Katharina Buczek
Finally, John told investigators that he gave his sons to an underground group that would reportedly keep them safe.
These various scenarios left the police with several questions, so they turned to John’s phone records– which helped them figure out where John was the following day after the boys had last been seen. John was reportedly in Morenci early in the day on November 26, 2010.
Afterward, according to Michigan State Police, he traveled to Ohio– where his phone pinged about twenty miles from his home.
Immediately following the ping, though, John’s phone was then shut off, and the next ping placed him back in Morenci two hours and fifteen minutes later.
Today, John is currently serving time in Ionia, Michigan, at the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility. He was never charged in connection to the disappearance of the three boys, but he was charged with unlawful imprisonment and sentenced to ten to fifteen years in prison.
Still, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, that Thanksgiving was not the first time John took his sons from his ex-wife.
He was also accused of removing the boys from school two months prior to their disappearance. John allegedly claimed that he was taking his sons to Florida for a trip to see his parents.
Afterward, John and Tanya divorced, and Tanya was given custody of the boys right before they vanished.
John has since pleaded no contest in regard to the three unlawful imprisonment charges and was later sentenced in 2011.
More recently, he was denied parole in 2020 and did not appear for a parole hearing in 2021. If John is not granted parole, he will be released from prison in 2025.
And tragically, it has now been just over twelve years since Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner were last seen. They would be twenty-one, nineteen, and seventeen years old this year, respectively.
