Almost a year after RCMP began investigating the sudden disappearance of two children from their rural Nova Scotia home, the Mounties still say there is no evidence of an abduction or criminal offence.
Investigators say that on May 2, 2025, four-year-old Jack Sullivan and his six-year-old sister Lilly wandered into the tangled woods near their family’s mobile home 140 kilometres north of Halifax, leaving few clues as to why they did not return.
Extensive searches were conducted using ground search and rescue crews, helicopters, drones equipped with heat-seeking sensors, police divers and cadaver dogs. Searchers found a few boot prints and pieces of a pink blanket that belonged to Lilly, but little else.
Michael Arntfield, a professor, criminologist and cold case expert, said investigators can’t reveal everything they know or suspect, given that doing so could jeopardize their investigation by tipping off potential suspects.
“At this level, they’ve got investigators who are of the highest calibre … in terms of criminal intelligence and using all kinds of furtive investigative techniques,” said Arntfield, a professor at Western University in London, Ont., and founder of the university’s Cold Case Research Group.
“RCMP certainly have exploited these successfully in many cases where the public was kept in the dark the entire time … as a matter of operational necessity.”
An RCMP spokesperson declined a request for an interview with a senior investigator, saying the police force will issue a statement later this week.
“There’s no new information to share related to the ongoing investigation, and no additional details will be provided beyond what’s already been released publicly,” Allison Gerrard said in an email.
Arntfield said that without evidence of where the children are, whether alive or dead, all potential scenarios — from criminal behaviour to unfortunate accident — remain viable.
In August of last year, a judge released partially redacted court applications filed by investigators seeking access to a variety of records including phone, banking records and video surveillance. The documents include unproven statements made by police, including a comment from an investigator who said the case was not considered “criminal in nature.”
As for the theory that Jack and Lilly wandered from their home, Arntfield said he finds that scenario hard to believe, citing observations that the surrounding woods are so dense that two small children could not have walked very far.
Research on lost children indicates that those between the ages of one and six often follow small animals into the woods, unaware they could lose their way. More importantly, these lost children rarely go far, choosing instead to seek shelter and sleep at night.
According to Robert Koester, a leading U.S. expert on lost person behaviour, about 75 per cent of lost children between the ages of four and six are typically found within 1.2 kilometres from where they were last seen, and 95 per cent are found within 6.6 kilometres.
Still, they can be hard to find.
Research conducted by American expert William Syrotuck and followed up by Kenneth Hill, a psychology professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, found that in bad weather, young children sometimes cover themselves or burrow into holes or other cavities to keep warm.
“Some youngsters have been instructed not to talk to strangers and will avoid searchers who are calling their name, while others do not realize that they are the object of the search and will watch with curiosity as searchers sweep areas or … helicopters pass by,” Hill wrote in a research paper published in 2006.
Belynda Gray, the children’s paternal grandmother, dismissed the possibility that Jack and Lilly were abducted.
Gray’s son, Cody Sullivan, is the children’s biological father.
But Gray said she had not seen them during the 18 months before their disappearance. And her son told police he had not seen them for three years, having previously split up with their young mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray.
“When they were in my life … they were just normal little children,” Gray said in an interview. “Jack … acted like any normal little boy, playing with toys, watching cartoons on TV. It was very rare that you didn’t see Lilly smiling. She was always smiling, playing with her dolls and she’d talk up a storm with you.”
The children lived with their mother, stepfather Daniel Martell and infant sister Meadow on a property that includes a trailer where Martell’s mother lives.
Soon after Jack and Lilly’s mother reported them missing, Brooks-Murray told police that both children might be on the autism spectrum and were known to roam.
Since then, Brooks-Murray, who is no longer living with Martell, has had virtually nothing to say in public. She declined a request for an interview when reached at her mother’s home last week. Martell could not be reached for comment.
Four days after the children disappeared, Martell told reporters he was worried the children had been abducted.
Meanwhile, Gray said she turned to social media to keep the case in the public eye, hoping that someone would come forward with information.
“I jumped right in with two feet, putting out what I could, what I knew, what I understood,” she said. “And then, slowly, you start to see the other side of social media. And it’s not a good side.”
In January, the RCMP confirmed they had arrested Martell and that he was facing charges of sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement involving an adult victim. The allegations have not been tested in court and the case is expected to return to a courtroom on May 4.
The identity of the complainant is protected by a publication ban.
This weekend, a public vigil is expected to be held outside the RCMP detachment in Stellarton, N.S., and Gray is encouraging people to print and distribute Jack and Lilly’s missing persons poster, which can be easily found online.
Kelly Sundberg, a criminology professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said it’s safe to assume that police are committed to actively investigating the children’s disappearance until the case is solved.
As an example, Sundberg cited the tragic case of four-year-old Michael Dunahee, who in March 1991 disappeared from a Victoria playground, steps from where his family and others were playing flag football. A search involved hundreds of volunteers and numerous police agencies. But no trace of the boy was found. Since then, police have investigated more than 10,000 tips.
In March 2021, 30 years after the boy was last seen, the Victoria Police Department released an age-enhanced photo of what he might look like as a 34-year-old. Prepared by an RCMP forensic artist, the image was placed on a website portal for new tips on the case.
“The (RCMP) are the leading authority in how to do this work,” Sundberg said in an interview.
Lindsay Lobb, director of support services at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the organization has been helping Jack and Lilly’s relatives in recent months. Aside from providing emotional support, the centre has also used digital billboards across the Maritimes to call attention to the search.
“For the family, it can feel really unsettling when in the midst of the initial investigation, there is tons of public awareness … And it can feel very disconcerting when, as the months stretch on, it starts to feel like people aren’t paying attention,” Lobb said.
The Mounties say 11 Nova Scotia RCMP units are working on the case, confirming in February that they had received 1,111 tips and reviewed thousands of hours of footage from surveillance and trail cameras.
As well, the provincial government is offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information about the case.
Asked if she believes her grandchildren will be found, Gray said that probably won’t happen, “unless somebody talks.”
“I think it’ll be a miracle if we find them.”
© 2026 The Canadian Press
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