00:00:00
when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
00:00:06
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
00:00:13
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
00:00:22
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details dreaming of
00:00:31
overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've
00:00:38
tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are game changers dive into
00:00:44
25 Languages by learning intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime
00:00:52
membership now and save 50% gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save 50%
00:01:06
[Music] [Applause] % [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:45
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 one
00:01:53
like Chris Alia says I'm just like Brian Callen I got a sweet tart tarten ass it's good to be seen and it's good to
00:02:00
see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling a [Music] friend today we are very happy to be
00:02:11
drinking hop Solution by one of the best Bell's Brewery up in Michigan garage grade four out of five bottle caps your
00:02:19
round availability for this great beer only includes Michigan Ohio Indiana Illinois Wisconsin and beginning in
00:02:26
April Minnesota ABV a very Del delicious 8% and we are sipping beers today thanks
00:02:33
to these guys and gals right here cheers to Mara in Chicago and a big shout out to Michael and safy in Atlanta Georgia
00:02:41
here's one from the [ __ ] air traffic controller in Memphis their words not mine and in the oh we have Doug and Anna
00:02:49
in Delaware Ohio next up we have sisters Jessica and Megan Megan is in Durham great City Durham North Carolina and
00:02:56
also in North Carolina in Harrisburg we have Ryan Duke is going to win the NCAA tournament
00:03:02
this year by the way bet the farm thanks everybody for going to True Crim garage.com and donating for this week's
00:03:09
beer fun and make sure when you're at the website true Crim garage.com you sign up on our mailing list and uh leave
00:03:15
a little love for us on the blog and that is enough of the business all right cheers to you Captain cheers to
00:03:21
everybody out there gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
00:03:29
[Music] [Music] on yesterday's show Captain we started off by going through the timeline of
00:03:48
events of late 2010 regarding the missing three boys regarding the missing three Skelton brothers where we left off
00:03:58
is talking about what's going on with John after this situation so we do know that John is locked up but during his
00:04:06
lock up he and T they do get a divorce and John gets charged in The Disappearance of his kids and gets
00:04:13
sentenced to 10 to 15 years for unlawful imprisonment of his children he goes to
00:04:20
prison for this February 1st 2011 police announced that the Skelton brothers missing person's case is now a
00:04:29
murder investigation the chief of police Larry weeks said quote he wanted to put an end
00:04:36
to false hope in November of 2013 the Morenci police turned the investigation over to the Michigan State
00:04:47
Police and then there was this on December 18th 2017 Michigan police are investigating
00:04:56
whether the partial remains of three children found in a shed of a rental home in Missoula Montana could belong to
00:05:05
the brothers missing for more than 7 years at this point the remains which included fragments of bones and teeth
00:05:13
could be those of the brothers Alexander Andrew and Tanner Skelton who went missing in Michigan in
00:05:19
2010 investigators set out to determine whether this discovery would finally solve the mystery a few things we need
00:05:28
to discuss regarding this Discovery one the experts believe the ages of the boys could be consistent
00:05:35
with the remains found police in Missoula found the remains in the shed of a rental home after cleaners reported
00:05:43
them to the police in September according to the missan that's a local newspaper right a spokesperson for
00:05:51
Missoula Police Department Sergeant Travis Welsh told the outlet there is no suspect but they did want want to
00:05:59
interview a specific person it was reported that a tenant was evicted from the home over that last summer when a
00:06:08
cleaning crew was brought in workers found a box containing teeth and bones according to the Associated Press an
00:06:15
anthropology professor at the University of Montana estimated that the ages of the remains of the children's remains
00:06:24
that were found were to be 2 to 4 years old 5 to 8 years old and 6 to 10 years old right meaning that if if John did
00:06:33
give them to somebody and they took him out to Montana that they killed them there MH or maybe that John killed them
00:06:39
and then gave them to somebody that took them out there to be buried or to be hidden or whatever but they would have
00:06:45
been dead roughly about the ages they went missing correct now the tricky thing though
00:06:53
however is there is no known link between the skeleton boys and anyone in Montana right right and as you were
00:07:01
pointing out you know we have to remember law enforcement tracked John skelton's phone they believe they know
00:07:07
his movements and his whereabouts during the time in question and this location it's like a 25-hour drive from Morenci
00:07:17
Michigan to Missoula Montana so for this for these remains to be the skeleton boys somebody else would have had to
00:07:24
have been involved right all right but this is pieced together from some articles so we'll get back to the
00:07:30
article here Michigan State Police investigators are working with Missoula police to determine if there is any
00:07:36
connection to Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton who were reported missing from morenzi the day after Thanksgiving
00:07:44
in 2010 the state police announced in a statement quote there has been nothing previously reported to the police
00:07:51
linking the brothers to Montana further forensic testing has been requested by police that may provide more answers
00:07:59
until this testing is completed an additional investigation by law enforcement in Montana occurs it cannot
00:08:06
be determined if these remains belong to the missing skeleton brothers and quote now when's this testing going to
00:08:13
be done though well this is going to be extensive it's going to take months for them to uh figure out if it is in fact
00:08:21
the three boys now Tanya zuers the boy's mother she took the Facebook after this remind you they are
00:08:30
divorced by this time Tanya goes to Facebook after police made the possible link public and ask for prayers for her
00:08:38
family saying quote this information has just been presented to our family within
00:08:43
the last several hours we are processing it and hopeful that we will have answers
00:08:49
soon we are thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers according to the newspaper articles Tanya has continued
00:08:56
to buy Christmas birthday and Easter gifts for her sons in in the hope that one day they would come home yeah it's
00:09:04
weird cuz you see some interviews where she's breaking down and crying a lot and
00:09:10
then I saw one interview that I thought was strange for a minute she talked about how her boys wouldn't want to see
00:09:15
her upset her boys wouldn't want to see her stop living life not progressing in life so she's been trying to do that I
00:09:24
thought that was very strange at first until you see the multiple interviews where she is is breaking down where she
00:09:30
can't control it so you know I I would assume that at some point when you break down that often you'd have to tell
00:09:36
yourself hey I got to do this maybe it's not for me maybe it's for my children well and police in that area are
00:09:45
announcing that they are trying to identify the remains but they're also trying to determine the causes of death
00:09:51
regarding those remains right and they State quote we are working with the national Center for missing and
00:09:57
exploited children and other missing persons databases to see if that's a possibility a spokesperson for the
00:10:04
Missoula Police Department told kpx TV they also added quote the thing is there are missing children all over
00:10:14
the world and the thing in this case we don't know that this particular case is isolated to the city of Missoula we
00:10:22
don't know where the bones came from and if they were transported from one area to another
00:10:29
and then ended up here you have like you said similar ages and the fact that there's three boys there's how many
00:10:37
cases are like that the percentage goes down a lot The Remains have been sent to
00:10:42
the University of North Texas Center for human identification for DNA testing which runs the national missing and
00:10:50
unidentified persons system so it took some time as we stated and I think it was about 6 months for answers to be
00:10:58
found regarding the remains in Montana here are their findings the teeth and Bone fragments found inside a shed at a
00:11:07
Missoula house in September are more than 99 years old according to a report from a national forensic lab Missoula
00:11:16
County chief deputy coroner Lieutenant Jace dickin said the center for human identification has concluded that the
00:11:24
bone fragments and teeth are archaeological in nature and at least a century old the report stated that they
00:11:32
likely were buried somewhere else for some time before being unearth so this is don't got him right yeah don't got
00:11:40
him and it makes me go back to what John's family says they're 100% convinced that what he's saying that he
00:11:49
gave the boys to somebody and then they're alive they 100% believe and his father even said when it's all said and
00:11:57
done we'll see who has the last laugh mhm which is one a weird thing to say cuz your your grandkids are missing but
00:12:08
that's how sure he is of what his son is telling him right well and then think about this situation for a little bit
00:12:16
you know T is hearing about this they found the remains of three children right she has three children that are
00:12:23
missing MH and I actually I'm not certain that the the sex gender of the remains was able to be determined at
00:12:32
that time or if it ever was right but what are the percentages you know I mean we talked about that when we
00:12:40
covered the the body Barrel case right where you have multiple people that are missing and the multiple people that are
00:12:46
found their remains are found what are the percentages it can't be very high it can't be very high so then she's this
00:12:53
poor woman sitting there wondering that's got to be the absolute hell of the parent of a missing child or missing
00:13:02
children to hear this information and go it could be them I don't know nobody knows for certain oh and it's going to
00:13:12
take because of science it's nobody's fault right it's going to take months before they can give me an answer it's
00:13:20
going to take six months six to eight months I think was the original estimated time that they expected to
00:13:26
yeah but if you don't find these and you don't have test coming up then you have
00:13:31
no end date of possible answer right and that's your real hell is when you just don't know I mean there's so many
00:13:39
parents that have their kids go missing and they'll say look we've kind of given
00:13:43
up hope at this point but we still want to know so they'll take the death but tell us why and how it happened they'll
00:13:51
take that over not knowing anything well and I remember when this story broke about the remains being found in Mont
00:13:59
because we had many people that requested that we cover the Skelton brothers case before those remains were
00:14:05
found right and then when that happened we were getting even more requests to cover the skeleton Brothers case and by
00:14:12
the way what a lot of people in the media were saying is it's got to be the boys it's got to be the boys right I
00:14:18
mean that was the initial reaction by everyone that this is these three missing boys and again to their to their
00:14:26
credit to to vouch for them what is the percentages it's it's got can't be very high at all so that's where you would go
00:14:34
but now that we know that it was not these boys so where does that leave us Captain you know theories leaves us in
00:14:41
the garage theories we're still here that we should explore I think is where it leaves us okay okay well but we're
00:14:49
going to explore them in the garage yes okay not in Montana or in that weird shed where the remains were found okay
00:14:57
so let's there there's multiple theories like smaller theories that will be inside of one of four big ones okay the
00:15:06
first big one is are the boys still alive MH now there are multiple Avenues you could take with
00:15:16
this thought and theory and a lot of them come from John's stories and some of them come from speculation uh from
00:15:25
Tanya and from her family and from the media from armchair detectives and message boards so let's start with I
00:15:33
want to start with an easy one okay because some of these could be quite involved the first one I want to point
00:15:40
out under the under the title of are the boys still alive could they be in Florida we know that John had ties to
00:15:49
Florida now family there yeah yes he has family there he has friends there the first obstacle you have with
00:15:57
that being a corre direct theory is one we know of his cell phone movements we know his cell phone didn't go down to
00:16:04
Florida so this is similar to the idea of if the remains in Montana were the boys that this would require some help
00:16:14
right that he delivered the boys to somebody or they were picked up at his home or some kind of location and then
00:16:21
delivered to Florida now this could mean that they were picked up by family members of his or he met family members
00:16:27
of his somewhere or it could mean that he handed them off and they were transported to
00:16:34
Florida the major obstacle that I think you have with this Theory and where I think you can easily take it off of the
00:16:42
dry aase board here is I think that's too easy to trace for law enforcement I think it's too
00:16:51
easy to look into that and to determine if that's correct or not well law enforcement and FBI have they've said we
00:16:58
don't even know if this person that he claims he dropped him off to is real because the the lack of evidence that he
00:17:05
had Communications with somebody else they have his phone records they have his Google searches they have his
00:17:12
computer and there doesn't seem to be much uh contact with somebody else right I do want to point out one thing here
00:17:20
that I learned in a phone call last night so last night I spoke with Lynn Thompson he's the author of the only
00:17:27
book that know to be out there regarding this case and one thing he had said during our phone call was he said that
00:17:35
it is his understanding that Jon's cell phone at the time that the boys went missing was relatively new to him it was
00:17:45
practically a brand new phone okay makes me wonder like were they what happened with the old phone what happened with
00:17:53
that data what happened with that information were they able to track that were they able to comb through it we
00:17:59
know they were able to check his computer right I feel like there's not a whole lot of weight to this Florida idea
00:18:05
unless they're with someone that somehow the police can't can't check into it can't easily make the leap from Jon to
00:18:12
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
00:18:20
that's interesting and Tanya said this in an interview so this is off of her speculation she said
00:18:29
and this is kind of her wishful thinking I believe is what she says yeah is that
00:18:33
maybe the boys are in the Bahamas why well that seems like a leap right yeah you think okay so Michigan to
00:18:42
the Bahamas what she says is that John's father has a connection to the Bahamas that he is that he goes down
00:18:53
there he travels down there once or twice or maybe a couple times a year I don't know how often but according to
00:18:58
Tanya's words he travels to the Bahamas and it's he's there to like service some
00:19:04
boats and things like that right and so her wishful thinking is that somehow John convinced his family that the abuse
00:19:14
that he claimed was real and that the family stepped in got involved helped John get the boys and
00:19:23
take took them to the Bahamas where they would be I mean the trail breadcrumbs from Morenci Michigan to the Bahamas
00:19:31
right is got to be but we don't know what the whereabouts are for the family his
00:19:38
family in Florida right they're in Jacksonville Florida no I mean but we don't know like on that Thursday did he
00:19:45
call up his dad and say hey meet me here yeah that's an interesting thought there
00:19:51
you you have to believe that they've that they were tracking or at least attempting to question the the parents
00:19:59
John's parents right figure out where they were can do you have anybody that can vouch for you do you have an alibi
00:20:04
for this time frame right but you know what's weird too is there was at least one instance where Tanya says that
00:20:15
John's parents came to the area where they live where T and John lived visited friends and didn't even really like they
00:20:23
were there visiting and home and gone back home without even telling Tanya and John so it's not crazy to think that
00:20:34
they couldn't have moved into the area without T knowing especially once they were separated living in different
00:20:40
residents right but that kind of thing also makes me question well how tight really are Jon or were Jon and his
00:20:50
parents yeah cuz they well they live so far apart too MH now here's here's where
00:20:56
things get a little more difficult so we have some kind of connection to that the boys are alive but could be in
00:21:06
Michigan Ohio or Indiana now this is pieced together from different stories that John has
00:21:12
told that they could be with a foster family in one of those areas maybe Amish minite or reorganized Mormons right
00:21:22
those are the the groups that he He suggests or that he lists for us regarding this he does give some other
00:21:30
names so we have the name of Joanne Taylor but at one point he gives the name of four people we have Joanne
00:21:37
Taylor we have somebody named Virgil someone named Sue and someone named Elijah these are people that he say
00:21:45
works for this you know works for this is is the wrong phrase right but is involved in this underground foster care
00:21:54
system that the boys were being abused and he and entrusted these four people to assist him to get the kids to safety
00:22:03
where they could go out and live and grow and become adults and then go off on their own he he we talked about all
00:22:11
the cryptic messages there's another quote that he has and I think he's repeated this a few times
00:22:18
okay it's they and this is in reference to the three boys they will hibernate until they graduate they will hibernate
00:22:26
until they graduate right but that's it's like if his parents did help him out in some way or somebody
00:22:35
else helped him out then you have to think that that individual then also questioned the boys about what was going
00:22:43
on MH and you have to think that whoever talked to them that these allegations of
00:22:50
sexual abuse or abuse would would be real or at least they believe them to right yeah and then that what then you
00:22:59
wouldn't be coming forward to the authorities cuz look what they did to John John said hey I gave him to
00:23:05
somebody and they arrested him mhm yeah and you hope and you you you just have to pray that there's not
00:23:13
somebody out there sitting somewhere that assisted John Skelton only to later believe that the
00:23:20
abuse was not real and then refuses to come forward because they're afraid of being imprisoned right for that action
00:23:27
right I I mean if I could talk to that person I would I would beg them beg them please just come forward tell us what
00:23:34
happened or produce the boys and well the boys are so big now that it's like they could be getting on the Internet
00:23:42
they could be reaching out for somebody eventually yeah I mean the oldest boy was nine at the time of The
00:23:48
Disappearance in 2010 and there right I don't have their birth dates right in front of me but
00:23:54
they're all towards the end of the year the later part of the year so they all would have had birthdays at the end of
00:24:03
last year in 2018 right so yeah one of them the oldest boy would be 17 years old going
00:24:11
on 18 I do think if they're with the Amish because they had some reporters actually go talk to the Amish about this
00:24:18
that anything like in Ohio or Michigan that those Amish communities would have known that these boys were missing M and
00:24:25
they would have probably contacted police did you listen to the um shattered podcast no I didn't have a chance to
00:24:34
well you know what was interesting so so for those that don't know it's shattered
00:24:39
podcast it's created by a group of people that work for Channel 4 News up in the Michigan area right and they've
00:24:49
taken on a few different Michigan cases this is one of the cases that they looked
00:24:54
into and one of the most interesting portions of their coverage of this case that I thought was what you just
00:25:03
referenced there about people going out and interviewing Amish people and and finding out one were you aware of The
00:25:10
Disappearance of these three boys and two what is your opinion would would an Amish person help
00:25:19
in regards to the situation right you know help Foster these boys and I found it fascinating they
00:25:26
interviewed just two two families I believe it was but both of them had the same answer and was yes we would help if
00:25:34
we thought that these boys needed help we would take care of them we would feed them we would keep them warm but during
00:25:40
that whole process we would notify the police and say hey I got these three kids that somebody dropped off to me
00:25:48
which you should do right right everybody should do and I it's not that I question that they wouldn't but it was
00:25:55
interesting to hear these uh reporter ERS and and people go out of their way to confirm you know would this be
00:26:03
something that that Amish people or people from any other Walk of Life Would Do Right the other thing here regarding
00:26:11
this though where there could be some weight to this Theory and to this this version of John's
00:26:19
stories is if they are in Michigan Ohio Indiana where I mean those States all touch each other they're all very close
00:26:27
right MH so we know that John cell phone went to Holiday City Ohio and in regards
00:26:33
to the Amish minits reorganized Mormons Ohio does have a large Amish population as does Indiana well at some point I
00:26:43
think that's what John starts claiming is the group that they're with uh lives on the border of Ohio and Indiana which
00:26:52
I actually lived on the border like I was in Indiana but half a mile away was the Ohio border and a lot of that is
00:27:00
just Acres upon Acres of Farmland well and you know Holiday City is Northwest of Columbus we're right in
00:27:10
the middle of Ohio right so Northwest that's definitely going to put you closer to that Indiana state state line
00:27:18
right and just because he went to Holiday City doesn't mean that that's where they have to be somebody could
00:27:24
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
00:27:30
that's interesting is if in fact they are handed off with the idea of them going into foster care because they were
00:27:37
in danger is sometimes these groups and when I say these groups I'm just kind of air quotes here referencing
00:27:47
an unknown group here that we're talking about you got to believe that they have
00:27:53
certain security measures involved that they don't may not dis close everything to anyone involved on the surface so
00:28:02
that they can keep the kids safe so that they don't end up getting in trouble themselves one and two losing the
00:28:10
children to where they return to a bad situation yeah cuz if I give John a fake name then you can never track me down
00:28:18
the other thing too that goes along the same lines is that John told investigators he gave the boys to a
00:28:24
group called and we have two names here one is United Foster Outreach and underground
00:28:32
sanctuaries as everything that I could find public statements by law enforcement no such group was found to
00:28:43
[Music] [Music] exist this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays
00:28:57
maybe maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or
00:29:03
even anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings
00:29:09
therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to
00:29:17
manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
00:29:24
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
00:29:30
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
00:29:37
betterhelp visit betterhelp.com Garay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp
00:29:46
hp.com garage dreaming of overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family
00:29:54
from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and
00:30:00
voice feedback technology are game changers dive into 25 Languages by learning intuitively just like when you
00:30:07
were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now and save 50% gift yourself the world
00:30:15
head to rosettastone.com now and save 50% Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
00:30:25
thought it was an Eco move for your worse let's paper no it was so you could say it faster no it's to be more iconic
00:30:32
must be a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare upfront prices book a service
00:30:39
instantly and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it makes us so much more than
00:30:45
just a list get started at angie.com that's AI or download the app today all right we're
00:31:03
back Cheers Cheers Cheers Cheers Cheers all right so continuing on the idea of these
00:31:11
different theories okay so second on the list we have the boys were handed off to
00:31:18
someone as John said but possibly he was duped now this comes from this comes from an interview that he did do where
00:31:27
he does say you know I've not heard from these people I've not talked to these people I handed them off to them and who
00:31:35
knows maybe I was duped so this would be the idea there's a few different ideas involved in this one
00:31:43
one could they still be alive yet they were given to bad people for nefarious reasons right unbeknownst to
00:31:51
John or could they be no longer with us handed off to bad people or do we one thing we've not discussed
00:32:00
too you know we discussed the the percentages of what would it be that there are three missing kids that are
00:32:08
under the age of 10 and then three remains of children found that are believed to be under 10 what's the
00:32:14
chances of that but what we didn't discuss is could the kids be separated could they be alive and they've been
00:32:23
separated well if if they're bad people yeah cuz can control people better if you you know you separate and then
00:32:31
conquer or if they're if they're good people are they separated because they less chance of detection less they're
00:32:40
not as easy to be identified right yeah but again I think the duping part okay so if we believe John and we go okay
00:32:49
well this girl that he met randomly cuz her car broke down and then they stayed in contact that this person
00:32:58
Joan Taylor just so happened to be which that's not a real name but just so happened to
00:33:06
be a person that was connected with child pedophilia rings and he said my kids are being molested and she said
00:33:16
I'll take them and then he gives them to her and then she sends them off to other
00:33:21
pedophiles mhm like that seems so far-fetched like you'd have to believe all the stuff
00:33:29
that he said oh oh of course yeah I mean that's part of that theory is that he actually did hand them off and then
00:33:36
unbeknownst to him the people he gave them to were actually bad people yeah but I don't know
00:33:43
it's it's like if they're good people and they're afraid of getting in trouble it's like you could go to a he heavily
00:33:49
populated area like McDonald's or something and just go kids go in there and then tell them that you're missing
00:33:57
M and then they'll call authorities and within a day we'll fig you know would figure out who they were mhm like there
00:34:03
were so many things if they went to good people how they could get back right if
00:34:08
they went to bad people and they were duped it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me but if if it did happen
00:34:14
they're dead and we'll never find them so right I mean well and it goes back to what you said
00:34:22
earlier where where is the trace Where is the breadcrumb Trail between JN and whoever he handed these people off
00:34:30
to he says he maintained some kind of relationship with this Joanne Taylor after they met on the side of the road
00:34:37
somewhere when he helped her when her car broke down they maintain their relationship
00:34:43
through the internet where's the trace of that where's the you know they checked his computer he doesn't have her
00:34:49
phone number right his phone doesn't reg you know he's not text her on his phone
00:34:54
she's not text him they've had no communication via phone just the internet but we can't find anybody that
00:35:00
was there an app like what's up app or whatever where they can text through it well and I think his response to that
00:35:07
was something to the effect of well maybe maybe this group is just really good at what they
00:35:13
do 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
00:35:20
trace of them because they're like ghost they're like Phantoms I didn't I didn't
00:35:24
break anything in the house they broke it that's what happened they I was asleep
00:35:30
they must have went into the house and took my cell phone and then drove down to Ohio mhm he has a story he has a he
00:35:39
has an explanation for everything and look if we had my way would have that game show
00:35:46
called The Psychotic clown interrogators right and we would be we'd have a bunch of psychotic clowns
00:35:54
in a room with John right now getting answers it's just you know well that's interesting too because
00:36:04
you have a couple different thoughts that I that I go to when I think of that one you know in the statement that he
00:36:10
has an answer for everything that's a very fair statement he comes up with a nice story for everything that you throw
00:36:17
at him right and sometimes what's the most damn frustrating thing out there is that sometimes he just goes I can't tell
00:36:24
you that yeah I dude I never we've covered a lot of cases I can't remember another time where we have someone
00:36:31
that's just like nope sorry can't tell you that yeah and he's cool with that and and law it's can you imagine how
00:36:38
frustrated law enforcement has to be when they because they go back and they talk to this guy it's not like they
00:36:43
don't know where he is they go back and talk to him periodically what's going on
00:36:48
John tell us what really happened John and sometimes he gives him a story and other times Hees can't tell you that
00:36:54
well I tell him John every time he tell me you can't tell me something go and break one of your ribs that's what I'd
00:37:01
tell him well you've been watching too much True Detective cuz it you can't do that but the thing the thing where I go
00:37:07
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
00:37:13
plenty of time to sit around and dream up answers for everything right right the other thing though it is a bit of a
00:37:20
police tactic not so much them because I mean it's the courts it's technically the court system that put John in prison
00:37:28
10 to 15 years but what the state of Michigan police are hoping that someday he's finally going to wake up
00:37:37
and realize where he is where he's been living for the last seven eight years right in
00:37:45
prison and he's going to realize that he has nobody he has nothing else and he has nothing left to to do but to tell
00:37:53
the truth that is their hope that is their hope yeah and you know what I I wonder about too regarding I think
00:37:59
that's all of our hopes yes and and I wonder regarding his prison sentence I've heard you know it's it's all it's
00:38:07
always reported 10 to 15 years I have read some speculation that that they're awfully darn certain
00:38:17
that he's going to serve the full 15 years MH but if we are in fact talking about murder if we are in fact talking
00:38:25
about the worst possible thing we can come up with regarding this case it's a triple homicide of
00:38:31
children and yeah that's a really light sentence and it's nobody's fault it's nobody's fault for that light sentence
00:38:38
there's nothing really they can do unless there's evidence but what's interesting to me is can they I I I
00:38:46
would love for once in a while we get lawyers prosecutors judges people that know the
00:38:51
system 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
00:38:58
real name please do not leave Joanne Taylor you will be banned um unless you are Joanne Taylor
00:39:06
but so how are we going to know well the thing is I would love to know if because
00:39:12
of the charges because of what he was sentenced to uh or sent to prison for uhhuh can they charge him with something
00:39:20
and I know there's no statute of limitations for murder so obviously if there's proof if they find additional
00:39:26
evidence that that the kids were killed and they believe he did it of course they can charge him with murder
00:39:34
but let's say they never find anything is there something else they can charge him with at a later time at at the end
00:39:44
once that 10 or 15 years expires can you charge him with kidnapping can you charge you know cuz he's charged right
00:39:50
now with unlawful imprisonment I believe is the exact term yeah so I'm curious there you go to jail for being a
00:39:58
douchebag that imp no but there are prisons full of douchebags oh yeah weird conundrum so that would be
00:40:06
interesting to know if there's something left in the in the old napsack if there's something left that they can
00:40:12
charge him with once that 105 years expires because again that's what law enforcement is hoping for that he's
00:40:19
going to wake up one day realize he has nothing nobody else nothing left but the
00:40:23
truth and he's going to feel comp to finally deliver that to everyone the other thing too with him publicly
00:40:31
stating and I say publicly is just an interview but with JN saying hey I gave them away to this underground foster
00:40:38
care uh organization maybe I was duped uhhuh is that him already setting up a defense for if he did in fact kill them
00:40:48
hide the remains and they were to be found now he can go oh it wasn't me I didn't I wasn't the one to see them last
00:40:56
I left them in the care of these people that I've been telling you about for the
00:41:00
last nine years right you know so I mean a real piece of [ __ ] either way I mean it's like
00:41:08
look even if you're to believe him and there was abuse happening and that you wanted to protect your children there's
00:41:18
other ways about doing that and you could have went to a judge you could have went to whoever
00:41:27
and it's just you know but and you can't tell me that oh well he he tried to give them to
00:41:36
somebody else because he was going to commit suicide so he wanted to make sure that they were protected mhm it's like
00:41:42
no this none of this really lines up none of this makes a lot of sense and chances are if he was going to kill
00:41:49
himself if he was suicidal he's probably also homicidal and and it was almost like oh
00:41:56
well if you're not going to be with me then you're not going to get my children either
00:42:02
and but for some reason he's not man enough to State what he did uhhuh and he's not man enough to
00:42:12
to have closure for everybody else and and to accept uh the punishment for the crime
00:42:20
he committed the next thing on my list for possible theories and this is a very obvious one one that we've all
00:42:30
been hoping against since we first started covering this story but it's it's so obvious it's what everybody is
00:42:38
thinking did are the boys no longer with us did JN do something with the remains
00:42:44
that he knows where in fact they are he knows exactly what he did with them and he's just refusing to to be cooperative
00:42:55
because it punishes his ex-wife and because it punishes the system because he thinks he's smarter than everybody
00:43:02
else I mean there's there's a a myriad of reasons why he's holding on to the truth not just the fact of facing more
00:43:13
jail time well what we do have is the cell phone pings and yes we do have um you know a as John has a
00:43:23
blackout period we have a blackout period as far as where John's whereabouts are mhm but we can at least
00:43:32
start breaking down how how much area we'd have to search right within that time frame because we do know that he
00:43:42
went back to his house so I think if we focus more on that and we really started focusing and
00:43:49
they they've claim that they've you know every Barn that they could find that they that they uh they search through
00:43:56
and all all this stuff and and yes it's been 7 years but it's like I think they could do that that's your key if you
00:44:04
could double down on those searches in that area I think that's the key to getting answers to this case well and
00:44:13
that's what today's author of this week's recommended reading suggest in his book is that look
00:44:23
at the area that we know his phone to have in right for that 76 minutes is what Lynn calls
00:44:31
it and Lynn is actually been heavily involved in the search efforts and also involved in trying to
00:44:42
really narrow that down to a specific location and he's saying you know I'm going to keep working on this I'm hoping
00:44:49
that I can narrow it down to about I think he said 200 Acres which is still a lot of land it's not that bad it's not
00:44:59
that bad considering I mean you've done the Google Map fly over of this area of Holiday City it's they need to take the
00:45:08
word City out of Holiday City it's not a city it's a tiny little tiny little thing that you just pass through and you
00:45:16
don't even know that you pass through it it's no no need to talk [ __ ] about Holiday City um no I I mean they're not
00:45:23
there to blame anything but what I'm trying to to point out to everybody listening is that this small little if
00:45:32
it is even a one you know two traffic light town it's surrounded by a lot of open area right a lot of rural area and
00:45:42
so Lyn Thompson is and and to to give credit where credit's due to the people that volunteer to search for these boys
00:45:50
be it in Michigan be it in Ohio yeah the search sheer according to Lynn was not fake it wasn't just something that
00:46:00
sounded good for the papers it was real it was the real deal and it was massive it was massive and they looked hard and
00:46:08
long for these these three boys the fourth thing that I have on my list is kind of the
00:46:16
most kind of out of the box one of of all the possible theories I think uhhuh but we kind of touched upon this a
00:46:26
little bit earlier what if John had a complete break with reality right what if what if he handed
00:46:37
off the kids to somebody what if he did something terrible and they're no longer
00:46:42
with us but he doesn't know yeah he doesn't know because he he had a straightup break with reality mhm is
00:46:51
that the is that the the the black hole The Big Empty Space that he referenced and that he offers up these
00:47:00
Tales or he's sticking somewhat to his original story that he told his ex-wife in the beginning that he told
00:47:09
investigators in the beginning and he truly just doesn't know what happened if he truly doesn't know then maybe bring
00:47:16
in like a some hypnotherapy or something like that like at least offer that up as an option to try
00:47:25
to figure out what happened right but I think if you're not doing things like that then really you're you're hindering
00:47:31
the investigation you're hindering the possibility of finding out what happened so the thing here is and this
00:47:39
is why I question this too because of what he told his Pastor Donna Galloway it seems like that could be a
00:47:47
possibility if there's anyone that you're finally going to be honest with it would be her for John right maybe but
00:47:55
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 I
00:48:04
were sitting in prison for any number of you know any reason at all and I have my
00:48:09
parents coming to me I have my pastor coming to me I have people coming to me and going Nick what happened what the
00:48:14
hell happened if I didn't know I'd straight up tell at least those people tell my parents you know I I don't know
00:48:22
right I might deserve to be here but I don't know what happened and right what we have his parents
00:48:28
saying on record saying is that they believe part of their son's story at least part of it that there could have
00:48:36
been some abuse that they that the boys are alive and that that John gave them to somebody
00:48:44
yeah yeah so I that makes me question this uh If he if he does not know I almost feel like by this time with the
00:48:54
amount of time that has past that we would probably have that or some form of that statement from him yeah it seems
00:49:01
like the more you dive into this the more questions that come out and one of my initial questions that we never
00:49:07
really discuss is are we for sure that these three boys are his you know that's the claim from the
00:49:17
the mother and then obviously the father but I I mean there I just get a sense when I look at these three boys that
00:49:24
these three boys are half siblings that's that's the sense I get and has anybody looked into that
00:49:33
angle well it's an interesting thought to ponder um when I look at the pictures of the three boys and there's there's
00:49:42
plenty of them available plenty of these pictures available on the internet so anybody can look them up and and I'm
00:49:49
sure we'll put a couple on our website as well in hopes that somebody might recognize them be able to provide some
00:49:56
kind of information the two of the boys look very much like John to me this is just
00:50:04
my own opinion and one of the boys looks very much like like their mother like Tanya yeah um I again I think it's it is
00:50:14
an interesting question to ponder I don't know what that really means for the state of our case because where my
00:50:23
thoughts lie and look man the the whole time I was researching this case the whole time I was looking into this and
00:50:30
I'm sure you felt the same way as I did I wanted I wanted to I actually started off hopeful I started off hopeful and I
00:50:41
for the first day or so I was sitting there going you know what it's probably an
00:50:47
unpopular side to be on it's definitely against my better judgment but for about 24 hours the
00:50:56
first 24 hours of looking into this thing I'm like I feel I think they're alive my brain tells me that that's
00:51:03
probably not the case but my gut my heart was telling me these boys are alive that he did hand them off to
00:51:09
somebody I'm not I try not to do that anymore I try when we go into these cases I'm blank slate and whatever I
00:51:17
read and whatever rabbit holes it takes me down I try not to ponder too far into
00:51:23
it I like I like for it to to tell me what I'm supposed to know what whatever that may be if that makes any sense mhm
00:51:32
makes a lot of sense the thing that that I can't get over and this is why I'm not
00:51:39
as hopeful as when I started off is giving them away does not make a lot of sense and what I mean by that is I
00:51:50
understand his side of his story is look they were being abused I did this in their best interest I get that John the
00:52:00
problem is you're so out of control with what then happens or could happen to them once you hand them off
00:52:09
right it just doesn't it just doesn't ring true to me it it's it seems like it seems like almost you would rather there
00:52:18
there are things you could have done before going to these Great Lengths there are people you could have spoke to
00:52:26
and maybe he's totally off the rails I don't know and maybe this is all he could come up with it doesn't seem right
00:52:33
to me though there could there was people you could have talked to and at the very least if you run out of ideas
00:52:39
you go you know what I'm keeping the kids and I if you send anybody to take them from me I'm going to tell them
00:52:46
what's going on and I'm going to let I'm going to let the law I'm gonna let the law look into it right and I'm gonna let
00:52:52
them figure it out because those are serious accusations yes yeah and and let's be
00:52:59
clear I I do think there's there is a leap that you have to make from having a relationship with a 14-year-old boy
00:53:09
which let's not get that Twisted that's child molestation but then to bless your
00:53:14
own child I think there would have to be a leap that you'd have to make on some level yeah and the only one that seems
00:53:22
to be claiming that there was any kind of abuse is John and you do have some people siding with
00:53:29
him after the fact after this all goes down right but there doesn't seem to be any anybody else alleging that other
00:53:37
than him and I do want to point out we should point out um Tanya who I mean the nightmare that she's had to face of this
00:53:49
guy that she marries right I don't even feel great calling him their father you know know he no matter what the outcome
00:53:59
at the end of the day he's responsible for why she doesn't have her children and the thing here is she has
00:54:08
two older daughters and they are very close with their mother with t and I think that
00:54:16
that's probably the only thing that's kept her whole kept her together at this point I can't imagine going through what
00:54:23
she has had to go through and I think law enforcement stated that they're not as hopeful as
00:54:30
they once were but they are very confident that they're going to have answers to this case very soon well and
00:54:37
to remind everyone we do have three missing boys they are still missing to this day when they went missing Andrew
00:54:45
was age nine Alexander age seven and Tanner age five they're still missing the family is seeking help in searching
00:54:52
for them they are encouraging people to be aware of children and to watch for these three boys the police would like
00:55:00
to remind everyone that it is a good possibility that the boys may not be together so be looking for individual
00:55:09
faces as well all three boys are Caucasian the two older boys Andrew and Alexander both have brown hair brown
00:55:17
eyes the little boy Tanner has blonde hair and blue eyes I do want to point out in some of the pictures of Alexander
00:55:25
the middle child he is wearing glasses so he may require them there is a large reward for good information in this case
00:55:34
and police need your help and they need tips if you have any information at all please contact Morenci police at 517
00:55:46
45871 04 or call 1 800 the Lost [Music] do we happen to have any recommended reading for this week actually we do and
00:56:04
it actually came out just a few weeks ago it's a really good book it's the only book that I could find on this
00:56:11
particular case on the Skelton brothers case it's called 76 minutes my search for Andrew Alexander and Tanner Skelton
00:56:19
by author and new friend of the show Lynn Thompson check that out you don't have to write down on that title right
00:56:25
now you can go to True Crim garage.com click on the recommended page and we have lots of books including 76 minutes
00:56:33
by Lyn Thompson listed right there for you to check out make sure you check out our weekly bonus show off the Record
00:56:40
that's on Stitcher premium $5 a month that gets you our show plus every show on Stitcher premium so it's a great deal
00:56:48
it's like the Netflix for podcasting and make sure you check out our old episodes
00:56:53
on the Stitcher app you just download it and they are for free that's right well
00:56:58
thanks everybody for joining us here in the garage today and this week we will see you again next week until then
00:57:04
please be good be kind and don't [Music] litter you can live out your Master Chef dreams
00:57:39
when you find a professional on Angie to tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled
00:57:45
professionals to get all your home projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that