CANADA Canada - Jack, 4 & Lilly Sullivan, 6, Vulnerable, wandered from home 10am, Gairloch Rd, Landsdowne Station, Pictou County, NS, 2 May 2025 #7

[Ghostwheel]

I just did a deep dive on the blanket. There is lots of info out there on it, much of which cannot be discussed here due to ToS. I have to admit I kind of dismissed it before. It just seemed like a red herring to me. But the more I look into it the stranger it becomes.

So let's review the facts as we know them:

Lilly had a favorite blanket that she didn't want anymore. DM used it to stuff a crack around the door to stop a draft. He didn't need the whole blanket, so he tore off a piece. Later on the weather warmed up so MBM removed the blanket from the door and put it in a trash bag. So it would appear that this is the origin of the piece of blanket. One would assume the piece that was found is the piece that Daniel ripped off.

The incredible part is that somehow that piece of blanket ended up a kilometer down the road, around a corner, 6 feet up in the air, hanging on a tree branch. How? How could it be there if somebody didn't put it there? Why would anybody put it there?

I can think of 3 possibilities...

1. The wind blew it there. Highly unlikely. Sure the wind could blow it down the road but surely it would get hung up well before it was 1 km away. Plus it would not end up 6 feet off the ground. Unless they had a hurricane. (They did not.)

2. A good samaritan found it and put it there so the owner could find it. Again, that seems highly unlikely. A ripped off piece of blanket is obviously trash. Nobody would see it as anything other than trash. One would also hope that if a good samaritan did put it in the tree they would have come forward and said so.

3. Perp put it there. Why would they put it there? As a taunt or to mislead the investigation. Then one also has to wonder: how did they get it? Could Lilly have found it and put it in her backpack? What did DM do with the piece that he ripped off the blanket?

Think about it: this wasn't hanging in a tree somewhere out of sight. It was hanging from a tree right by the side of the road. Where somebody would be sure to see it. Making it look very planted.

In any case, using dashcam videos the RCMP should have been able to establish roughly when the piece appeared, I would hope. This seems like it is definitely related to the case. It didn't just randomly end up in that tree, imho, somebody put it there. And that someone sure seems like it would have been the perp. It does seem like a very strange thing to do, but how else would it have ended up in that tree?

This also, imho, completely eliminates the possibility that the kids were just lost. What? A piece of Lilly's blanket just coincidentally ended up in a tree 1km down the road on the exact same day the kids became lost in the woods? That doesn't seem very likely.

Depending on where you live and your trash pick up, there is
4) Blanket was in or hanging out of trash truck and blew out on the way down the road, ending up in the tree and had been there for a while or the blanket piece was stuck in a trash can and didn't get into the truck until shortly before Jack and Lily disappeared.

I don't know about that area. I just know where I live we have enclosed trucks and I still end up with my neighbors trash right in front of my trash can. I can only assume that when the truck tips my can up to empty it, something blows out, or the lid snags something if the truck is full or some such thing.

Also, if that road has a fast speed limit, I have had some items on a 45 MPH or better road blow up from the side and over my car or something blowing out of the back of a vehicle in front of me roll over my car and flng to the side of the road (and my car is 6ft with the roof rack). So something ending up in the trees is not a stretch to me. What is a stretch is the actual blanket piece being the item. I mean, can I see how it could happen, yes. Can I see how it would happen RIGHT THEN? Unless it had been there a while, not really.

 

[BCSleuth]

Depending on where you live and your trash pick up, there is
4) Blanket was in or hanging out of trash truck and blew out on the way down the road, ending up in the tree and had been there for a while or the blanket piece was stuck in a trash can and didn't get into the truck until shortly before Jack and Lily disappeared.

I don't know about that area. I just know where I live we have enclosed trucks and I still end up with my neighbors trash right in front of my trash can. I can only assume that when the truck tips my can up to empty it, something blows out, or the lid snags something if the truck is full or some such thing.

Also, if that road has a fast speed limit, I have had some items on a 45 MPH or better road blow up from the side and over my car or something blowing out of the back of a vehicle in front of me roll over my car and flng to the side of the road (and my car is 6ft with the roof rack). So something ending up in the trees is not a stretch to me. What is a stretch is the actual blanket piece being the item. I mean, can I see how it could happen, yes. Can I see how it would happen RIGHT THEN? Unless it had been there a while, not really.

Nice thinking. Whether or not it was there prior to the children going missing is a key point. RCMP would know this. (Bus surveillance video.)

 

[squareandrabbet]

I just did a deep dive on the blanket. There is lots of info out there on it, much of which cannot be discussed here due to ToS. I have to admit I kind of dismissed it before. It just seemed like a red herring to me. But the more I look into it the stranger it becomes.

So let's review the facts as we know them:

Lilly had a favorite blanket that she didn't want anymore. DM used it to stuff a crack around the door to stop a draft. He didn't need the whole blanket, so he tore off a piece. Later on the weather warmed up so MBM removed the blanket from the door and put it in a trash bag. So it would appear that this is the origin of the piece of blanket. One would assume the piece that was found is the piece that Daniel ripped off.

The incredible part is that somehow that piece of blanket ended up a kilometer down the road, around a corner, 6 feet up in the air, hanging on a tree branch. How? How could it be there if somebody didn't put it there? Why would anybody put it there?

I can think of 3 possibilities...

1. The wind blew it there. Highly unlikely. Sure the wind could blow it down the road but surely it would get hung up well before it was 1 km away. Plus it would not end up 6 feet off the ground. Unless they had a hurricane. (They did not.)

2. A good samaritan found it and put it there so the owner could find it. Again, that seems highly unlikely. A ripped off piece of blanket is obviously trash. Nobody would see it as anything other than trash. One would also hope that if a good samaritan did put it in the tree they would have come forward and said so.

3. Perp put it there. Why would they put it there? As a taunt or to mislead the investigation. Then one also has to wonder: how did they get it? Could Lilly have found it and put it in her backpack? What did DM do with the piece that he ripped off the blanket?

Think about it: this wasn't hanging in a tree somewhere out of sight. It was hanging from a tree right by the side of the road. Where somebody would be sure to see it. Making it look very planted.

In any case, using dashcam videos the RCMP should have been able to establish roughly when the piece appeared, I would hope. This seems like it is definitely related to the case. It didn't just randomly end up in that tree, imho, somebody put it there. And that someone sure seems like it would have been the perp. It does seem like a very strange thing to do, but how else would it have ended up in that tree?

This also, imho, completely eliminates the possibility that the kids were just lost. What? A piece of Lilly's blanket just coincidentally ended up in a tree 1km down the road on the exact same day the kids became lost in the woods? That doesn't seem very likely.

If Lilly was carrying it with her, one possible explanation is that a (animal) predator picked it up and climbed a tree with it.

The wind theory is a little more farfetched, but it's not impossible either, depending upon weather of the day.

Lastly, someone trying to throw a red herring into the mix by planting it, might very well only be thinking "throw everyone else off the scent" and not be smart enough to have thought "okay, yeah, this placement necessitates someone will see it, but it's not particularly natural."

 

[Calcano]

One thing I'll say is that I'm not convinced they went missing that morning. The timeline is very up in the air for me and I don't necessarily view the one we've heard to be the real one.

 

[Firstsnow4]

One thing I'll say is that I'm not convinced they went missing that morning. The timeline is very up in the air for me and I don't necessarily view the one we've heard to be the real one.

I agree with you JMO. The last time they were independently seen was at 2.25pm at the Dollarama store the day before. No verified sightings since then. According to newspaper articles. Also it’s interesting that according to MBM they were wearing the same clothes they were seen in from the day before. Again JMO. I wonder if Lilly had her backpack with her the day before.

 

[Lalalacasbah]

"In July, the Mounties said they were conducting forensic tests on a pink blanket found during a search of a heavily wooded areas near the family’s home." "During the interview Thursday, Martell said the blood sample he submitted would be used to test something on a blanket, but he did not provide details."

My guess would be, the test results came back on the blanket and his blood sample is to either rule him out as the contributor to whatever was found on the blanket, or to match his sample to it.

jmo

Yes good point. I also wonder would they be getting another sample from him for more in depth familial DNA? Likely not but thought to throw it out there, I'm not sure how all that works. MOO

 

[su5ie]

View attachment 637936
(Google map).

The small pin is the family home. The school bus stopped at their driveway, and from what has been reported the bus travelled in the direction towards Lansdowne Station. The pipeline trail is highlighted in yellow. It’s about 1.2 kms from the home.

So is the pipeline behind their home or in front of it .

If the pipeline trail is behind it , what is the likely hood of cctv being on that trail other than prehaps trail cams

 

[su5ie]

I agree with you JMO. The last time they were independently seen was at 2.25pm at the Dollarama store the day before. No verified sightings since then. According to newspaper articles. Also it’s interesting that according to MBM they were wearing the same clothes they were seen in from the day before. Again JMO. I wonder if Lilly had her backpack with her the day before.

Yes this is where the timeline begins of them going missing for me .

Family members took a polygraph and appeared truthful but in regards to beyond reasonable doubt the only independent witness is Dollarama cctv .That's why LE will put out requests for footage etc as it will back up or not the version told by Family imo

The bus footage interests me because I'm wondering what time the kids were normally dropped back home in the afternoon /evening and if the bus cameras picked up mbms vehicle returning to landsdowne and garlioch Roads or if any of the cameras on that road did

 

[Slebby]

Depending on where you live and your trash pick up, there is
4) Blanket was in or hanging out of trash truck and blew out on the way down the road, ending up in the tree and had been there for a while or the blanket piece was stuck in a trash can and didn't get into the truck until shortly before Jack and Lily disappeared.

I don't know about that area. I just know where I live we have enclosed trucks and I still end up with my neighbors trash right in front of my trash can. I can only assume that when the truck tips my can up to empty it, something blows out, or the lid snags something if the truck is full or some such thing.

Also, if that road has a fast speed limit, I have had some items on a 45 MPH or better road blow up from the side and over my car or something blowing out of the back of a vehicle in front of me roll over my car and flng to the side of the road (and my car is 6ft with the roof rack). So something ending up in the trees is not a stretch to me. What is a stretch is the actual blanket piece being the item. I mean, can I see how it could happen, yes. Can I see how it would happen RIGHT THEN? Unless it had been there a while, not really.

I appreciate this kind of thinking.Though I think it “could have” happened this way, I don’t think it did.
Does anyone recall, from the reporting or court docs, did DM or MBM say that both pieces of the blanket had been thrown in the garbage at the same time? We know DM tore off part of the blanket to stop a draft. I wonder, did he discard the other half at that time? In which case, both pieces would not have been in the trash at the same time.
imo

 

[Slebby]

Oops, double post.
Happy Sunday!

 

[Slebby]

I also found it odd, imo, when DM asserted that 2 of his sweaters had been stolen.
My question, who would steal them and why? To what end?
Was this ever cleared up?

 

[Bigditch]

I agree with you JMO. The last time they were independently seen was at 2.25pm at the Dollarama store the day before. No verified sightings since then. According to newspaper articles. Also it’s interesting that according to MBM they were wearing the same clothes they were seen in from the day before. Again JMO. I wonder if Lilly had her backpack with her the day before.

Good question. I'd guess she did have it with her.

 

[Sarahlou]

I also found it odd, imo, when DM asserted that 2 of his sweaters had been stolen.
My question, who would steal them and why? To what end?
Was this ever cleared up?

Maybe he was trying to get ahead of things. So that if they were ever found he'd have an explanation as to why they weren't in the house. JMO of course.
I always find it a bit suspicious when people add unnecessary details.

 

[Serononin]

Another random thought about Lilly's backpack - we've discussed previously that she could have used it to carry around comfort items, but it occurred to me that it's also possible that the backpack itself was her comfort item. That could explain why she apparently had it with/near her in bed, and why the RCMP have only mentioned her taking the backpack and nothing about it having anything in it

 

[303gmf]

Maybe he was trying to get ahead of things. So that if they were ever found he'd have an explanation as to why they weren't in the house. JMO of course.
I always find it a bit suspicious when people add unnecessary details.

I wanted to ask him questions, what kind of sweaters? Brand, color etc?
How do you lose sweaters?

 

[Bigditch]

Another random thought about Lilly's backpack - we've discussed previously that she could have used it to carry around comfort items, but it occurred to me that it's also possible that the backpack itself was her comfort item. That could explain why she apparently had it with/near her in bed, and why the RCMP have only mentioned her taking the backpack and nothing about it having anything in it

dbm

 

[Muddy K]

I just did a deep dive on the blanket. There is lots of info out there on it, much of which cannot be discussed here due to ToS. I have to admit I kind of dismissed it before. It just seemed like a red herring to me. But the more I look into it the stranger it becomes.

So let's review the facts as we know them:

Lilly had a favorite blanket that she didn't want anymore. DM used it to stuff a crack around the door to stop a draft. He didn't need the whole blanket, so he tore off a piece. Later on the weather warmed up so MBM removed the blanket from the door and put it in a trash bag. So it would appear that this is the origin of the piece of blanket. One would assume the piece that was found is the piece that Daniel ripped off.

The incredible part is that somehow that piece of blanket ended up a kilometer down the road, around a corner, 6 feet up in the air, hanging on a tree branch. How? How could it be there if somebody didn't put it there? Why would anybody put it there?

I can think of 3 possibilities...

1. The wind blew it there. Highly unlikely. Sure the wind could blow it down the road but surely it would get hung up well before it was 1 km away. Plus it would not end up 6 feet off the ground. Unless they had a hurricane. (They did not.)

2. A good samaritan found it and put it there so the owner could find it. Again, that seems highly unlikely. A ripped off piece of blanket is obviously trash. Nobody would see it as anything other than trash. One would also hope that if a good samaritan did put it in the tree they would have come forward and said so.

3. Perp put it there. Why would they put it there? As a taunt or to mislead the investigation. Then one also has to wonder: how did they get it? Could Lilly have found it and put it in her backpack? What did DM do with the piece that he ripped off the blanket?

Think about it: this wasn't hanging in a tree somewhere out of sight. It was hanging from a tree right by the side of the road. Where somebody would be sure to see it. Making it look very planted.

In any case, using dashcam videos the RCMP should have been able to establish roughly when the piece appeared, I would hope. This seems like it is definitely related to the case. It didn't just randomly end up in that tree, imho, somebody put it there. And that someone sure seems like it would have been the perp. It does seem like a very strange thing to do, but how else would it have ended up in that tree?

This also, imho, completely eliminates the possibility that the kids were just lost. What? A piece of Lilly's blanket just coincidentally ended up in a tree 1km down the road on the exact same day the kids became lost in the woods? That doesn't seem very likely.

I can offer another possibility, based on direct experience. Squirrels find things like plastic bags and fabric tatters, rags, etc., useful for lining their dreys (nests) and they are also remarkably precocious in discovering, securing, transporting and using such items.

Truly, I'm not joking. My own very tall backyard Box Elder tree is sometimes festooned with "building materials" that leave me baffled.

I cannot believe how stretched thin we are for meaningful evidence either way all these long months later.

JMO, I don't see smarts enough in either DM or MBM to pull off successfully disappearing the children. I do believe nature can be that thorough, though.

 

[katydid23]

I can offer another possibility, based on direct experience. Squirrels find things like plastic bags and fabric tatters, rags, etc., useful for lining their dreys (nests) and they are also remarkably precocious in discovering, securing, transporting and using such items.

Truly, I'm not joking. My own very tall backyard Box Elder tree is sometimes festooned with "building materials" that leave me baffled.

I cannot believe how stretched thin we are for meaningful evidence either way all these long months later.

JMO, I don't see smarts enough in either DM or MBM to pull off successfully disappearing the children. I do believe nature can be that thorough, though.

I will second that notion. Last spring two of our outdoor couch pillows were torn open and the stuffing was strewn along the back lawn. And I scolded my daughter's doggies, who we were pet sitting for a week. I wondered why they tore our pillows apart because they'd never done that before. They love laying on them up on our patio couch.

Weeks later, my husband was pruning some tree branches, using a step ladder. And he had some angry squirrels chirping at him and then he saw a big pile of stuff, like a messy nest in the branches---and it was full of our pillow stuffing and also a kitchen towel we used by the BBQ---it was up in the tree, carried by the squirrels.

So I do think squirrels could have taken some blanket pieces up in a tree. Do they have squirrels in that eco-system though?

 

[MistyWaters]

So is the pipeline behind their home or in front of it .

If the pipeline trail is behind it , what is the likely hood of cctv being on that trail other than prehaps trail cams

The pipeline trail is neither behind or infront (marked in red). IIRC it’s about 2 km from Gairloch Road. It was initially searched on May 18th because that’s where a boot print was found. I’m not sure when it was connected to the piece of cloth. Anyone remember?

Pictou County missing kids: 1-month timeline since Sullivan children's disappearance

Two young children were reported missing in Pictou County one month ago, since then the search has grown and questions about the case get louder.

halifax.citynews.ca

 

[Muddy K]

Do they have squirrels in that eco-system though?

Snipped by me for focus. Yes, American Red Squirrels (a/k/a pesky, bossy, adorable demons) and a couple of other squirrel types are found across Canada, including in Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia Squirrels


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