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Amber Alert Issued For 3 Brothers

 Authorities are pulling out all the stops to locate three missing children near the Michigan Ohio border.

Hundreds of volunteers, police and firefighters spent a long weekend searching for the children.

At the heart of the investigation is a perplexing account by the father, 39-year-old John Skelton, who told investigators he'd left the boys in the care of a woman with whom he had an online relationship. Yet by late Saturday, officers had no luck finding the woman.

Skelton was being treated at a hospital in Ohio for "mental health issues'' on Saturday, one day after he tried to kill himself, said Morenci Police Chief Larry Weeks. Morenci is about 75 miles southwest of Detroit and just north of the Ohio state line.

Skelton told investigators Friday that he didn't want the boys in his house when he committed suicide, so he asked a woman named Joann Taylor to take them to their mother, who is separated from Skelton. Weeks said Saturday that officers haven't been able to confirm that Taylor exists.

An Amber Alert was issued Friday for Skelton's sons: 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner.

When asked if Skelton was a suspect in the boys' disappearance, Weeks said: ``We haven't ruled anything out, yet.''

Skelton said he met Taylor several years ago and that the two had been involved in an online relationship. She was believed to live in Jackson or Hillsdale counties in southern Michigan.

But officers Saturday had no success tracking down a woman by that name or the silver van Skelton said she was driving.

``The bulk of our action has been putting together a timeline and trying to locate this Joann Taylor,'' said Weeks, whose agency was joined in the search by Michigan State Police and the FBI.

(Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.)

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