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NANCY GRACE

Missing Michigan Boys

Aired February 9, 2011 - 21:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to kind her.

GRACE: So many cases --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re still looking.

GRACE: -- so few leads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

GRACE: Missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on NANCY GRACE.

GRACE: There is a God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NANCY GRACE show was out there for us.

GRACE: Found alive.

Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights.

Let`s don`t give up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one knows what the future holds. Please remember to tell your loved ones each day that you love them. Life is short, and it can be taken from you in a heartbeat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): November 26, 2010, residents of a small southern Michigan town are wrapping up the Thanksgiving holiday. This year`s celebration is different for the Skelton family.

Parents John and Tanya Skelton have recently separated, and their three sons, Alexander, 7; Andrew, 9; and 5-year-old Tanner are spending the holiday with their dad. He is scheduled to return the brothers home to their mother that evening, but they never make it.

Tanya Skelton frantically calls the police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone`s just distraught. Nobody knows what to do with themselves or how to help, and just feel helpless and hopeless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The boys` father, John Skelton, claims he handed his sons over to Joann Taylor, a friend he met on the Internet. He allegedly didn`t want the boys home when he attempted to commit suicide. Police investigate the mystery woman and soon begin to doubt her existence.

LARRY WEEKS, MORENCI POLICE CHIEF: At this point we have been able to eliminate the reported established relationship between Joann Taylor and Mr. Skelton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firemen will also be out there with -- and police officers on some of the four-wheels, the gators (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As police and volunteers launch a wide-scale search for the boys, John Skelton is arrested. Once behind bars, his story changes. Skelton now claims he left his sons with a so-called rescue group The United Foster Outreach, an underground sanctuary. The police don`t buy it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No such organization can be located or determined to be the factual place for children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nearly three months after the Skelton brothers vanish, their father, John Skelton, sits behind bars awaiting his court date. He maintains his innocence and that he gave his sons to a rescue group.

JOHN SKELTON, FATHER: That they`re making it a murder investigation does not mean that the boys are dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meanwhile, family and friends continue to search for the boys, fearing the worst, but in their hearts praying Andrew, Alexander and Tanner return home alive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The goal is still to bring the boys home. So still, keep looking. Still, keep praying. Because that is the goal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, HOST: Every day 2,300 people go missing in America. They disappear. They vanish. Their families are left waiting and wondering, hoping, but never forgetting. And neither have we.

Fifty people, 50 days. For 50 nights, we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children and girls, mothers and boys, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents. They`re gone. But where?

Tonight, to Michigan. Three little brothers just 5, 7, and 9 years old all together. They vanish without a trace.

They were last seen with their father this last Thanksgiving, John Skelton. He claims he gave the boys away to a woman he met on the Internet to bring the children to his estranged wife so he can go kill himself. But the suicide attempt fails.

Well, then Skelton claims he gave the kids to a secret organization nobody, not even he or the cops, can locate. Why? To protect the boys from their mother.

Cell phone records reveal Skelton may have crossed into Ohio right before the boys disappear. Volunteers, they search farms and lakes and creeks, but no sign of the boys.

Police now say they believe the boys are dead. Yet, they still haven`t found their bodies. And father John Skelton is now speaking out from behind jailhouse walls, where he sits on a $30 million bail. He`s saying they are alive.

We have that interview tonight. You can listen to the father, John Skelton, yourself.

Tonight, where are Tanner, Alexander and Andrew Skelton?

Let`s go straight out to Tom Wait, reporter of CNN affiliate WXYZ, joining us tonight from Detroit, Michigan.

Tom, you are the one that got the interview with John Skelton, the father. And let me tell you why we care so much. This is the last person that was known to be with these three little boys, and we want to get into his mind because we want to find these boys. That`s the whole point.

So, Tom, how did you get the interview?

TOM WAIT, REPORTER, WXYZ: Well, Jean, thanks for having me on the show, first of all.

We reached out to John Skelton through a postcard at the beginning of December. We sent him a letter saying, "Hey, do you want to tell your side of the story? We haven`t heard from you."

He had uttered very few words in some court appearances. He wrote us back -- or actually, he called us last week, on Tuesday. I spoke with him at length, probably about 40 minutes on Tuesday. He called me several more times.

One of the first questions I asked him of course is, "Where are the children? Where are your sons?"

His answer is that he did not hurt them, that he has given them to an organization called Underground Sanctuaries. So right now he says he doesn`t know where the boys are, but he did not hurt them. He says that he was trying to protect them from his estranged wife, Tanya Skelton, though police have cleared her of any wrongdoing in this case.

CASAREZ: All right.

And everybody, he has been charged with parental kidnapping. That is why he`s behind bars. Thirty million dollars bail on that one.

And Tom Wait, is it true that he contacted you the day that investigators labeled this a homicide case and not a missing persons case anymore?

WAIT: That`s correct. He contacted us last Tuesday.

He called me -- actually, I was at home before I had come into work. He had no idea that police were about to change the investigation from a missing children`s case over to a homicide case. He was very perplexed by it, or at least very interested in why the police were changing over the investigation.

He says that there`s no evidence that he has done anything wrong to the kids. He was adamant that he had given these kids over to this organization. But there are many holes in this story. He couldn`t describe to be exactly --

(CROSSTALK)

CASAREZ: And Tom, what is the timing for that phone call from John Skelton?

I want to go to Ellie Jostad.

Let`s start from the beginning. And the beginning wasn`t that long ago. It was Thanksgiving Day.

Ellie, take it from there.

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s right, Thanksgiving Day. The three boys are with their father. The parents are in the midst of a pretty ugly divorce and custody battle, but they had scheduled court- ordered visitation with their dad that day.

The next day, they were supposed to be returned to their mother. That never happened.

Now, initially, the father said that he gave the children to a woman named Joann Taylor. He says that he met her when she had a flat tire, he helped her with that. Later, they kept in contact over the Internet.

He says he gave the boys to her because he planned to kill himself and he didn`t want the boys in the home. Now, as Tom explained, that story has since changed. Now John Skelton is saying this is an Underground Sanctuary that he has given the boys to.

CASAREZ: All right. And it goes on and on and on and on.

I want to go back to Tom Wait, reporter, CNN affiliate WXYZ.

Did you ask him why, why the kids are alive and why he did this?

WAIT: Yes. I definitely got to motive right away.

I said to him, "Why would you do all this? Why would you put yourself through this?" Because he had said, you know, "I`m the only one volunteering to be in jail right now." And by that he meant, I did nothing wrong, I was trying to protect my kids.

His allegation is that his ex-wife -- or his estranged wife, I should say -- was abusing the kids. But again, police have said that she is not guilty of any wrongdoing in this case.

She does have a prior sex offender conviction from about a decade ago. So John says that that`s kind of where this comes from.

He believes -- he says his kids said to him that Tanya, his wife, was abusing them. So he was trying to protect them, he says, by giving them to this organization, Underground Sanctuary --

(CROSSTALK)

CASAREZ: All right. And everybody, Tom, we want everybody to hear this interview that you got in regard to this alleged "sexing." Let`s take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SKELTON: The boys told me that Tanya was -- they put it -- "sexing" them, which I tried to confirm with Tanya, but Tanya wouldn`t have anything to do with me. She wouldn`t talk to me about it or anything, and alienated me and started -- started alienating the kids from me and stuff. And I have to go with I don`t think my kids would lie to me.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CASAREZ: All right.

Ellie Jostad, when he says "sexing," I don`t know if he means sexting, and I didn`t know 5, 7, 9-year-old boys sexted, or if he`s talking about something else. But we do have to lay out the facts here. The mother in all this, Tanya Skelton, is a registered sex offender.

Explain. It`s back from 1998.

JOSTAD: Right. That`s right.

She was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact. That involved a 14-year-old boy that worked for her then-husband, and it was my understanding or my recollection that this boy did something like yard work at properties they owned or something along those lines. But yes, she does have that in her history.

CASAREZ: All right.

We are taking your calls tonight.

To Bill Foster, joining us. He is a neighbor of the Skeltons. He led one of the major searches, volunteer searches, for these three precious little boys.

You know, Mr. Foster, the facts are also that three different judges have given Tanya Skelton custody of these little boys knowing full well what her criminal background was. What is the latest, and what are the police telling the family at this point?

BILL FOSTER, NEIGHBOR: Well, they had changed the case over to a murder investigation. And her name is "Tanya," not "Tonya." And a lot of this story about John calling out from the jailhouse was after his family was notified of the case being changed over.

John`s not stupid, by no means, but he is guilty of a lot. From what I take it, they do have evidence in this case, or they would never tell the family nor the public, you know, where we stand.

CASAREZ: Has Tanya helped law enforcement at all with --

FOSTER: Absolutely. Any --

CASAREZ: No, I know she has. But with where she believes are precious little boys are. Because she knew that man, she knew the highways he drove has a long-haul truck driver.

FOSTER: Right.

CASAREZ: She could aid in that.

FOSTER: Well, I mean, she has -- anywhere that she knew where John, you know, had been, or has been, or had family in, she`d been 100 percent cooperative with the FBI and the Morenci Police Department.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SKELTON: I was just -- I was spiraling out of control. Tanya -- I was depressed. Tanya played with my emotions to get the reaction that we got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think they switched this to a murder investigation? What do you think leads them to believe that your kids are dead?

SKELTON: There`s nobody to corroborate seeing them. There`s no pictures of these people. We covered our tracks really well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): John Skelton, the father of the three missing Morenci boys, reaches out to Action News from his jail cell. Skelton has uttered only a few words in public. That is, until now.

SKELTON: I`m probably the only one here volunteering to be in jail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are your kids alive or -- I mean, is that what you`re saying by -- that you`re volunteering?

SKELTON: Yes. I refuse to let them go back to Tanya.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Skelton has been sitting behind bars since shortly after Thanksgiving. He was the last one to see the boys alive. John says he did not hurt his sons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know where the kids are?

SKELTON: No. Unfortunately, that has escaped me as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Where are Tanner, Alexander and Andrew? They all were together. They all disappeared together, all three of them, at the very same time.

We have gotten a call in from the Morenci chief of police that wants us to spread the word, to make sure that everyone knows that John Skelton`s whereabouts are unknown from 3:30 p.m. Thanksgiving afternoon until 1:30 p.m. on Friday. So if anyone out there knows of his whereabouts at that time, they are asking you to come forward.

I want to go to Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, joining us from San Francisco.

Marc, listen to this. It has just come out through these interviews with John Skelton behind bars that he actually did a computer search shortly before the boys went missing. And listen to what it was for -- neck breaking and poison. He says that it was because the boys were interested in those topics.

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Little children are not interested in those kind of macabre topics. I`m startled that he had a 22-hour window to dispose of those boys.

I think this man is a monster. I think he`s a pathological liar. His story changes more frequently than the weather.

It should be noted that in one of the recent court appearances, he asked his wife why she wasn`t wearing her wedding ring. Yet, he thinks that she`s having incest with their children? He wants to get back together again?

I think that the authorities are going down exactly the right track with this man and looking at this as a homicide investigation. The problem is, though, Jean, with that huge of a window, he could have taken those children anywhere within hundreds and hundreds of miles and gotten back within that 22-hour window. It`s going to be extremely difficult to locate them.

CASAREZ: We`re taking your calls.

Donna, in Florida.

Hi, Donna.

DONNA, FLORIDA: Hi, Jean.

CASAREZ: Thank you for calling.

DONNA: Thank you for taking my call, dear.

CASAREZ: You`re welcome. Your question?

DONNA: Yes, ma`am. I was wondering if the father is a hunter or a woodsman. Maybe if so, have they asked any family members for any familiar hunting grounds that maybe if he did harm his children, which I believe he did, that maybe that`s where he went back and took the kids?

CASAREZ: Great question.

Bill Foster, neighbor of the Foster (sic) family, joining us tonight from Morenci, Michigan.

Is there any background? Because there`s a lot of hunters in your area.

FOSTER: Right.

CASAREZ: Any background of John Skelton in that area?

FOSTER: No. John wasn`t an avid hunter. I mean, he does have family that are very avid hunters.

We have checked a lot of properties. You know, John worked for some big farmers around here, so of course he knew a lot of the land, which, you know, we have checked and double-checked -- dogs, police agencies, civilian searchers. You know, it`s like three needles in a haystack, if you will.

CASAREZ: And I`m sure especially now, you`ve got, what, four feet of snow?

FOSTER: Yes. We`ve got a lot of snow.

CASAREZ: Wow. OK.

Pat Brown, criminal profiler, joining us tonight from Washington, D.C.

Law enforcement definitely, from the beginning, they have put their focus on John Skelton. Remember in the beginning they said, "We do not believe this is going to have a positive ending"? And they kept saying that and saying that and saying that.

But Pat, is there any way possible that they have too much tunnel vision toward John Skelton?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Not in this particular case. I mean, I like what the Morenci Police Department has said and what they`re doing, and how forthright they are.

He has told stupider and stupider stories. If he gave his kids away to this organization to hide them, he gave them away to maybe pedophiles. And on top of that, he says he wants to get them back but he`s going to kill himself. So who are they going to give them back to? His wife?

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SKELTON: I miss them terribly. I played with them almost every single day that -- well, every single day that I was home. And I talked to them every single day. I miss making them pancakes.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re going to start at this road, and we`re going to make a line to the north.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Volunteers, some who know and many who have no connection to the Skelton family, as well as dozens of firefighters, doing line searches through the rural area. The idea of leaving these children alone is something they just can`t tolerate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve known the family for a long, long time. So we`re just out here helping. Anything we can do to help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are these boys? And if they were harmed, who did it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need calls. We need tips. Anyone that`s out there, no matter how incredible you may think it is, call.

SKELTON: I was just -- I was spiraling out of control. Tanya -- I was depressed. Tanya played with my emotions to get the reaction that we got.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez.

Here`s how it really all began.

Last fall, John Skelton, he and his wife, Tanya, were having marital difficulties. He takes the children out of school. He ends up with them in Florida. And he may have had the intent to keep them there.

Tanya takes him to court. They come back to Michigan. But the whole issue is he kept them alive. He didn`t do anything. His state of mind was he wanted to keep them, but he sure didn`t kill them. Now he`s saying those kids are alive, but he hasn`t done anything to harm them.

I want to go out to Tom Shamshak with us tonight from Boston, former police chief, joining us, private investigator.

OK. They`ve got to find these three precious little boys. He`s the key. That`s what law enforcement says.

So what do they do now?

TOM SHAMSHAK, FMR. POLICE CHIEF: Jean, good evening.

My analysis of this is that they have compelling forensic evidence that is coming out of the lab. That`s why they have changed this from a missing persons to a homicide case. They`re going to ramp up the pressure on him. And maybe in the future they`ll try to get him to at least, you know, with a plea deal, identify their whereabouts.

But what I would be doing, I would be doing a geographical profile. This was a trucker.

I would look at the routes that he typically drove in his employment and go to those areas that he may have stopped at overnight, and look in those various areas. I mean, he may have disposed of the children in a dumpster, but you can`t rule out bodies of water at these various locations along the routes where this man has traveled -- Jean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police pleading for anyone who may know anything about what has happened to these missing brothers to come forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we remain hopeful. That`s why we`re doing what we`re doing here, that we`re going to find these boys and bring them home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Vanished into thin air.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.

GRACE: So many cases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.

GRACE: So few leads.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

GRACE: Missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness seen the suspect on Nancy Grace.

GRACE: There is a God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Grace show was out there for us.

GRACE: Found. Alive. 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one knows what the future holds. Please remember to tell your loved ones each day that you love them. Life is short. And it can be taken from you in a heartbeat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: November 26th, 2010, residents of a small Southern Michigan town are wrapping up the Thanksgiving holiday. This year`s celebration is different for the Skelton family. Parents John and Tanya Skelton have recently separated, and their three sons, Alexander 7, Andrew 9, and 5-year-old tanner are spending the holiday with their dad. He is scheduled to return the brothers home to their mother that evening, but they never make it. Tanya Skelton frantically calls the police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone`s just -- just distraught. Nobody knows what to do with themselves or how to help and just feel helpless and hopeless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The boys` father, John Skelton, claims he handed his sons over to Joanne Taylor, a friend he met on the internet. He allegedly didn`t want the boys home when he attempted to commit suicide. Police investigate the mystery woman and soon begin to doubt her existence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, we have been able to eliminate the reported established relationship between Joanne Taylor and Mr. Skelton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firemen will also be out there, and police officers on some of the four-wheels, the gators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As police and volunteers launch a wide-scale search for the boys, John Skelton is arrested. Once behind bars, his story changes. Skelton now claims he left his sons with a so-called rescue group, the United Foster Outreach, an underground sanctuaries. The police don`t buy it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No such organization can be located or determined to be a factual place for children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nearly three months after the Skelton brothers vanish, their father, John Skelton, sits behind bars awaiting his court date. He maintains his innocence and that he gave his sons to a rescue group.

JOHN SKELTON, FATHER OF THE THREE BOYS MISSING: That they`re making it a murder investigation does not mean that they -- that the boys are dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meanwhile, family and friends continue to search for the boys. Fearing the worst, but in their hearts praying Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner return home alive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The goal is still to bring the boys home. So still, keep looking. Still keep praying. Because that is the goal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. How could three little boys disappear all together, all three of them, at the very same time? Five, seven, and nine years old. They were with their father. It was Thanksgiving afternoon. And that was the last time that anyone saw them.

To Ellie Jostad, when was the last known sighting of these three little boys from someone other than John Skelton?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, police have told us that someone saw the boys playing in the father`s yard at 5 o`clock on Thanksgiving Day.

CASAREZ: All right. And Ellie, I think, you got the phone call from the police chief from Morenci, Michigan during the show wanting to make sure that we got the news out of the window where John Skelton cannot be accounted for, right?

JOSTAD: Right. Chief weeks actually called another one of our producers and said that it was Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, 3:30 p.m., till the following day, Friday 1:30 p.m. That they cannot account for the dad, John Skelton`s whereabouts.

CASAREZ: That`s a ten-hour period right there. He had those boys, and he`s a long-haul trucker. I want to go to Tom Wait, reporter, CNN affiliate, WXYZ. You are the one that got the interview with John Skelton from behind bars. He is being held on $30 million bail. Parental kidnapping is the charge, at this point, for those three boys. What did he say to you?

TOM WAIT, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WXYZ: Well, you know, he got very emotional when he talked about his wife and his kids, but essentially, our first question, of course, was what happened to the kids? And he insists, as you heard there in bits and pieces of the interview, that he did not hurt them. But he does say something interesting, and you heard this in part of the show here. He says, he was spiraling, he was depressed.

I asked that question in response to a Facebook post that he put out the night before the boys were last seen alive. He said "May God and Tanya forgive me." Now, he wouldn`t explain what that exactly meant, but he said was spiraling and very depressed, and that was a very ominous message, obviously, the night before the boys went missing. Again, he`s saying --

CASAREZ: All right. Tom, we have got that. We want everybody to listen to this. This is John Skelton, the last person to have been with the three little boys, his sons that disappeared. Everybody, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKELTON: I was just -- I was spiraling. I was spiraling out of control. Tanya -- I was depressed. Tanya played with my emotions to get the reaction that we got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And John Skelton has also admitted behind bars that, yes, he did a computer search a few days before the boys went missing. Why? Well, the boys wanted to do it. They were interested. They had seen a G.I. Joe show on television, so they wanted to learn about neck breaking, and they wanted to learn about poison.

I want to go to Wendy Walsh, psychologist, joining us today -- tonight from Los Angeles. Wendy, something very concerning was found on the MySpace page of John Skelton. It`s a poem that he wrote some time ago, but it was entitled "The Dumpster." Wendy, listen to this as I recite some of this poem and give me your thoughts.

It says, quote, "I`m your little boy." And remember, this is a little boy in a dumpster. "I`m your little boy. So, mom, please stay. I`m cold and alone in this metal room with plastic bags and a worn out broom. Nobody hears my call for you. Come back mommy because I need you. It`s my dying breath, and I see a glow. It`s an angel from heaven, and he`s taking me home" -- Wendy.

WENDY WALSH, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST: Mm, mm, mm. Well, you know, I would analyze this probably as looking at the child inside him. I think this loss of Tanya, his wife, is something that`s been eating him up. It`s mommy he wants to come back and save him. Truthfully, this entire event happened because of his anger at Tanya. And for him to say she was playing with my emotions so that she would get the result she got, that`s his way of saying she tormented me.

It`s a paranoid way of looking at your own emotional chaos and saying she did it to me, she tormented me, it`s her fault that this badness happened, and that I`m spiraling out of control and then asking for forgiveness on Facebook? I mean, all of this makes an emotional case. A psychological detective would say, OK, here`s the little boy in him feeling like he`s dying without his mommy and then enraged and spiraling and then asking for forgiveness.

This tells me that, you know, he probably did something really awful to his children, but only to get back at his ex-wife.

CASAREZ: And John Burris, could this poem "The Dumpster," be part of the premeditated plan to do away with these three little boys, his state of mind, and the thought would be to dispose of them in a dumpster?

JOHN BURRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it goes both ways. I mean, obviously, it goes to his mental state of what he was thinking about, and certainly, one could be -- it could be used in that sense. But also, it can also be used from a defensive point of view as well. I mean, after all, when you use that statement like that, you`re talking about premeditated murder, you`re talking about three kids, you could be looking at a death penalty-type case here, and this statement itself could also mitigated against that as well. So, it goes both ways. It turned it helps the prosecution, but it also helps the defense as well.

CASAREZ: And also tonight, please help us find Walter "Bo" Brawner. He is 67 years old. Vanishes June 10th, 2008 from Shepherd, Texas. He is a white male, 5`4", 120 pounds, with gray hair and blue eyes. If you have any information, please call 936-653-4367.

If your loved one is missing and you need help, go to CNN.com/nancygrace. Send us your story. We want to help you find your loved ones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prayers tonight for Andrew, Alex, and Tanner, the three Skelton Brothers police say remain in grave danger the longer they go missing. No one has seen them since Thanksgiving, and everyone here is praying they`re out there somewhere and safe. They have dozens of volunteers searching this tiny town for any signs of the little boys, working with few if any leads, neighbors here traipsing through wooded areas, even streams.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s devastating to them to know that they don`t know where the boys are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the boys` father, John Skelton. His sons were last in his care Thanksgiving Day. Out of work, separated, and a neighbor says depressed. He tried to hang himself and told police he wanted his boys out of his home when he did it. So, he gave them to a woman he has an e-mail relationship with, even though, their mother was just a block away. Police and now even the FBI unable to find that woman or confirm she exists. Bottom line, they don`t know hat`s happened to the boys.

SKELTON: The boys told me that Tanya was, they put it sexing them which I tried to confirm with Tanya, but Tanya wouldn`t have anything to do with me. She wouldn`t talk to me about it or anything and alienated me and started just -- started alienated the kids from me and stuff. And, I have to go with, you know, I don`t think my kids would lie to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: John Skelton the father of these three precious little Skelton Brothers speaking out behind bars, wanting his story heard. To Tom Wait, reporter from WXYZ, CNN affiliate. Tom, why do you think he really picked up the phone and called you wanting to do this interview? Why?

WAIT: And I think that`s a great question, and I`m not a psychotherapist, obviously, but I would say, from my assessment of why he called me, I think he really wanted to talk to Tanya. He says in the interview that he wanted to speak with her, that he wanted her to come visit him in jail, and that she would not even place a phone call to him. If you listen to that interview, and I know you have, Jean, he says over and over again, Tanya mistreated me.

Tanya played with my emotions. Tanya made me depressed. This is why I`m acting the way I am. And he also says that his wife was abusing his kids, but yet, he still says he wants to see her. So, I think, really, the reason why he was reaching out to me, I think, he wants her to be -- to hear his voice. I think he wants her to get the message that he still loves her, that he still wants to talk to her. So, I think that`s the kind of twisted mind we might be dealing with here. That`s just my assessment.

But from what he said is he literally says he wants to talk to her. And he says in the interview that she should listen to her instincts. That the kids are still alive, and that he cites a magazine interview where she thinks he still is a good father. That she says she believes that he wouldn`t ever hurt the boys. he Keeps --

CASAREZ: And Tom, we have got that from your interview, where John Skelton confirms that the children are alive. Everybody, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKELTON: I am probably the only one here volunteering to be in jail.

WAIT: Are your kids alive? Or, I mean, is that what you`re saying by that you`re volunteering?

SKELTON: Yes. I refuse to let them go back with Tanya.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaaskids Foundation, joining us from San Francisco. What do you think about that? Tanya won`t talk to him, and that`s understandable. I understand that, but we want to find the boys. That`s the goal. Do you think she should talk to him?

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDE, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: No. Why should she talk to him? He`s taken the things that meant most to her in life. This is a vengeance killing pure and simple. She wants those children. He`s ensured that she can`t have those children. If he can`t have her, she can`t have the kids. Case is closed.

CASAREZ: Right. Right. I agree with you. To Tom Shamshak, private investigator, former police chief, joining us out of Boston. Here`s where I`m going with this. Any jailhouse interview is recorded. So, you go into jail, it`s going to be recorded. Law enforcement`s got that. It will go into the hands of prosecutors, can be used at trial. The point is to find the boys. Could he tell her things that he`s not telling anybody else that could help in the investigation to find them?

TOM SHAMSHAK, FMR. POLICE CHIEF: Jean, he could, but I have to agree with Marc. I don`t think that there`s any benefit. I think what they should do is go for the death penalty, and you`ll see him squirm pretty quickly, not wanting to, you know, face death. I think that`s the only thing that`s going to unseal him. I don`t see him providing any more information.

CASAREZ: Well, John Burris, defense attorney, joining us out of California, here`s the issue. He has been charged with parental kidnapping. John, that is one year maximum, two years maximum, and you`ve got three kids. So, it is $30 million bail, but there`s not much of a term of imprisonment here. How can the deal work?

What can they do to get answers out of him because he`s not charged with kidnapping or murder yet? But once he`s charged with that, that`s a life term in Michigan. Not much weight for him to confess. Not much motive for him to confess.

BURRIS: Well, there`s no motive for him to confess what these minor - - what the relatively small charges against him. If the prosecution has evidence that he committed a crime or close to it, then they really should charge him with something significant that will create an incentive. Although, I will say -- I thought to disagree with others who think that the wife should not go speak with him. I don`t -- there`s nothing ventured, nothing gained here.

She obviously would have to be a decoy in a way that she`s got to give up something and talk to him in ways to get his confidence as a parent. And I think there`s nothing to be lost in that regard. You can always cut the deal at some later point when you want to find the children with greater charges filed, but at this stage of the game, I don`t see why she shouldn`t be used to go in and talk to this person and see what can happen.

Each of their emotions are pretty high, but I don`t -- I disagree that she should not make an effort if there`s any chance of him talking.

CASAREZ: I agree with you. Boy, I`d be in there in a second because I`d want to do anything to find my boys. Anything. To Debbie in New York. Hi, Debbie.

DEBBIE, NEW YORK: Hi, Jean.

CASAREZ: Thanks for calling.

DEBBIE: My question is when did this case turn into a homicide investigation?

CASAREZ: Well, coincidentally, it turned into a homicide investigation the very same day that Tom Wait, reporter from CNN affiliate, WXYZ, gets the phone call from John Skelton. It was about a week ago. To Tom Shamshak, former police chief, that`s a very important development in this case for them to now call it a homicide. They`ve known it`s a homicide for a long time, is my instinct. Why did they suddenly come out with that publicly last week?

SHAMSHAK: Jean, again, my analysis is that they received correspondence from the forensic lab confirming the analysis that might indicate that there are three separate blood types that are there, could be linked to the children. And, so now, they`re moving forward, but I suspect, just based on my experience, that that is what has occurred here, that they`ve got results from the lab, and they`re moving forward -- Jean.

CASAREZ: That`s interesting. Also, I think, based in good faith of all of that, also as a pressure tactic, possibly, to John Skelton to come forward because they know he`s the key. To Wendy Walsh, psychoanalyst, joining us from California tonight, I think Marc Klaas hit it on the head when he said this was a revenge killing. I can`t have you, then you can`t have your kids.

WALSH: That`s my suspicion here. I think that he is not only still in love, his version of love, with Tanya, but he`s obsessed with her. He`s stalking her. He`s doing whatever he can to get her to show up at prison, to hear his words through a reporter. This guy wants her there. And now, Marc`s right. Why should we reward that behavior? Why should she show up?

But the truth is this is a mother who loves her children and wants to get them back or have some closure on this atrocity, this tragedy. So, could she be used as a decoy? Absolutely. Because he might say things to her that he wouldn`t say to anybody else.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKELTON: Just stop treating me this way because I didn`t do anything wrong. I was trying to find a way to get people to talk to me to get her to talk to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CASAREZ: Tonight, the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, another sister, a brother, a father, or a mother, they disappear, and the families are left behind, wondering, waiting, and hoping. Let us help them find their loved ones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tilawna Cheatham was last seen at a convenience store near her home in South Carolina. She was 9 years old. You`re now looking at an age-progressed photo indicating how Tilawna would look today. Help find her.

Jon Haynes was last heard from the Boulder, Colorado area when he called his father back home in California.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had just graduated high school. He made valedictorian. My father bought him a brand new car. He drove it out to Colorado a month before his dorms opened, so he could get a job. He called us when he arrived. Two days later, he was gone. He had picked up a hitchhiker and that person had contacted us after this, when he went missing. They never found a body. The day he was supposed to call us back, he didn`t.

And two days later, his car was found in very suspicious circumstances out by a dump. The windows were down. The keys were in the ignition. All of his belongings were gone, and it was raining. This is a car that was four days old. It`s been horrible. It`s really a nightmare. You can`t explain to somebody. My father and mother looked for him for, you know, a good ten years really actively, and then I sort of picked it up from there when they just couldn`t bear to do it anymore.

Jon, he was all sorts of fun. He was really great. He was an amazing skier, and he was silly and just a tremendous amount of fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clinton Nelson was last seen leaving a friend`s home in Louisiana in September 2006. He is 6`1" and about 160 pounds.

Shane Walker was just a toddler when he disappeared from his mother`s sight in the blink of an eye at a park in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I let these two little kids play with Shane in the park. It was a boy and a girl. This man came and sat by me while on the park bench while I was sitting there, and I turned my head for a second. when I turned back, Shane and these two kids that I let him play with, they were gone. And then I panicked, started hollering, screaming. So, I assume my baby got sold for black market. Definitely, he`s alive. He`s alive somewhere. I`ve just got to find him.

Stephanie Benton was traveling with a female friend in Bullhead City, Arizona. The two were separated, and Stephanie has been missing ever since. If you have information, call 1-800-the-lost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. See you tomorrow night, 9 o`clock sharp eastern. Until then, we will keep looking.

END