11-29-2010, 08:53 PM
The Detroit News
Adrian — The father of three missing boys bitterly fought for custody of them and took them before without permission, according to court records.
The records show that John R. Skelton, 39, took his sons and announced his intention to move to Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 13 — the same day his wife filed for divorce, according to documents in Lenawee County Circuit Court.
The proceedings also show Skelton sought a court order for sole custody of the boys, Tanner, 5, Alexander, 7, and Andrew 9, based on the claim that their mother, Tanya Skelton, 34, was on the state's sex offender list. She served a year in prison for an illegal sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy in 1998.
Physical custody was granted to the mother by Lenawee County Circuit Judge Margaret Noe on Sept. 28, following her efforts in conjunction with Florida authorities to force the father to return the children.
On Oct. 11, the judge allowed the father to resume parenting time every other weekend and every Wednesday after school. A clause added to the agreement required Skelton to not drink alcohol while with his children. there's a reason for that.
The boys were last seen Thursday. Stories the father has told about leaving them with a friend before unsuccessfully attempting suicide, are lies, police said.
Court records show Skelton, a long-haul truck driver, took his sons from their grade school on Sept. 13, and sent text messages from Ohio requesting their birth certificates. He later turned them over to police after being called on his cell phone by a Morenci Police officer.
Skelton took them again, but this time to Florida, where Duval County Circuit Judge Karen Cole ordered him Sept. 20 to drive them back to their home in Morenci. The trip was to be taken by the mother and father in separate cars, but in sight of each other the entire time.