It’s been eight months since Lilly and Jack Sullivan disappeared, and a Nova Scotia RCMP criminal operations officer says in his 33 years of policing, he’s never seen a case like it.
“It’s extremely rare. I’ve never seen it across my career. But while it’s rare, what’s the part that isn’t rare is the complexity of the case, like why it’s taking so long, because these investigations have to be done in a methodical approach,” Dan Morrow said in a year-end interview with Global News. “It started to generate a lot of national media attention and even international.”
The six- and five-year-old siblings were reported missing from their Lansdowne Station, N.S., home in rural Pictou County on May 2.
An extensive search followed their disappearance, with agencies from across the region using search-and-rescue volunteers, drones, police dogs and helicopters. The search covered four square kilometres of heavily wooded rural terrain.
After six days, the RCMP said it was scaling back the search because the likelihood the children were alive was “very low,” though Staff Sgt. Curtis MacKinnon at the time said, “We’re not giving up.”
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A month later, in June, RCMP said “all scenarios are being considered.”
In September, two RCMP police dogs specifically trained to detect human remains were brought in to search a 40-kilometre area near the home. In October, the RCMP said the dogs did not find any remains.
The children’s story has garnered national and worldwide attention for months, but Morrow told Global News he wished he had more answers for the public even as the investigation continues.
“Anyone who has children, obviously from a parental aspect, it deepens that level of concern internally — what happens if it was my child, for instance,” Morrow said when asked about the attention it’s received. “Just that initial reaction from a parental perspective would escalate that concern, obviously.”
At a vigil held Oct. 29 that also marked Jack’s fifth birthday, the children’s stepfather said he no longer believed the children were in the woods near the home.
Daniel Martell said that in light of all the searches and efforts, he did not find it plausible that the children were still in the area.
Morrow said police have received approximately 1,030 tips amid the investigation, with 86 formal interviews completed.
He said more than 8,100 functioning videos have been reviewed by the team supervising the investigation, as well as seven polygraph examinations conducted, with all seven people found not to be lying.
“So there’s been a lot of work conducted behind the scenes,” Morrow said.
— with files from Global News’ Rebecca Lau and Ella Macdonald
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