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[Music] welcome to true crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:26
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always the tower of power too sweet to be sour he is the captain won't
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love for us on the blog and that is enough of the beers all right cheers to you captain cheers to everybody out
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there gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music]
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on yesterday's show captain we started off by going through the timeline of events of late 2010 regarding the
00:03:32
missing three boys regarding the missing three Skelton brothers where we left off
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is talking about what's going on with John after this situation so we do know that John is locked up but during his
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lockup he and Tanya they do get a divorce and John gets charged in the disappearance
00:03:53
of his kids and gets sentenced to 10 to 15 years for unlawful imprisonment of his children he goes to prison for this
00:04:02
February 1st 2011 police announced that the skelton brothers missing-persons case is now a murder investigation the
00:04:12
Chief of Police Larry weeks said quote he wanted to put an end to false hope in November of 2013
00:04:22
the Morenci police turned the investigation over to the Michigan State Police and then there was this on
00:04:31
December 18th 2017 Michigan Police are investigating whether the partial remains of three children found in a
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shed of a rental home in Missoula Montana could belong to the brothers missing for more than seven years at
00:04:49
this point the remains which included fragments of bones and teeth could be those of the brothers Alexander Andrew
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and Tanner Skelton who went missing in Michigan in 2010 investigators set out to determine whether this discovery
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would finally solve the mystery a few things we need to discuss regarding this discovery one the experts believe the
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ages of the boys could be consistent with the remains found police in Missoula found the remains in the shed
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of a rental home after cleaners reported them to the police in September according to the Missoula that's a local
00:05:29
newspaper right a spokesperson for Missoula Police Department sergeant Travis Welsh told the outlet there is no
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suspect but they did want to interview a specific person it was reported that a tenant was evicted from the home over
00:05:47
that last summer when a cleaning crew was brought in workers found a box containing teeth and bones according to
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the Associated Press an anthropology professor at the University of Montana estimated that the
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ages of the remains of the children's remains that were found were to be two to four years old five to eight years
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old and six to ten years old right meaning that if if John did give them to somebody and they took him out to
00:06:16
Montana that they killed them there or maybe that John killed them and then gave them to somebody that took them out
00:06:23
there to be buried or to be hidden or whatever but they would have been dead roughly about the ages they went missing
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correct now the tricky thing though however is there is no known link between the skeleton boys and anyone in
00:06:39
Montana right and as you were pointing out you know we have to remember the law enforcement tract John Skelton's phone
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they believe they know his movements in his whereabouts during the time in question and this location it's like a
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25 hour drive from Morenci Michigan to Missoula Montana so for this for these remains to be the skeleton boys somebody
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else would have had to have been involved right all right but this is pieced together from some articles so
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we'll get back to the article here Michigan State Police investigators are working with Missoula police to
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determine if there is any connection to Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton who were reported missing from Morenci the
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day after Thanksgiving in 2010 the State Police announced in a statement quote there has been nothing previously
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reported to the police linking the brothers to Montana further forensic testing has been requested by
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lise that may provide more answers until this testing is completed an additional
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investigation by law enforcement in Montana occurs it cannot be determined if these remains belong to the missing
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skeleton brothers quote now when's this testing gonna be done though well this is going to be extensive it's going to
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take months for them to figure out if it is in fact the three boys now tan Yazoo verse the boy's mother she
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took the face book after this and remind you they are divorced by this time Tanny goes to face book after police
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made the possible link public and asked for prayers for her family saying quote this information has just been presented
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to our family within the last several hours we are processing it and hopeful that we will have answers soon we are
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thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers according to the newspaper articles tanya has continued to by
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Christmas birthday and Easter gifts for her son's in in the hope that one day they would come home yeah it's weird
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because you see some interviews where she's breaking down and crying a lot and then I saw one interview that I thought
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was strange for a minute she talked about how her boys wouldn't want to see her upset her boys want to want to see
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her stop living life not progressing in life hmm so she's been trying to do that I
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thought that was very strange at first until you see the multiple interviews where she is breaking down where she
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can't control it so you know I would assume that at some point when you break down that often you'd have to tell
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yourself hey I got to do this maybe it's not for me maybe it's for my children well in police in that area are
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announcing that they are trying to identify the remains but they're also trying to determine the causes of death
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regarding those remains right and they state quote we are working with the National Center for Missing and
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Exploited Children and other missing-persons databases to see if that's a possibility a spokesperson for
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the Missoula police department told kPa X TV also added quote the thing is there are
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missing children all over the world and the thing in this case we don't know that this particular case is isolated to
00:10:02
the city of Missoula we don't know where the bones came from and if they were transported from one area to another and
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then ended up here you have like you said similar ages and the fact that there's three boys there's how many
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cases are like that the percentage goes down a lot the remains have been sent to
00:10:23
the University of North Texas center for human identification for DNA testing which runs the National Missing and
00:10:31
unidentified persons system so it took some time as we stated and I think it was about six months for answers to be
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found regarding the remains in Montana here are their findings the teeth and bone fragments found inside a shed at a
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Missoula house in September are more than ninety nine years old according to a report from a national forensic lab
00:10:56
Missoula County Chief Deputy Coroner Lieutenant Jace Dickon said the Center for human identification has concluded
00:11:05
that the bone fragments and teeth are archeological in nature and at least a century old the report stated that they
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likely were buried somewhere else for some time before being unearthed so this is don't got him right yeah don't got
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him and it makes me go back to what John's family says there are a hundred percent convinced that what he's saying
00:11:29
that he gave the boys to somebody and then they're alive they a hundred percent believe and his father even said
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when it's all said and done we'll see who has the last laugh hmm which is one a weird thing to say cuz your your gang
00:11:48
kids were missing but that's how sure he is of what his son is telling them right
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well and then think about this situation for a little bit you know Tonya is hearing about this they found the
00:12:01
remains of three children right she has three children that are missing and I actually I'm not certain that the
00:12:08
the sex the gender of the remains was able to be determined at that time or if it ever was right but what are the
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percentages you know I mean we talked about that when we covered the the body barrel case right where you have
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multiple people that are missing and the multiple people that are found their remains are found what are the
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percentages it can't be very high it can't be very high so then she's this poor woman sitting there wondering
00:12:35
that's got to be the absolute hell of the parent of a missing child or missing children to hear this information and go
00:12:47
it could be them I don't know nobody knows for certain oh and it's going to take because of science it's nobody's
00:12:55
fault it's going to take months before they can give me an answer it's gonna take six months six to eight months I
00:13:03
think was the original estimated time that they expected to yeah but if you don't find these and you don't have a
00:13:10
test coming up then you have no end date of possible answer right and that's your
00:13:16
real hell is when you just don't know I mean there's so many parents that have their kids go missing and they'll say
00:13:23
look we've kind of given up hope at this point but we still want to know so they'll take the death but tell us why
00:13:31
and how it happened they'll take that over not knowing anything well and I remember when this story broke about the
00:13:38
remains being found in Montana because we had many people that requested that we cover the skeleton brothers case
00:13:45
before those remains were found right and then when that happened we were getting even more requests to cover the
00:13:51
skeleton brothers case and by the way what a lot of people in the media were saying is it's got to be the boys it's
00:13:58
got to be the boys right I mean that was the initial reaction by everyone that this is these three missing boys and
00:14:05
again to their to their credit to vouch for them what is the percentages it's got it can't be very high at all so
00:14:13
right that's where you would go but now that we know that it was not these boys so we
00:14:19
does that leave us captain you know theories us in the garage theories are still here that we should explore I
00:14:27
think is where it leaves us okay okay but we're gonna explore them in the garage yes okay not in Montana or in
00:14:35
that weird shed where the remains were found okay so let's there there's multiple
00:14:41
theories like smaller theories that will be inside of one of four big ones okay the first big one is are the boys still
00:14:51
alive mm-hmm now there are multiple avenues you could take with this thought and theory and a lot of them come from
00:15:00
John's stories and some of them come from speculation from Tanya and from her family and from the media from armchair
00:15:10
detectives and message boards so let's start with I want to start with an easy one okay because some of these could be
00:15:18
quite involved the first one I want to point out under the under the title of are the boys still alive could they be
00:15:27
in Florida we know that John had ties to Florida now am I there yeah yes he has family
00:15:33
there he has friends there the first obstacle you have with that being a correct theory is one we know of his
00:15:43
cell phone movements we know his cell phone didn't go down to Florida so this is similar to the idea of if the remains
00:15:51
in Montana were the boys that this would require some help right the he delivered
00:15:57
the boys to somebody or they were picked up at his home or some kind of location
00:16:01
and then delivered to Florida now this could mean that they were picked up by family members of his or he met family
00:16:08
members of his somewhere or it could mean that he handed them off and they were transported to Florida the major
00:16:17
obstacle that I think you have with this theory and where I think you can easily
00:16:22
take it off of the dry erase board here is I think that's too easy to trace for law enforcement I think it's too easy
00:16:32
too you look into that and to determine if that's correct or not well law enforcement and the FBI have they've
00:16:39
said we don't even know if this person that he claims he dropped him off to his real because they're the lack of
00:16:46
evidence that he had communications with somebody else they have his phone records they have his Google searches
00:16:52
they have his computer and there doesn't seem to be much contact with somebody else right I do want to point out one
00:17:00
thing here that I learned in a phone call last night so last night I spoke with Lynn Thompson
00:17:07
he's the author of the only book that I know to be out there regarding this case
00:17:12
and one thing he had said during our phone call was he said that it is his understanding that John's cell phone at
00:17:20
the time that the boys went missing was relatively new to him it was practically
00:17:27
a brand-new phone okay makes me wonder like were they what happened with the old phone what happened with that data
00:17:34
what happened with that information were they able to track that were they able to comb through it
00:17:40
we know they were able to check his computer right I feel like there's not a whole lot of weight to this Florida idea
00:17:46
unless they're with someone that somehow the police can't can't check into it can't easily make the leap from John to
00:17:53
family to this person that has them I think that's too easy to check out and too easy to check off the list one thing
00:18:02
that's interesting and Tonya said this in an interview so this is off of her speculation she says and this is kind of
00:18:11
her wishful thinking I believe is what she says yeah is that maybe the boys are in the Bahamas why well that seems like
00:18:19
a leap right yeah you think okay so Michigan to the Bahamas what she says is that John's father has a
00:18:29
connection to the Bahamas that he the he goes down there he travels down there once or twice or maybe a couple times a
00:18:37
year I don't know how often but according to Tonya's words he travels to the Bahamas and it's he's there to like
00:18:44
service some boats and things like that room and so her wishful thinking is that somehow John convinced his family
00:18:54
that the abuse that he claimed was real and that the family stepped in got involved helped John get the boys and
00:19:04
took them to the Bahamas where they would be I mean the trail of bread crumbs from Morenci Michigan to the
00:19:11
Bahamas but it's got to be but we don't know what the whereabouts are for the family is family in Florida right there
00:19:21
in Jacksonville Florida no I mean but we don't know like on that Thursday did he
00:19:26
call up his dad and say hey meet me here yeah that's an interesting thought there
00:19:32
you you have to believe that they've that they were tracking or at least attempting to question the the parents
00:19:40
John's parents right figure out where they work and do you have anybody that can vouch for you do you have an alibi
00:19:45
for this timeframe right but you know what's weird - is there was at least one instance where Tonya says that John's
00:19:56
parents came to the area where they live where Tonya and John lived visited friends and didn't even really like they
00:20:05
were there visiting and home and gone back home without even telling Tonya and John so it's not crazy to think that
00:20:15
they couldn't have moved into the area without Tonya knowing especially once they were separated living in different
00:20:21
residence but that kind of thing also makes me question well how tight really are John or were John in his parents
00:20:31
yeah cuz they well they live so far apart - mm-hmm now here's here's where things get a little more difficult so we
00:20:41
have some kind of connection to that the boys are alive but could be in Michigan
00:20:47
Ohio or Indiana now this is pieced together from different stories that John has told that they could be with a
00:20:55
foster family in one of those areas may be Amish Mennonite or reorganise Mormons right those are the
00:21:04
the groups that he he suggests or that he lists for us regarding this he does give some other names so we have the
00:21:13
name of Jo Ann Taylor but at one point he gives the name of four people we have Jo Ann Taylor we have somebody named
00:21:20
Virgil someone named sue and someone named Elijah these are people that he say works for this you know works for
00:21:30
this is the wrong phrase but is involved in this underground foster care system that the boys were being abused and he
00:21:39
entrusted these four people to assist him to get the kids to safety where they could go out and live and grow and
00:21:47
become adults and then go off on their own he we talked about all the cryptic messages there's another quote that he
00:21:56
has and I think he's repeated this a few times okay it's they and this is in reference to the three boys they will
00:22:04
hibernate until they graduate they will hibernate until they graduate right but that's it's like if his parents did help
00:22:13
him out in some way or somebody else helped him out then you have to think that that individual then also
00:22:22
questioned the boys about what was going on mm-hmm and you have to think that whoever
00:22:27
talked to them that these allegations of sexual abuse or abuse would be real or at least they believed them at least
00:22:37
right yeah and then that way then you want to be coming forward to the authorities because look what they did
00:22:43
to John John said hey I gave them somebody and they arrested him mm-hmm yeah and you hope and you just have to
00:22:52
pray that there's not somebody out there sitting somewhere they assisted john skelton only to later believe that the
00:23:01
abuse was not real and then refuses to come forward because they're afraid of being imprisoned right for that action
00:23:08
right I I mean if I could talk to that person I would I would bei them beg them please just come forward
00:23:15
tell us what happened or produced the boys and well the boys are so big now that it's like they could be getting on
00:23:22
the internet they could be reaching out for somebody eventually yeah I mean the oldest boy was nine at the time of the
00:23:30
disappearance in 2010 and there right I don't have their birth dates right in front of me but they're all towards the
00:23:36
end of the year the later part of the year so they all would have had birthdays at the end of last year in
00:23:45
2018 right so yeah one of them the oldest boy would be 17 years old going on 18 I do think if there was the Amish
00:23:55
because they had some reporters actually go talk to the Amish about this that anything like in Ohio or Michigan that
00:24:02
those Amish communities would have known that these boys were missing and they would have probably contacted police did
00:24:09
you listen to the shattered podcast no I would seen sue well you know what was interesting so so
00:24:18
for those that don't know it's shattered podcast it's created by a group of people that work for channel 4 news up
00:24:27
in the Michigan area right and they've taken on a few different Michigan cases this is one of the cases that they
00:24:34
looked into and one of the most interesting portions of their coverage of this case that I thought was what you
00:24:44
just referenced there about people going out and interviewing Amish people and finding out one were you aware of the
00:24:51
disappearance of these three boys and two what is your opinion would would an Amish person help in regards to this
00:25:01
situation right you know help foster these boys and I found it fascinating they interviewed just two two families I
00:25:10
believe it was but both of them had the same answer and it was yes we would help
00:25:15
if we thought that these boys needed help we would take care of them we would feed them we would keep them warm but
00:25:21
during that whole process we would notify the police and hey I got these three kids that somebody
00:25:28
dropped off by which you should do right right everybody should do and I it's not
00:25:33
that I question that they wouldn't but it was interesting to hear these reporters and people go out of their way
00:25:40
to confirm you know would this be something that the Amish people or people from any other walk of life would
00:25:49
do right the other thing here regarding this though where there could be some weight to this theory and to this this
00:25:57
version of John's stories is if they are in Michigan Ohio Indiana where I mean those states all touch each other
00:26:07
they're all very close right so we know that John's cell phone went to holiday city Ohio and in regards to the Amish
00:26:16
Mennonites reorganised Mormons Ohio does have a large Amish population as does Indiana who all at some point I think
00:26:24
that's what John starts claiming as the group that they're with lives on the border of Ohio and Indiana which I
00:26:33
actually lived on the border like I was in Indiana but half a mile way was the Ohio border mm-hmm and a lot of that is
00:26:41
just acres upon acres of farmland well in you know holiday city is north west of Columbus we're right in the middle of
00:26:52
Ohio right so north west that's definitely going to put you closer to that Indiana State State Line right
00:27:00
and just because he went a holiday said he doesn't mean that that's where they have to be now somebody could have
00:27:05
cracked him up but he could have met somebody halfway or a part of the way there the other thing too that's that's
00:27:11
interesting is if in fact they are handed off with the idea of them going into foster care because they were in
00:27:18
danger is sometimes these groups and when I say these groups I'm just kind of air quotes here referencing an unknown
00:27:29
group here that we're talking about you got to believe that they have certain security measures involved that they
00:27:37
don't may not disclose everything to anyone involved on the surface so that they can keep the kids safe so that they
00:27:47
don't end up getting in trouble themselves 1 & 2 losing the children to where they're
00:27:52
returned to a bad situation because if I give John a fake name then you can never
00:27:57
track me down the other thing too that goes along the same lines is that John told investigators he gave the boys to a
00:28:05
group called and we have two names here one is United foster outreach and underground sanctuaries as everything
00:28:15
that I could find public statements by law enforcement no such group was found to exist
00:28:24
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[Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers Cheers cheers Cheers all right so continuing on the idea of
00:32:34
these different theories okay so second on the list we have the boys were handed
00:32:40
off to someone as John said but possibly he was duped now this comes from this comes from an interview that he did do
00:32:50
where he does say you know I've not heard from these people I've not talked to these people I handed him off to them
00:32:56
and who knows maybe I was duped so this would be the idea there's a few different ideas involved in this one
00:33:04
one could they still be alive yet they were given to bad people for nefarious reasons right unbeknownst
00:33:13
to John or could they be no longer with us handed it off the bad people or one thing we've not discussed - you know we
00:33:24
discussed the the percentages of what would it be that there are three missing kids that are under the age of 10 and
00:33:32
then three remains of children found that are believed to be under 10 what's the chances of that but what we didn't
00:33:40
discuss is could the kids be separated could they be alive and they've been separated well if they're bad people
00:33:49
yeah because you can control people better if you you know you separate and then conquer or if they're if they're
00:33:56
good people are they separated because they're less chance of detection less they're not as easy to be identified
00:34:05
right yeah but again I think the duping part okay so if we believe John and we go okay well this girl that he met
00:34:14
randomly because her car broke down and then they stayed in contact that this person Joey and Taylor just so happened
00:34:24
to be which that's not a real name but just so happen to be person that was connected with child
00:34:33
pedophilia rings and he said my kids are being molested and she said I'll take him and then he gives them to her and
00:34:42
then she sends them off to other pedophiles mm-hmm like that seems so far-fetched
00:34:49
like you'd have to believe all the stuff that he said oh of course yes I mean that's part of that theory is that he
00:34:57
actually did hand them off and then unbeknownst to him the people he gave them to were actually bad people yeah
00:35:03
but I don't know it's it's like if they're good people and they're afraid of getting in trouble it's like you
00:35:11
could go to a have heavily populated area like McDonald's or something and just go kids go in there and then tell
00:35:19
them that you're missing hmm and then they'll call authorities and within a day we'll figure you know would figure
00:35:25
out who they were mm-hmm there's so many things if they went to good people how they could get back right if they went
00:35:31
to bad people and they were duped it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me but if if it had happened they're dead
00:35:38
and we'll never find them so right I mean well and it goes back to what you said earlier where where is the trace
00:35:48
where is the breadcrumb trail between John and whoever he handed these people off to he says he maintained some kind
00:35:56
of relationship with this Joann Taylor after they met on the side of the road somewhere when he helped her when her
00:36:02
car broke down they maintained their relationship through the internet where's the trace of that where's the
00:36:08
you know they checked his computer he doesn't have her phone number right his phone doesn't register
00:36:15
he's not text her on his phone she's not text him they've had no communication via phone just the Internet but we can't
00:36:22
find anybody that was there a app like what's up app or whatever were they text through it well and I think his response
00:36:29
to that was something to the effect of well maybe maybe this group is just really good at what they do they're the
00:36:38
ones that they're the ones that clean this they cleaned it all up they cleaned it all up and there's no trace of them
00:36:44
they're like ghosts they're like phantoms I didn't I didn't break anything in the house they broke it
00:36:49
that's what happened Dave I was asleep they must have went into the house and took my cell phone and then drove down
00:36:56
to Ohio mm-hmm he has a store he has a he has explanation for everything and look if
00:37:04
we had my way would have that game show called this psychotic clown interrogators right and we would be we'd
00:37:16
have a bunch of psychotic clowns in a room with John right now getting answers it's just you know well that's
00:37:26
interesting too because you have a couple of different thoughts that I that I go to when I think of that one you
00:37:31
know in the statement that he has an answer for everything that's a very fair statement he comes up
00:37:38
with a nice story for everything that you throw at him right and sometimes what's the most damn frustrating thing
00:37:44
out there is that sometimes he just goes I can't tell you that yeah I dude I've never we've covered a lot of cases I
00:37:52
can't remember another time where we have someone that's just like nope sorry can't tell you that
00:37:56
yeah and he's cool with that and in law discs can you imagine how frustrated law
00:38:02
enforcement has to be when they cuz they go back and they talk to this guy it's not like they don't know where he is
00:38:07
they go back and talk to him periodically what's going on John tell us what really happened John and
00:38:13
sometimes he gives them a story and other times he goes I can't tell you that why Tom John every
00:38:19
time he told me you can't tell me something break one of your ribs that's what I'd tell him well you've been
00:38:24
watching too much true detective because it you can't do that but the thing the thing where I go with that is with him
00:38:31
having an answer for everything is one he's gotten out he's got nothing else going on he's got plenty of time to sit
00:38:36
around and dream up answers for everything right right the other thing though it is a bit of a police tactic
00:38:44
not so much then because I mean it's the courts it's technically the court system
00:38:48
that put John in prison 10 to 15 years but what the state of Michigan police are hoping that
00:38:57
someday he's finally gonna wake up and realize where he is where he's been living for the last seven eight years
00:39:06
right in prison and he's gonna realize that he has nobody he has nothing else and he has nothing left to do but to
00:39:16
tell the truth that is their hope that is their hope yeah and you know what I wonder about - regardless he says all of
00:39:23
our hopes yes and and I wonder regarding his prison sentence I've heard you know
00:39:28
it's it's all it's always reported 10 to 15 years I have read some speculation that the there awfully darn certain that
00:39:41
he's going to serve the full 15 years but if we are in fact talking about murder if we are in fact talking about
00:39:48
the worst possible thing we can come up with regarding this case it's a triple homicide of children and that's a really
00:39:57
light sentence and it's nobody's fault it's nobody's fault for that light sentence there's nothing really they can
00:40:02
do unless there's evidence but what's interesting to me is can they I would love for once in a while we get lawyers
00:40:11
prosecutors judges people that know the system better than we do reach out to us
00:40:17
yeah I would love to and if you go on the blog you don't have to leave your real name please do not leave Joanne
00:40:24
Taylor you will be banned unless you are Joanne Taylor but so how are we gonna know well the thing is I would love to
00:40:34
know if because of the charges because of what he was sentenced to or sent to prison for can they charge him with
00:40:43
something and I know there's no statute of limitations for murder so obviously if there's proof if they find additional
00:40:49
evidence that the kids were killed and they believe he did it of course they can charge him with murder but let's say
00:40:58
they never find anything is there something else they can charge him with at a later time and at the end once that
00:41:07
10 or 15 years expires can you charge him with kidnapping can you chart you know cuz he's charged
00:41:12
right now with unlawful imprisonment I believe is the exact term yeah so I mean he's there
00:41:19
can you go to jail for being a douchebag no but there are prisons full of douchebags oh yeah conundrum so that
00:41:28
would be interesting to know if there's something left in the in the old knapsack if there's something left that
00:41:35
they can charge him with once that 10 15 years expires because again that's what
00:41:40
law enforcement is hoping for that he's gonna wake up one day realize he has nothing nobody else nothing left but the
00:41:46
truth and he's going to feel compelled to finally deliver that to everyone the other thing too with him publicly
00:41:54
stating and I say publicly is just an interview but with John saying hey I gave them away to this underground
00:42:01
foster care organization maybe I was duped is that him already setting up a defense for if he did in fact kill them
00:42:11
hide the remains and they were to be found now he can go I wasn't mean I didn't I wasn't the one to see them
00:42:18
last I left them in the care of these people that I've been telling you about for the last nine years right you know
00:42:26
so I mean a real piece of [ __ ] either way I mean it's like look even if you're
00:42:34
to believe him and there was abuse happening and that you wanted to protect your children there's other ways about
00:42:42
doing that and you could have went to a judge you could have went to whoever and
00:42:51
it's just you know but and you can't tell me that oh well he tried to give him to somebody else because he was
00:43:00
gonna commit suicide so he wanted to make sure that they were protected mm-hmm it's like know that this none of
00:43:07
this really lines up none of this makes a lot of sense and chances are if he was
00:43:12
going to kill himself if he's suicidal he's probably also homicidal and and it was almost like oh well if you're not
00:43:20
gonna be with me then you're not gonna get my children either and but for some reason he's not man
00:43:28
enough to state what he did and he's not man enough to to have closure for everybody else and and to accept the
00:43:42
punishment for the crime he committed the next thing on my list for possible theories and this is a very obvious one
00:43:50
one that we've all been hoping against since we first started covering this story but it's it's so obvious it's what
00:44:00
everybody is thinking did are the boys no longer with us did John do something with the remains that he knows where in
00:44:09
fact they are he knows exactly what he did with them and he's just refusing to to be cooperative because it punishes
00:44:19
his ex-wife and because it punishes the system because he thinks he's smarter than everybody else I mean there's it
00:44:26
there's a a myriad of reasons why he's holding on to the truth not just the fact of facing more jail time well what
00:44:37
we do have is the cellphone pings and yes we do have you know as John has a blackout period we have a blackout
00:44:48
period as far as where John's whereabouts are but we can at least start breaking down how how much area
00:45:00
would have to search right within that time frame because we do know that he went back to his house so I think if we
00:45:08
focus more on that and we really started focusing and they they've claimed that they've you know every barn that they
00:45:15
could find that they that they they searched through and all this stuff and and yes it's been seven years but it's
00:45:23
like I think they could do that that's your key if you could double down on those searches and that area I think
00:45:31
that's the key to getting answers to this case well and that's what today's author of this week's
00:45:40
recommended reading suggests in his book is that look at the area that we know his phone to have been right for that 76
00:45:51
minutes is what Lin calls it and Lin has actually been heavily involved in the search efforts and also involved in
00:46:04
trying to really narrow that down to a specific location and he's saying you know I'm gonna keep working on this I'm
00:46:12
hoping that I can narrow it down to about I think he said 200 acres which is still a lot of lands on down Bob it's
00:46:21
not that bad considering I mean you've done the Google map flyover of this area of holiday city it's they need to take
00:46:30
the word city out of holiday city it's not a city it's a tiny little tiny little thing that you just pass through
00:46:38
and you don't even know that you pass through it and snow no need to talk [ __ ]
00:46:42
about holiday city no I mean I mean they're not there to blame anything but what I'm trying to point out to
00:46:49
everybody listening is that this small little if it is even a one you know to traffic like town it's surrounded by a
00:47:00
lot of open area right a lot of rural area and so Len Thompson is in into to give credit where credit's due to the
00:47:11
people that volunteer to search for these boys be it in Michigan be it in Ohio yeah the search effort according to
00:47:19
Lynn was not fake it wasn't just something that sounded good for the papers it was real it was the real deal
00:47:26
and it was massive it was massive and they looked hard and long for these these three boys the fourth thing that I
00:47:36
have on my list is kind of the most kind of out of the box one of all the possible theories I think but we kind of
00:47:48
touched upon this a little bit earlier what if John had a complete break with reality right what if what if he handed
00:48:00
off the kids to somebody what if he did something terrible and they're no longer
00:48:05
with us but he doesn't know yeah he doesn't know because he had a straight-up break with the reality is
00:48:13
that the is that the the black hole the big empty space that he referenced and the he offers up these tales or he's
00:48:25
sticking somewhat to his original story that he told his ex-wife in the beginning that he told investigators in
00:48:32
the beginning and he truly just doesn't know what happened if he truly doesn't know then maybe bring in like a some
00:48:40
hypnotherapy or something like that like at least offer that up as an option to try to figure out what happened right
00:48:50
but I think if you're not doing things like that then really you're you're hindering the investigation or hindering
00:48:56
the possibility of finding out what happened so the thing here is and this is why I questioned this too because of
00:49:04
what he told his pastor Donna Galloway it seems like that could be a possibility if there's anyone that
00:49:12
you're finally gonna be honest with it would be her for John right but the but the problem here is I feel like that's
00:49:22
not what John's parents are saying I almost feel like I mean if I were sitting in prison for any number of you
00:49:29
know any reason at all and I have my parents coming to me I've my pastor coming to me I have people coming to me
00:49:35
and going Nick what happened what the hell happened if I didn't know I straight-up tell at least those people
00:49:42
tell my parents you know I I don't know right I might deserve to be here but I don't
00:49:47
know what happened and what we have his parents saying on record saying is that they believe part of their son's story
00:49:56
at least part of it that there could have been some abuse that they that the boys are alive and that
00:50:04
the John gave them to somebody you know yeah so I that makes me question this if
00:50:12
he if he does not know I almost feel like by this time with the amount of time that has passed then we would
00:50:19
probably have that or some form of that statement from him yeah it seems like the more you dive into this the more
00:50:25
questions that come out and one of my initial questions that we never really discussed is are we for sure that these
00:50:34
three boys are his you know that's the claim from the mother and then obviously the father but I mean there's I just get
00:50:45
a sense when I look at these three boys that these three boys are half-siblings that's that's the sense I get and as
00:50:54
anybody looked into that angle well it's an interesting thought to ponder when I
00:51:01
look at the pictures of the three boys and there's there's plenty of them available plenty of these pictures
00:51:08
available on the internet so anybody can look them up and I'm sure we'll put a couple on our website as well in hopes
00:51:16
that somebody might recognize them be able to provide some kind of information the two of the boys look very much like
00:51:25
John to me this is just my own opinion and one of the boys looks very much like like their mother like Tanya yeah I
00:51:35
again I think it's it is an interesting question to ponder I don't know what that really means for the state of our
00:51:42
case because where my thoughts lie and look man the the whole time I was researching this case the whole time I
00:51:52
was looking into this and I'm sure you felt the same way as I did I wanted I wanted to I actually started off hopeful
00:52:01
I started off hopeful and I for the first day or so I was sitting there going you know what it's probably an
00:52:09
unpopular side to be on it's definitely against my better judgment but for about 24 hours the first 24 hours of
00:52:20
looking into this thing I'm like I feel I think they're alive my brain tells me that that's probably not the case but my
00:52:28
gut my heart was telling me these boys are alive that he did hand them off to somebody oh I try not to do that anymore
00:52:34
I tried when we go into these cases I'm a blank slate and whatever I read and whatever rabbit holes it takes me down I
00:52:43
try not to ponder too far into it I like for it just tell me what I'm supposed to
00:52:50
know what whatever that may be if that makes any sense mm-hmm makes a lot of sense the thing
00:52:57
that I can't get over and this is why I'm not as hopeful as when I started off is giving them away does not make a lot
00:53:09
of sense and what I mean by that is I understand his side of his story is look they were being abused I did this in
00:53:19
their best interest I get that John the problem is you're so out of control with what then happens or
00:53:29
could happen to them once you hand them off right it just doesn't it just doesn't ring true to me it it's it seems
00:53:38
like it seems like almost you would rather their there are things you could have done before going to these great
00:53:46
lengths there are people you could have spoke to and maybe he's totally off the rails I don't know and maybe this is all
00:53:53
he could come up with it doesn't seem right to me though there could there was people you could have talked to and at
00:54:00
the very least if you run out of ideas you go you know what I'm keeping the kids and I you send
00:54:07
anybody to take them from me I'm gonna tell them what's going on and I'm gonna let I'm gonna let the law I'm gonna let
00:54:13
the law look into it right and I'm gonna let them figure it out because those are
00:54:17
serious accusation yes yeah and there and let's be clear I do think there's there is a leap that you have to make
00:54:28
from having a relationship with a fourteen-year-old boy which let's not get that twisted that's child
00:54:34
molestation but then to bless your own child I think there would have to be a leap that you'd have to make on some
00:54:42
level yeah and the only one that seems to be claiming that there was any kind of abuse as John and you do have some
00:54:50
people siding with him after the fact after this all goes down right but there doesn't seem to be any anybody else
00:54:59
alleging that other than him and I do want to point out we should point out Tonya who I mean the nightmare that
00:55:09
she's had to face of this guy that she marries right yeah I don't even feel great calling him their father you know
00:55:18
he no matter what the outcome at the end of the day he's responsible for why she
00:55:25
doesn't have her children and the thing here is she has two older daughters and they are very close with their mother
00:55:36
with Tanya and I think that that's probably the only thing that's kept her whole kept her together at this point I
00:55:44
can't imagine going through what she has had to go through I think law enforcement stated that they're not as
00:55:52
hopeful as they once were but they are very confident that they're gonna have answers to this case very
00:55:59
soon well until remind everyone we do have three missing boys they are still missing to this day when they went
00:56:07
missing Andrew was age nine Alexander age seven and Tanner age five they're still missing the family is seeking help
00:56:14
in searching for them they are encouraging people to be aware of children and to watch for these three
00:56:21
boys the police would like to remind everyone that it is a good possibility that the boys may not be together so be
00:56:29
looking for individual faces as well all three boys are Caucasian the two older boys Andrew and Alexander both have
00:56:39
brown hair brown eyes the little boy Tanner has blond hair and blue eyes I do want to point out in some of the
00:56:46
pictures of Alexander the middle child he is wearing glasses so he may require them there is a large reward for good
00:56:56
information in this case and police need your help and they need tips if you have
00:57:02
any information at all please contact Morenci police at 574-lmpd where e 27th on WGN america it stars chris Knauth and
00:57:42
danny pinot as well as newcomer leven rambin she portrays the newest member of this elite team who is a
00:57:50
survivor of a childhood abduction herself don't miss the series premiere of gone Wednesday February 27th at 9:00
00:57:58
8:00 central on WGN America do we happen to have any recommended reading for this
00:58:04
week actually we do and it actually came out just a few weeks ago it's a really good book it's the only book that I
00:58:12
could find on this particular case on the skelton brothers case it's called 76 minutes my search for Andrew Alexander
00:58:19
and Tanner Skelton by author and new friend of the show Lynne Thompson check that out you don't have to write down
00:58:26
that title right now you can go to true crime garage com click on the recommended page and we have lots of
00:58:33
books including 76 minutes by Lynn Thompson listed right there for you to check out make sure you check out our
00:58:40
weekly bonus show off the record that's on stitcher premium $5 a month that gets
00:58:45
you our show plus every show on stitcher premium so it's a great deal it's like the Netflix for podcasting and make sure
00:58:54
you check out our old episodes on the stitcher app you just download it and they
00:58:58
are for free that's right well thanks everybody for joining us here in the garage today and this week we will see
00:59:04
you again next week until then please be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]
00:59:27
[Music]