Latest news with #MalehyaBrooksMurray
National Post
3 days ago
- National Post
Stepfather of missing N.S. kids reportedly says mother's grief worsening due to online speculation
Article content Daniel Martell, the stepfather of missing Nova Scotia children, four-year-old Jack and six-year-old Lilly Sullivan, says their mother's grief is worsening due to online speculation about the case, according to CTV News. Article content Despite a methodical search over the last weekend, 'searchers haven't uncovered anything of significance to the investigation,' Corp. Guillaume Tremblay told National Post on Thursday. Article content Article content 'Any future searches will be determined based on the course of the investigation. RCMP officers from various teams are fully engaged in finding out what happened to Lilly and Jack and we're using all tools and resources to determine the circumstances of their disappearance,' he said. Article content Article content Article content The children were reported missing more than a month ago from their rural home in Pictou County, where they lived with Martell, their mother Malehya Brooks-Murray, and the couple's baby, Meadow. Even with ongoing searches and following up on 355 tips as of late May, authorities still have not found any concrete leads. The lack of evidence has led many people on social media to come up with conspiracy theories about how the children disappeared, which the stepfather says is making the situation worse. Article content 'It doesn't get any easier. One month has passed,' Martell told CTV News. 'Don't attack Maleyha because her mental health is going to be reflected on our daughter, so I don't want anyone attacking Maleyha anymore.' Article content Martell, who attended a vigil for the children held on June 2, said Brooks-Murray's grief was overwhelming and was made worse by speculation. Article content The vigil was held in Stellarton, a town in Pictou County. A video of the solemn event posted on Facebook showed Martell lighting two paper lanterns and letting them float off into the sky. Article content Candlelight vigil for Lilly and Jack Sullivan ❤️💙 Posted by Kimberly Brown on Monday, June 2, 2025 Article content Article content Meanwhile, volunteer organization Halifax Search and Rescue said that scammers may be impersonating the group on fundraising site, GoFundMe. The fake campaign said it has a goal of reaching $100,000 to buy a drone to help with the search for the Sullivan siblings. Article content However, Halifax Search and Rescue director Paul Service said his group doesn't normally request donations through GoFundMe and doesn't base its campaigns on particular searches. Service says a representative from GoFundMe contacted him to say it was taking down the site and investigating after the campaign was reported on CBC.
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- The Guardian
Canadian police scale back search for two children missing in woods for six days
Nearly a week after two young children went missing in rural Nova Scotia, Canadian police say they are beginning to scale back search efforts given the 'low' odds the children are still alive – and that they are not ruling out the possibility of foul play. Since Friday, more than 160 searchers with drones and canine units have scoured the thickly forested region of Pictou county in search of Lily Sullivan, six, and Jack Sullivan, four. The siblings were reported missing on 2 May, when police received a frantic phone call from the family. Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, and stepfather, Daniel Martell, have told local media they were sleeping with their 16-month-old baby on Friday morning as the older children played in the house. But when they awoke later in the morning, the two children were gone. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) proceeded under the belief the children, members of the Mi'kmaq First Nation community of Sipekne'katik, wandered off from their home and probably entered a heavily forested area. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Staff Sgt Curtis MacKinnon said that dozens of searchers were being ordered to stand down and confirmed that the RCMP's major crime unit had been involved in the investigation since 3 May. MacKinnon said all missing persons files 'are treated as suspicious until our investigation leads us to determine otherwise'. He said teams were left with fewer areas to search after after combing through kilometres of unforgiving terrain. 'We're not packing up and we're not giving up.' The disappearance of the children has shaken both the province and the country. And despite a boot print that pushed search teams in one direction, police said there is very little evidence suggesting the children are in the forest. 'I want to assure you that our missing persons investigation continues,' MacKinnon said. 'Many of us have children of our own and want nothing more than to reunite Lily and Jack with their loved ones.' Sgt Robert McCamon said that hopes have dimmed, given the poor weather and length of time the children have been missing. 'The likelihood they're alive right now is very low,' he said. The Globe and Mail reported that Martell was interviewed by police for four hours, as they requested he walk them through both the day of the children's disappearance and the days leading up to the incident. He also told police the children had not been in school in the days prior to their disappearance. 'My story has been consistent. When you tell the truth it's always consistent,' he told the Globe. He told CTV Atlantic that he had been conducting his own search since the children went missing. 'Hardly any evidence at all since the first day. It's mind-boggling that nothing else was found,' he said.
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Haunting update in hunt for siblings aged four and six who vanished into wilds of Nova Scotia
Police in Canada have announced they are dialing back the search for two young children who vanished from their home last week. Jack Sullivan, 4, and his sister Lily, 6, were last seen about 10am on Friday on a road close to their home in Lansdowne Station, Nova Scotia. Their parents believe the kids went out a sliding back door of the family's home while stepfather Daniel Martell and mother Malehya Brooks-Murray fed their baby. At a press conference on Wednesday, Staff Sgt. Curtis MacKinnon said the search for two is now being scaled back. MacKinnon added 'we're not packing up and we're not giving up', saying that all missing persons files remained 'suspicious until our investigation leads us to determine otherwise'. 'Many of us have children of our own and want nothing more than to reunite Lily and Jack with their loved ones', he added. Brooks-Murray last week begged for their safe return in an emotional TV interview after searching the neighborhood for them. 'I'm just staying as hopeful as possible,' she told CTV News in an emotional interview. 'I want them home. I want to hold them, and I want them home. When they're found it will be the biggest relief to hug them.' Brooks-Murray explained that she and Martell thought the children were playing, and they sneaked away the short time the couple were occupied. 'We always make sure that we're out there with them, watching them, and they happen to just get out that sliding door, and we can't hear it when it opens,' she said. 'They were outside playing, but we weren't aware of it at the time, and the next thing we knew it was quiet. 'We get up and look outside. We're looking everywhere, yelling for them, and I instantly just called 911. I just had the instinct I needed to call.' Brooks-Murray said her children may have mild autism but were friendly, contrary to rumors online claiming they were non-verbal. 'They're both really happy-go-lucky children. They're so sweet. They talk to anyone. They'll talk your ear off. They will speak to anyone in a store, everyone. They're just extremely sweet kids,' she said. The distraught mother questioned why an Amber Alert wasn't issued, but police said there was no reason to believe they were abducted. Martell told CBC News on Sunday that he was frightened the children were taken by a stranger.
CBC
06-05-2025
- CBC
What we know about the search for missing N.S. children
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. 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. 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. 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. 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."
CBC
06-05-2025
- CBC
Grandmother of missing kids, aged 4 and 6, speaks out
As the search for two young children missing from their home in rural northeastern Nova Scotia entered its fifth day on Tuesday, their maternal grandmother said she is holding on to hope they will be found safe. "We're just hoping and praying for the best — that's it — for our babies to come home," Cyndy Murray said in a brief phone interview, adding that police have advised the family against speaking with the public. Murray is the grandmother of six-year-old Lily Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan, who were last seen Friday morning. Her daughter is the children's mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray. Police have said that for four days, ground teams have meticulously searched several kilometres in a heavily wooded area around Gairloch Road in the community of Lansdowne Station, where the children's family home is located. Their stepfather, Daniel Martell, said Monday he worries they were abducted, but police say there is no evidence the children were taken and that investigators are acting under the belief both kids wandered from their home. Martell said that after the disappearance, the children's mother left to be with her family in another part of the province and has blocked him on social media. RCMP describe Lily Sullivan as having shoulder-length, light brown hair with bangs, and say she might be wearing a pink sweater, pink pants and pink boots; Jack Sullivan has short, blond hair and is wearing blue dinosaur boots. Up to 140 people at a time have been searching for the children, with the help of police dogs and drones.
