DETROIT (Reuters) - Three young Michigan brothers missing since Thanksgiving may have been transported to Ohio in their parents' van, police said on Monday, casting doubt on the father's story he gave the boys to a female acquaintance before he attempted suicide.
John Skelton, 39, of Morenci, Michigan, has told police he asked a female friend he met two years ago named Joann Taylor to take his sons -- 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner Skelton -- to their mother Tanya Skelton. John Skelton attempted to hang himself on Friday.
"At this point we have been able to eliminate the reported established relationship between Joann Taylor and Mr. Skelton based on recent information we've gathered from a number of sources," Morenci Police Chief Larry Weeks told reporters.
Skelton was in a mental hospital after his failed suicide attempt, and police have not ruled him out as a suspect. The boys' parents were in the process of divorcing.
Weeks passed out photographs of the Skeltons' blue 2000 Dodge Caravan and asked for help if anyone had spotted the vehicle between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon around Morenci or in small towns across the nearby Ohio border. Tanya Skelton also lived in Morenci.
He said witnesses should try to recall if they saw the van between the hours of 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Friday.
Meanwhile, searchers continued to comb the region with the help of search aircraft, with one group focusing on an area around Pioneer, Ohio.
A Facebook page from Wednesday belonging to John Russell Skelton and recreated on the Toledo Blade newspaper website carried the statement: "I love my wife very much. May God and Tanya forgive me."
(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Writing by Andrew Stern)
