CANADA Canada - Jack, 4 & Lilly Sullivan, 6, Vulnerable, wandered from home 10am, Gairloch Rd, Landsdowne Station, Pictou County, NS, 2 May 2025 #3

[Diddian]

The search and rescue teams would continue searching as long as there was a chance that the children were alive. When there was no further chance of finding living children, then the SAR teams' work is done. After that, recovery teams may be sent in. The teams are trained for different work.

When you consider how the SAR teams worked day and night and still covered a relatively small area, it makes you realise how difficult the terrain was. Had they been searching in a thinner forest, or open fields they could have covered a much larger area in the same time. But Hurricane Fiona created havoc in the forest in Pictou County where these kids went missing. The forest is a jumble of uprooted, fallen trees and broken branches. The search conditions were very challenging.

Post-tropical storm Fiona decimated Nova Scotia’s woodlots. These ecological foresters tell us what cleanup should look like. - Halifax Examiner

Unlike most other Canadian provinces where the Crown owns most of the land, in Nova Scotia just 29% is designated Crown land. Much of that private land is in the hands of 30,000 private woodlot owners. Since post-tropical storm Fiona, the provincial government has allocated millions of dollars...

www.halifaxexaminer.ca

In western Washington, we suffered an "atmospheric cyclone" or "cyclone bomb" in mid-November. I was out of the area so was fortunate to miss it (and the 5-day power outage that followed it), but returned to the area in April. My daughter and I regularly hike some nearby wooded parks and preserves and we were shocked to see the damage that had occurred. Many fallen trees, trees broken off midway up the trunk, fallen branches, and some older large trees completely uprooted, with the rootball tipped on its side and the trunk extended out along the ground from there. I have to imagine that a hurricane produces similar conditions.

I cannot imagine trying to conduct a thorough search through such an area. I cannot even imagine how wildlife common to the area is getting around... it must be slow-going.

Some pics of what we saw (in western WA, NOT in Nova Scotia... but I imagine somewhat similar conditions). The cuts are where trees fallen over hiking trails were cut to clear the path through for hikers/mountain bikers:

 

[KBlackRabbit]

MOO regarding the use of past tense — I think people read too much into that. If you’re recounting a memory that happened in the past, isn’t it grammatically correct to use past tense? And even when describing character traits, if you know that whatever has happened to your children, it is something bad (whether it is abduction, freezing in the elements, etc.), how could you use present tense to describe something positive? You can’t say they are always happy or so smiley, when you know they’re presently suffering under whatever circumstances they’re in, if they’re even alive. Likely experiencing life changing trauma. This is one opinion where I’ll add the caveat that I’m not a parent, but it’s where my mind goes whenever I hear this brought up.

Agree. It’s not one quirk but a cluster of behaviors that matter. Use of the past tense or looking off to the (left/right/up/down/whatever) by itself isn’t a problem, but if there are multiple behaviors displayed all together that could indicate deception, then LE will pay attention.

 

[musicaljoke]

In western Washington, we suffered an "atmospheric cyclone" or "cyclone bomb" in mid-November. I was out of the area so was fortunate to miss it (and the 5-day power outage that followed it), but returned to the area in April. My daughter and I regularly hike some nearby wooded parks and preserves and we were shocked to see the damage that had occurred. Many fallen trees, trees broken off midway up the trunk, fallen branches, and some older large trees completely uprooted, with the rootball tipped on its side and the trunk extended out along the ground from there. I have to imagine that a hurricane produces similar conditions.

I cannot imagine trying to conduct a thorough search through such an area. I cannot even imagine how wildlife common to the area is getting around... it must be slow-going.

Some pics of what we saw (in western WA, NOT in Nova Scotia... but I imagine somewhat similar conditions). The cuts are where trees fallen over hiking trails were cut to clear the path through for hikers/mountain bikers:

I saw the hurricane damage across the straight on PEI and can't even imagine how a search party could walk through the forest. The damage was very much like your photos. Considering that the search went on day and night, it is very conceivable to me that the kids were in the forest, but not found. The searchers would have to go around every uprooted tree and look into every nest of broken limbs. One side glance, or one wrong turn in getting around fallen trees, and they could miss crucial evidence.

 

[Mauig’ma]

In western Washington, we suffered an "atmospheric cyclone" or "cyclone bomb" in mid-November. I was out of the area so was fortunate to miss it (and the 5-day power outage that followed it), but returned to the area in April. My daughter and I regularly hike some nearby wooded parks and preserves and we were shocked to see the damage that had occurred. Many fallen trees, trees broken off midway up the trunk, fallen branches, and some older large trees completely uprooted, with the rootball tipped on its side and the trunk extended out along the ground from there. I have to imagine that a hurricane produces similar conditions.

I cannot imagine trying to conduct a thorough search through such an area. I cannot even imagine how wildlife common to the area is getting around... it must be slow-going.

Some pics of what we saw (in western WA, NOT in Nova Scotia... but I imagine somewhat similar conditions). The cuts are where trees fallen over hiking trails were cut to clear the path through for hikers/mountain bikers:

Seeing these pictures makes it hard to believe the children would venture into such dangerous territory by themselves. I don’t see it happening

 

[Lucy6226]

Seeing these pictures makes it hard to believe the children would venture into such dangerous territory by themselves. I don’t see it happening

Or get very far at all

 

[Mauig’ma]

Or get very far at all

True

 

[iamafiusny]

Or get very far at all

Especially if one really had only a pull-up on.

Moo

 

[Skigh]

Seeing these pictures makes it hard to believe the children would venture into such dangerous territory by themselves. I don’t see it happening

Especially if there are mosquitoes and numerous ticks.

 

[Lucy6226]

...and with wellys on. No way would they stay on climbing over the rough terrain MOO

 

[Mauig’ma]

So I wonder what happens next? After today is the search suspended indefinitely? I sure hope by the end of today they find something of significance so they can continue their search.

 

[wvmoonangel]

One of the things I think about with this case....

The older 2 kids disappear Friday morning from the house the mother shares with her partner and their baby.

By Saturday night she and the baby are living somewhere else.

MOO but as a parent, I would *never* move out of a house 24 hours after my young kids wandered away. What if they're close by in the woods and find their way home and I'm not there?

MOO they did not wander away.

That's something I also find strange. Any parent in their right mind would never leave that area that soon or at all until their child/children were found unless they were already declared deceased by the authorities.

 

[TMich6811]

Seeing these pictures makes it hard to believe the children would venture into such dangerous territory by themselves. I don’t see it happening

Yeah for sure if it’s taking hundreds of adults this much effort, it just adds to my opinion they would not have gone there willingly unless to get away. And even if they did they are clearly not big enough to go far, which means they would be very close to home IMO and presumably the area searched best and earliest

 

[Skigh]

...and with wellys on. No way would they stay on climbing over the rough terrain MOO

A backback would also get caught in things.

 

[iamafiusny]

A backback would also get caught in things.

Well DM did say he didn't see Lilly still carrying it or Jack keeping his pull-up on one it got full

Moo

 

[Skigh]

Well DM did say he didn't see Lilly still carrying it or Jack keeping his pull-up on one it got full

Moo

But her also thinks they have been abducted .

 

[Sailor Bug]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/missing-pictou-county-kids-jack-sullivan-lilly-sullivan-search-may-18-2025-1.7538311

The ground search for two missing Pictou County siblings is likely to end Sunday, according to a person helping oversee the ground search and rescue effort.

 

[KBlackRabbit]

Seeing these pictures makes it hard to believe the children would venture into such dangerous territory by themselves. I don’t see it happening

Depends on the kid. I grew up playing in the PNW woods and at five I was able to easily navigate this kind of terrain. I was inquisitive and loved to explore. Still do. Trees down across a trail: welcome to springtime in the mountains. Once the snow melts out and the weather stabilizes, the trail crews can get in and cut the logs and cut back the vegetation, or, for some of the more remote trails, the logs are left and they’re just a feature of that trail. I do quite a bit of backcountry hiking in the North Cascades and this is what’s there, plus steep rocky/rooty hillsides.

That said, climbing around in wellies and/or just a pullup would be harder.

 

[Skigh]

Depends on the kid. I grew up playing in the PNW woods and at five I was able to easily navigate this kind of terrain. I was inquisitive and loved to explore. Still do. Trees down across a trail: welcome to springtime in the mountains. Once the snow melts out and the weather stabilizes, the trail crews can get in and cut the logs and cut back the vegetation, or, for some of the more remote trails, the logs are left and they’re just a feature of that trail. I do quite a bit of backcountry hiking in the North Cascades and this is what’s there, plus steep rocky/rooty hillsides.

That said, climbing around in wellies and/or just a pullup would be harder.

Playing on logs and fallen trees does sound fun ,but I think the environment in the woods were much more hostile judging by the comments made by the searchers and some one else posted earlier that the morning temperatures were only a few degrees above freezing .

 

[musicaljoke]

Or get very far at all

Or if they did and tried to turn around, then could very likely get misdirected.

 

[Mauig’ma]

Or if they did and tried to turn around, then could very likely get misdirected.

Which imo is why sar was back at it over the weekend. Imo if and that’s a big if they’re lost this last search should come up with something to go off of. Moo