Disappearance of two children has rocked rural Nova Scotia community
Kids art and school work on the wall in the home of missing siblings Jack, 4, and Lilly Sullivan, 6, in Pictou County, NS, on May 8. The siblings disappeared from their home without a trace nearly a week agoSteve Wadden/The Globe and Mail
Every day this week, the children aboard the big yellow school bus peered out the window as they passed the white trailer on the side of Gairloch Road.
“Have they found Jack and Lilly yet?” they asked bus driver Bryan Ward every afternoon.
“Not yet,” Mr. Ward says he told the children. “The police are doing everything they can.”
Lilly and Jack’s seat – in the front, to the right – has sat empty, with their names still taped above it, since April 29, when Mr. Ward last dropped them off at the end of their dirt driveway after school.
The case of missing siblings six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan, who disappeared from their home without a trace nearly a week ago, has rocked the rural, sparsely populated community of Lansdowne, northeast of Halifax, in Pictou County.
“I’m devastated. I’m absolutely devastated,” said Mr. Ward, whose children Nicholas Carr, 4, and Troy Carr, 7, are friends with Lilly and Jack, and often sat with them on the bus ride home from school. “I can’t even sleep at night.”
On Wednesday, RCMP called off search-and-rescue teams who had been scouring the thick woods for six days, saying it’s unlikely that the two missing children in rural Nova Scotia are still alive. Now police say they’re zeroing in on smaller, specific search areas and investigating possible criminal elements.
On Thursday, major crime investigators arrived at the rundown mobile home to speak to Daniel Martell, 33, who described himself to The Globe and Mail as the children’s stepfather. They were there to ask for electronic devices to help corroborate timelines, he told The Globe. Earlier that day, an RCMP helicopter flew overhead scanning the family property, which backs onto dense forest.
The RCMP have defended their decision not to issue an Amber Alert in the case, arguing the investigation didn’t meet the criteria – which includes the belief that a child has been abducted or is in grave danger. The Mounties also declined to discuss the stepfather’s claim that divers were called in Thursday to search nearby Lansdowne Lake, or confirm a report that tracking dogs had followed the kids’ scent to the end of the family’s driveway.
“To ensure the integrity of the investigation, no further details will be released at this time,” Nova Scotia RCMP spokesperson Allison Gerrard said.
Both kids attend Salt Springs Elementary, a small, rural school about a 20-minute bus ride from their home that serves 86 children from communities across southern Pictou County. The school has been provided with psychologists, counsellors and other school-board support staff to help “staff members and students with questions and providing calm coping strategies during this difficult time,” Chignecto Central Regional Centre for Education spokesperson Jennifer Rodgers said.
Mr. Ward said he headed into the woods on his ATV to look for Lilly and Jack as soon as he heard the children had been reported missing on the morning of May 2. RCMP have said they believe the children wandered away from the home.
He described the kids as full of life, always smiling and laughing. Lilly would let out these high-pitched squeals, he said. “I’d get after her all the time – ‘Lilly, you can’t be doing that.’“ He also described her as a bit of a drama queen. “If she had a sore foot, she’d say her foot was broken,” he said with a laugh.
Jack sometimes fell asleep on the way home from school, but more often than not he was chatty. “He’d say, ‘Bus driver. Hey bus driver!’” Mr. Ward recalled.
“If he was trying to talk to you and he couldn’t get your attention, the little bugger would take his boot off, throw it at you. Jack is famous for throwing his boots at me.”
Inside the family’s trailer, paintings and awards hang in the small, well-worn kitchen. In one piece of art, Lilly says her mom makes cupcakes, plays with toys and watches movies. “I love my Mom!” she wrote neatly in pencil.
There’s also a red painting by Jack of an insect. Family members have said he loves to dig for worms and turn over pieces of wood to look for bugs.
Along the densely wooded section of Gairloch Road with no immediate neighbours, the only traffic is usually logging trucks. The children’s mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, and Mr. Martell moved into the home about two years ago. She left on the weekend with her and Mr. Martell’s 16-month-old daughter to be with her mother and hasn’t returned, he said.
Ms. Brooks-Murray, a member of Sipekne’katik First Nation, previously told reporters her children were both diagnosed with autism and struggled in school. She has declined further interview requests and has removed her accounts from social media.
Her Mi’kmaq community’s leadership has urged people not to spread rumours or add fuel to the rampant speculation about the case circulating online. A woman who answered Ms. Brooks-Murray’s phone Thursday said she couldn’t discuss the missing children – but said the mother’s relationship with Mr. Martell has ended. Mr. Martell confirmed that he has been unable to get in touch with her and that she’s blocked him on social media.
Madison Spears, a neighbour who lives about a kilometre up the road and grew up with Mr. Martell, said her three-year-old daughter has attended birthday parties with Lilly and Jack. She said she’s heartbroken that no trace of the children has turned up.
“To think that the kids are lost in the woods is just heartbreaking,” she said.
“This is hitting really close to home. Really close to home.”