Searchers return to the base camp after looking for six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan, two children missing in Lansdowne Station, N.S., Wednesday, May 7, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Ward
Searchers return to the base camp after looking for six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan, two children missing in Lansdowne Station, N.S., Wednesday, May 7, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Ward
HALIFAX - 聽A search for Lilly and Jack Sullivan, six and four years old, turned up a number of items, including a child鈥檚 T-shirt, blanket and a tricycle.聽
聽However, Nova Scotia RCMP say none of the items are relevant to their investigation of the missing children.聽
聽It could be disappointing, but search organizer Nick Oldrieve says even a negative search result is still useful.聽
鈥淚f you're looking for a missing person, you got to be used to striking out more times than you have successes,鈥 Oldrieve says. 鈥淟ack of evidence is evidence in itself. So if you walk away from an area not finding anything, it's still progress.鈥
The Sullivan children were reported missing by their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, on May 2, from their home in Lansdowne Station.聽
The heavily wooded area bordering the home has been searched several times over the past months, including by a team of specially trained cadaver dogs in October.聽
Oldrieve runs Please Bring Me Home, an Ontario-based non-profit, which has helped find 50 people across the country. He says he was initially approached to lead a search by Belynda Gray, the children鈥檚 paternal grandmother.聽
Oldrieve directed a search Saturday with 32 volunteers, focusing specifically on the Middle River of Pictou. He says several people with previous experience came out, including a retired military member with eight years of ground search and rescue.聽
聽He says the mood is a sombre one, even as searchers are hopeful they will find something of use. 鈥淚t鈥檚 heartbreaking,鈥 says Oldrieve, noting that searching for children missing for an extended period of time can be difficult. It鈥檚 very possible they are looking for human remains, and, Oldrieve says, 鈥測ou can鈥檛 gloss over that.鈥澛
Oldrieve says the searchers split into groups of six, and kept meticulous records of where they looked and co-ordinates of any items they found. He is compiling all the records to deliver to the RCMP.聽
In an email, the RCMP say they extend "sincere thanks to Please Bring Me Home volunteers for their support with the search efforts.鈥
Oldrieve says he was particularly impressed by the previous searches. He says that based on the number of tags and ribbons marking the area, he is increasingly skeptical that the children wandered into the woods. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of where they could have been missed,鈥 he says. Instead, he says he finds the most logical explanation that the children fell in the water.
Oldrieve says the Please Bring Me Home team wanted to do another search before the weather turned and made conditions too difficult.聽
Everyone, he says, wants "Jack and Lily found desperately.鈥
聽This report by 国产诱惑福利 was first published Nov. 16, 2025.