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

[Muddy K]

[bbm]

it's 8 km. or approx. 5 miles


one reason could be that they're looking for suspicious vehicles scouting the area for unsupervised kids

Thinking of the trail cams/ video footage and the extended, pre-reported-missing date range LE seem to be requesting, I'm wondering if they're looking for patterns of behavior in Lilly and Jack themselves vis-a-vis the adults' somewhat unclear - to me, at least - comments about them playing outdoors.

I remember the "secret" forts my siblings and I shared as kids. We lived in a remote location, surrounded on all sides by farm fields, creeks and woodlands. IMO, by today's standards, the distances we roamed to "discover" cool places and huge trees to climb might be considered dangerously far flung. It would have taken our parents some time to find us, for sure.

 

[AddyFinch]

Me too. My mother hadn't a clue how far I went, not at 6 but definitely by 8. My bike took me a long ways from home, when we couldn't use the bike any longer, it was ditched on side of road and we hiked. If Lily was adventurous, then Jack would just tag along at her suggestion. All pretty sophisticated for a six year old though.
I find the abduction theory really difficult to get my head around, but it does happen. I can think of little Cheryl Hanson 8 yrs old, taken from a side road in Aurora. In 1974 there was nothing around her place. Or Christine Jessop 9yrs old taken from Queensville Sd Rd a farming area, just a few houses close to the four corners. York Region had quite a spree of missing females during those years, which I firmly believe was the work of one or two serial killers.
If kids played in bush behind house with parents, surely they would know of their favourite places to go, or maybe a planned tree fort?

 

[borndem]

I do not believe they are looking for any child abductor on those trail cams. JMO They are looking for evidence of something else.

Sadly, I agree. And if this is so, who knows if they will ever be found -- living or dead.

But we have all seen evidence here on WS that LE, et al, amazed us -- both happy and sad.
Bless the hearts of those two littles.

 

[Beekarina]

The case is unprecedented, not one but two young children don't just go missing with no trace.

Amy and Scott Fandel..... AK - AK - Scott, 13, & Amy Fandel, 8, Sterling, 5 Sept 1978

I'm not sure what happened here with these two little ones in Canada.

 

[ttjo]

Me too. My mother hadn't a clue how far I went, not at 6 but definitely by 8. My bike took me a long ways from home, when we couldn't use the bike any longer, it was ditched on side of road and we hiked. If Lily was adventurous, then Jack would just tag along at her suggestion. All pretty sophisticated for a six year old though.
I find the abduction theory really difficult to get my head around, but it does happen. I can think of little Cheryl Hanson 8 yrs old, taken from a side road in Aurora. In 1974 there was nothing around her place. Or Christine Jessop 9yrs old taken from Queensville Sd Rd a farming area, just a few houses close to the four corners. York Region had quite a spree of missing females during those years, which I firmly believe was the work of one or two serial killers.
If kids played in bush behind house with parents, surely they would know of their favourite places to go, or maybe a planned tree fort?

Tori Stafford, that case haunts me, her killers bought her headphones so while stting in the back seat, she couldnt hear them planning her murder as they were driving.
There is a crime beat episode about that case

 

[AddyFinch]

Tori Stafford, that case haunts me, her killers bought her headphones so while stting in the back seat, she couldnt hear them planning her murder as they were driving.
There is a crime beat episode about that case

Thank goodness her Dad still keeps her name alive today. Three months she was missing going through hell. And little Tori was the reason the Amber Alert was revamped…….(LE dragged their heels calling an Amber Alert). I hope those two sickos never see the light of day.

 

[MistyWaters]

I do know the "Police have said they do not believe the children were abducted, but have not ruled out that the case is suspicious". This was stated in this news article a week ago.
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.7536905

On the topic of suspicion, it didn’t just arise. I hadn’t realized how it’s part and parcel of the RCMP’s routine process, learn something new everyday.

BBM

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/pictou-county-missing-children-lily-jack-sullivan-may-7-1.7528438

“Six days after two children were reported missing from a rural home in Nova Scotia's Pictou County, RCMP say they are scaling back the search and have not ruled out that the case is suspicious….
…..MacKinnon said all missing persons files "are treated as suspicious until our investigation leads us to determine otherwise." He said there have been no confirmed sightings of the children.”

 

[SybilMoss]

They live on such a rural road, and are not as far back from the road as my (also rural) house. Those trailers do not have the best sound-proofing. The parents would have heard a car slow down and stop near their house. They would have heard any traffic going by. It is really is unlikely to be an abduction from a stranger who randomly drove by just as the two children wandered to the top of the driveway. I feel awful for the family.

 

[Bigditch]

OK I have to stick up for the RCMP on this one, I understand they are being held to the fire about just asking for trail cams this late in the game. However I posted a week ago that I heard on the dispatch that they were looking for people with trail cams on the first day of that dispatch So maybe it took them this long to find the lady with 7 cameras , but it doesnt sound like they just started looking for them now.
Apparantly they said they should have been out sooner,
Frankly if I had trail cams, I wouldn't wait for anyone to come to me, Id go to them.
I'll go find the post because it has what was said exactly

I remember that too.

 

[Dreamcherry]

Spring on the East Coast is miserable: damp, cold, insanely buggy, ticks, black flies, wet ... inhospitable for young children.

Can confirm. It's inhospitable for middle aged adults such as myself as well!

I genuinely can't imagine they would have fared very well outdoors at the start of May. I know it's a touch warmer in NS than it is here in NB, but we were still getting sub-zero temps back then. Hell, it was -3 one morning just last week (and then it was +30 two days later, make it make sense.) Add the non-stop rain to that, and it's just a mess. Hypothermia would have been inevitable, imo, if they were actually out there.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Thank goodness her Dad still keeps her name alive today. Three months she was missing going through hell. And little Tori was the reason the Amber Alert was revamped…….(LE dragged their heels calling an Amber Alert). I hope those two sickos never see the light of day.

We live in the same town and have mutual friends via SM. Woodstock will always remember Tori.

 

[Veridex]

They live on such a rural road, and are not as far back from the road as my (also rural) house. Those trailers do not have the best sound-proofing. The parents would have heard a car slow down and stop near their house. They would have heard any traffic going by. It is really is unlikely to be an abduction from a stranger who randomly drove by just as the two children wandered to the top of the driveway. I feel awful for the family.

That's what I've been thinking as well. Obviously abduction is possible, it's just so unlikely given how rural it is there and the chances of a predator being in that specific area at that specific time is just too improbable. Statistically, abductions are only 1 child and for it to be 2 children, they would have to had known the abductor.

 

[katydid23]

They're only just now asking for security and trail cam footage?

I think they already asked locals to check all camera footage from the morning the were reported missing. And I'm sure all the neighbours and locals checked immediately to see if there were two little kids walking or being walked by someone.

But now for some interesting reason, they want the 5 days prior as well.

 

[katydid23]

Maybe validating DM claim that he took out car/ATv to search for kids, or the obvious... that he took children out in car alive. Validating activity on road with time frames to match possible visitors at house? Not placing blame, but video should have been gathered immediately. Rural or not, every thread can paint a picture.
If rumours of personality traits are true, then maybe LE just needs one little shred of proof that there is a possibility of lies happening.

In my experience with missing children cases, all the officers ask EVERY neighbour, bystander, local if they have access to any camera footage. And they also tell everyone to go check their footage for that day or two themselves and call if they have anything.

I am pretty sure there was footage gathered immediately. But now they have stretched their 'search date' by several days prior.

 

[ttjo]

That's what I've been thinking as well. Obviously abduction is possible, it's just so unlikely given how rural it is there and the chances of a predator being in that specific area at that specific time is just too improbable. Statistically, abductions are only 1 child and for it to be 2 children, they would have to had known the abductor.

In that specific area at that specific time and expecting the children to be alone outside??? and not with a parent walking them to their bus. I think even someone they knew should not expect them to be alone. ( no opportunity) and talk about bad timing, People would have been expecting them ( on the bus/at school) I would think theyd be missed immediately, it sure wouldnt give anyone a lot of time to get away.

 

[FromGermany1]

If there is video surveillance in school busses, maybe one should urgently check these videos of some last days ..... MOO

 

[Chimera]

I think they already asked locals to check all camera footage from the morning the were reported missing. And I'm sure all the neighbours and locals checked immediately to see if there were two little kids walking or being walked by someone.

But now for some interesting reason, they want the 5 days prior as well.

Bbm.
If I were to guess, I'd think that the RCMP aren't completely certain the kids vanished the day of the 911 call ?
Imo.

That's what I've been thinking as well. Obviously abduction is possible, it's just so unlikely given how rural it is there and the chances of a predator being in that specific area at that specific time is just too improbable. Statistically, abductions are only 1 child and for it to be 2 children, they would have to had known the abductor.

Emphasis mine.
Agreed 100 %.

If they knew the abductor (i.e., if they were kidnapped -- which I'm not putting my money on at this time !), then maybe that's why the RCMP wanted to speak with at least 35 people ?
Which I'm assuming would've included school employees, bus drivers, and the mom and boyfriends' friends & acquaintances.
Only my opinion.

 

[sar2them1984]

Could you be thinking of the incredible skibaboo, by any chance?

Most definitely Skibs

 

[branmuffin]

A member in an earlier thread mentioned DM riding on an ATV the day the 911 call was made but couldn’t find any reference of it in reporting.

[…]He adds, there is a dense forest and rough streams and he, himself searched 20 or 30 acres when they first went missing.

“I did all around the house in the four-wheeler, ATV. I did as much as a could on the first day and the second day,” says Martell.[…]

https://www.country94.ca/2025/05/05/116769/

What bothers me about this, is that if a foot print was significant to investigators, wouldn’t DM riding ‘all around the house’, etc., be considered contaminating/destroying evidence?

JMO/MOO

A great way to eradicate any prior evidence of movement.

 

[branmuffin]

Excellent point, plus I don't think he would have been allowed to do that once LE arrived, so riding around on the second day seems unlikely.

Or even the first, because he also says he got into his car for about ten minutes, then headed out on foot. Not sure he would have had time to get on ATV after that all that by the time RCMP arrived.

Moo

It depends on what two days he's talking about.