Nova Scotia RCMP say they are continuing to investigate the disappearance of two children from their home in Pictou County, including interviewing those closest to them.
Lilly Sullivan, 6, and her brother Jack Sullivan, 4, have been missing since May 2, when police received a 911 call reporting that the siblings had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, a rural area about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
Police announced last week that after six days of scouring the heavily wooded areas surrounding the home, there was no sign of the children and called off the search.
“If we thought they were alive right now, we’d still be out there,” RCMP Staff Sgt. Curtis MacKinnon said at a news conference on May 7.
In a news release today, the RCMP said they are following up on more than 180 tips from members of the public and exploring all avenues in the missing persons investigation.
The Mounties said 35 people have been identified for formal interviews as part of the investigation, including community members and those closest to the children.
Six days after two children — six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan — went missing from a rural Nova Scotia home, RCMP say they are scaling back the search and have not ruled out that the case is suspicious.
RCMP also confirmed that an underwater recovery team searched lakes around Lansdowne Station on May 8 and 9, but did not uncover any evidence.
“We have officers from multiple disciplines dedicated to finding Lilly and Jack, including highly trained RCMP major crime and forensic investigators,” MacKinnon said in the news release.
Daniel Martell, the stepfather of the children, has said he believes Lilly and Jack slipped out their sliding back door while he and the children’s mother were in their bedroom with their one-year-old daughter.
In the days after the disappearance, Martell remained at the home, receiving daily updates from search and rescue officials and speaking to the reporters who descended on the area.
He has repeatedly said he believes the children were abducted, but RCMP have said there is no evidence of that.
The children’s mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, left the area after the disappearance with their one-year-old to be with her family in another part of the province.
The children’s grandmother, Cyndy Murray, has told The Canadian Press that police have advised the family against speaking with the public.
