Four weeks after two children vanished without a trace in rural Nova Scotia, the children’s stepfather is still holding on to hope.
Lilly Sullivan, 6, and her brother Jack Sullivan, 4, have been missing since May 2, when police received a 911 call from their mother and stepfather reporting they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, a sparsely populated area about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
The disappearance sparked an extensive six-day search through 5.5 square kilometres of mostly dense woods and included upward of 160 search and rescue officials, dogs, helicopters and drones.
The effort was scaled back on May 7, but subsequent searches have taken place, including ground searches around the children’s home on Gairloch Road and underwater searches of bodies of water in the region.
On Friday, RCMP said ground search and rescue crews and police will return to the area on the weekend.
In a news release, RCMP said they will “focus on specific areas around Gairloch Road and the nearby pipeline trail, where a boot print was previously located.
“We continue to ask that the public avoid the search area to allow trained searchers to do their work.”
Daniel Martell, the children’s stepfather, has previously told CBC News that two boot tracks were found near his home, as well as another nearby.
The RCMP’s major crime unit has been involved since the day after the children were reported missing.
Martell said the disappearance has taken a toll on him and his family.
“Every day when I wake up, it feels like I’m reliving a nightmare,” said Martell in an interview Friday in Lansdowne Station, nearly one month after the children went missing.
“The main feelings of sadness just turn to anger because there’s no evidence after one month.”
Still, Martell said he has not lost hope.
“That’s all we have at this point,” he said. “That’s the only goal I have … is to bring Jack and Lilly home.”
Martell had asked RCMP for a polygraph test earlier in the investigation. He told CBC News he passed that test, so “you really can’t point fingers at me anymore.” RCMP previously declined to say whether a polygraph would be administered.
Martell also addressed rumours there was a party at the home before the children went missing.
“There was no drug party the day before the disappearance,” he said. “That’s absolute nonsense.”
Robert Parker, warden for the Municipality of the County of Pictou, said there is a feeling of disappointment and sadness in the community.
“We haven’t even found one iota it appears of what happened to little Lilly and little Jack,” said Parker in an interview Friday.
“It’s hard to believe that many people look for that long, including search parties from all over this province, and the RCMP have been involved since Day 1, lots of other looking and trying … but not one iota that I’ve heard of anyway as to a hint as to where the two little ones went.”
Parker said residents are feeling anxious and frustrated by the many questions left unanswered four weeks later.
“I know older people in their 90s, they’ve told me they can’t sleep at night,” he said.
“Those little ones, and all the little ones, belong to all of us. We all feel like they’re part of our family. They’re part of the Pictou County family. They’re part of the Nova Scotia family. We need to find answers.”
Members of the community have been showing their support for Lilly and Jack by placing flowers and stuffed animals on a post outside of the RCMP detachment in Stellarton.
Earlier this week, RCMP confirmed the siblings were seen in public with family members on the afternoon of May 1 — one day before the disappearance — based on the details police have gathered.
Martell said police have retrieved surveillance camera footage in New Glasgow that shows himself; the children’s mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray; the couple’s one-year-old baby, Meadow; and Lilly and Jack. He said he couldn’t say where the footage came from because it might be important to the investigation.
3 weeks after N.S. kids vanished, RCMP scour footage for clues
Police were also asking anyone who has dashcam footage or video along Gairloch Road between 12 p.m. AT on April 28 and 12 p.m. AT on May 2 to contact them.
Last week, a resident who lives near where the children went missing said police had collected hours of footage from the seven trail cameras scattered around her 16-hectare property.
RCMP said they have received more than 355 tips and have formally interviewed more than 50 people, with more interviews planned.
The Mounties have said all missing persons cases “are treated as suspicious until our investigation leads us to determine otherwise.”
Family of the children’s mother have said they were advised by police not to speak to media.
