The massive search for two missing children continues for a fifth day in a rural area of Nova Scotia’s Pictou County.
Lilly and Jack Sullivan, aged six and four, were reported missing on May 2 at around 10 a.m. from their home on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, which is about 30 kilometres from New Glasgow, N.S.
Since then, upwards of 160 people have been scouring the wooded area on land with search dogs and in the air with helicopters and drones.
The multi-agency effort received some extra boots on the ground Tuesday, as some of New Brunswick’s search and rescue teams answered the call to help.
Josh Wiese, the on-site incident commander, said searchers are facing physical exhaustion and harsh conditions.
“It’s difficult. You got blow down from the last storms, you’ve got bugs, you got heat exhaustion, you get cold at night, you’ve got water pouring down on your head,” said Wiese.
“This terrain is not flat, there’s holes and crevices and bogs. It’s a lot of work. It’s physical exhaustion for these searchers when they’re out there doing their thing.”
RCMP said the goal of the search remains the same as Day 1.
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“Police are pursuing all investigative avenues, and there are a variety of teams involved who are applying the tools and the skills and the expertise that are needed to bring Lilly and Jack home,” said Nova Scotia RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Carlie McCann.
“This does remain a missing person investigation.”
McCann adds that police have been using infrared drones throughout the night in hopes of finding the children’s body heat.
In an interview yesterday, the children’s stepfather, Daniel Martell, said he was calling for the search area to be expanded to include provincial borders and airports in case the children were abducted.
“Post any officers they can get, at the New Brunswick border and P.E.I. … and get them out at every airport possible,” he said.
“Anybody who has any information, or you think you seen something, contact your local police services. Anything guys, anything.”
RCMP said there is no evidence to suggest the kids were abducted, and instead believe they “wandered” away. Due to this fact, their disappearance didn’t qualify for an Amber Alert, however a Vulnerable Missing Person Alert was sent out on May 2.
Martell told Global News that his side of the family are the only ones at at the search site, after Lilly and Jack’s mother left the county on Saturday.
When reached by phone, the children’s mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, said she had been advised by RCMP not to speak with the media further. Her mother, Cyndy Murray also spoke to Global News and said the family was hoping for a positive outcome.
“We’re just hoping and praying for the best — that’s it — for our babies to come home,” Murray said in a brief phone interview with The Canadian Press.
Despite only qualified personnel cleared to participate in the search effort, the community of Pictou County is doing everything they can to help from afar — from donating food and coffee, to freeing up their yards for helicopters to land.
Community members, like Daniel Roode of the Northeastern Nova Scotia Salvation Army, say when one family’s children go missing, the concern is felt by all.
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“This isn’t about speculation, this isn’t about what-ifs,” said Roode.
“As a community (we are) looking for Jack and Lilly. We want to see them come home. This isn’t just people you see or hear about in the media, these are our people.”
Lilly is described as having having shoulder-length, light brown hair with bangs. She might be wearing a pink sweater, pink pants and pink boots. Martell said she was also carrying a white backpack with strawberries on it.
Jack has short, blond hair and was wearing blue dinosaur boots. Martell said he had not seen Jack on Friday morning, but believed he was wearing a brown shirt and pants with a pull-up diaper underneath.
— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Ella MacDonald and Mitchell Bailey
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