Skelton, 39, has been charged in Lenawee County, Mich., with three counts of parental kidnapping. He is being held in the Lucas County Jail in Ohio pending extradition, Weeks said.
Skelton was arrested in Ohio because that is where the mental health facility where he was being held is located, the Detroit Free Press said.
The arrest came hours after police said Skelton had given investigators information that made them fear the search for his missing sons -- 5-year-old Tanner, 7-year-old Alexander and 9-year-old Andrew Skelton -- would not have a happy ending.
"Based on the information that we have, we do not anticipate a positive outcome here," Weeks said at an earlier news conference.
Weeks would not elaborate on what Skelton had told authorities.
"[Skelton] has been forthcoming with some information, the credibility of which we cannot verify at this time," the police chief said.
Asked by a reporter how the boys' mother is doing, Weeks replied: "Imagine your worst nightmare coming true. How would you respond?"
Skelton's children were last seen on Thanksgiving Day in Morenci, 75 miles southwest of Detroit. On Friday, Skelton turned up at a hospital after what he said was a failed suicide attempt.
The father said he had turned his sons over to Joann Taylor , a woman he had met several years ago. Skelton said he had asked Taylor to take the boys to their mother. According to police, Skelton said he did not want his children present when he attempted to hang himself. After the suicide attempt failed, Skelton said he asked another acquaintance to take him to a nearby hospital.
Police said Monday that they had not been able to connect Skelton to anyone named Joann Taylor and that they believe this story was a lie.
New details are surfacing about a bitter custody dispute between Skelton and his estranged wife, Tanya Derby Skelton , 44. Court documents, obtained by several Michigan media outlets, detail the Skeltons' marital strife and reveal information about a court case in which the boys' mom was charged with having sexual contact with a minor, The Associated Press reported.
Tanya Skelton's brush with the law occurred in 1998 while she was married to Brent Derby. According to court records, Skelton, then 31, was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy who had worked for her and Derby in Morenci. The boy reportedly helped the couple with the upkeep of rental properties.
Derby reportedly claimed he had learned about the affair from the couple's two daughters and filed for divorce. Skelton later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and served a year in the Scott Correctional Facility, The Detroit News reported.
During her stay behind bars, the parents of the teenage boy filed a lawsuit against Tanya Skelton and Derby, claiming their son had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. According to The Detroit News, Derby, who claimed to have had no knowledge of the affair, was required to pay the teen's family $10,000. Tanya Skelton was ordered to pay $20,000.
But she was not the only one who experienced past marital problems and run-ins with the law.
In 2000, John Skelton's marriage to his first wife, Michelle Skelton, fell apart. He was initially granted custody of their daughter, but the following year the girl was placed in her mother's custody.
John and Tanya Skelton were wed in 2002. The couple filed for bankruptcy during their first few years together and were briefly separated in 2009, when John Skelton was jailed for failure to pay child support to his first wife. They managed to stay together for nearly a decade before their marriage disintegrated.
In September, Tanya Skelton filed for divorce. The legal maneuver prompted John Skelton to pack up the couple's three boys and drive to Ohio. After police contacted Skelton, he returned the boys, but later he took two of them with him to Florida. Authorities then allegedly forced Skelton to return to Michigan with the boys, at which time his estranged wife was granted sole custody of the children, The Associated Press reported.
On Sept. 27, John Skelton filed a motion for custody of his children, citing his wife's status as a registered sex offender. He was denied custody, but last month a judge granted him visitation rights to see his children. The court order allowed him to have them every other weekend and Wednesdays after school.
The boys were reportedly visiting their father for Thanksgiving and were supposed to be returned to their mother on Thursday evening. When Skelton failed to return them, Tanya Skelton reported them missing to police, and on the following day Skelton told police he had turned them over to Joann Taylor and then attempted suicide.
Police said professional and volunteer searchers are now focusing on several areas near Morenci and across the state line in Pioneer, Ohio, a village 65 miles west of Toledo. The FBI also has a team five miles outside of Pioneer, in the unincorporated town of Kunkle.
The latest searches are based on cell phone activity, which puts John Skelton in those areas at the time of the boys' disappearance, police said.
|
