The mother of three missing Michigan boys asked a judge Monday to declare them dead nearly 15 years later, saying they deserve the respect that they didn’t get at the end of their young lives.

“We may not have their bodies, but their life still meant something,” Tanya Zuvers testified near the end of an unusual hearing in Lenawee County in southern Michigan.

She agreed when her lawyer asked if she wants death certificates so she can put formal dates on a headstone and feel some closure.

“Any loving father would not have killed them. I owe them the respect,” Zuvers, 58, said.

Andrew, Alexander and Tanner Skelton disappeared while they were with their father, John Skelton, at Thanksgiving in 2010. They have not been found, despite countless searches of woods and water in Michigan and Ohio and tips from across the country.

Police clearly believe John Skelton is responsible, though he has not been charged with killing his sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5. By November, he is expected to complete a 15-year prison sentence for his failure to return the boys to Zuvers, the only conviction in the saga.