MORENCI, Mich. – Tanya Zuvers still can't believe her three sons are gone.
Andrew Skelton, Alexander Skelton and Tanner Skelton have been missing from their hometown of Morenci, Michigan, since Thanksgiving 2010.
"I think if someone had told me four years ago that I would be sitting here, four years later, talking about the fact that my sons are still missing, I would have said, ‘No, it'll be over by then.' But it's not. So I guess it's surreal that I'm still living this," Zuvers said.
When they disappeared, the boys were in the care of their father, John Skelton. He told investigators that he gave them to someone he met online, in what he claimes was an effort to protect them. He has since pleaded no contest to three counts of unlawful imprisonment and is serving a 10-15 year prison sentence.
"(From prison) he reached out to me and in his two letters it was all about our divorce and that I'm the one that caused this, that I'm the one at fault for why we're living the lives we're living," Zuvers said. "Not one mention of Andrew, Alexander or Tanner. Not one word about the boys. "
The grieving mother said she wrote back in desperation for information.
"In each of those letters, my focus was where are Andrew, Alexander and Tanner? What have you done with my sons? You need to talk, stop being a coward," Zuvers said.
Michigan State Police have kept their investigation open and recently released new age-progression photos of the boys, who would now be 13, 11 and 9 years old.
"I always will see them as 5, 7 and 9, but I try to picture scenarios with them older in the new pictures and what they would be like," Zuvers said.
Police have interviewed new witnesses, poured over evidence collected and asked hunters to be on the lookout for anything unusual in the rural areas near the family's former home.
Zuvers said she's confident the case will be closed.
"There will always be that little glimmer of hope until we have the concrete proof that they are, one way or another, that they're deceased or not. As their mom, I have to keep that glimmer of hope," she said. "I firmly believe, whether they are alive or deceased, they will come home someday. One way or another, we will have answers and proof."