Searchers haven’t ‘uncovered anything of significance,’ but are ‘fully engaged in finding out what happened to Lilly and Jack,’ says Corp. Guillaume Tremblay

Daniel Martell, the stepfather of missing Nova Scotia children, four-year-old Jack and six-year-old Lilly Sullivan, says their mother’s grief is worsening due to online speculation about the case, according to CTV News.

Despite a methodical search over the last weekend, “searchers haven’t uncovered anything of significance to the investigation,” Corp. Guillaume Tremblay told National Post on Thursday.

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“Any future searches will be determined based on the course of the investigation. RCMP officers from various teams are fully engaged in finding out what happened to Lilly and Jack and we’re using all tools and resources to determine the circumstances of their disappearance,” he said.

The children were reported missing more than a month ago from their rural home in Pictou County, where they lived with Martell, their mother Malehya Brooks-Murray, and the couple’s baby, Meadow. Even with ongoing searches and following up on 355 tips as of late May, authorities still have not found any concrete leads. The lack of evidence has led many people on social media to come up with conspiracy theories about how the children disappeared, which the stepfather says is making the situation worse.

“It doesn’t get any easier. One month has passed,” Martell told CTV News. “Don’t attack Maleyha because her mental health is going to be reflected on our daughter, so I don’t want anyone attacking Maleyha anymore.”

Martell, who attended a vigil for the children held on June 2, said Brooks-Murray’s grief was overwhelming and was made worse by speculation.

The vigil was held in Stellarton, a town in Pictou County. A video of the solemn event posted on Facebook showed Martell lighting two paper lanterns and letting them float off into the sky.

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“Let truth be revealed, let justice prevail, and let every child be returned safely to the earth and never stop loving them,” said Brenda MacPhee, who helped organize the vigil, Global News reported.

Meanwhile, volunteer organization Halifax Search and Rescue said that scammers may be impersonating the group on fundraising site, GoFundMe. The fake campaign said it has a goal of reaching $100,000 to buy a drone to help with the search for the Sullivan siblings.

However, Halifax Search and Rescue director Paul Service said his group doesn’t normally request donations through GoFundMe and doesn’t base its campaigns on particular searches. Service says a representative from GoFundMe contacted him to say it was taking down the site and investigating after the campaign was reported on CBC.

He says that it is disheartening for his group to have to cope with scams, as it may discourage the public from donating to his group’s legitimate fundraising efforts.

The children were last seen in public with family on the afternoon of May 1, the day before they went missing.

After ongoing searches, authorities decided to scale back in early May to focus on specific locations. They said teams of searchers had been struggling to get through thick wooded areas, some with damage leftover from Hurricane Fiona. However, they said the investigation would continue.

On May 31, a search and rescue team on the ground combed through an area around Gairloch Rd., Lansdowne Station, where the children’s home is located. They also searched through the nearby pipeline trail, where a boot print was previously discovered, the Nova Scotia RCMP said in a news release.

The search continued on June 1 in a similar location near the home, the RCMP said in another news release. Searchers once again looked at the area where a boot print had been found and conducted a grid search of 8.5 square kilometres.

Search and rescue volunteers have dedicated “more than 10,000 hours of their time, searching in very challenging conditions” to try to find the Sullivan children, the RCMP said.

With additional reporting by The Canadian Press

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