LENEWAY COUNTY, ( WTVB)- A Lenawee County judge has ruled that John Skelton will stand trial for the open murder of his three young sons, who vanished nearly 16 years ago.
Following a seven-day preliminary hearing in Adrian,, District Court Judge Laura J. Schaedler decided that prosecutors presented sufficient circumstantial evidence to move the case forward to a jury trial.
The charges stem from the 2010 Thanksgiving Day disappearance of 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander, and 5-year-old Tanner from Skelton’s home in Morenci.
Although extensive searches across southern Michigan and northern Ohio never recovered the boys’ bodies, the judge determined the case warrants a trial.
The 54-year-old Skelton has consistently maintained his innocence, previously claiming he surrendered the boys to an unknown underground group to protect them from alleged abuse, a narrative rejected by both investigators and his family.
Before facing these open murder charges, Skelton was convicted in 2011 on three counts of unlawful imprisonment related to the disappearance and was serving a 10-to-15-year sentence.
A circuit court arraignment date for the upcoming murder trial is expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks
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