NEW SEARCH for Lilly & Jack Sullivan: Do cops have new info? Confession? Step-dad says no comment 
we’re continuing the coverage of the disappearance of Lily and Jack Sullivan, aged 6 and 4 respectively, who were reported missing around 10:00 a.m. on May 2nd from their home in Lanstown Station, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Over the last few hours, there’s been a flurry of new news reports. Both the mainstream media and social media are abuzz with new information released by the RCMP yesterday. There is going to be a new search over this weekend. So, lots of speculation on why the searches are back. Let’s talk about it.

If you remember, there was a huge search — 160 ground searchers. They had aircraft, helicopters, drones, dogs — in a valiant attempt to find Lily and Jack in the dense woodland surrounding their home alive. That was their aim. That was the mission. Unfortunately, they didn’t find Lily and Jack.

On May 7th, there was a press conference to say that they were scaling back. It doesn’t mean they were stopping, but they were moving on to other investigative areas. The major crimes unit is involved in this case. Apparently in Canada, the major crimes unit is involved in all missing child cases. It was Saturday, just a day after they disappeared — Saturday, May 3rd — that the major crimes unit got involved, and they said it’s suspicious. They denote all missing child cases where a child isn’t found within the first few hours as suspicious. That’s just what they do.

So, Lily and Jack’s case isn’t especially unusual as far as I understand the processes in Canada.

Update:

Searches will be back in the area tomorrow. This is from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia:

“Pictou County missing persons investigation continues with renewed ground and air search efforts.”
May 16th, 2025 — Lanstown Station, Nova Scotia.

Ground and air search efforts are planned for tomorrow, May 17th, as the missing persons investigation into the disappearance of Lily and Jack Sullivan continues. Searchers from ground search and rescue teams, the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, and the RCMP will focus on specific areas around Gerlock Road in an effort to locate Lily and Jack and advance the investigation.

This search follows a large-scale air and ground search of 5.5 km² (which is 3.44 square miles). If that area was a perfect circle, it would have a radius of just over a mile. They concentrated more to the west. I think that’s because they had a potential lead in that area — around the gas pipe. A possible footprint — a child’s bootprint — was found.

So, 5.5 km² of heavily wooded, rural terrain in the Gerlock Road area was searched starting on May 2nd. On May 7th, the search scaled back in favor of more specific areas, as well as desk investigation. They’ve conducted 35 formal interviews — with the family, people closest to Lily and Jack, and community members. We don’t know whether they did that because there were potential suspects, but that’s what the RCMP reported.

On May 8th and 9th, the RCMP’s underwater recovery team searched bodies of water around Lanstown Station. That two-day operation did not uncover any evidence. I’d like to know how deep Lanstown Lake is. There are small ponds and what appear to be marshy areas, which may be deeper than normal due to heavy rainfall. But I’d like to know how deep that lake is, because it’s notoriously difficult to find people in water.

RCMP continues to ask that the public avoid the search area to allow trained searchers to do their work. They don’t want volunteers showing up. They have the resources they need to conduct this targeted search.

This update led to a lot of speculation on social media and the Facebook group I’ve been following. It was full of speculation yesterday — probably still is. I haven’t checked this morning. I’m recording this really early — like 7:00 in the morning here in the UK.

Some people are thinking: “Someone must have confessed! Lily and Jack will be found today because somebody’s confessed!” Others say: “No, it’s just a continuation. They said they wanted to recheck specific areas.”

In my personal opinion:
If someone had confessed and provided a location, I don’t think they’d have volunteer search and rescue teams tramping through that land — however careful or well-trained they are. I think if someone had confessed, it would be RCMP only — with scenes of crime experts. Quiet. Controlled.

I think this is just what they said: a follow-up search in specific areas. It’s really easy to miss people in heavily wooded terrain. The aerial footage shows how dense those woods are. It’s difficult to see anything clearly from above, and on the ground it’s even harder. So, I think they’re going back to the areas they couldn’t search thoroughly the first time.

More coming… (continued in next response)

Here’s the continued and punctuated transcription of your video:

If you followed the Sebastian Rogers case — the missing teen (he’s 16 now, but he was 15 when he disappeared) from Hendersonville, Tennessee — he disappeared on February 26, 2024. The TBI, FBI, and local searchers combed the area for days, then scaled it back… but they came back. A week or two later, they returned to search specific areas. That’s standard. It happens often.

So I don’t think this is unusual.
I don’t think someone’s confessed.
I hope I’m wrong.
I hope they do find Lily and Jack today.
They need to come home.
They absolutely need to come home.

Additional Report from Facebook:

One of the locals reportedly drove by and saw a CBS van at the end of the driveway, speaking to Daniel (Lily and Jack’s stepfather). So, naturally, people expected a CBS interview with Daniel — but it never aired. He apparently declined to comment.

Maybe he’s under a lot of suspicion and doesn’t want to talk. Maybe he failed a polygraph. Maybe he’s realized that anything he says will be over-analyzed by social media — every facial expression, every word.

To be fair, Daniel has been his own worst enemy.
He’s said some inconsistent things.
That doesn’t mean he’s guilty.

Cindy Merritt, the children’s maternal grandmother, has said that Malia Brooks-Merritt (the children’s mother) has been told not to talk to the media — because the attention is generally unfavorable. So again… maybe they’re all just following police advice.

News Report Summary:

Experts point to anomalies in this case — calling it “unprecedented.”
It’s rare for two siblings to disappear at once, especially without a trace.

Two weeks after Lily (6) and Jack (4) vanished, experts say this case deviates from typical missing children investigations. That doesn’t mean it’s a crime — but it does raise red flags. I’ve had a bad feeling from the beginning.

The RCMP got the 911 call around 10:00 a.m. on May 2. The children were reported missing from the backyard. There’s no indication of abduction, but they haven’t ruled it out. And it’s always considered “suspicious” until evidence says otherwise.

Michelle Gagné, a criminal justice professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, says the lack of evidence makes this case unusual. In typical cases, there’s something — even a shoe, or an item of clothing. Here, it’s as though they vanished.

There was one possible clue: a child’s bootprint, near the gas pipe west of the home — 0.7 miles as the crow flies. But no scent trail was found, and it’s unclear whether the bootprint is recent or connected.

The kids were also absent from school the week they disappeared. Stepdad Daniel Martell told CBC that Lily had a cough. There was also a teacher training day earlier in the week. So, for nearly 3 days, no one outside the household saw them. Maybe that’s just bad timing — but it is a window where a lot could’ve happened.

Criminologist Michael Arntfield (Western University, Ontario) says this case is highly unusual. Two children don’t typically vanish unless a parent is involved. He referenced the Beaumont children from Australia — three siblings taken together — but that was a public place (a beach), with witnesses.

This case? It’s a backyard.
In a rural area.
Not a place where strangers are likely to strike.

If the police had evidence of foul play in the home, they wouldn’t be searching again today, he said.

But… we don’t know what we don’t know.
RCMP is being very tight-lipped.

They’ve received over 180 tips, conducted 35 interviews, and said they’re still scheduling more. They will not say why they don’t believe this is an abduction, nor will they comment further.

Martell (the stepfather) told media he’s been asked not to give updates.
The children’s grandmother said the family was advised against media interviews.

So — maybe it’s still an open investigation.
Maybe they’re preserving evidence.