Court documents provide new details on missing Nova Scotia children case

New court documents have been released regarding two N.S. missing children.

HALIFAX — Newly released court documents are revealing previously unreported details of the investigation into the disappearance of two young children from their home in rural northeastern Nova Scotia more than three months ago.

Included in several documents are the initial impressions by police of polygraphs given to the parents of six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan, and confirmation that investigators found a second piece of a pink blanket they say belonged to Lilly, in the trash.

The information is contained in court applications filed by investigators for permission to conduct searches for phone records, banking records, and video related to the case. The documents include unproven statements made by police. Those documents were released to The Canadian Press and other news outlets. Many of them contain redactions.

According to one document, sworn by Cpl. Charlene Jordan Curl of the RCMPs Northeast Nova Scotia major crime unit, the children were first reported missing on 10:01 a.m. on May 2 from their home in rural Lansdowne Station, N.S., by their mother Malehya Brooks-Murray.

Brooks-Murray told police she believed the two children had wandered away from home, but the exact time she said she thought they went missing was redacted. Police were on the scene at 10:27 a.m.

The document says the last time the children were seen outside their home was on May 1, when they were captured by video surveillance at a local Dollarama store with Brooks-Murray and Daniel Martell, their stepfather.

RCMP conducted at least four polygraphs during their investigation -- the first two were on May 12 with the children’s parents at the detachment at Bible Hill, N.S. Martell’s polygraph “indicated he was truthful,” as did the test for Brooks-Murray that found she was truthful when answering specific questions, although the list of questions is redacted in the document.

An unidentified investigator’s comment included at the end of a section on the results of both of those polygraphs 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.”

Martell told The Canadian Press on May 28 that he had passed a polygraph test, but the RCMP declined at the time to confirm or deny his claim.

Results from polygraphs, which measure fluctuations within a person’s sympathetic nervous system as they answer questions, are not admissible in Canadian courts, but the machines are considered an investigative tool.

Meanwhile, on June 10, the children’s stepgrandmother, Janie MacKenzie, underwent a polygraph examination but another document notes that her “physiology was not suitable for analysis and an opinion on the polygraph examination was not rendered.” The children’s biological father, Cody Sullivan, underwent a polygraph on June 12, 2025, and passed the examination, with his answers found to be “truthful.”

In July, the Mounties said they were running forensic tests on a pink blanket found during the search of the heavily wooded areas near the children’s home. Police said at the time that the family had confirmed the blanket belonged to Lilly, but investigators released few details.

The newly released documents shed more light on that part of the investigation, saying three family members found the blanket in a tree on Lansdowne Station Road on May 2, exactly one kilometre from the family home. A photo was shown to the mother and stepfather who confirmed it was Lilly’s.

Later, police dispatched a sniffer dog to the area where the blanket was found, but the animal was unable to pick up a scent of Lilly or Jack, the documents say. On May 4, another piece of blanket was seized by police after it was found inside a trash bag at the end of the driveway of the children’s home, according to police.

Police say they confirmed both pieces were part of the same blanket.

On Friday, the RCMP said in a statement that it is still “considering all scenarios” as it continues the investigation.

“The team continues to evaluate all tips and information, with no scenarios having been ruled out,” said spokeswoman Cindy Bayers. “Investigators have and will continue to receive forensic results, including those related to the pink blanket, which they’re assessing.”

Bayers said that to date more than 760 public tips had been received by police and more than 8,000 video files have been reviewed.

Among the numerous court orders sought by police, was one for the Cobequid Pass, a tolled section of highway in Nova Scotia. Specifically, the RCMP were looking for video records including closed circuit footage of all cameras of drivers leaving Nova Scotia between May 1, 2025, at 2:25 p.m. to May 3, 2025, at 3 a.m.

One of the documents says that On May 3, police received a report that Jack and Lilly might be with their biological father. Police received a pair of messages about this early on May 3, but the report notes the caller, who was unnamed, did not have any proof and “she just wanted to make sure every possibility is looked into.” According to the request for Cobequid Pass toll plaza vids, “Malehya later reported to police that she thought Cody Sullivan, Lilly and Jack’s biological father, might have picked up them and taken them to New Brunswick.”

Police later met with Sullivan on May 22. The court document said he told police he had been in a relationship with the mother but had not seen her nor the children in three years. He said he paid child support, contrary to what Brooks-Murray had told police.

“He said he did not know what happened to Jack and Lilly,” police noted.

“He was home on May 2, 2025, and never goes anywhere. He has not been anywhere other than his house recently and has had no contact with Malehya since the children went missing.”

The documents say police had received hundreds of tips in the case, including one from a witness who said she was travelling with her sons on the morning of May 2 and saw two children walking along the side of the road.

Natasha Haywood informed the RCMP on May 31. She described seeing a young girl holding a young boy’s hand -- the boy had dirty blond hair and was wearing shorts, while the girl had darkish hair in pigtails and was wearing a tank top with blue strings.

According to police, she said the children were walking toward a Caucasian female of about 50-60 years old with a “loose curl” haircut, who was waiting next to the passenger side of an older model tan or gold sedan with the backdoor open.

The documents say that in early June, police met with the witness near the coroner of Gairloch Road and Lansdowne Station Road, where she mentioned having seen the children walking north towards Westville, N.S., and that the vehicle appeared to be waiting for them.

When she later met with police, Haywood said she thought the girl was around 9 or 10-years-old and the boy five-years-old, the documents say.

Investigators are working to find out if the children were indeed Jack and Lilly, the document noted.

“None of the tips so far have led to Jack and Lilly’s location or has any information that has been corroborated by the investigation,” a document notes.

By Keith Doucette and Sidhartha Banerjee

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2025.