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of the beers news. All right. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to everybody out there. Gather around, grab a chair, grab
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a beer. Let's talk some true crime. Cheers. [Music] [Music] On yesterday's show, Captain, we started
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off by going through the timeline of events of late 2010 regarding the missing three boys, regarding the
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missing three skeleton brothers. Where we left off is talking about what's going on with Jon after this situation.
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So, we do know that Jon is locked up, but during his lockup, he and Tanya, they do get a divorce. And Jon gets
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charged in the disappearance of his kids and gets sentenced to 10 to 15 years for
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unlawful imprisonment of his children. He goes to prison for this. February 1st, 2011, police announced that the
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Skelton Brothers missing person's case is now a murder investigation. The chief of police, Larry Weekes, said, quote,
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"He wanted to put an end to false hope." In November of 2013, the Morreny police
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turned the investigation over to the Michigan State Police. And then there was this.
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On December 18th, 2017, Michigan police are investigating whether the partial remains of three
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children found in a shed of a rental home in Missoula, Montana, could belong to the brothers missing for more than 7
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years at this point. The remains, which included fragments of bones and teeth, could be those of the brothers Alexander
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Andrew and Tanner Skelton, who went missing in Michigan in 2010. Investigators set out to determine
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whether this discovery would finally solve the mystery. A few things we need to discuss regarding this discovery.
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One, the experts believe the ages of the boys could be consistent with the remains found. Police in Missoula found
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the remains in the shed of a rental home after cleaners reported them to the police in September. According to the
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Missoulan, that's a local newspaper, right? A spokesperson for Missoula Police Department, Sergeant Travis
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Welsh, told the outlet there is no suspect, but they did want to interview a specific person. It was reported that
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a tenant was evicted from the home over that last summer. When a cleaning crew was brought in, workers found a box
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containing teeth and bones. According to the Associated Press, an anthropology professor at the University of Montana
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estimated that the ages of the remains of the children's remains that were found were to be 2 to four years old, 5
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to 8 years old, and 6 to 10 years old. Right? Meaning that if if John did give them to somebody and they took them out
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to Montana, then they killed them there. Mhm. or maybe that John killed them and
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then gave them to somebody that took them out there to be buried or to be hidden or whatever, but they would have
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been dead roughly about the ages they went missing. Correct. Now, the tricky thing though, however,
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is there is no known link between the Skeleton Boys and anyone in Montana. Right. And as you were pointing out, you
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know, we have to remember law enforcement tracked John Skelton's phone. They believe they know his
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movements and his whereabouts during the time in question. And this location, it's like a 25-hour drive from Morreny,
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Michigan to Missoula, Montana. So for this for these remains to be the Skeleton Boys, somebody else would have
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had to have been involved. Right. All right. But this is pieced together from some articles. So we'll get back to the
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article here. Michigan State Police investigators are working with Missoula police to determine if there is any
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connection to Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton who were reported missing from Morreny the day after Thanksgiving
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in 2010. The state police announced in a statement, quote, "There has been nothing previously reported to the
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police linking the brothers to Montana. Further forensic testing has been requested by police that may provide
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more answers. Until this testing is completed, an additional investigation by law enforcement in Montana occurs. It
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cannot be determined if these remains belong to the missing skeleton brothers. End quote.
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Now, when's this testing going to be done, though? Well, this is going to be extensive. It's going to take months for
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them to uh figure out if it is in fact the three boys. Mhm. Now, Tanya Zoover, the boy's mother, she took to Facebook
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after this, and remind you, they are divorced by this time. Tanya goes to Facebook after police made the possible
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link public and asked for prayers for her family, saying, quote, "This information has just been presented to
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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 buy
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Christmas, birthday, and Easter gifts for her sons in in the hope that one day they would come home. Yeah, it's it's
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weird cuz you see some interviews where she's breaking down and crying a lot. And then I saw one interview that I
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thought was strange for a minute. She talked about how her boys wouldn't want to see her upset. her boys won't want to
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see her stop living life, not progressing in life. So, she's been trying to do that. I thought that was
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very strange at first until you see the multiple interviews where she is breaking down, where she can't control
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it. So, you know, I I would assume that at some point when you break down that often, you'd have to tell yourself, hey,
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I got to do this. Maybe it's not for me. Maybe it's for my children. Well, and police in that area are announcing that
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they are trying to identify the remains, but they're also trying to determine the
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causes of death regarding those remains. Right. And they state, quote, "We are working with the National Center for
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Missing and Exploited Children and other missing persons databases to see if that's a possibility." A spokesperson
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for the Missoula Police Department told KPAX TV. They also added quote the thing is
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there are missing children all over the world and the thing in this case we don't know that this particular case is
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isolated to the city of Missoula. We don't know where the bones came from and if they were transported from one area
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to another and then ended up here. you have, like you said, similar ages and the fact that there's three boys.
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There's how many cases are like that, the percentage goes down a lot. The remains have been sent to the University
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of North Texas Center for Human Identification for DNA testing, which runs the National Missing and
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Unidentified Persons System. So, it took some time, as we stated, and I think it
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was about 6 months for answers to be found regarding the remains in Montana. Here are their findings. The teeth and
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bone fragments found inside a shed at a Missoula house in September are more than 99 years old. According to a report
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from a national forensic lab, Missoula County Chief Deputy Coroner Lieutenant Jace Dickin said the Center for Human
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Identification has concluded that the bone fragments and teeth are archaeological in nature and at least a
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century old. The report stated that they likely were buried somewhere else for some time before being unearthed. So,
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this is Don't Got him, right? Yeah. don't got him. And it makes me go back to what John's family says. They're 100%
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convinced that what he's saying that he gave the boys to somebody and then they're alive, they 100% believe. And
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his father even said, "When it's all said and done, we'll see who has the last laugh." Mhm. which is one a weird
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thing to say because your your grandkids are missing, but that's how sure he is of what his son is telling him, right?
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Well, and then think about this situation for a little bit. You know, Tanya is hearing about this. They found
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the remains of three children, right? She has three children that are missing. Mhm. And I actually I'm not certain that
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the the sex the gender of the remains was able to be determined at that time or if it ever was, right? But
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what are the percentages? You know, I mean, we talked about that when we covered the the body barrel case, right?
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Where you have multiple people that are missing and then multiple people that are found, their remains are found. What
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are the percentages? It can't be very high. It can't be very high. So then she's this poor woman sitting there
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wondering that's got to be the absolute hell of the parent of a missing child or
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missing children to hear this information and go it could be them. I don't know. Nobody knows for certain.
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Oh, and it's going to take because of science. It's nobody's fault. It's going to take months before they can give me
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an answer. It's going to take 6 months. 6 to 8 months I think was the original estimated time that they expected to
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Yeah. But if you don't find these and you don't have a test coming up, then you have no end date of possible answer,
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right? And that's your real hell is when you just don't know. I mean, there's so
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many parents that have their kids go missing and they'll say, "Look, we've kind of given up hope at this point, but
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we still want to know." So, they'll take the death, but tell us why and how it happened. They'll take that over not
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knowing anything. Well, and I remember when this story broke about the remains being found in Montana because we had
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many people that requested that we cover the Skeleton Brothers case before those
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remains were found. Right. And then when that happened, we were getting even more
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requests to cover the Skeleton Brothers case. And by the way, what a lot of people in the media were saying is it's
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got to be the boys. It's got to be the boys, right? I mean, that was the initial reaction by everyone that this
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is these three missing boys. And again, to their to their credit to to vouch for
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them, what is the percentages? It's it's got can't be very high at all. So, that's where you would go. But now that
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we know that it was not these boys, so where does that leave us, Captain? You know, theories leaves us in the garage.
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theories we're still here that we should explore, I think, is where it leaves us.
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Okay. Okay. But we're going to explore them in the garage. Yes. Okay. Not in Montana or in that weird shed where the
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remains were found. Okay. So, let's there there's multiple theories like smaller theories that will be inside of
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one of four big ones. Okay. The first big one is are the boys still alive? Now, there are multiple avenues you
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could take with this thought and theory, and a lot of them come from John's stories, and some of them come from
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speculation uh from Tanya and from her family and from the media, from armchair detectives and message boards. So, let's
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start with I want to start with an easy one, okay? Because some of these could be quite involved. The first one I want
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to point out under the under the title of are the boys still alive? Could they be in Florida? We know that John had
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ties to Florida. Now family there. Yeah. Yes. He has family there. He has friends
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there. The first obstacle you have with that being a correct theory is one we know of
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his cell phone movements. We know his cell phone didn't go down to Florida. So, this is similar to the idea of if
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the remains in Montana were the boys that this would require some help, right? That he delivered the boys to
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somebody or they were picked up at his home or some kind of location and then delivered to Florida. Now, this could
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mean that they were picked up by family members of his or he met family members of his somewhere
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or it could mean that he handed them off and they were transported to Florida. The major obstacle that I think you have
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with this theory and where I think you can easily take it off of the dry erase board here
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is I think that's too easy to trace for law enforcement. I think it's too easy to look into that and to determine if
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that's correct or not. Well, law enforcement and FBI have they've said, "We don't even know if this person that
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he claims he dropped him off to is real because there the lack of evidence that he had communications with somebody
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else. They have his phone records. They have his Google searches. They have his computer and there doesn't seem to be
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much uh contact with somebody else." Right? I do want to point out one thing here that I learned in a phone call last
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night. So last night I spoke with Lynn Thompson. He's the author of the only book that I know to be out there
00:16:28
regarding this case. And one thing he had said during our phone call was he said that it is his understanding that
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John's cell phone at the time that the boys went missing was relatively new to him. It was practically a brand new
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phone. Okay. Makes me wonder like were they what happened with the old phone? What happened with that data? What
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happened with that information? Were they able to track that? Were they able to comb through it? We know they were
00:16:58
able to check his computer, right? I feel like there's not a whole lot of weight to this Florida idea unless
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they're with someone that somehow the police can't can't check into it, can't easily make the leap from John to family
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to this person that has them. I think that's too easy to check out and too easy to check off the list.
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One thing that's interesting, and Tanya said this in an interview, so this is off of her speculation.
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She says, and this is kind of her wishful thinking, I believe, is what she says. Yeah. Is that maybe the boys are
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in the Bahamas? Why? Well, that seems like a leap, right? Yeah. You think? Okay. So,
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Michigan to the Bahamas. What she says is that John's father has a connection to the Bahamas. That he is that he goes
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down there. He travels down there once or twice or maybe a couple times a year. I don't know how often, but according to
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Tanya's words, he travels to the Bahamas and it's he's there to like service some
00:18:03
boats and things like that, right? And so her wishful thinking is that somehow John convinced his family that the abuse
00:18:13
that he claimed was real and that the family stepped in, got involved, helped John get the boys and take took
00:18:22
them to the Bahamas where they would be I mean the trail of breadcrumbs from Morreny, Michigan to the Bahamas, right,
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is got to be but we don't know what the whereabouts are for the family, his family
00:18:38
in Florida, right? They're in Jacksonville, Florida. No, I mean, but we don't know like on that Thursday, did
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he call up his dad and say, "Hey, meet me here." Yeah, that's an interesting thought there. You you have to believe
00:18:52
that they've that they were tracking or at least attempting to question the the parents, John's parents, right? Figure
00:18:59
out where they were. Can Do you have anybody that can vouch for you? Do you have an alibi for this time frame?
00:19:04
Right. But you know what's weird too is there was at least one instance where Tanya says that
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John's parents came to the area where they live where Tanya and John lived visited friends and didn't even really
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like they were there visiting and home and gone back home without even telling Tanya and John. So,
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it's not crazy to think that they couldn't have moved into the area without Tanya knowing, especially once
00:19:36
they were separated, living in different residents, right? But that kind of thing
00:19:42
also makes me question, well, how tight really are John or were John and his parents? Yeah, cuz they Well, they live
00:19:50
so far apart, too. Mhm. Now, here's here's where things get a little more difficult.
00:19:58
So we have some kind of connection to that the boys are alive but could be in Michigan, Ohio or Indiana. Now this is
00:20:07
pieced together from different stories that John has told that they could be with a foster family in one of those
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areas. Maybe Amish Menite or Reorganized Mormons, right? Those are the the groups
00:20:23
that he he suggests or that he lists for us regarding this. He does give some other names. So we have the name of
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Joanne Taylor. But at one point he gives the name of four people. We have Joanne
00:20:36
Taylor, we have somebody named Virgil, someone named Sue and someone named Elijah.
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These are people that he say works for this. You know, works for this is is the wrong
00:20:49
phrase, right? but is involved in this underground foster care system that the boys were being abused and he entrusted
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these four people to assist him to get the kids to safety where they could go out and live and grow and become adults
00:21:06
and then go off on their own. He he we talked about all the cryptic messages. There's another quote that he has and I
00:21:14
think he's repeated this a few times. Okay, it's they and this is in reference to
00:21:20
the three boys. They will hibernate until they graduate. They will hibernate until they graduate, right? But that's
00:21:28
it's like if his parents did help him out in some way or somebody else helped him out, then you have to think that
00:21:37
that individual then also questioned the boys about what was going on. Mhm. And you have to think that whoever talked to
00:21:46
them that these allegations of sexual abuse or abuse would would be real or at least they believe them at least,
00:21:55
right? Yeah. And then that and then you wouldn't be coming forward to the authorities cuz look what they did to
00:22:02
John. John said, "Hey, I gave him to somebody and they arrested him." Mhm. Yeah. And you hope and you you you just
00:22:10
have to pray that there's not somebody out there sitting somewhere that assisted John Skelton only to later
00:22:18
believe that the abuse was not real and then refuses to come forward because they're afraid of being imprisoned right
00:22:25
for that action right I I mean if I could talk to that person I would I would beg them beg them please just come
00:22:32
forward tell us what happened or produce the boys and well the boys They're so big now that it's like they could be
00:22:39
getting on the internet. They could be reaching out for somebody eventually. Yeah. I mean, the oldest boy was nine at
00:22:46
the time of the disappearance in 2010. And they're I don't have their birth dates right in front of me, but they're
00:22:53
all towards the end of the year, the later part of the year. So, they all would have had birthdays at the end of
00:23:01
last year in 2018, right? So yeah, one of them, the oldest boy would be 17 years old going on 18. I
00:23:11
do think if they're with the Amish, because they had some reporters actually go talk to the Amish about this that
00:23:17
anything like in Ohio or Michigan that those Amish communities would have known that these boys were missing and they
00:23:24
would have probably contacted police. Did you listen to the um Shattered podcast? No, I didn't have a chance to.
00:23:33
Well, you know what was interesting? So, so for those that don't know, it's Shattered Podcast. It's created by a
00:23:41
group of people that work for Channel 4 News up in the Michigan area, right? And
00:23:47
they've taken on a few different Michigan cases. This is one of the cases that they looked into.
00:23:54
And one of the most interesting portions of their coverage of this case that I thought was what you just referenced
00:24:02
there about people going out and interviewing Amish people and and finding out one, were you aware of the
00:24:09
disappearance of these three boys? And two, what is your opinion? Would would an Amish person help in
00:24:18
regards to the situation, right? You know, help foster these boys. And I found it fascinating. They
00:24:25
interviewed just two two families I believe it was. But both of them had the same answer and was yes, we would help
00:24:33
if we thought that these boys needed help. We would take care of them. We would feed them. We would keep them
00:24:38
warm. But during that whole process, we would notify the police and say, "Hey, I
00:24:44
got these three kids that somebody dropped off today." Right. Which you should do, right? Right. Everybody
00:24:49
should do. And I it's not that I question that they wouldn't, but it was interesting to hear these uh reporters
00:24:56
and and people go out of their way to confirm, you know, would this be something that that Amish people or
00:25:04
people from any other walk of life would do, right? The other thing here regarding this though where there could
00:25:11
be some weight to this theory and to this this version of John's stories is if they are in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana
00:25:22
where I mean those states all touch each other. They're all very close, right? So
00:25:27
we know that John's cell phone went to Holiday City, Ohio. And in regards to the Amish Menanites reorganized Mormons,
00:25:36
Ohio does have a large Amish population as does Indiana. Well, at some point, I think that's what John starts claiming
00:25:43
is the group that they're with uh lives on the border of Ohio and Indiana, which
00:25:50
I actually lived on the border. Like I was in Indiana, but half a mile away was the Ohio border. Mhm. And a lot of that
00:25:59
is just acres upon acres of farmland. Well, and you know, Holiday City is north west of Columbus. We're right in
00:26:09
the middle of Ohio, right? So, northwest that's definitely going to put you closer to that Indiana State state line,
00:26:17
right? And just because he went to Holiday City doesn't mean that that's where they have to be. Somebody could
00:26:22
have picked them up and he could have met somebody halfway or or a part of the way there. The other thing too that's
00:26:28
that's interesting is if in fact they are handed off with the idea of them going into foster care because they were
00:26:36
in danger is sometimes these groups and when I say these groups I'm just kind of air quotes here referencing an
00:26:46
unknown group here that we're talking about. You got to believe that they have certain security measures involved that
00:26:55
they don't may not disclose everything to anyone involved on the surface so that they can keep the kids safe so that
00:27:04
they don't end up getting in trouble themselves. One, and two, losing the children to where they're returned to a
00:27:11
bad situation. Yeah. Cuz if I give John a fake name, then you can never track me
00:27:16
down. The other thing too that goes along the same lines is that John told investigators he gave the boys to a
00:27:23
group called and we have two names here. One is United Foster Outreach and Underground Sanctuaries
00:27:32
as everything that I could find public statements by law enforcement. No such group was found to exist.
00:27:42
[Music] [Music] [Music] All right, we're back. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. All
00:28:08
right. So, continuing on the idea of these different theories. Okay. So, second on the list, we have the boys
00:28:16
were handed off to someone as John said, but possibly he was duped. Now, this comes from this comes from an interview
00:28:26
that he did do where he does say, you know, I've not heard from these people. I've not talked to these people. I
00:28:32
handed them off to them and who knows, maybe I was duped. So, this would be the idea. There's a few different ideas
00:28:40
involved in this one. One, could they still be alive yet they were given to bad people for nefarious
00:28:49
reasons, right? Unbeknownst to John, or could they be no longer with us, handed off to bad people?
00:28:58
Or do one thing we've not discussed too, you know, we discussed the the percentages of what would it be that
00:29:06
there are three missing kids that are under the age of 10 and then three remains of children found that are
00:29:13
believed to be under 10. What's the chances of that? But what we didn't discuss is could the kids be separated?
00:29:21
Could they be alive and they've been separated? Well, if if they're bad people, yeah, because you can control
00:29:28
people better if you you know, you separate and then conquer. Or if they're if they're good people, are they
00:29:35
separated because they're less chance of detection? Less they're not as easy to be identified, right? Yeah. But again, I
00:29:45
think the duping part, okay, so if we believe John and we go, okay, well, this girl that he met randomly because her
00:29:53
car broke down and then they stayed in contact that this person Joanne Taylor just so happened to be, which that's not
00:30:02
her real name, but just so happened to be a person that was connected with child
00:30:10
pedophilia rings. And he said, "My kids are being molested." And she said, "I'll
00:30:17
take them." And then he gives them to her and then she sends them off to other pedophiles. Mhm. Like that seems so
00:30:25
far-fetched. Like you'd have to believe all the stuff that he said. Oh. Oh, of course. Yeah. I
00:30:33
mean, that's part of that theory is that he actually did hand them off and then unbeknownst to him, the people he gave
00:30:38
them to were actually bad people. Yeah. But I don't know. It's It's like if they're good people and
00:30:46
they're afraid of getting in trouble, it's like you could go to a heav he heavily populated area like McDonald's
00:30:52
or something and just go kids go in there and then tell them that you're missing and then they'll call
00:30:59
authorities and within a day we'll figure, you know, would figure out who they were. Mhm. Like there's so many
00:31:04
things if they went to good people how they could get back, right? If they went to bad people and they were duped, it
00:31:11
just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But if if it did happen, they're dead and we'll never find them. So,
00:31:18
right. I mean, well, and it goes back to what you said earlier where where is the
00:31:25
trace? Where is the breadcrumb trail between John and whoever he handed these people off to?
00:31:31
He says he maintained some kind of relationship with this Jo-Anne Taylor after they met on the side of the road
00:31:37
somewhere when he helped her when her car broke down. They maintained a relationship through
00:31:44
the internet. Where's the trace of that? Where's the, you know, they checked his
00:31:47
computer. He doesn't have her phone number, right? His phone doesn't reg, you know, he's not text her on his
00:31:53
phone. She's not text him. They've had no communication via phone, just the internet. But we can't find anybody that
00:32:00
Yeah. Was there a app like WhatsApp app or whatever where they can text through it? Well, and I think his response to
00:32:07
that was something to the effect of, well, maybe maybe this group is just really good at what they do. That that
00:32:14
they're the ones that they're the ones that clean this they cleaned it all up. They cleaned it all up and there's no
00:32:20
trace of them because they're like ghost. They're like phantoms. I didn't I didn't break anything in the house. They
00:32:26
broke it. That's what happened. They I was asleep. They must have went into the house and took my cell phone
00:32:33
and then drove down to Ohio. Mhm. He has a story. He has a He has an explanation
00:32:40
for everything. And look, if we had My Way, we'd have that game show called the Psychotic Clown
00:32:49
Interrogators, right? Mhm. And we would be we'd have a bunch of psychotic clowns
00:32:54
in a room with John right now getting answers. It's just, you know, well, that's
00:33:03
interesting, too, because you have a couple of different thoughts that I that I go to when I think of that. One, you
00:33:09
know, in the statement that he has an answer for everything. That's a very fair statement. He comes up with a nice
00:33:15
story for everything that you throw at him, right? And sometimes what's the most damn frustrating thing out there is
00:33:23
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 can't
00:33:29
remember another time where we have someone that's just like, "Nope, sorry. Can't tell you that." Yeah. And he's
00:33:35
cool with that. And and law it's Can you imagine how frustrated law enforcement has to be when they cuz they go back and
00:33:42
they talk to this guy. It's not like they don't know where he is. They go back and talk to him periodically.
00:33:47
What's going on, John? Tell us what really happened, John. And sometimes he gives him a story and other times he
00:33:52
goes, "Can't tell you that." Well, I tell him, John, every time you tell me you can't tell me something, go and
00:33:59
break one of your ribs. That's what I'd tell him. Well, you've been watching too
00:34:02
much True Detective because it can't do that. But the thing the thing where I go
00:34:07
with that is with him having an answer for everything is one, he's got no he's got nothing else going on. He's got
00:34:13
plenty of time to sit around and dream up answers for everything. Right. Right. The other thing though, it is a bit of a
00:34:20
police tactic. Not so much them because I mean it's the courts. It's technically
00:34:25
the court system that put John in prison 10 to 15 years. But what the state of Michigan police are hoping that someday
00:34:36
he's finally going to wake up and realize where he is, where he's been living for the last
00:34:43
seven, eight years, right, in prison. And he's going to realize that he has nobody. He has nothing else. and he has
00:34:50
nothing left to to do but to tell the truth. That is their hope. That is their hope. Yeah. And you know what I I wonder
00:34:58
about too regarding I think that's all of our hopes. Yes. And and I wonder regarding his prison sentence, I've
00:35:05
heard, you know, it's it's all it's always reported 10 to 15 years. I have read some speculation that
00:35:15
that they're awfully darn certain that he's going to serve the full 15 years. Mhm. But if we are in fact talking about
00:35:23
murder, if we are in fact talking about the worst possible thing we can come up with regarding this case, it's a triple
00:35:29
homicide of children. And that's a really light sentence. And it's nobody's fault. It's nobody's fault
00:35:37
for that light sentence. There's nothing really they can do unless there's evidence. But what's interesting to me
00:35:43
is can they I I would love for once in a while we get lawyers, prosecutors, judges, people that know the system
00:35:52
better than we do reach out to us. Yeah, I would love to. And if you go on the blog, you don't have to leave your real
00:35:59
name. Please do not leave Joanne Taylor. You will be banned. Um unless you are Joanne Taylor. But so how are we going
00:36:08
to know? Well, the thing is I would love to know if because of the charges, because of what he was sentenced to uh
00:36:16
or sent to prison for Uhhuh. can they charge him with something? And I know there's no statute of limitations for
00:36:23
murder. So obviously if there's proof, if they find additional evidence that that the kids were killed and they
00:36:30
believe he did it, of course they can charge him with murder. But let's say they never find anything. Is
00:36:38
there something else they can charge him with at a later time at at the end once
00:36:44
that 10 or 15 years expires? Can you charge him with kidnapping? Can you charge, you know, cuz he's charged right
00:36:50
now with unlawful imprisonment, I believe, is the exact term. Yeah. So, I'm curious. Can you go to jail for
00:36:57
being a douchebag? Is that possible? No, but there are prisons full of douchebags. Oh, yeah.
00:37:03
Uh, weird conundrum. So, that would be interesting to know if there's something left in the in the old knapsack. If
00:37:11
there's something left that they can charge him with once that 10, 15 years expires. Because again, that's what law
00:37:17
enforcement is hoping for, that he's going to wake up one day, realize he has nothing, nobody else, nothing left but
00:37:23
the truth, and he's going to feel compelled to finally deliver that to everyone. The other thing too with him
00:37:31
publicly stating, and I say publicly, it's just an interview, but with John saying, "Hey, I gave them away to this
00:37:38
underground foster care uh organization, maybe I was duped." Uhhuh. Is that him already setting up a defense for if he
00:37:47
did in fact kill them, hide the remains, and they were to be found? Now he can go, "That wasn't me. I didn't I wasn't
00:37:55
the one to see them last. I left them in the care of these people that I've been
00:37:59
telling you about for the last nine years, right? You know, so I mean, a real piece of [ __ ] either way.
00:38:06
I mean, it's like, look, even if you're to believe him and there was abuse happening and that you wanted to
00:38:16
protect your children, there's other ways about doing that. And you could have went to a judge. You could have
00:38:24
went to whoever and it's just, you know, but and you can't tell me that, oh well, he he tried to give them
00:38:36
to somebody else because he he was going to commit suicide, so he wanted to make
00:38:39
sure that they were protected. Mhm. It's like, no, this none of this really lines
00:38:45
up. None of this makes a lot of sense. And chances are, if he was going to kill himself, if he was suicidal, he's
00:38:51
probably also homicidal. And and it was almost like, oh well, if you're not going to be with me, then
00:38:59
you're not going to get my children either. And but for some reason, he's not man enough
00:39:06
to state what he did. Uhhuh. And he's not man enough to to have closure for everybody else and and
00:39:16
to accept uh the punishment for the crime he committed. The next thing on my list for possible
00:39:24
theories, and this is a very obvious one, one that we've all been hoping against since we first started
00:39:34
covering this story, but it's it's so obvious. It's what everybody is thinking. Did are the boys no longer
00:39:41
with us? Did John do something with the remains that he knows where in fact they
00:39:47
are? He knows exactly what he did with them and he's just refusing to to be cooperative because it punishes his
00:39:56
ex-wife and because it punishes the system because he thinks he's smarter than everybody else. I mean, there's
00:40:03
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,
00:40:14
what we do have is the cell phone pings. And yes, we do have um you know, a as John has a blackout
00:40:23
period, we have a blackout period as far as where John's whereabouts are. Mhm. But we can at least start breaking down
00:40:35
how how much area we'd have to search right within that time frame because we do know that he went back to his house.
00:40:44
So, I think if we focus more on that and we really started focusing and they they've claimed that they've, you know,
00:40:51
every barn that they could find that they that they uh they searched through and all all this stuff and and yes, it's
00:40:59
been seven years, but it's like I think they could do that. That's your key. If you could double down on those searches
00:41:07
and that area, I think that's the key to getting answers to this case. Well, and
00:41:13
that's what today's author of this week's recommended reading suggests in his book is that look at the area that
00:41:24
we know his phone to have been, right, for that 76 minutes is what Lynn calls it.
00:41:32
And Lynn has actually been heavily involved in the search efforts and also involved in trying to really
00:41:43
narrow that down to a specific location. And he's saying, you know, I'm going to
00:41:48
keep working on this. I'm hoping that I can narrow it down to about I think he said 200 acres, which is still a lot of
00:41:57
land. It's not that bad. It's not that bad considering I mean you've done the Google map fly over of this area of
00:42:04
Holiday City. It's they need to take the word city out of Holiday City. It's not
00:42:11
a city. It's a tiny little tiny little thing that you just pass through and you don't even know that you pass through
00:42:17
it. It's no no need to talk [ __ ] about Holiday City. Um, no. I I mean they're not there to blame anything, but what
00:42:24
I'm trying to to point out to everybody listening is that this small little, if it is even a one, you know, two traffic
00:42:35
light town, it's surrounded by a lot of open area, right? A lot of rural area. And so Lynn Thompson is and and to to
00:42:46
give credit where credit's due to the people that volunteered to search for these boys, be it in Michigan, be it in
00:42:53
Ohio. Yeah. The search effort, according to Lynn, was not fake. It wasn't just something that sounded good for the
00:43:01
papers. It was real. It was the real deal. And it was massive. It was massive. And they looked hard and long
00:43:08
for these these three boys. The fourth thing that I have on my list is kind of the most
00:43:17
kind of out of the box one of of all the possible theories, I think. Uhhuh. But we kind of touched upon this a
00:43:26
little bit earlier. What if John had a complete break with reality, right? What if what if he handed off the
00:43:38
kids to somebody? What if he did something terrible and they're no longer with us, but he doesn't know? Yeah. He
00:43:46
doesn't know because he he had a straightup break with reality. Mhm. Is that the Is that the the the black hole,
00:43:54
the big empty space that he referenced and that he offers up these tales or he's sticking somewhat to his
00:44:04
original story that he told his ex-wife in the beginning that he told investigators in the beginning and he
00:44:11
truly just doesn't know what happened. If he truly doesn't know, then maybe bring in like a some hypnotherapy or
00:44:19
something like that. Like at least offer that up as an option to try to figure out what happened, right? But I
00:44:28
think if you're not doing things like that, then really you're you're hindering the investigation. You're
00:44:33
hindering the possibility of finding out what happened. Though the thing here is, and this is
00:44:40
why I question this too, because of what he told his pastor, Donna Galloway, it seems like that could be a
00:44:48
possibility. If there's anyone that you're finally going to be honest with, it would be her for John, right? Maybe.
00:44:55
But the but the problem here is I feel like that's not what John's parents are saying. I almost feel like it I mean if
00:45:04
I were sitting in prison for any number of you know any reason at all and I have
00:45:09
my parents coming to me I have my pastor coming to me I have people coming to me
00:45:12
and going Nick what happened what the hell happened if I didn't know I'd straight up tell at least those people
00:45:19
tell my parents you know I I don't know right I might deserve to be here but I don't know what happened and what we
00:45:27
have his parents saying on record saying is that they believe part of their son's
00:45:33
story, at least part of it, that there could have been some abuse, that they that the boys are alive and that
00:45:42
that John gave them to somebody. Yeah. Yeah. So, I that makes me question this uh if he if he does not know, I almost
00:45:52
feel like by this time with the amount of time that has passed that we would probably have that or some form of that
00:45:59
statement from him. Yeah, it seems like the more you dive into this, the more questions that come out. And one of my
00:46:05
initial questions that we never really discussed is are we for sure that these three boys are his?
00:46:15
You know, that's the claim from the the mother and then obviously the father. But I I mean there I just get a sense
00:46:23
when I look at these three boys that these three boys are half siblings. That's that's the sense I get. And has
00:46:31
anybody looked into that angle? Well, it's an interesting thought to ponder. Um, when I look at the pictures
00:46:40
of the three boys, and there's there's plenty of them available, plenty of these pictures available on the
00:46:47
internet, so anybody can look them up and and I'm sure we'll put a couple on our website as well in hopes that
00:46:53
somebody might recognize them, be able to provide some kind of information. The two of the boys look very much like John
00:47:03
to me. This is just my own opinion. And one of the boys looks very much like like their mother, like Tanya. Yeah. Um
00:47:12
I again I think it's it is an interesting question to ponder. I don't know what that really means for the
00:47:19
state of our case because where my thoughts lie. And look, man, the the whole time I was researching this case,
00:47:29
the whole time I was looking into this, and I'm sure you felt the same way as I did, I wanted I wanted to I actually
00:47:36
started off hopeful. I started off hopeful and I for the first day or so, I was sitting there going, you know what?
00:47:45
It's probably an unpopular side to be on. It's definitely against my better judgment,
00:47:54
but for about 24 hours, the first 24 hours of looking into this thing, I'm like, I feel I think they're alive. My
00:48:01
brain tells me that that's probably not the case, but my gut, my heart was telling me these boys are alive, that he
00:48:08
did hand them off to somebody. I'm not I try not to do that anymore. And I try when we go into these cases, I'm a blank
00:48:15
slate and whatever I read and whatever rabbit holes it takes me down, I try not to ponder too far into it. I like I like
00:48:24
for it just to tell me what I'm supposed to know. What whatever that may be, if that makes any sense.
00:48:32
Makes a lot of sense. The thing that that I can't get over, and this is why I'm not as hopeful as when I started
00:48:40
off, is giving them away does not make a lot of sense. And what I mean by that is I understand
00:48:51
his side of his story is look, they were being abused. I did this in their best interest. I get that, John. The problem
00:49:00
is you're so out of control with what then happens or could happen to them once you hand them off, right? It just
00:49:10
doesn't it just doesn't ring true to me. It It's It seems like It seems like almost you would rather there there are
00:49:19
things you could have done before going to these great lengths. There are people
00:49:25
you could have spoke to and maybe he's totally off the rails. I don't know. And maybe this is all he could come up with.
00:49:32
It doesn't seem right to me, though. There could there was people you could have talked to. And at the very least,
00:49:38
if you run out of ideas, you go, you know what? I'm keeping the kids and I if if you send anybody to take them from
00:49:46
me, I'm going to tell them what's going on, and I'm going to let I'm going to let the law I'm going to let the law
00:49:51
look into it, right? And I'm going to let them figure it out. Because those are serious accusations. Yes. Yeah.
00:49:57
Yeah. And and let's be clear, I I do think there's there is a leap that you have to make from having a
00:50:07
relationship with a 14-year-old boy, which let's not get that twisted, that's child molestation, but then to molest
00:50:14
your own child, I think there would have to be a leap that you'd have to make on
00:50:19
some level. Yeah. And the only one that seems to be claiming that there was any kind of abuse is John. And you do have
00:50:27
some people siding with him after the fact, after this all goes down, right? But there doesn't seem to be any anybody
00:50:36
else alleging that other than him. And I do want to point out, we should point out um Tanya who I mean the nightmare
00:50:46
that she's had to face of this guy that she marries, right? I don't even feel great calling him their father, you
00:50:55
know? he no matter what the outcome at the end of the day he's responsible for why she
00:51:02
doesn't have her children and the thing here is she has two older daughters and they are very close with their
00:51:13
mother with Tanya and I think that that's probably the only thing that's kept her whole kept her together at this
00:51:21
point I can't imagine going through what she has had to go through. And I think law enforcement stated
00:51:28
that they're not as hopeful as they once were, but they are very confident that they're going to have answers to this
00:51:36
case very soon. Well, and to remind everyone, we do have three missing boys. They are still missing to this day. When
00:51:44
they went missing, Andrew was age nine, Alexander age seven, and Tanner age five. They're still missing. The family
00:51:50
is seeking help in searching for them. They are encouraging people to be aware of children and to watch for these three
00:51:58
boys. The police would like to remind everyone that it is a good possibility that the boys may not be together, so be
00:52:07
looking for individual faces as well. All three boys are Caucasian. The two older boys, Andrew and Alexander, both
00:52:16
have brown hair, brown eyes. The little boy, Tanner, has blonde hair and blue eyes. I do want to point out in some of
00:52:23
the pictures of Alexander, the middle child, he is wearing glasses, so he may require them. There is a large reward
00:52:32
for good information in this case, and police need your help, and they need tips. If you have any information at
00:52:40
all, please contact Morreny Police at 517-4587104 or call 1800 the lost. [Music]
00:52:59
Do we happen to have any recommended reading for this week? Actually, we do. And it actually came out just a few
00:53:06
weeks ago. It's a really good book. It's the only book that I could find on this
00:53:11
particular case on the Skelton Brothers case. It's called 76 Minutes, My Search for Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton
00:53:20
by author and new friend of the show, Lynn Thompson. Check that out. You don't have to write down that title right now.
00:53:26
You can go to true crimegar.com, click on the recommended page, and we have lots of books, including 76 Minutes by
00:53:34
Lynn Thompson listed right there for you to check out. Make sure you check out our weekly bonus show, Off the Record,
00:53:40
that's on Stitcher Premium, $5 a month. That gets you our show plus every show on Stitcher Premium. So, it's a great
00:53:48
deal. It's like the Netflix for podcasting. And make sure you check out our old episodes on the Stitcher app.
00:53:55
You just download it and they are for free. That's right. Well, thanks everybody for joining us here in the
00:54:00
garage today and this week. We will see you again next week. Until then, please be good, be kind, and don't litter.
00:54:08
[Music]