Search teams returned to Lansdowne Station area on Saturday to look for Lilly and Jack Sullivan

A man wearing an orange American Eagle t-shirt, with a silver chain, stands in the woods next to a branch marked with a pink ribbon. He has grey hair and an orange beard.
Daniel Martell says he hopes a renewed search to find his stepchildren has a positive outcome. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)

The stepdad of two missing kids in rural Pictou County, N.S., says he hopes the ground search and rescue operation that resumed Saturday will bring Lilly and Jack Sullivan back home.

“I’m really hopeful that they find something,” said Daniel Martell. “I’m grateful for each and everyone of them that take the time out here to go through black flies and go through … these forests are absolutely so dense.”

The siblings went missing from their home in Lansdowne Station on May 2. On May 7, after an extensive effort to find the kids, RCMP announced they would be scaling back the search.

On the left is a school photo of a girl wearing a graduation gown, and a little boy smiling in a plaid shirt on the right.
Lilly and Jack Sullivan went missing in rural Pictou County on May 2. (Family of Jack and Lilly Sullivan)

Ground search crews departed the community a day after the RCMP announcement.

“I’m just hoping for something positive, a positive outcome that’s bringing the kids home,” Martell said. “That’s the main goal here. It’s the main goal. It’s just to find the truth.”

Martell said rampant online speculation has been difficult for his family to deal with for the past two weeks.

“It’s hard on everyone. It’s hard on me, it’s hard on Malehya [the children’s mother], it’s hard on the families,” he said. “I mean, it’s been hard on the search and rescue guys cause they don’t want to feel like they’re failing us for not finding anything.”

Since the kids went missing, Martell has said he asked police to give him a polygraph test to clear up speculation.

Stepfather of missing N.S. children says he’ll do a polygraph test

Daniel Martell, stepfather of Lilly and Jack Sullivan, said he has asked police to give him a polygraph test. He says he’s been told it will happen in the next few days.

Despite this, Martell said his family and community have been a constant source of support and hope.

Amy Hansen, one of the search managers, said the search resumed this weekend so the teams could “come back in with fresh people and cover more areas because we haven’t resolved the situation yet.”

“We just want to find these children and bring them home,” said Hansen.

The searchers will be expanding into areas that haven’t been searched. They will also be looking more deeply into areas already covered, including where children tend to go when missing in wooded areas.

Multiple drones in the air from different agencies are being used to help with the search.

Hansen said previous search efforts were suspended because of exhaustion, stress and injuries consisting of bad falls, sprained ankles and twisted knees. But they are now prepared to search for the weekend.

“Everybody’s rested, refreshed, ready to go,” said Hansen. “They’re still going to push themselves to the point where they can’t anymore, but they’re troopers.”