LENAWEE COUNTY, Mich. - A Lenawee County district judge ruled Thursday that John Skelton will stand trial for the murder of his three sons - Andrew, Alexander and Tanner - who disappeared during Thanksgiving in 2010 and have never been found.

District Judge Laura J. Schaedler issued her ruling saying prosecutors had presented enough evidence to send the case to trial.

Skelton is charged with three counts of murder and three counts of tampering with evidence.

 I start out by saying I believe these children are dead,  Schaedler said.  I don't know where they are dead. I don't know where they are buried... but I believe they are dead. 

Ruling came after pause for tornado warning

The ruling came after seven days of testimony and 23 witnesses - and was briefly interrupted when a tornado warning was issued for Lenawee County around 3:55 p.m., forcing the courtroom to evacuate.

Proceedings resumed at around 4:25 p.m.

Schaedler acknowledged the case rested largely on circumstantial evidence but said that was not a barrier to moving forward.

 The circumstantial evidence in this case is sufficient... some might say it's overwhelming,  she said.

FBI agent recounted Skelton's shifting story

Kelly Liberti, a special agent with the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team - known as CARD - testified via Zoom about her interviews with Skelton at the hospital in late November 2010, following his suicide attempt.

Liberti said she confronted Skelton with evidence that Joanne Taylor - a woman Skelton claimed had taken the boys - did not exist, and that all electronic evidence traced back to Skelton's own computer.

 One of the things we wanted to do right off the bat was let Mr. Skelton know that the evidence we collected - everything we found so far - pointed to the fact that there was no Joanne,  Liberti testified.

Skelton told Liberti he remembered dressing the boys in pajamas, wrapping them in blankets, giving each a stuffed animal and placing them in his van with their seatbelts buckled - but said he had no memory of what happened next.

Liberti noted that while Skelton's pastor, Donna G

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