Malehya Brooks-Murray, far right, joined the Please Bring Me Home search for her children Lilly and Jack Sullivan who were reported missing from home in Lansdowne, N.S., nearly a year ago.Supplied
Nearly a year after two Nova Scotia children mysteriously disappeared, their mother Malehya Brooks-Murray joined an independent search team on Sunday. The group of about 40 volunteers and a human-remains-detection dog combed backwoods trails near the home where Jack and Lilly Sullivan were reported missing in the rural community of Lansdowne, discovering one possible clue that has been passed on to police.
Nick Oldrieve, executive director of Please Bring Me Home, an Ontario-based charitable organization that helps find missing people in Canada, said a child-sized boot print was found in a wooded area of the pipeline trail, less than a kilometre from where a piece of Lilly’s pink blanket was found last May. He said he sent the GPS co-ordinates and a photo to RCMP major crime investigators.
“It’s definitely a children’s boot print,” said Mr. Oldrieve. “It’s just, how can you ever possibly know whose it is and when it was put there? I have no idea.”
Ms. Brooks-Murray, 28, has been publicly silent for the most part about the disappearance of Lilly, who was 6, and Jack, who was 4, at the time they went missing. Only now, after nearly a year, is she beginning to speak out, sharing new details in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
She and her then live-in boyfriend Daniel Martell told police that they were dozing in bed mid-morning with their toddler on May 2 when they awoke and realized Jack and Lilly were gone. They said the children must have put on their boots, gone out the back sliding door and wandered off into the woods.
What happened to the two siblings has confounded police and struck a chord around the world. The widely publicized case has spurred a hotbed of conjecture and rumours in the online true-crime community – much of it aimed at Ms. Brooks-Murray and Mr. Martell, who are no longer together.
One criticism levelled at Ms. Brooks-Murray is that she left Lansdowne the day after her children disappeared, taking the couple’s toddler with her. Soon after, she blocked communication with Mr. Martell.
In a recent interview, Ms. Brooks-Murray said she left because she felt overwhelmed and upset after hearing from police about the vast area that had been searched without any sign of Jack and Lilly.
Over the last year, she said she’s been focused on co-operating with police, looking after her mental health and caring for her toddler. A member of Sipekne’katik First Nation, she now lives in an apartment in Millbrook, a Mi’kmaq community near the town of Truro, with a cat and a kitten.
She said she recently underwent a second polygraph exam with RCMP, and they told her that she was found to be truthful.
Malehya Brooks-Murray drives a four-wheeled off-road vehicle Sunday to assist in a search for her missing children.Supplied
Mr. Oldrieve said he involved Ms. Brooks-Murray in the search because she hasn’t done anything to show “ill intent or anything against locating her children.” He said he’s been openly communicating with her about their disappearance, and she never shies away from answering questions.
“Even though she’s been quiet in the public, it doesn’t suggest guilt, and I think that’s what a lot of public scrutiny has been – ‘because she’s so quiet she must be guilty,’ – and that’s just the opposite of how we feel,” said Mr. Oldrieve.
Throughout the last year, she has spoken briefly to The Globe and Mail a few times, to deny any involvement in the disappearance of her children, to say she’s taking it day by day, and that she is hopeful that Jack and Lilly are still alive.
Under blue skies Sunday, Ms. Brooks-Murray assisted with transportation of the searchers. She drove a four-wheeled off-road vehicle, travelling between different groups of searchers to check on them and ensure they had water. “She was just thankful to be there and be involved, very grateful for everybody coming out there,” Mr. Oldrieve said.
In the days and weeks that followed the children’s disappearance, the Mounties oversaw one of the largest searches in the province’s history.
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Mr. Oldrieve said his group returned to search again (it also searched last fall) because the children wandering off has not been completely debunked. He said his experience in missing persons’ cases leads him to believe something may have been overlooked.
“One way or the other, they’re eventually going to be found – either due to misadventure, or the police are going to come up with something that turns this in a completely different direction,” he said.
RCMP have said the investigation is focused on digital forensics and they’re evaluating all scenarios for what may have happened to the kids, including criminality. In an e-mail, RCMP spokesperson Allison Gerrard said police are aware of and support the efforts by the independent search group Please Bring Me Home (PBMH), which is separate from the police investigation.
“The RCMP continues to support PBMH’s efforts to find the Sullivan children and sincerely thanks those who volunteer their time in the search,” Ms. Gerrard said.
Neither Mr. Martell, nor his mother, Janie MacKenzie, who lives on the property in Lansdowne, responded to requests for comment about the independent search.
Mr. Martell has previously denied having anything to do with the children’s disappearance.
The search will continue Monday and Tuesday.