What we know about the search for missing N.S. children

Lily Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, were last seen Friday morning

CBC News · Posted: May 06, 2025 3:25 PM ADT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The search effort is ongoing for a sister and brother who were reported missing from their home in Nova Scotia’s Pictou County on May 2.

RCMP say they were called that day to find Lily Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4.

The children are believed to have wandered away from their family home on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, N.S., about 20 kilometres southwest of New Glasgow.

When were they last seen?

According to the children’s stepfather, Daniel Martell, Lily and Jack were last seen on Friday morning.

The children attend Salt Springs Elementary, but Martell said they were not at school on Friday because Lily had a cough, and they were also home sick from school on Thursday.

‘Nobody is giving up yet’: N.S. crews spend 5th day searching for missing children

Martell said that while he and their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, were in the bedroom with their one-year-old baby, Lily came in and out several times, and Jack could be heard in the kitchen.

He thinks the children must have opened the sliding back door, which he said is nearly silent, and went outside.

“When we noticed that the children were gone, I immediately jumped in the vehicle, surveyed all the areas, [as] many dirt roads, [as] many culverts as I could and waited for the police to get there,” Martell told CBC News on Monday.

How are authorities treating the investigation

When the children were reported missing on Friday, the RCMP said there was no evidence they had been abducted.

Since then, there’s been no indication from police that this has changed. But Martell said Tuesday that he now believes the children were taken.

Daniel Martell stands next to a pink ribbon on his property, which marks where crews have already searched. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)

He said investigators with the RCMP’s major crimes unit spoke with him a few days ago and with members of his family on Monday.

“[The RCMP were] taking statements from the very start. They just want to rule everything out before they switch … concerns from being, you know, search and rescue to abduction,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

When asked on Tuesday if the major crimes unit is involved, an RCMP spokesperson said a “variety of teams” are working on the investigation “in order to provide tools, skills and resources as necessary.”

Why wasn’t an Amber Alert issued?

In an interview with CTV News on Saturday, the children’s mother said she appreciated the huge search effort, but she wished an Amber Alert had also been issued.

“Not just that they could possibly be abducted — which it is a possibility that they could have been — but just an alert to let everyone know that they are missing,” she said.

Police have said there was no Amber Alert because there is no evidence the children were abducted.

A vulnerable persons alert was issued for Pictou County when the children were first reported missing Friday, and an additional alert was issued Saturday evening to Pictou, Antigonish and Colchester counties.

The search remains focused on the rural area surrounding the family home, which is heavily wooded, making it difficult for search and rescue teams to comb through.

What were the children wearing?

When last seen, Martell said, Jack was wearing a pull-up diaper and Lily was wearing a white backpack with red strawberries on it that should be highly visible.

The RCMP say Lily has shoulder-length light brown hair and bangs, and may be wearing a pink sweater, pink pants and pink boots. Jack, meanwhile, has short “blondish” hair and blue dinosaur boots.

Helicopters and drones have been assisting in the search for the children. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)

Where are authorities searching?

Since Friday, searchers have been scouring the area near the family home.

The Nova Scotia Guard — a provincially organized volunteer group — has also been deployed.

Overnight Monday, the RCMP said multiple drones equipped with “forward-looking infrared technology” to spot differences in temperature were used to search the area.

Meanwhile, roughly 60 specially trained ground search and rescue members were combing the area below. Police dogs have also been assisting in the search.

According to Amy Hansen, the search manager for day shifts with Colchester Ground Search and Rescue, 100 to 140 searchers have been used during the day, and 60 to 75 each night.

The searchers are using pink ribbons to mark areas that have already been covered off by rescue teams. Thousands of these ribbons now dot tree branches in the area.

Police said the search is also informed by statistical data, including insights into the behaviours of people in similar situations.

Police and search and rescue teams are asking the public to stay away from the search area to allow trained searchers to do their work.

How is the community coping?

Five days into the search, an RCMP spokesperson said that search and rescue crews are still committed to bringing Lily and Jack home.

“It has been a few days, but that has not dampened the hopes of the [search] teams and the police who are here trying to get these kids home,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Carlie McCann told reporters on Monday afternoon.

Cpl. Carlie McCann with the Nova Scotia RCMP said Monday that search and rescue teams remain hopeful. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)

Robert Parker, the warden for the Municipality of Pictou County, said the mood in the rural region of roughly 43,000 people has been “tense” as the search continues.

“Nobody is giving up yet,” Parker told CBC’s Information Morning Nova Scotia on Tuesday morning. “These children have almost become everybody’s children in this county.”

He said that while it’s human nature to jump to conclusions, the public should be careful about what they’re posting on social media.

“There’s always people who want to say something that’s hurtful,” he said. “We have to remember kindness.”