RCMP find no evidence vehicle was involved in disappearance of Nova Scotia siblings

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The Nova Scotia RCMP say they aren’t able to substantiate reports of a vehicle driving late at night near the rural home of Jack and Lilly Sullivan, just hours before they were reported missing, and don’t consider that information a “key element” in their investigation.

Their mother told police Lilly, 6, and Jack, 4, had wandered away from their home in the backwoods hamlet of Lansdowne on May 2, around 10 a.m., after reporting them absent from school earlier that day and the day before because of illness.

The children’s last verified appearance outside the home was the afternoon of May 1 at Dollarama in New Glasgow with their mother and stepfather.

Major crime investigators have led an intensive search for the children aided by helicopters, drones, cadaver dogs and hundreds of volunteers. Police told The Globe on Tuesday they have no evidence to back up reports from neighbours who said they heard a vehicle driving suspiciously near the children’s trailer.

Two witnesses who live near the home told police they heard a car on Gairloch Road after midnight, just hours before Jack and Lily were reported missing, according to newly redacted details included in court applications filed by investigators seeking to conduct searches for phone records, banking records and video related to the case.

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One neighbour, Brad Wong, said he could see vehicle lights over the treetops from his home up the hill, and described a loud vehicle coming and going from the area of the trailer three or four times into the early hours of the morning on May 2. He told police the vehicle stopped and returned multiple times, and remained in earshot the entire time.

Another neighbour, Justin Smith, told investigators he heard a vehicle in the sparsely populated area around 1:30 a.m. He said he heard a car turn around by the railroad tracks, near the spot where police found Lilly’s pink blanket and imprints of child-sized boot prints. Police later confirmed those imprints matched the type of boot Lilly was wearing when she disappeared.

The Mounties, however, say surveillance footage retrieved from home security cameras in the community didn’t confirm the movements of a car on the road that matched these descriptions.

“Witnesses reported hearing a vehicle but did not visually confirm one,” RCMP communications adviser Allison Gerrard said in a statement.

“Investigators conducted a thorough review of surveillance footage from the Gairloch Rd. area during the early hours of May 2 and found no evidence of any vehicle activity at that time. As such, no driver has been identified, and the presence of a vehicle has not been substantiated as a key element in the investigation.”

The children’s stepfather, Daniel Martell, did not respond to a request for comment. He told investigators he’d gone to bed early that night, and didn’t wake up until the morning.

Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, told police she also slept through the night, and said she didn’t hear any vehicles coming and going from the trailer overnight before her children disappeared.

Meanwhile, an Ontario-based not-for-profit missing person search group called Please Bring Me Home says it’s sending volunteers to Nova Scotia to help recheck waterways near the property where the kids were initially believed to have wandered away from.

Police and search and rescue volunteers have already extensively searched those areas with cadaver dogs, drones, helicopters and divers, but the group’s executive director Nick Oldrieve says it’s important to revisit creeks and lakes because they change and fluctuate.

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“The number one goal is to locate these kids but at the end of the day if we don’t, we’re going to be able to supply the RCMP with further evidence that misadventure and wandering may not be the case,” he said.

“We have to do this right now because this is likely the last-ditch effort before snowfall.”

The group plans to walk the perimeters of waterways on Nov. 15 and use an AquaEye, a hand-held sonar device that helps locate people underwater.

Mr. Oldrieve said his group decided to get involved after Jack and Lilly’s paternal grandmother Belynda Gray reached out, along with family members from the children’s mother’s side.

Those family members, Jack and Lilly’s aunt, Haley Ferdinand, and family friend and relative Cheryl Robinson say the results of the waterway search is key for how they think about the case going forward and understanding what might’ve happened to the children.

Ms. Ferdinand said she feels strongly that Jack and Lilly didn’t just wander off because of the Mounties’ extensive search. But she said it’s worth a shot for Please Bring Me Home to go out and search one more time in the hope that some clues can be found.

“These are two defenceless kids,” Ms. Ferdinand said. “They didn’t just disappear. We need the truth to be told so we can move closer to getting the answers to bring them home.”

Ms. Robinson echoed her comments and added that she doesn’t believe that Jack and Lilly were abducted by a stranger either, something their mother raised as a possibility when the children first disappeared. Mr. Martell has also said the children may have been taken by someone known to them.

RCMP have repeatedly said there’s no evidence the children were abducted.