Police Search for Missing Michigan Brothers
(Nov. 28) -- Residents of a tiny Michigan town kept searching and praying today for three young brothers missing since Friday, when their dad turned up at hospital after a failed suicide attempt and told police he left the boys with a woman to return to their mother.
Police in Morenci, Mich., said they've been unable to confirm much of the information that 39-year-old John Skelton provided about the woman and they fear the children are in "extreme danger."
Authorities issued an Amber alert for 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner Skelton on Friday . On Sunday, searchers focused on an Ohio state park, about 10 miles south of Morenci, the Detroit News reported.
The story began on Friday, when Skelton told police he turned the boys over to a woman he met several years ago, asking her to take the boys to their mother, Tanya Skelton, so they weren't at home while he attempted to hang himself.
Skelton said he failed in his suicide attempt and asked another acquaintance to take him to a nearby hospital. However, police say they cannot find the woman, whom Skelton named as Joann Taylor, or the silver van he said she was driving.
"At this point, I don't have any facts to indicate she exists," Morenci Police Chief Larry Weeks said at a Saturday evening news conference.
Asked by The Associated Press whether Skelton himself was a suspect in the boys' disappearance, Weeks responded: "We haven't ruled anything out, yet."
Skelton remained hospitalized, being treated for "mental health issues," police said.
Residents of the town of about 2,000 residents, located about 75 miles southwest of Detroit and just north of the Ohio state line, spent the weekend searching for the brothers.
"We're very worried," 21-year-old David Foster, who spent hours looking for the boys, told the Detroit Free Press. "It's like it's our little brothers."
Weeks said agencies including the Michigan State Police and the FBI are aiding in the search. A prayer vigil was scheduled at the United Methodist Church in town this evening.
Morenci Area Schools Superintendent Michael Osborne told the Detroit Free Press that district administrators were meeting this weekend to determine how to address the situation when school resumes Monday. All three boys attended Morenci Elementary School.
Kathye Herrera, a close friend serving as spokesperson for Tanya Skelton's family, said at the news conference Saturday that John Skelton, a long-haul truck driver, had recently taken the boys to Florida. Relatives brought the children back, and their mother filed for divorce, Herrera said.
"Everybody is still ... hoping and praying and trying to stay positive," she said.
Tags: missing boys
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