A “LAST-DITCH” search effort to find missing Canadian siblings Jack, aged four, and Lilly, aged six, is planned for mid-November.
The children vanished from their home in Lansdowne Station, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, on May 2.
Malehya Brooks-Murray reported her children missing in MayCredit: Facebook/@missingpeoplecanada
Any search efforts will be limited by freezing temperatures this winterCredit: Facebook/@missingpeoplecanada
Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, reported them missing after she believed they wandered off from the property.
Six months on, the search continues in earnest – but with winter approaching and temperatures expected to drop as low as minus 10 degrees, further operations will soon become impossible.
“As a mother I love my children more than life itself and feel so heart broken not being able to hold my two children Lilly and Jack,” Brooks-Murray wrote on Facebook.
“The longing I have for them to come home back to me is a greater feeling than I could never imagine.
“There is not one single day, minute, or second that goes by that I am not thinking about my children.”
Canadian organisation Please Bring Me Home is helping organise volunteers to assist in the search effort on November 15.
Executive director Nick Oldrieve told the Daily Mail that while the group doesn’t usually get involved in missing persons cases this early, they felt compelled to help.
“We feel like there is something we can do to assist because, and it’s likely the last ditch effort for these kids before snowfall hit,” Oldrieve said.
“As fellow Canadians and as a group who run searches for missing people, we offer our group to come and assist. We’ve been on searches before and had successes.”
Oldrieve said that teams will be looking through low-level waters in the area, searching for any sign of the missing siblings.
He explained that the organisation was first contacted by the children’s paternal grandmother, Belynda Gray, as well as “associates” of their mother.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), he added, is expected to continue the search “in full force” when spring arrives, as the warmer months provide the “best time to search for anybody.”
While theories about the children’s disappearance have circulated widely online, Oldrieve said his team is concentrating on only one possibility.
This is the belief that Jack and Lilly wandered off from their home, which they shared with their mother, stepfather Daniel Martell, and younger sister Meadow.
“We’re not too sure exactly what happened here,” he said.
“At this time we’re only involved from a wandering slash misadventure effort. And that involves waterways. So ponds, lakes, standing water, and creeks have to be revisited.”
The main goals during the operation will be “scanning the ground for any clothing items or anything that could be Jack and Lilly Sullivan.”
“We like to sit around five kilometres because it ensures that you’re not rushing it, and you’re not going to miss anything,” he said.
Teams will be looking through low-level waters in the area
Cadaver dogs found no trace of the missing children
Oldrieve noted that the public’s willingness to help out has been strong.
“I think that the public is just itching to get involved, and it’s going to give an opportunity for community members to come together, assist in the effort in an organised fashion.”
Search groups will consist of roughly ten people, each led by someone with emergency response or search experience.
He also cautioned volunteers “that if they’re going to be coming to the search, it is not to try and get information about possible foul play stuff.”
“We’re looking for misadventure and wandering. That’s the theory we’re focused on that day.”
This warning comes as speculation online has intensified.
Two neighbours reported hearing a vehicle coming and going during the night of the children’s disappearance, fuelling a number of different theories.
However, RCMP said that after a “thorough review of surveillance footage,” they found “no evidence of any vehicle activity at this time.”
“No driver has been identified, and the presence of a vehicle has not been substantiated as a key element in the investigation,” said RCMP communications adviser Allison Gerrard.
Court documents show that two constables interviewed local resident Brad Wong on May 9.
Wong reported hearing a “loud vehicle” driving near the home in the early hours of May 2.
RCMP Corporal Charlene Curl wrote that Wong “said his residence is elevated from Daniel’s [Martell] residence and he could see vehicle lights over the treetops.”
“He said the vehicle left three or four times after midnight and into the early hours of the morning. He said the vehicle would drive off in the distance and he could hear it stop and then return. He said it remained in earshot the entire time,” court documents stated.
Another neighbour, Justin Smith, told investigators on May 17 that he heard a vehicle on Highway 289 turning around by the railroad tracks near the family’s home at around 1:30 a.m.
“[Smith] later spoke with Brad Wong who informed him Daniel’s vehicle came and went five or six times that night. Wong said the car Smith heard was Daniel,” the constable added.
Martell told police he had gone to bed “fairly early” and did not wake until the next morning.
Brooks-Murray told investigators that her partner said he stayed up cleaning, but she was unsure what he had done because “it wasn’t clean when she got up.”
Martell later told police that no one had left the home and that they had no visitors.
RCMP confirmed that cadaver dogs were deployed in the area but found no trace of the missing children.
Staff Sergeant Rob McCamon said the case remains a missing persons investigation, with no evidence of criminal activity at this time.
Brooks-Murray wrote on Facebook: “I will never stop searching for my children until they are found and brought home safe and sound.”
“Someone, somewhere, knows something so please bring my babies home.”
Two neighbours reported hearing a vehicle on the night of the children’s disappearance
Please Bring Me Home is helping organise the search effortCredit: Facebook
