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Lilly, 6, and her brother Jack, 4, were reported missing nearly four months ago.HO/The Canadian Press
Police investigating the disappearance of Jack and Lilly Sullivan collected the kids’ toothbrushes from their home, found a sock and a scrap of purple fabric in the woods, according to court documents that also detail the results of their mother and stepfather’s polygraph tests.
Seven court documents filed by police in their continuing major crime investigation, and obtained by The Globe and Mail on Thursday, divulge the items seized during the search for the young kids from Lansdowne, N.S.; a lack of evidence pointing to potential criminality at the time the documents were filed in mid-May; and a play-by-play account of the children’s last hours before their mother reported them missing.
The highly unusual disappearance of Lilly, 6, and her brother Jack, 4, has captured the nation’s attention since the children were reported missing nearly four months ago. In the days and weeks following their mother and stepfather’s report to police that the children slipped out of the home while they were sleeping, armies of search and rescue teams, police dogs, drones and helicopters scoured the land and waterways to no avail.
The RCMP Nova Northeast Major Crime Unit continues to lead a “very active, intensive investigation” with assistance from agencies across Canada, said RCMP spokesperson Cindy Bayers in an e-mail in response to questions on Friday. She said police have not ruled out any scenario or confirmed the circumstances of the children’s disappearance, which continues to be investigated under the Missing Persons Act. She reiterated there is no evidence that the children were abducted, but every possibility is being considered.
“Investigators have and continue to receive forensic results, which they’re assessing,” wrote Ms. Bayers. She declined to disclose specific results due to the continuing investigation.
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The documents, sealed by a provincial court judge in Pictou at the request of RCMP in mid-May, were released to The Globe and other media outlets with some redactions, the reasons for which include “personal information,” “privileged information,” and “delayed disclosure.”
They show the Mounties made six applications under the Missing Persons Act to access copies of records that contain information about Jack and Lilly.
One was for the cellphone records of both Malehya Brooks-Murray, the children’s mother, and Daniel Martell, their stepfather. A second was for school bus video surveillance around the children’s home.
Other applications were to request copies of records under the control of companies – the names of which were redacted. The documents say the information is requested because the last time Jack and Lilly’s location was independently verified was on May 1 at 2:25 p.m. at their local Dollarama via video surveillance.
“This could assist the investigation by helping police to identify further investigational avenues and leads and possibly lead to the location of the children,” wrote RCMP Corporal Charlene Curl in a partially unsealed affidavit.
She also laid out information gathered by more than 20 police officers up until mid-May.
Both Malehya and Daniel’s polygraph examination results on May 12 showed that they were truthful when answering four questions that were redacted as privileged information.
“Malehya willingly agreed to undergo a polygraph examination in relation to this investigation, in an effort to eliminate her as a suspect in causing her children’s disappearance and possible murder,” said the documents, referring to statements made by Sgt. Chris Dawe who conducted her polygraph test.
Police examining blanket, other items found during search for missing Nova Scotia children
An investigator’s comment says, “At this point in the investigation, Jack and Lilly’s disappearance is not believed to be criminal in nature. I do not have reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence has occurred. Because Jack and Lilly are still missing, polygraph examinations were conducted with the intention of ruling out that possibility.”
However, Cpl. Curl notes in a May 23 affidavit that the case may progress to being criminal “should the elements of a criminal offence be identified.”
The seventh court document shows that police seized the children’s toothbrushes from their home and a blanket from a trash bag at the end of their driveway that matched the piece of Lilly’s blanket seized by police one kilometre from the home in a tree. Police have said Lilly’s blanket has been sent for forensic testing.
Clumps of boot prints in two different sizes, including a child’s, were found on the pipeline in the area in the first few days of the search, the documents said.
Other seizures included indent impression castings, typically used to gather casts of boot prints or tire tracks; scat, which police say could be human or animal; and a sock and piece of purple fabric.
The court documents show that Malehya provided multiple statements to police, including a detailed description of May 1, the day before the children were reported missing. She kept Jack and Lilly home from school because they had coughs. Everyone woke around 9 a.m. and the kids played and watched television while she got them breakfast and tidied the house. Around noon, she, Daniel, their toddler, Meadow, Jack and Lilly drove to New Glasgow in Malehya’s 2017 white Nissan Pathfinder. They stopped for gas, possibly went to Tim Hortons and went to a Starbucks drive-thru.
Malehya said they visited Dollarama and purchased items using Daniel’s bank card before going to a pharmacy. Daniel also said they stopped at Acropole Pub & Grill to pick up poutine.
That night, Malehya told police, she fed Jack and Lilly supper, after which the kids watched television and possibly went outside to play. She brushed their teeth and got them ready for bed at 9 p.m., two hours later than usual.
They wore the same clothes to bed they’d worn during the day: Lilly in a pink sweater, pink pyjamas with white shapes, a Barbie top and pink socks; Jack in black sweatpants, a t-shirt and diaper. Malehya told police she’d been too tired to unpack the clean laundry she’d done at her grandmother’s the previous night.
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A notice appealing for information on Jack and Lilly Sullivan on the fridge of Belynda Gray, the children’s paternal grandmother, at her home in Middle Musquodoboit, N.S.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
The children were tucked into bed around 10 p.m. – Jack with his blanket and dinosaur; Lilly with her cream corduroy backpack with strawberries on it. She shut the children’s bedroom door, and then she and Meadow went to bed.
Daniel stayed up, she told police. She was not woken up throughout the night and did not know when Daniel came to bed.
On May 2, around 6:15 a.m., Malehya marked the children absent from school due to illness.
According to the documents, Lilly was last seen by her mother and stepfather when she came into their bedroom that morning. Jack had not been seen since the night before, though both parents told police they heard him playing.
Malehya said she heard the kids laughing in the next bedroom. It woke up Meadow, who was sleeping in a crib in Malehya’s bedroom. Malehya brought her into bed and turned the TV on, before fading in and out of sleep.
Sometime between 8 a.m. and 9:40 a.m. the children left the house, Malehya told police, according to the documents.
In her fifth statement to police, provided May 9, Malehya said Daniel opened the front door to go looking for the kids. “He put a wrench on top of the door the night before and it didn’t fall down, so Daniel said they must have gone out the back sliding door,” said the documents.
Daniel confirmed this, saying he does that most nights because a bear used to hang around outside.
Daniel told police he and Malehya got up and looked for the kids. When he couldn’t see them in the yard, he got in the car and drove around, then ran around in the woods searching for hours.
He told police that while searching the woods he thought he heard a scream that sounded like Jack and Lilly, but when he stopped to listen a helicopter overhead drowned out all other sounds.
His mother, Janie Mackenzie, who lives in a camper on the property, provided two statements to police. She dozed off around 8:50 a.m. and awoke to the sound of her dog barking. She told police she heard Jack and Lilly playing on the swings and laughing in the backyard before she dozed off again. She awoke to Daniel yelling for the children, got her coat and boots on and walked around looking for them.
A recent Globe story described the children’s home life prior to their disappearance, including admissions of drug use by Daniel, controlling behaviour, signs of potential abuse and neglect regarding the children, the involvement of child protection social workersand financial struggles.
In their interviews with police, both Daniel and Malehya said they did not resort to physical discipline. Neither responded to a request for comment about the court documents.
