View full sizeIn this Nov. 22, 2011, photo, Tanya Zuvers, mother of Alex, Andrew and Tanner Skelton, walks back to her car after visiting Wakefield Park in Morenci, Mich. Three trees are planted in honor of her sons who went missing after spending Thanksgiving with their father, John Skelton, last year. He was charged with unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced in their sons' disappearance.The mother of three missing Michigan boys believes they will come home alive even though it has been a year since they were last seen with their now-jailed father at his home near the Ohio state line.
Tanya Zuvers always keeps her cellphone within reach, waiting for a call that the boys have been found, and she has birthday cards and Christmas presents ready.
"As their mom I have always felt they're alive, and that gets stronger," Zuvers told The Blade newspaper.
Her sons, Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton, have not been seen since they went to spend last Thanksgiving at their father's home in Morenci, a small town in Michigan that straddles the Ohio state line. They were 9, 7, and 5 years old.
Their father, John Skelton, didn't return them, setting off a search that involved hundreds of volunteers in northwest Ohio and southern Michigan. Police have said they don't believe his story that he handed the boys over to a group he hasn't identified to protect them from their mother.
Skelton pleaded no contest to unlawful imprisonment in July as part of a plea bargain and was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
Zuvers said she hasn't talked with her ex-husband since he said he attempted suicide a year ago.
"There are things I wish I could say to him, but it wouldn't accomplish anything," she said.
"I never thought it would be one year later and they still wouldn't be home," she said. "In the beginning I really thought this would be over and done with."
Zuvers in the spring tried to move back into the home where she lived with the boys.
"I got to the point where I couldn't stop crying, couldn't get out of bed," she said.
She moved out in August and is looking for a job and takes care of her new granddaughter. She told The Daily Telegram of Adrian that she relies on her faith and support from the community.
She continues to wait for the boys. There are unwrapped Christmas gifts in the basement, and she wrote each of the boys a letter for their birthdays and put them in cards.
"I know there's a good possibility of that," Zuvers said. "It's hard to think they'll never be the same happy-go-lucky guys they were before this. It makes my blood boil, but we'll get through this. When they come home, we've already conquered the hardest part."