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Frantic search is launched for missing schoolkids and a baby last seen a tourist hotspot
Frantic search is launched for missing schoolkids and a baby last seen a tourist hotspot

Daily Mail​

timea day ago

  • Daily Mail​

Frantic search is launched for missing schoolkids and a baby last seen a tourist hotspot

A search is underway for two children, an infant and a woman who were last seen on the Gold Coast, with police and family concerned for their welfare. The 10-year-old girl and six-year-old boy were last seen near Mirambeena Drive in Pimpama, a northern suburb of the Gold Coast, about 8.50am on Friday. Police believe the pair were travelling with a woman and baby known to them in a white Nissan X-Trail with Queensland registration plates 992XPS. The vehicle may be in the Tenterfield area - just south of the Queensland border in New South Wales 's Northern Tablelands, police said on Saturday afternoon. Family and police are concerned for their welfare due to their young age. Police released an image of the boy and girl along with their appeal for information and physical descriptions of all four. The girl is described as caucasian with short brown hair and brown eyes. The boy is also caucasian with brown hair and brown eyes. The baby is described as caucasian. The woman is caucasian with dark brown hair and eyes.

Police searching for schoolchildren, infant missing from Queensland's Gold Coast
Police searching for schoolchildren, infant missing from Queensland's Gold Coast

News.com.au

timea day ago

  • News.com.au

Police searching for schoolchildren, infant missing from Queensland's Gold Coast

A desperate search is underway for two missing schoolchildren and an infant last seen on Queensland's Gold Coast. Police called on the public on Saturday to help find the 10-year-old girl and six-year-old boy last seen near Mirambeena Dr in Pimpama shortly before 9am. Officers believe the pair were with a woman and a baby known to them, and were travelling in a white Nissan X-Trail. The vehicle bears the Queensland registration 992XPS and is believed to possibly be in the Tenterfield area in NSW's Northern Tablelands. Police and the children's family are concerned about the welfare of the children due to their age. The girl is described as caucasian with short brown hair and brown eyes. The boy is described as caucasian, with brown hair and brown eyes. The baby is described as caucasian, and the woman is described as caucasian, with dark brown hair and eyes. Anyone who may have seen the Nissan is urged to contact police.

Step-grandmother of missing N.S. kids recalls hearing their voices, followed by 'nothing'
Step-grandmother of missing N.S. kids recalls hearing their voices, followed by 'nothing'

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Step-grandmother of missing N.S. kids recalls hearing their voices, followed by 'nothing'

Janie Mackenzie was asleep in her trailer when she awoke to the sound of her dog barking, a telltale sign her two young step-grandchildren were out playing on a swingset in the backyard. She said she heard Lilly and Jack Sullivan's voices. Her bedroom is only a few steps away. "After that, I heard nothing," said Mackenzie of the morning of May 2, when the two children disappeared from the property in Lansdowne Station, a sparsely populated community in Nova Scotia's Pictou County. The next thing she did hear was her son, Daniel Martell, yelling the children's names. A short time later, she emerged from the trailer to find the children's mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, standing in the driveway with her one-year-old daughter on her hip. Extensive searches turn up little evidence Brooks-Murray told her the children were missing, recalled Mackenzie, and had been gone for about 20 minutes. "I closed the door, got my boots on, came out here, ran up in the woods," Mackenzie said in an interview outside of her trailer. It is the first time CBC News has been given access to the property from which the children went missing. Mackenzie said she was speaking to her brother on the phone for about two minutes at 8:48 a.m. local time and then dozed off before being awoken by the dog's barking, so the children went missing sometime after that. What followed was days of extensive searches of the property and surrounding woods that turned up little evidence, aside from two boot prints and a piece of a blanket. Over the past 11 weeks, nearly a dozen RCMP units — including major crimes — have been working on the case, but have released few details about what may have happened to Lilly, 6, and Jack, 4. Mackenzie has decided to share her side of the story in the hopes of bringing more clarity to what transpired that morning and to help dispel the flurry of rumours that have been circulating online. "I blame myself for not getting up that morning to see the kids because ... this would have never happened," she said through tears. Mackenzie described the scene on her property — where she has lived for 26 years — as chaotic on that first day of the disappearance as RCMP officers, search and rescue officials and reporters descended upon the rural community. Two years before, Martell and Brooks-Murray came to live there with Jack and Lilly, whose biological father had chosen a few years prior not to be a part of their lives. Soon after, Martell and Brooks-Murray welcomed their daughter. Mackenzie said she gave the young family the mobile home and she started living in a small RV. She built the wooden swingset in the backyard, which she outfitted with a blue slide and sandbox. WATCH | Mackenzie takes CBC News through her property: "They were part of my life for two years. When they came to live here, they became part of this family," said the 59-year-old Mackenzie. Mackenzie said she and her family have been nothing but co-operative with police since the children disappeared, all while it has attracted intense international interest. Mackenzie said there was one instance on the very first day of the search when an officer attempted to enter her trailer and she stopped the officer, but only because she wanted to remove her dog first. Since then, the property has been scoured. Both RCMP and search and rescue officials have searched the property's mobile home and trailer multiple times. The well and septic tank have been searched. A drone was even flown under the mobile home. Martell was also given a polygraph test, which he says he passed. And yet, accusations that she or her son are somehow involved in the disappearance continue to be hurled their way online, she said. "My life has been turned upside down, inside and out," she said. "I had nothing to do with any of this.… I want them home safe and sound just as much as everybody else does. I want to know what happened. "I want the rumours to stop. I just want everything to stop. For me, for the sake of the other children, my grandchildren. They don't deserve this. They're innocent of everything. Jack and Lilly are innocent of everything. They didn't deserve this." In the beginning, her family was receiving regular updates about the investigation. But that has all but stopped in recent weeks, leaving her and Martell with many unanswered questions. She feels the case now lacks the urgency it deserves. She's also critical of the RCMP's initial response to the case, questioning how far two children could have reasonably travelled through thick woods in the span of roughly 20 minutes. Having lived on the property for decades, she's acutely aware of just how dense the forest is, which was made worse by downed trees during post-tropical storm Fiona in 2022. "We've went for walks in the woods. I had to practically … carry Jack through the woods because there was no way that he was walking through all that tree falls and bushes," she said, later taking CBC News through a path the children often used, littered with criss-crossing trees. RCMP investigation questioned "I don't think they're in the woods. We searched this place.... They had helicopters out. They had drones out. They had searchers. They went over this place with a fine-tooth comb." A member of Brooks-Murray's extended family is also critical of how the RCMP investigation has played out. Darin Geddes, a cousin of Brooks-Murray's grandmother, said he had been speaking with many members of both families in the weeks following the disappearance and believed he had information that could be pertinent to the investigation, but was brushed off by the Mounties. "It's not hurt. It's rage. And I'm trying to control it," Geddes said in a recent interview, adding he did eventually track down an officer to take his statement. On Wednesday, RCMP said units from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario are working on the case. Spokesperson Cpl. Carlie McCann said a pink blanket that was seized on Lansdowne Road on the first day of the search is being forensically examined. McCann said the family has confirmed the blanket belongs to Lilly. McCann said police are following up on more than 600 tips from the public, reviewing 5,000 video files and have interviewed more than 60 people. Asked if police are investigating the possibility of the children still being alive, McCann said: "We've not closed any doors on the investigation at this point." She also said an RCMP family liaison is in regular contact with a designated relative of Lilly and Jack, providing ongoing updates and support. She would not say who the designated relative is. Mackenzie said she lived a quiet life before the disappearance launched her and her family into the spotlight, as keyboard warriors and podcasters dissect every aspect of the case. She said cars will drive by and slow down, peering down the gravel driveway flanked by the mobile home and trailer. It's also not uncommon for drones to be flown over her house, for members of the media to knock at her door, and to be recognized everywhere she goes. "I mostly stay around back here and if I do go out front for anything, I usually have my head down because I don't want people to see who I am," she said, seated in front of a green fence that separates her trailer from the rest of the property. "It's not because I'm hiding from anybody…. I'm just a quiet person that just wants to be left alone." The day after the children went missing, Martell and Brooks-Murray attended an RCMP briefing. After that, Brooks-Murray did not return to the home in Lansdowne Station and has not been back since. WATCH | Paternal grandmother speaks to CBC News: Mackenzie said she also hasn't seen her two other grandchildren, Martell's kids from a previous relationship, since the disappearance. She remarked that she went from seeing her five grandchildren regularly to not being able to see any of them, and yearns to be called "Granny" once again. Brooks-Murray did one interview with CTV News the day after the disappearance, but has not spoken to media since. Her mother has told CBC News they were told by police not to speak to media. Through it all, Mackenzie does not believe the children are dead. "You know if something bad happens, you get like your heart drops? Mine hasn't dropped," she said. "Deep down in my heart, I do believe Jack and Lilly are alive." MORE TOP STORIES

Critics call for change after first use of Kentucky's Ian Alert ends in tragedy
Critics call for change after first use of Kentucky's Ian Alert ends in tragedy

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

Critics call for change after first use of Kentucky's Ian Alert ends in tragedy

CUB RUN, Ky. (FOX 56) — A heartbreaking loss in Hart County is prompting urgent questions about Kentucky's new Ian Alert system, designed to help locate missing children with autism. The alert was used for the first time this week after 5-year-old Silas Shearer wandered away from his home Tuesday morning. Tragically, he was later found dead in a nearby pond. The coroner determined he drowned, but the full circumstances of his disappearance remain under investigation. The Ian Alert was created to fill a critical gap for cases involving children on the autism spectrum who may not meet the criteria for a traditional Amber Alert. It's named after 9-year-old Ian Sousis, who drowned in the Ohio River in 2022 after wandering away from home. However, after this first real-world test of the system, some advocates argue that it didn't go far enough. Read more of the latest Kentucky news Jo Grayson, with the Autism Society of the Bluegrass, said the alert lacked key information—such as the child's age, gender, or ethnicity—which made it harder for the public to identify who they were supposed to be looking for. She also criticized the alert's instruction not to intervene, saying that in a case involving a child with a disability, immediate help can be critical. Other advocates noted confusion over the alert itself. Wendy Wheeler-Mullins, also with the Autism Society, said even though she was familiar with the Ian Alert, she momentarily confused it with an Amber Alert. Because the Ian Alert is unique to Kentucky while Amber Alerts are nationwide, she believes the similarity in names could lead to misunderstandings about how to respond. For Rhonda O'Brien, this is more than just policy—it's personal. She helped create the alert system after losing her grandson Ian. She recalls the helplessness of realizing he was missing and not knowing where to begin looking. She hoped that the system would save lives, but she now believes it needs improvements to do that more effectively. O'Brien said Kentucky lacks services for children with special needs and that better support is badly needed. She had hoped her grandson would be here to witness the changes they're working toward, but, in a way, she feels he still is. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: 13 arrested after protest on Covington bridge turns hostile Escaped inmate found hiding in attic of Montgomery County home 66-year-old reported missing in London Ian wanted to be a superhero, and through this alert system, she believes he's becoming one. Amid the grief, O'Brien also urged compassion. Raising a child with special needs is not easy, and in moments like this, she said, families need grace, not judgment. The Autism Society of the Bluegrass said it plans to work with lawmakers on strengthening the alert by making it faster, more descriptive, and easier to understand. They're also calling for more public education to help Kentuckians recognize and respond to these alerts quickly when every second counts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword

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