Tanya Zuvers, the mother of three brothers who went missing the day after Thanksgiving in 2010, has filed a petition in Lenawee County Probate Court to have her sons Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton officially declared dead.
The boys were 9, 7, and 5 years old, respectively, when they were last known to be alive, spending Thanksgiving with their father, John Skelton, in Morenci, Michigan. However, after the holiday, John Skelton did not return the boys to their mother as planned, and they have not been seen since.
A pretrial hearing was held at the Lenawee County District Court, where a Michigan judge approved Tanya Zuvers’ petitions to declare the missing brothers legally dead and granted her request for a trial.
The court proceedings are ongoing, and a decision on the petitions is pending. Michigan law requires the next of kin to wait five years after someone goes missing to have them declared legally dead, and the trial for this case is set to happen in July.
John Skelton, the boys’ father, has claimed that he gave the boys to an underground group to protect them from their mother, an allegation that Tanya Zuvers has denied.
Despite extensive searches and investigations, the Skelton brothers have never been found, and John Skelton is currently serving a prison sentence for unlawful imprisonment of his sons, with a scheduled release in November 2025.
Zuvers’ attorney has stated that declaring the boys legally dead would provide closure for the family and allow them to move forward with resolving legal and financial matters related to the case.
Tanya Zuvers expressed the difficulty of the decision, stating, “No parent wants to lose a child, but to have to have the courts step in and declare them deceased is just unfathomable.”
The legal proceedings and the ongoing search for the Skelton brothers continue to be a significant and emotional issue for the community, even 14 years after their disappearance.
The case of the missing Skelton brothers remains a poignant and unresolved matter, with legal proceedings and the search for closure continuing to unfold.