New court documents detail relationship of missing Sullivan children’s mother, stepfather

CITYnews halifax /  By Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

Newly unsealed court documents detail the relationship between the mother of two Nova Scotia children reported missing and her common-law partner, who she told police was sometimes physical with her.

The documents include excerpts from police interviews and unproven allegations from Malehya Brooks-Murray, who on May 2 called 911 to report that five-year-old Jack Sullivan and his six-year-old sister Lilly Sullivan had wandered away from their rural home north of Halifax.

The police documents, filed to support applications for search warrants, reveal that on May 9, Brooks-Murray was specifically asked if the children’s stepfather, Daniel Martell, was physically abusive.

“Malehya said he would try to block her, hold her down and once he pushed her,” the document reads. “She said he would also take her phone from her when she tried to call her mom, which would sometimes be physical and hurt.”

None of the allegations have been tested in court and Martell is not facing any charges.

More on the missing case:

• Documents reveal new witness statements to RCMP about missing N.S. children
• Sullivan children still missing after Mounties search nearby lakes, interview family members
• A search for the missing Sullivan children turned up items not deemed relevant: RCMP

When reached by phone Thursday, Martell denied the allegations, saying they are part of a narrative designed to make him look evil. “I never abused Malehya,” he said. “But the narrative was set that Daniel is an evil person … You can see all the allegations online. It’s absolutely insane.”

Asked about the allegation that he hurt his partner when he tried to take her phone, Martell said, “Allegations to make me seem evil. It didn’t happen.”

Among the newly unredacted content released this week are portions of a statement Martell gave to police on May 6. At the time, he said he and Brooks-Murray would yell at each other when they were fighting, but he said there was no physical violence in their relationship.

“They had been together for about three years and it moved pretty quickly,” according to the document related to the May 6 interview, adding that the two had met on Facebook.

“He moved into Malehya’s grandmother’s house with her after about two weeks …. He said their relationship is good, they have ups and downs like any couple.”

The documents also say that on May 2 and May 4, Martell told police the couple had recently been fighting about money, but no other details were provided.

The couple separated soon after the search for the children started.

Martell has maintained a very public presence since the missing persons case was opened.

“I’m completely honest and open with absolutely everything,” he said Thursday. “I’ve been the figurehead for the Lily and Jack investigation …. I’ve been at the forefront, displaying everything I could and telling everything I could to the public to keep them up to date on everything that’s going on.”

Still, Martell said loose talk on social media has left his reputation in tatters.

“That’s what this has always been about: making Daniel seem evil,” he said, speaking about himself in the third person. “He has nothing to do with the disappearance, but in the public, as long as he looks evil, the public will judge him as being guilty.”

As for the police investigation, Martell said he recently signed a consent form and submitted a blood sample to the RCMP for genetic analysis. “I watched investigators check the box for myself, (indicating) no criminal involvement,” he said. “So I have no criminal involvement. And that was my very first time seeing that in writing.”

Search warrants and the applications needed to obtain them are supposed to be made public after they have been executed, with some exceptions. But in this case, the RCMP have argued that certain information must remain private as the police investigation continues.

Despite several extensive ground and air searches, including a search in October using cadaver dogs, few clues have been detected to indicate what happened to Lilly and Jack after they left their home in Lansdowne Station, N.S.

In July, the Mounties said they were conducting forensic tests on a pink blanket found during a search of a heavily wooded area near the family’s home. At the time, police said family members had confirmed the blanket belonged to Lilly.

In August, the Mounties released search warrant documents indicating that family members had found the blanket in a tree on Lansdowne Station Road on May 2, about a kilometre from the family home.

Police later dispatched a tracking dog to the area, but the animal was unable to pick up a scent, the documents say. But on May 4, police found another piece of blanket inside a trash bag at the end of the driveway of the children’s home.

During the interview Thursday, Martell said the blood sample he submitted would be used to test something on a blanket, but he did not provide details.

Meanwhile, RCMP said investigators continue to assess hundreds of tips from the public and more than 8,000 video files, including footage recorded by motion-activated trail cameras and dashcam footage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2026.

With files from CityNews Halifax’s Natasha O’Neill.