Cadaver dogs to search for Jack and Lilly, the Nova Scotia siblings missing since May

For the first time, Mounties intend to bring in specialized cadaver dogs to search for two young children who went missing more than four months ago from their home in rural northeastern Nova Scotia.

The RCMP said in a news release Friday that members of its Police Dog Services Human Remains Detection Team “will be conducting searches as part of the investigation into the disappearance” of six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan.

The children were first reported missing by their mother Malehya Brooks-Murray at 10:01 a.m. on May 2.

Brooks-Murray told police she believed the two children had wandered away from their home in rural Lansdowne Station, N.S. Police arrived 26 minutes later.

“In the early days of the investigation, the area around Lansdowne Station was being scoured by trained search and rescue teams. And, Police Dog Services, which was deployed, does have the ability to pick up human scent, including that of recent remains,” Cindy Bayers, a spokesperson for the RCMP, said Friday in an email.

“This is, however, the first time Police Dog Services teams specifically trained in human remains detection have conducted searches in relation to this investigation.”

• Step-grandmother of missing N.S. kids pleads with public to stop accusing family of harming Lilly and Jack
• Court documents detail results of police polygraphs in Nova Scotia missing children case

The family’s mobile home sits along a gravel road surrounded by dense woods. The house also has a back patio, with a sliding glass door, which is most likely how the children got out that morning.

In the days since they vanished, search teams combed through the thick woods and the family’s property, uncovering only minimal clues, including what appeared to be two small footprints and a piece of a pink blanket, which is confirmed to be Lilly’s.

Documents investigators used to obtain search warrants in the case indicate “the last time the children were seen outside their home was on May 1, when they were captured by video surveillance at a local Dollarama store with Brooks-Murray and Daniel Martell, their stepfather.”

RCMP conducted at least four polygraphs during their investigation. The first two were on May 12 with the children’s parents. Martell’s polygraph “indicated he was truthful,” as did the test for Brooks-Murray. She was found truthful when answering specific questions.

On June 10, the children’s step-grandmother, Janie MacKenzie, underwent a polygraph examination but another document notes that her “physiology was not suitable for analysis and an opinion on the polygraph examination was not rendered.”

The children’s biological father, Cody Sullivan, underwent a polygraph on June 12, 2025, and passed the examination, with his answers found to be “truthful.”

In July, the Mounties said they were running forensic tests on a pink blanket found during the search of the heavily wooded areas near the children’s home. Police said at the time that the family had confirmed the blanket belonged to Lilly, but investigators released few details.

Later, police dispatched a sniffer dog to the area where the blanket was found, but the animal was unable to pick up a scent of Lilly or Jack, according to information police filed in court to get search warrants.

The children’s mother told police at one point that their biological father, might have picked them up and taken them to New Brunswick. But investigators met with Sullivan on May 22.

“He said he did not know what happened to Jack and Lilly,” police noted. “He was home on May 2, 2025, and never goes anywhere. He has not been anywhere other than his house recently and has had no contact with Malehya since the children went missing.”

Police received hundreds of tips in the case, including one from a witness who said she was travelling with her sons on the morning of May 2 and saw two children walking along the side of the road. She told police she saw the children that morning walking toward a Caucasian female of about 50 to 60 years old who was waiting next to the passenger side of an older model tan or gold sedan with the back door open.

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