with your kids they ask you a question hey kid can you twist somebody's neck and and kill them right
01:03:38
uh no you can't or yes we can then you go oh we saw the stay on the movie can you kill somebody with rat poison it
01:03:47
might not need not even be in the movie mm-hmm it could I mean this is the kind of questions that kids come up with I
01:03:54
mean any time I pick up my nephew and it's like it's a 10-minute Drive I think he asked me 20 questions that are
01:04:00
impossible to answer you know so it's a it's so weird because it's a logical answer but on the flip side it's a
01:04:11
logical explanation what what could have happened to these poor boy exactly exactly
01:04:18
yeah well you reference that this is a small town just to give those of you out there that are not familiar with this it
01:04:26
because I wasn't super familiar with this area either well with this town of Morenci I've been in Michigan I go to
01:04:33
Michigan twice a year great state bet place to go in summertime as Michigan in my opinion but Morenci is like a town of
01:04:42
like 2,000 people it's a town that's like two square mile you know two miles by two miles by two
01:04:49
you know as a two square mile town right tiny little town everybody's got to know
01:04:54
everybody's business and like you said had he purchased anything that would go along with those searches on his
01:04:59
computer with what their suspicions were if they would have found any signs of vomiting or certain fluids inside that
01:05:07
home be it blood or anything like that he probably would be facing murder charges or something to that effect
01:05:16
right because they already got this guy locked up and then the other thing regarding the cell phone movements on
01:05:22
that day in question that early morning Friday that that you have pointed out that I have pointed out is so suspicious
01:05:30
John has an answer for everything John says regarding his cell phone going to holiday city early Friday November 26th
01:05:38
well that's easily explained because someone I know a friend of mine borrowed my vehicle I forgot that my cell phone
01:05:46
was in the vehicle who was your friend who borrowed your vehicle can we talk to them and then John says I can't tell you
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who that is [Music] [Music] every hour in the u.s. 75 people are reported missing what if there was a
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task force dedicated to bringing them home that's the story behind the new original drama gone premiering February
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27th on WGN America it stars Chris Knauth and Danny Pinot as well as newcomer leven rambin she portrays the
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newest member of this elite task force who is a survivor of childhood abduction herself don't miss the series premiere
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of Gone Wednesday February 27th at 9:00 8:00 central on WGN America we're just getting start with this case so tune in
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tomorrow we'll see you back in the garage until then be good be kind and don't litter
01:06:51
[Music] [Applause] [Music]