Based on coverage from CBC, Global News, Global News, The Globe and Mail, and The Epoch Times.
A year after Lilly Sullivan, 6, and her brother Jack, 4, vanished from their rural home area in Pictou County, the case is still stuck in the worst kind of limbo: lots of effort, very few answers, and a community that is running out of patience.
The siblings were reported missing May 2, 2025, from Lansdowne Station (also described as Lansdowne), about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax. Police were told at the time the children had wandered away from their family property. RCMP Major Crime continues to lead the investigation, and the force says it has not been deemed a criminal case.
Pictou County missing children case timeline
According to the children’s mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, she and the children’s stepfather, Daniel Martell, heard the kids inside their mobile home that morning. When the home went quiet and the children couldn’t be found, Brooks-Murray ran outside and called 911.
What followed was a large search involving police and search and rescue volunteers combing dense woods around the home for days, then continued efforts over weeks and months. Despite that, there has been no confirmed sign of the children.
The lack of clear public updates has also fuelled rumours and finger pointing, something police and family members have had to contend with while trying to keep attention on the facts.
RCMP investigation details and evidence
RCMP have outlined a massive investigative workload. Investigators say they have reviewed 8,132 videos and conducted 106 interviews. They have also administered polygraphs, executed warrants for materials and digital devices of people closest to the children, and examined phone and banking records.
Police say they’re working through 1,191 tips from the public, and they’ve stressed they need “fact-based” information, not social media theories. Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon, who heads major crime in Nova Scotia, has said the volume of information is one reason the case has taken so long, though he maintains investigators are making “forward progress.”
On what police think happened, the public still has little to go on. McCamon has reiterated there’s no evidence the children were abducted. He has also said the chances the children are alive are “very slim,” even as the case remains classified as missing persons.
Volunteer searches in Lansdowne Station resume
While the police investigation continues, searchers have kept returning to the area. About 40 volunteers with the Ontario-based group Please Bring Me Home, along with family and friends, recently searched again around Lansdowne. The children’s mother took part, using a four-wheeler to move between groups.
During the search, a child-sized bootprint was found pressed into mud near brush by a clearing, across a local route known as the “pipeline trail.” The group’s executive director, Nick Oldrieve, photographed it and sent the RCMP photos plus GPS co-ordinates. RCMP later said by email the print is “currently under review to assess any potential relevance.”
Oldrieve also cautioned that old prints can last, saying he’s seen his own bootprints reappear when returning to an area months later. His group says it plans to keep searching through spring and summer.
Police have never confirmed earlier bootprints found in the investigation belonged to Lilly or Jack. Those prints are described as one of only two pieces of physical evidence, the other being a piece of Lilly’s blanket found hanging in a tree.
Stellarton rally calls for more transparency
Saturday marked the one-year anniversary with a “Rally for Justice” outside the RCMP detachment in Stellarton. Reports put the crowd at about 50 people. The rally was organized by Kent Corbett and the children’s paternal grandmother, Belynda Gray, and included speeches, signs, and chants calling for answers and justice.
Corbett and Gray have been clear they’re not asking police to compromise the case, but they do want more communication and a better sense of what possibilities have been ruled out. Corbett said the public feels “lost” without answers and worries the vacuum is being filled by speculation.
RCMP representatives at the rally, including Staff Sgt. Curtis MacKinnon, told the crowd the force is still working the case and again asked for specific, fact-based tips, adding that Mounties from across Canada are involved. For families like Lilly and Jack’s, that’s not closure, but it’s what they have to work with right now: continued searching, continued pressure, and continued hope.
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