Search for Missing Siblings Scaled Down as Hope Fades

UPDATE May 8, 2025 1:00 AM CDT

Police in Nova Scotia are scaling back the search for a pair of young siblings missing since Friday, with a RCMP staff sergeant saying the likelihood Lily and Jack Sullivan are still alive is "very low," given the outdoor conditions and the length of time since they were last seen. The stepfather and mother of the 6- and 4-year-olds say the children wandered off while they were asleep with their 16-month-old, the Globe and Mail reports. Police will still search the densely wooded area, but it will no longer be an "all hands on deck" operation, CTV News reports. Authorities also are looking into the possibility of a criminal act, but have not said whether foul play is suspected. The children's stepfather says they had not attended school since Tuesday because Lily had a cough. He says the children's mother went to stay with family after the children disappeared and has not spoken to him since.

May 6, 2025 11:20 AM CDT

"Nobody is giving up yet," says Robert Parker, a Pictou County official in a remote part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. His comments to the CBC are in reference to the hunt for siblings Lily and Jack Sullivan, ages 6 and 4, who haven't been seen since Friday. "These children have almost become everybody's children in this county." Roughly 150 searchers, along with drones, dogs, and helicopters, have been searching the woods near the children's home in Lansdowne Station, per CNN.

Police say they believe the pair wandered from their home early Friday. Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, told CTV News she woke up that day to the sounds of them playing in the next room, then drifted back to sleep. She and their stepfather, Daniel Martell, say the children apparently went out a sliding back door at some point. "We get up and look outside," says Brooks-Murray. "We're looking everywhere, yelling for them, and I instantly just called 911. I just had the instinct I needed to call."

story continues below

"When we noticed that the children were gone, I immediately jumped in the vehicle, surveyed all the areas, [as] many dirt roads, [as] many culverts as I could and waited for the police to get there," Martell told the CBC. The children are members of the Sipekne'katik First Nation, says chief Michelle Glasgow. "Please help bring Lily and Jack back home," she wrote on Facebook. (More missing child stories.)