An investigator who had a key role in the search for three missing Michigan brothers testified Monday there’s no sign they’re still alive nearly 15 years later. Larry Weeks was the police chief in 2010 in Morenci (meh-REN’-see), a town along the Ohio border. He said statements by the boys’ father, John Skelton, about their whereabouts all turned out to be false. “I'm confident they're deceased,” Weeks said of the brothers. Weeks was the first witness at an unusual hearing in Lenawee (LEN’-eh-way) County in southern Michigan. Tanya Zuvers (TAN’-yeh ZOO’-verz) is the mother of Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton. She is asking a judge to have the boys declared legally dead. Police believe 53-year-old John Skelton is responsible, though he has not been charged with killing his sons. By November, he is expected to complete a 15-year prison sentence for his failure to give the boys back to Zuvers, the only conviction in the saga. Skelton and Zuvers were having problems in fall 2010 and living apart in Morenci. The boys were with their father at Thanksgiving but were supposed to go back to their mom the next day. Instead, the 9-, 7- and 5-year-old boys were gone. While Skelton was in a hospital with an ankle injury that day, investigators entered his home and found a mess, with broken glass, severed appliance cords and a noose hanging from the second floor. A Bible was open with a verse circled. Hundreds of people searched woods and waters in Michigan and Ohio immediately after the brothers’ disappearance.