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Manton Mother, Sons Still Recovering After Green Mill Motel Explosion

"I cannot imagine being a mother, re-living all of this and knowing what her children are going through,” says Melissa Thoel, owner and manager of Green Mill Motel.

A mother and her sons are still struggling to survive.

An explosion from their motel room sent them to the hospital with severe burns and left many homeless.

Wexford County deputies say Amanda Skardoudos and her sons, Marcus Thomas and Brian Thomas Adams, were in the room where the blast came from.

The motel explosion happened at the Green Mill Motel in Manton round 4 o’clock Wednesday morning.

9&10’s Cody Boyer spoke with the motel’s owner and the boys’ school.

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I spoke with one of Amanda’s other sons on the phone while he’s with his family in the hospital.

He says their conditions are improving — but the battle is not over.

The Manton community, along with the motel’s owner, is thinking of them.

“The boys would come see me on my back deck or come over here and play basketball with the basketball hoop and they were sweet boys,” Thoel says.

Green Mill owner and manager, Melissa “Missy” Thoel, says the boom rocked her out of her bed next door.

She remembers 13-year-old Brian visiting her the night before it happened.

“He says well, Missy, I’m going to say goodnight, I have school tomorrow and he went home and went to bed,” Thoel says. “He loved sports. He loved to ride his bike and he was always so very polite."

He and his 11-year-old brother, Marcus, were badly burned.

“Marcus, oh, my goodness, that baby,” Thoel says. “He loves math and he loves science. We would always see him with a basketball in his hand or a skateboard."

Brian’s classmates covered his locker in support…

Marcus’ homeroom made him a box covered with signatures for him, full of well-wishes and memories.

The school also held a prayer vigil in the morning, organized by a student.

“We have a lot of support here within the school and within the community,” says Len Morrow, superintendent of Manton Consolidated Schools. “The community is always awesome. They always come together, especially in tragedies like this."

Their school is also collecting donations for every family involved.

The people at the motel want to see the boys’ smiling faces again.

“They had such great aspirations for their futures,” Thoel says. “They both had a pretty clue onto what they wanted to do when they grew up. I just pray that God has mercy."

Brian had to be transported to a specialist in Boston due to the severity of his burns.

The Traverse Narcotics Team continues to investigate how this happened.

Detectives say they found "items of interest" in the ashes, but the cause of the fire is still unclear.

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