Parents of Missing Siblings Lily and Jack Sullivan Say the Two Young Children Wandered Off

According to the Missing Kids database in Canada, more than 50,000 children are reported missing each year. In 2018, 62 percent of the kids reported missing were found within a day, while 92 percent were located roughly a week after they were reported missing.

Now, in Nova Scotia, the parents of Lily and Jack Sullivan are experiencing something no parent ever wants to go through. The Sullivan siblings have been missing since May 2, 2025. Here's what we know.

Searches continue for missing 6-year-old Lily Sullivan and 4-year-old Jack Sullivan, who, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, disappeared from their home in Nova Scotia around 10 a.m. on May 2. Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, told CTV News that when she woke up that morning, she could hear the children playing in another room. Because they don't normally leave the house on their own, Brooks-Murray fell back asleep.

"We always make sure that we’re out there with them, watching them, and they happen to just get out that sliding door, and we can’t hear it when it opens, and they were outside playing, but we weren’t aware of it at the time, and the next thing we knew it was quiet," the distraught mother shared, referring to her husband Daniel Martell. The couple went looking for the children and immediately called 911 after seeing footprints on their driveway leading to the road.

Martell, Lily and Jack's stepfather, told the CBC that Jack loves bugs and dinosaurs, while Lily is into "girlie things" but will follow Jack anywhere. "They’re like best friends, not just brother and sister," he added while fighting tears. Since they were reported missing, more than 100 searchers have scoured the surrounding area looking for any clue as to what happened. Helicopters, drones, and dogs are being used to search the heavily wooded land.

When Martell realized Lily and Jack were gone, he immediately jumped into a vehicle and "surveyed all the areas, [as] many dirt roads, [as] many culverts as I could and waited for the police to get there," per the CBC. He later asked authorities to monitor the New Brunswick border and nearby airports in the event the kids were abducted.

Investigators with the RCMP's major crimes unit spoke with Martell on May 5 and assured him they do not believe Lily and Jack were kidnapped. While speaking with the CBC, Martell said, "They just want to rule everything out before they switch … concerns from being, you know, search and rescue to abduction." Brooks-Murray said while she appreciated the search effort, she wished police had issued an Amber Alert.