{"id":631683,"date":"2026-04-27T10:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631683\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:36:10","slug":"jack-and-lilly-sullivans-mother-joins-search-party-nearly-a-year-after-their-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631683\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack and Lilly Sullivan\u2019s mother joins search party nearly a year after their disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s pink blanket was found last May. He said he sent the GPS co-ordinates and a photo to RCMP major crime investigators. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a children\u2019s boot print,\u201d said Mr. Oldrieve. \u201cIt\u2019s just, how can you ever possibly know whose it is and when it was put there? I have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Nova Scotia RCMP major crimes head says he\u2019s confident case of Jack and Lilly Sullivan will be resolved<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 much of it aimed at Ms. Brooks-Murray and Mr. Martell, who are no longer together. <\/p>\n

One criticism levelled at Ms. Brooks-Murray is that she left Lansdowne the day after her children disappeared, taking the couple\u2019s toddler with her. Soon after, she blocked communication with Mr. Martell. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Over the last year, she said she\u2019s been focused on co-operating with police, looking after her mental health and caring for her toddler. A member of Sipekne\u2019katik First Nation, she now lives in an apartment in Millbrook, a Mi\u2019kmaq community near the town of Truro, with a cat and a kitten.<\/p>\n

She said she recently underwent a second polygraph exam with RCMP, and they told her that she was found to be truthful. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Malehya Brooks-Murray drives a four-wheeled off-road vehicle Sunday to assist in a search for her missing children.Supplied<\/p>\n

Mr. Oldrieve said he involved Ms. Brooks-Murray in the search because she hasn\u2019t done anything to show \u201cill intent or anything against locating her children.\u201d He said he\u2019s been openly communicating with her about their disappearance, and she never shies away from answering questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven though she\u2019s been quiet in the public, it doesn\u2019t suggest guilt, and I think that\u2019s what a lot of public scrutiny has been \u2013 \u2018because she\u2019s so quiet she must be guilty,\u2019 \u2013 and that\u2019s just the opposite of how we feel,\u201d said Mr. Oldrieve. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s taking it day by day, and that she is hopeful that Jack and Lilly are still alive.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cShe was just thankful to be there and be involved, very grateful for everybody coming out there,\u201d Mr. Oldrieve said. <\/p>\n

In the days and weeks that followed the children\u2019s disappearance, the Mounties oversaw one of the largest searches in the province\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

Stepfather of missing Nova Scotia children makes first court appearance<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019 cases leads him to believe something may have been overlooked. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne way or the other, they\u2019re eventually going to be found \u2013 either due to misadventure, or the police are going to come up with something that turns this in a completely different direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

RCMP have said the investigation is focused on digital forensics and they\u2019re 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe RCMP continues to support PBMH\u2019s efforts to find the Sullivan children and sincerely thanks those who volunteer their time in the search,\u201d Ms. Gerrard said. <\/p>\n

Neither Mr. Martell, nor his mother, Janie MacKenzie, who lives on the property in Lansdowne, responded to requests for comment about the independent search. <\/p>\n

Mr. Martell has previously denied having anything to do with the children\u2019s disappearance. <\/p>\n

The search will continue Monday and Tuesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Malehya Brooks-Murray, far right, joined the Please Bring Me Home search for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-631683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-headlines","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-top-news","53":"tag-top-stories","54":"tag-topnews","55":"tag-topstories","56":"tag-travel","57":"tag-trudeau","58":"tag-us-news","59":"tag-world-news","60":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}