Still no evidence that missing Nova Scotia children were kidnapped, RCMP say

Globe and Mail

a day ago

After receiving hundreds of tips, analyzing hours of video footage and seizing electronic devices, the Nova Scotia RCMP insist there's still no evidence that two young children who disappeared from the rural hamlet of Lansdowne nearly six weeks ago were kidnapped.
The Mounties in a statement Wednesday described their investigation into the mysterious case as tenacious and intensive. They said they were getting help from the RCMP-run National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains, as well as provincial and municipal police agencies from Nova Scotia and other parts of Canada.
But despite suggestions from the children's stepfather that someone may have abducted them, police have found nothing to suggest six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan were taken from their home.
'There is no evidence the children were abducted, however, investigators are exploring all possibilities,' RCMP spokesperson Cindy Bayers said during an interview Wednesday.
The RCMP said in their latest statement that more than 11 units of the national police force are engaged in the investigation and that they're using every in-house tool and resource, including digital forensics, truth verification and behavioral sciences units, legal support and forensic analysis. A national charity, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, has also been offering support to the children's families and their school.
So far, police have been granted seven judicial authorizations to seize devices and materials that they believe may help their investigation, and more applications are expected, Ms. Bayers said. She declined to specify what the devices or the materials are.
She added there have been no confirmed or substantiated sightings of the children since they were reported missing around 10 a.m. on May 2.
Two Nova Scotia children are missing. Here's a timeline of key events since the siblings vanished
The children were last seen in public on May 1, getting groceries with their stepfather, Daniel Martell, in the nearby town of New Glasgow.
Mr. Martell has said he and the family spent the evening at the mobile home while he worked on the fence at the back of the property. His mother, who owns the mobile home, resides on the property in a camper.
The next morning, the children's mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, marked the children absent from school at 6:17 a.m., Mr. Martell said.
Roughly four hours later, Ms. Brooks-Murray called 911 and reported Lilly and Jack missing. Both she and Mr. Martell have said they were dozing in bed and awoke to find the children gone. They assumed the kids put on their boots, went out the back door and escaped the wood and chicken wire fence that surrounds the back yard of the home, he told The Globe and Mail.
Ms. Brooks-Murray left the home the following day with the couple's one-year-old daughter, cut off contact with Mr. Martell and later changed her Facebook status to single.
Search and rescue teams pored over the area for six days, traversing thick woods, brush, swamps and steep terrain, returning twice more to search areas that major crime investigators had identified as worth re-examining.
Police say they've extensively searched inside the family's mobile home, the property and outbuildings as well as nearby septic systems, wells and culverts. Four mineshafts in the Lansdowne Station area have also been searched, Ms. Bayers said Wednesday.
'We're working to identify and locate any others,' she added.
Lansdowne Station is a historical copper mining area with a labyrinth of old shafts and tunnels. In 2002, the body of a man who had been missing for 19 years was discovered by amateur mineral explorers inside an old copper mine, located on private property in the area, according to a local news story. The remains of 39-year-old Alex Penney, extracted by a team of RCMP officers, were later identified through DNA analysis and remains an unsolved homicide.
In the case of Lilly and Jack Sullivan, the Mounties said they had collected hundreds of hours of video from home and business security cameras in the areas surrounding Lansdowne Station.
Police say they've received 488 tips, and formally interviewed 54 people, some of whom took polygraph tests. Mr. Martell has said he volunteered to do one recently and that his results were favourable.
He recently told The Globe that he's been interviewed by a homicide detective, providing as many details as possible, and suggested other people he believes police should interview.
'I just continue to do media and get the word out for the kids, keep it alive and keep it relevant so we can get as many tips as possible,' he said in late May.
Cpl. Sandy Matharu, who is leading the investigation for the Northeast Nova RCMP Major Crime Unit, said in a statement Wednesday that police are accessing, evaluating and analyzing a 'significant volume of information from a variety of sources.'
The statement adds: 'We're committed to doing what is necessary to locate Lilly and Jack and advance the investigation, which may take longer than we all hoped.'