RCMP scaling back search for missing children Lily, 6, and Jack, 4, in Nova Scotia

National Post

07-05-2025

The RCMP is scaling back its search for young siblings Jack and Lily Sullivan
Article content
Article content
At a media briefing Wednesday afternoon at the search headquarters, Staff-Sgt. Curtis MacKinnon said hundreds of searchers and investigators have covered four square kilometres of heavily wooded terrain.
Article content
He said despite public appeals, there have been no reports of sightings of four-year-old Jack or six-year-old Lily.
Article content
Article content
MacKinnon said the search will still continue, and personnel will circle back through some of the previously-searched areas.
Article content
Article content
'We're transitioning from a full-scale search to searches in more specific spaces, spaces that have already been searched by our teams,' MacKinnon said. 'We want to circle back to increase the probability that all clues have been found.'
Article content
He said when decisions are made to transition a search from active to scaled back, 'the probability of survival is taken into consideration.'
'I want to assure you that our missing persons investigation continues,' he said. 'We're not packing up, and we're not giving up. Our investigation is broad, and it won't end until we know where Lily and Jack are and can bring them home.'
Article content
He said police 'will continue to investigate and chase leads for as long, and as hard as, we have to. We have the best investigators working every aspect of the file.'
Article content
Jack and Lily were reported missing from their home on the Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, Pictou County at about 10 a.m. last Friday.
Article content
A massive search has been ongoing day and night ever since, with over 100 volunteers from over a dozen search and rescue associations, helicopters, K-9 teams, drones and a variety of provincial and federal agencies working in a co-ordinated effort.
Article content
Article content
On Monday, Daniel Robert Martell, the children's stepfather, told The Chronicle Herald that he and the children's mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, last heard Jack and Lily on Friday morning as they lay in bed with their baby.
Article content
Article content
'The sun was already up and Lily came into the (bedroom),' said Martell.
Article content
'She had a pink shirt on. We could hear Jackie in the kitchen. A few minutes later we didn't hear them so I went out to check. The sliding door was closed. Their boots were gone.'
Article content
He said the children have undiagnosed autism and it is not like them to wander far. Martell said he immediately jumped in the car and searched neighbouring roads, looking in culverts. By the time he returned home, the RCMP were there, having been called by the children's mother.
Article content
Brooks-Murray left the home Saturday to be with family. According to Martell, the two have had no contact since.
Article content
'Everybody is still holding out hope, but you can see it starting to wear,' Amy Hansen, of the Colchester County Ground Search and Rescue Association, told The Chronicle Herald on Monday.
Article content