CANADA Canada - Jack, 4 & Lilly Sullivan, 6, Vulnerable, wandered from home 10am, Gairloch Rd, Landsdowne Station, Pictou County, NS, 2 May 2025 #5

[Ontario Mom]

I still don't know what I think happened. I continually remind myself not to expect these parents to react the way I would...or think I would. I live in a remote area of Northern Vermont on the Canadian border. My town is very small, many here are hardworking but impoverished without much education, maybe not even a high school education. My husband and I are highly educated, well traveled and chose to live in this particular town because it's in one of the most beautiful places we've ever been.

I know plenty of people like this family, and am friends with many of them. Do you think DM and MBM don't know what you think when you see where they live and their life circumstances? It can be overwhelming to suddenly be the focus of international attention. Your kids are missing. Everyone's looking at you. You're a mixed family, kids from different relationships. You know people are giving you the cross-eye. So you overcompensate with too many details...or you hide from public view. You use the wrong words. You can't cry anymore, even though people expect you to. How do you wake up every day and do it all over again?

What if the kids really did slip out the door and are lost in those woods? What if the creepy resident, or one of many creepy residents in town, took your kids? What if people start wondering about grandma, who just wasn't home, maybe she was at work or grocery shopping? What if it was someone who had watched your kids get off the bus every day? What if your mind is spinning as much as everyone else's?

Until authorities tell me these parents are responsible for the disappearance, I will continue to give them grace. And from what we know, authorities just don't know, any more than I do, you do, we do.

Thank you.

 

[musicaljoke]

I grew up in a Canadian city in the 70's and 80's and it was drilled into our heads ad nauseam at school and after school clubs and by parents: (1) if there's an emergency, phone 911. (2) Police / Fire /Ambulance - phone 911. In fact, so well-drilled that 911 is the first thing I think of in an emergency, even though I live on another continent and it's not applicable anymore. So I'm really surprised to think there could be confusion on what emergency number to phone.

Is it different in rural areas, where only the RCMP is policing, so no City Police force? I would have hoped that phoning 911 in a rural area would put you in touch immediately with RCMP. Wouldn't makes sense to not have 911 covered. MOO

911 dispatches an emergency vehicle immediately. That's why we use it in an emergency. The first question asked is "Do you need the Ambulance, Fire or Police?" The caller doesn't risk being put on hold, nor will they have to press any certain numbers to get the right department. I had to call 911 recently and the ambulance was on site before I finished the phone call.

 

[musicaljoke]

Very good question.He gets few shifts at work, but must fix a fence at night, that night. Convenient planting of a story line? Maybe he needed supplies and picked them up at hardware store? Maybe all rumours. Bet the rumour mill is rampant in the community.
Goggle maps or Goggle earth and fake drive along that road, both directions. IMO there is zero chance kids would walk that. It's boring, except for a few houses one way, there is zero out there. They did not wander the road, and that leaves the bush. Not along there they wouldn't, so it would have to be thru backyard if at all. Miles into that bush would be hard work for kids and it too would be boring. I think if they went into bush, the oldest would have the house insight, and not stray from eyesight of that home.
I think dogs would leave evidence, and can't see a dog mauling two kids at same time. If it did happen, then why lie about it? It was an accident.
Back to abduction, murder or sold.

The house would be in sight for just a short time, probably less than 50 metres. If the kids decided to turn back, there is no telling which direction they would go.

 

[Slebby]

I still don't know what I think happened. I continually remind myself not to expect these parents to react the way I would...or think I would. I live in a remote area of Northern Vermont on the Canadian border. My town is very small, many here are hardworking but impoverished without much education, maybe not even a high school education. My husband and I are highly educated, well traveled and chose to live in this particular town because it's in one of the most beautiful places we've ever been.

I know plenty of people like this family, and am friends with many of them. Do you think DM and MBM don't know what you think when you see where they live and their life circumstances? It can be overwhelming to suddenly be the focus of international attention. Your kids are missing. Everyone's looking at you. You're a mixed family, kids from different relationships. You know people are giving you the cross-eye. So you overcompensate with too many details...or you hide from public view. You use the wrong words. You can't cry anymore, even though people expect you to. How do you wake up every day and do it all over again?

What if the kids really did slip out the door and are lost in those woods? What if the creepy resident, or one of many creepy residents in town, took your kids? What if people start wondering about grandma, who just wasn't home, maybe she was at work or grocery shopping? What if it was someone who had watched your kids get off the bus every day? What if your mind is spinning as much as everyone else's?

Until authorities tell me these parents are responsible for the disappearance, I will continue to give them grace. And from what we know, authorities just don't know, any more than I do, you do, we do.

You sound like a very kind person. It is important to give grace to people who may be innocent victims of a terrible crime or accident involving their children.

At the same time, this is a web forum discussing crime, and in this case, missing children. We can hope for the best, while also conceding the statistics are not on the side of a happy outcome. It would be a dull conversation if we never allowed ourselves to comment beyond expressions of hope for happy endings.

I can’t speak for other web sleuths posting here, but when I comment, it’s usually after quite a lot of reading and following the facts as they are known. I make a point of expressing that it is my opinion or speculation, based on what is known. I often use the phrase “does not ring true for me”, and when this happens, I employ my critical thinking skills, to try to tease out answers, or possible reasons it doesn’t ring true.

I find these 2 comments interesting: “do you think DM and MBM don’t know what you think when you see where they live and their life circumstances?” And “you know people are giving you the cross-eye” I haven’t followed every thread on this case, but what I have followed has not reflected any judgement of their way of life. Socioeconomic factors have not spared the McCanns, nor the Ramseys, from scrutiny, or as you say, “side-eye”. I have not followed any missing/murdered children’s cases in which suspicion of the parents has not been part of the list of scenarios under consideration.

I have lived mostly in the city but almost 10 years on a rural property very close to a First Nations* community, and I have also spent time year round, my whole life, in close proximity and association with another First Nations Community, both in Alberta. I have learned thru this experience that we are not all the same, and my ways are not necessarily better, just different. When I see the home and lifestyle of DM and MBM, I’m seeing a lifestyle I witness all the time and assign no meaning, no judgment, no side-eye.

* (In Canada, we usually use the terms “First Nations” or “indigenous “ when referring to people Americans may refer to as “American Indians” or “Native Americans”)

This is all my perspective and my humble opinion.

 

[TMich6811]

Dog attack is a 0 probability in my mind but - 4 and 6 year olds getting out without a peep from a dog or the dog running out the door also seems unlikely to me

 

[Diddian]

Dog attack is a 0 probability in my mind but - 4 and 6 year olds getting out without a peep from a dog or the dog running out the door also seems unlikely to me

AFAIK we haven't been given any information about the dog except that there is one. It may be a lap dog that really has no interest in anything beyond the person giving it attention. It may be older and hard of hearing. It may have heard the children playing in the adjacent yard so often that at this point it tunes their noises out.

Given that there is a chicken coop immediately adjacent to the fenced yard adjoining the camper, I'm inclined to think any one of those is true. If my young, curious, and very active dogs were that close to a chicken coop, there would be nonstop barking (if not break-ins that did not end well for the chickens) anytime they were out in the yard.

 

[FansBlowing]

Here is another view of the chicken coop. It looks like there are two buckets, one is filled with water, but we cannot see what is in the other bucket (dog food?). Maybe the dog was put there to protect the chickens. The toys and swingset are right there by the chicken coop, so this is the area the kids would play at. If that bucket was filled with water by rain, then how come the other bucket is not full of water too?
[picture removed by mod because it was behind a paywall]

 

[Diddian]

Here is another view of the chicken coop. It looks like there are two buckets, one is filled with water, but we cannot see what is in the other bucket (dog food?). Maybe the dog was put there to protect the chickens. The toys and swingset are right there by the chicken coop, so this is the area the kids would play at. If that bucket was filled with water by rain, then how come the other bucket is not full of water too?

View attachment 594611

I suspect that those buckets contain supplies of water and chicken feed so that the food and water dishes for the chickens can be replenished each day. I think it likely the dog's water and food is kept in the yard adjacent to the smaller camper.

 

[TMich6811]

Here is another view of the chicken coop. It looks like there are two buckets, one is filled with water, but we cannot see what is in the other bucket (dog food?). Maybe the dog was put there to protect the chickens. The toys and swingset are right there by the chicken coop, so this is the area the kids would play at. If that bucket was filled with water by rain, then how come the other bucket is not full of water too?

View attachment 594611

I hope all of these wires are correctly not connected or power stopped to them

ETA or is like clothes line? Looking again I can’t tell

 

[FansBlowing]

I think those are just strings for tying things.

 

[Diddian]

I hope all of these wires are correctly not connected or power stopped to them

ETA or is like clothes line? Looking again I can’t tell

I remember from photos provided earlier that the wires (or clothes lines) extend all the way to the side of the stoop for the back door (a single door likely near the back bedrooms, NOT the sliding door). I remember that there is a single railing on the side of that stoop on the same size as that clothes line because it worried me that a small child could climb atop that rail and reach that wire or clothes line, so it is a hazard.

Here is a link to my earlier post and if you go to the post I am replying to there, you can see the photo. Note what looks like it must have been the top railing board lying on the surface of the stoop:

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

May 14, 2025

I'm not sure if the handle of their door is any higher than average, but they're generally 3 to 4 feet from the ground. I also don't know the height of the children, but I'm guessing at 4 and 6 years old, they'd potentially struggle with a handle that height. I'd imagine they might leave hand prints on the glass door if they used it.

Also in this pic, I just recently noticed what appears to be a smaller mattress laying between the two porches. Could be unrelated.

View attachment 586053Source of pic

The apron of the trailer is also pulled loose at one end of that mattress and it is a...

• Diddian

• 

 

[shetalksinstereo]

If they bought groceries in New Glasgow, then they probably did come home that night because groceries are perishable and you want to refrigerate or freeze right away.

It was only in the 40s outside that day, so really no big rush like if it were a hot summer day.

 

[doublestop]

Dangerous dog back there comes to mind again. Why the back of the property where that other fenced in area for the dog is? Why is fixing the fence so important that he has to do it at night?

It would be like going out and doing a little yard work after dinner. Not in the dark of night. "he and the family spent the evening at the mobile home while he worked on the fence at the back of the property" is the quote from the Globe and Mail.

 

[Sjöberg]

4 and 6 year olds getting out without a peep from a dog or the dog running out the door also seems unlikely to me

Do we even know where the dog was at? I would say that the poor pooch, in my eyes, is innocent until proven guilty If the unknown dog of an unknown breed and age is anything like my dog, it won't bark at people leaving, but entering. And is totally off duty from midnight to about 10 AM, unless someone knocks on the door.

As for this case is general, it is not looking good. Statistically, these kids were harmed by someone close to them. I am keeping an open mind as no information of any evidence of harm has been shared with us, but I am also aware that the police can have a lot of evidence they are not sharing.

On the other hand, people are hard to find in the wilderness. Kids are much harder to find than adults. Dead people are much harder to find than alive people. Little kids dying from exposure in the Canadian wilderness... there are many things sus about this case, but the kids not being found is not one of them.

To illustrate the last thought. A relative of mine commited suicide in the forest. Way smaller than these landscapes in this case. He hung himself, so it's not like he was exactly hidden. He was an adult male. What was left of him was found 8 years later. And this was 8 years of searches that included hints to the general area and having family members in the police force.

 

[MistyWaters]

If that was chicken feed, then there would be a lid on it so that it would not get wet and ruined. It could be that there were two dogs, a small one that Daniel's mom had for years, and then a bigger one Daniel recently got to protect the chickens.

What is the source for Daniel recently getting a bigger dog to protect the chickens?

 

[FansBlowing]

We don't know anything about the dog, only that there is at least one dog and there appears to be feeding dishes next to the chicken coop. And by the size of the dishes, it would be a big dog.

 

[MistyWaters]

We don't know anything about the dog, only that there is at least one dog and there appears to be feeding dishes next to the chicken coop. And by the size of the dishes, it would be a big dog.

Those look like pails to me, not feeding dishes for dogs. A pail in a rural yard does not automatically point to a dog protecting chickens, in fact pails of dog food left out would certainly attract unwanted birds and animals so it’s unlikely rural folks would made a habit of doing that.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Here is another view of the chicken coop. It looks like there are two buckets, one is filled with water, but we cannot see what is in the other bucket (dog food?). Maybe the dog was put there to protect the chickens. The toys and swingset are right there by the chicken coop, so this is the area the kids would play at. If that bucket was filled with water by rain, then how come the other bucket is not full of water too?

View attachment 594611

Can you please share the source link for this image?

 

[Ontario Mom]

What is the source for Daniel recently getting a bigger dog to protect the chickens?

First I'm hearing of this.

 

[FansBlowing]

Can you please share the source link for this image?

Here is the link. Two Nova Scotia children are missing. Here’s a timeline of key events since the siblings vanished