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.
