(WWJ) A southern Michigan man charged with murder nearly 15 years after the disappearance of his three children is being held on a $60 million bond.
John Skelton was arraigned in 2A District Court in Adrian Monday morning on three counts of open murder and tampering with evidence for the deaths of Alexander, Andrew and Tanner Skelton.
The Lenawee County Prosecutor's Office filed the charges last Friday, just two weeks before Skelton was to be released from prison, having pleaded no no contest and served more than a decade behind bars for unlawful imprisonment.
The boys, who were 9, 7 and 5 years old at the time, were last seen with their father at his home in Morenci, Michigan, on Thanksgiving Day of 2010.
The boys' mother reported them missing the Black Friday, after John Skelton did not return them to her as scheduled. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, John Skelton went to a hospital that day, telling workers there that he'd injured his ankle while trying to commit suicide.
Police went to his home, where they found the house destroyed, but no sign of the boys.
Investigators said, when questioned, John Skelton changed his story about where his children were multiple times — first saying he'd placed them in the care of an unknown woman. He later told police that he'd given the boys to an "underground group" in order to keep them safe.
While there are no bodies, a judge declared Alexander, Andrew and Tanner legally dead earlier this year.
So, charges now, after all these years?
WWJ Newsradio 950's Amanda Forrester asked journalist Lynn Thomson, who wrote a book about the case.
"My best guess is that this was their long term strategy all along," Thompson said. "Like, of they can't get... I don't know if you wanna call it the smoking gun... if they can't get the exact, you know, motive, weapon, location — taking the plea bargain 15 years ago just gives them 15 years of time to compile all the other evidence, whether it's circumstantial.
"Or I don't think there were ever any eyewitnesses; I never heard anybody talk about them. So, without that...they gotta build this thing literally from thin air. So, the more time they have while he's in custody to do that, the better it is for the case," Thompson said.
John Skelton remains lodged in the Lenawee County Jail.
Michigan State Police said in a news release Monday that this remains an ongoing investigation.