Lily And Jack Sullivan: NEW EVIDENCE EXPOSED - What Daniel Martell Has Been Hiding | True Crime Doc

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:02]May 1st, 2025, 2:25 p.m. Security cameras at a Dollarama store in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, capture what would become the last independent proof that two children were alive. 6-year-old Lilly Sullivan and her 4-year-old brother Jack walked through the aisles with their family, looking at items on shelves, behaving exactly like any children in the store would behave.

[00:00:27]Their mother, Maleah Brooks Murray, pushes a cart. Their stepfather, Daniel Martel, walks alongside. Baby sister Meadow sits in the cart. An ordinary family shopping trip on an ordinary Thursday afternoon. But that footage represents something extraordinary. It represents the final moment anyone outside the immediate household can prove with certainty that Lilly and Jack Sullivan existed in this world. Less than 20 hours later, at 10:01 a.m. on May 2nd, a frantic 911 call would shatter the quiet of rural Pictou County. Two children vanished.

[00:01:00]Disappeared from their isolated property on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station.

[00:01:05]A sparsely populated area surrounded by dense forest, steep banks, and thick brush. Gone without a trace from a home where only three adults claim to know what happened during those crucial hours. What unfolded next would become one of the most extensive search operations in Nova Scotia history. Over 160 trained volunteers, ground search and rescue teams, helicopters with infrared imaging, drones, police dogs, underwater recovery units, thousands of hours combing through 4 square kilometers of wilderness.

[00:01:37]And despite all of this massive coordinated effort, despite technology and expertise and determination, Lilly and Jack Sullivan have never been found.

[00:01:47]But here's what makes this case truly disturbing.

[00:01:50]It's not just the two young children disappeared. It's what investigators discovered when they started examining the hours before that disappearance.

[00:01:57]When they started looking closely at the people who had custody and control of Lilly and Jack during those final confirmed hours.

[00:02:04]When they started uncovering secrets, inconsistencies, and troubling patterns of behavior that raised profound questions about what really happened on that rural Nova Scotia property. This isn't speculation.

[00:02:16]This is based on newly released court documents, on witness statements that have emerged, on forensic findings that investigators have been quietly gathering.

[00:02:26]On a pattern of evidence that's finally coming to light 8 months after two children vanished. Before we examine the evidence that's emerged in the Sullivan case, you need to subscribe to True Crime Vault immediately and hit that notification bell. We've been following this investigation since day one, bringing you analysis that goes deeper than mainstream coverage. Examining every court document, every witness statement, every development with the thoroughness and respect these children deserve. Here at True Crime Vault, we don't sensationalize tragedy. We examine evidence, analyze testimonies, and search for truth in cases that demand justice.

[00:03:03]We believe Lilly and Jack Sullivan deserve nothing less than a complete, thorough, and honest investigation into what happened to them. New in-depth documentaries every week. If you're already invested in finding answers for these children, hit that like button and let me know in the comments.

[00:03:18]What do you think happened during those hours between the Dollarama footage and the 911 call?

[00:03:24]What evidence do you find most significant? Now, let's examine what investigators have uncovered about the final hours of Lilly and Jack Sullivan's confirmed existence.

[00:03:32]Lilly Sullivan was born in March 2019, 6 years old when she disappeared. Her family described her as loving girly things, pink everything, Barbie tops, and rainbow print boots, a cream-colored backpack with strawberry print that she carried everywhere.

[00:03:48]4 feet tall, 60 lb with light brown hair and hazel eyes that her family said lit up when she smiled. [music] Jack Sullivan was born on October 29th, 2020, 4 years old, though he would turn five that October, a birthday he would never reach. His stepfather would describe him as obsessed with bugs and dinosaurs, wearing those blue dinosaur print rubber boots constantly. 3 ft 6 in tall, 40 lb with dark blond hair and hazel eyes just like his big sister. [music] Daniel Martel would later tell media that Jack and Lilly were like best friends, not just brother and sister, that wherever one went, the other followed. Both children were reportedly possibly on the autism spectrum and known to wander according to what their mother told police.

[00:04:32]But they were also described as close, inseparable, always together. Two kids who loved each other and looked out for each other in the way siblings do.

[00:04:41]They lived on a rural property on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station with their mother, Maleah Brooks Murray, their stepfather, Daniel Martel, and their baby sister Meadow, who was just over a year old. The property was isolated, surrounded by wilderness, the kind of place where thick forests stretched in every direction, and the nearest neighbors were far enough away that you couldn't see their houses. Also on the property, in a separate building, lived Daniel's mother, Janie McKenzie.

[00:05:09]She was close enough to hear sounds from the main house, close enough to sometimes observe what was happening with the family, but separate enough that she had her own space and wasn't involved in the daily activities of the household. Lilly and Jack's biological father, Cody Sullivan, was not part of their lives. He lived in New Brunswick, hours away. According to later police interviews and statements from his mother, Belinda Gray, Cody hadn't seen Lilly and Jack in approximately 3 years.

[00:05:37]There had been a custody dispute. Maleah had fought for sole custody and won.

[00:05:42]Cody had responded by cutting off contact, though he'd continued paying child support until he lost his job 9 months before the children disappeared.

[00:05:50]So, the household on Gairloch Road was all Lilly and Jack really knew. Their mother, their stepfather, their baby sister, and their step-grandmother nearby.

[00:05:59]This was their world. These were the people responsible for their safety, their care, their protection.

[00:06:05]On the surface, it appeared normal enough. Daniel worked at a local sawmill, though work had slowed recently.

[00:06:11]Maleah was a stay-at-home mother.

[00:06:13]The children attended elementary school in the area when they were well enough to go.

[00:06:17]Teachers would later tell investigators they'd interacted with the family during school pickups and parent-teacher conferences.

[00:06:24]But beneath that surface of normalcy, investigators would discover significant problems. Financial pressures, relationship tensions, concerning dynamics that multiple people had noticed but hadn't fully understood the implications of until two children vanished, and those observations suddenly became critically important evidence.

[00:06:45]To understand what happened to Lilly and Jack Sullivan, we have to establish a precise timeline of their last confirmed hours.

[00:06:52]Because what investigators discovered is that after a certain point on May 1st, 2025, only Daniel Martel and Maleah Brooks Murray claim to have seen these children alive. April 30th was a Wednesday, a professional development day for teachers, meaning no school.

[00:07:09]According to police records obtained through court documents, the family went grocery shopping together that evening.

[00:07:14]They returned home by 10:19 p.m. This was verified through various means, a normal family activity.

[00:07:21]May 1st was a Thursday.

[00:07:23]According to Daniel Martel's later statements to media, both Jack and Lilly were kept home from school that day because Lilly had a cough. They'd also been out of school the previous day due to the PD day, meaning the last time teachers or school staff had seen the children was Tuesday, April 29th. At 2:25 p.m. on May 1st, security footage captured the family at a Dollarama store in nearby New Glasgow. The video shows what appears to be a completely normal family shopping trip. Maleah pushing a cart with baby Meadow, Daniel walking alongside, and Lilly and Jack behaving exactly like you'd expect young children to behave in a store, looking at items, walking with the family, alive, healthy, present.

[00:08:07]This is the last time anyone outside the immediate family can independently verify that Lilly and Jack Sullivan were alive. After 2:25 p.m. on May 1st, the only people who claimed to see them were Daniel, Maleah, and Janie McKenzie. What happened during the hours between that Dollarama footage and the morning of May 2nd is known only through the statements of these three individuals, and those statements contain elements that investigators found troubling. According to the timeline provided by Daniel and Maleah, the family returned home from their shopping trip. The evening proceeded normally. At some point in the evening, Maleah marked the children absent from school for the next day, >> [music] >> Friday, May 2nd, citing illness. This was documented through school records.

[00:08:50]At 6:15 a.m. on May 2nd, Maleah would later tell police in her statements that she went to bed around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.

[00:08:57]on the evening of May 1st. Daniel stayed up later. She didn't know what time he came to bed. This is significant because it means there was a period of hours where only Daniel knows what was happening in that house.

[00:09:09]On the morning of May 2nd, according to the couple's account, things seemed normal. They stated they were both in the bedroom with baby Meadow at some point between 8:59 a.m. and 9:40 a.m.

[00:09:20]During this time, they said Lilly came in and out of the bedroom several times.

[00:09:25]They could hear Jack in the kitchen.

[00:09:26]Everything sounded fine. The sounds of children being children in the morning.

[00:09:31]Then suddenly, they noticed they could no longer hear either child. When they went to check, Lilly and Jack were gone.

[00:09:38]Daniel told police he'd placed a wrench on top of the front door the night before.

[00:09:42]It hadn't been disturbed, so he concluded the children must have gone out the back sliding door, which he described as typically silent when opened. Their pink and blue rubber boots were missing from where they normally sat by the door.

[00:09:54]This seemed to support the theory that the children had put on their boots and walked outside. Janey Mackenzie, Daniel's mother, who lived in the separate building on the property, provided what initially seemed like supporting testimony. She told police she'd fallen asleep around 8:50 a.m.

[00:10:09]that morning, but was awakened by her dog barking. While awake, she heard what she interpreted as children's voices and laughter coming from outside. She heard the creaking sound of swing set chains, the distinctive rhythmic noise of swings in motion. She assumed Jack and Lily were playing in the backyard and went back to sleep. This testimony was initially presented as proof that the children were alive and well that morning, playing outside. But there's a critical detail that investigators noted carefully.

[00:10:37]Janey Mackenzie never actually saw the children. She never looked out a window to visually confirm their presence. She never went outside to check on them. She heard sounds. She made assumptions about what those sounds meant, but actual visual confirmation that Lily and Jack were alive and playing that morning, none. At 10:01 a.m., Maleah Brooks-Murray called 911 to report that Lily and Jack were missing.

[00:11:02]She told the dispatcher she believed the children had wandered away from home.

[00:11:06]Their boots were missing, she said. The pink rubber boots with rainbow print that Lily loved. The blue dinosaur boots Jack always wore. Police arrived at 10:27 a.m., 26 minutes after the call, and what they found would launch one of the most extensive and puzzling missing persons investigations in Nova Scotia history. The response to the disappearance of Lily and Jack Sullivan was immediate and massive. By the afternoon of May the 2nd, search teams were deployed throughout the area surrounding the family's property. The terrain made searching extraordinarily difficult. Dense forest, thick brush, steep banks, trees down during post-tropical storms making [music] the landscape nearly impenetrable in places.

[00:11:47]Ground search and rescue teams worked in grueling conditions.

[00:11:51]Amy Hanson, who participated in the searches, would later describe the effort as pretty much unheard of in the province.

[00:11:58]Over the initial days, more than 160 trained volunteers participated daily, >> [music] >> covering roughly 4 square kilometers of wilderness.

[00:12:07]They climbed over and under down trees.

[00:12:09]They searched through underbrush so thick you could barely see a few feet ahead. They called out the children's names thousands of times, hoping desperately for a response that never came. The search employed every available technology.

[00:12:23]Helicopters equipped with infrared imaging flew overhead, scanning the forest canopy for heat signatures that might indicate a child. Drones provided aerial perspectives of areas too difficult to reach on foot. Police dogs worked through the woods following scent trails that led nowhere conclusive.

[00:12:41]During that first afternoon at 4:15 p.m., family members searching the area made a discovery. A pink blanket caught in a tree branch on Lansdowne Station Road, not far from the property. When shown a photograph, the parents identified it as belonging to Lily.

[00:12:56]This finding seemed to support the theory that the children had wandered into the woods.

[00:13:00]It provided a direction for searchers to focus their efforts. But 2 days later on May 4th at 9:09 p.m., a second piece of the same pink blanket was found. This one was inside a trash bag at the end of the family's driveway.

[00:13:13]Not in the woods, not caught on a branch. In a trash bag at the property, apparently discarded. This second discovery raised questions that investigators noted carefully. Why was part of Lily's blanket in a trash bag?

[00:13:26]When had it been placed there? Who had put it there?

[00:13:29]The blanket was sent for forensic analysis to determine if it might contain trace evidence, biological material, or other forensic markers that could provide insights into what had happened. On May 3rd at 2:50 a.m., police followed up on a tip. They went to the home of the children's biological father, Cody Sullivan, in [music] New Brunswick. Maleah had suggested to police that perhaps Cody had taken the children.

[00:13:52]It seemed like a possibility worth investigating. But Cody told officers he hadn't seen Jack or Lily in approximately 3 years. He confirmed he'd paid child support until losing his job.

[00:14:04]He had no contact with Maleah.

[00:14:06]He knew nothing about the disappearance.

[00:14:09]The underwater recovery team checked bodies of water in the area. On May 8th, three ponds were searched. On May 9th, Lansdowne Lake was examined. Nothing was found. By May 7th, just 5 days after the children were reported missing, the RCMP made the difficult decision to scale back the search. Staff Sergeant Curtis McKinnon explained that there had been no confirmed sightings of the children.

[00:14:33]Given the terrain, the weather conditions, and the time that had passed, the likelihood that Lily and Jack could have survived in the woods was minimal.

[00:14:42]This didn't mean the investigation stopped. It meant the focus shifted from physical searching to investigative work, interviewing witnesses, gathering evidence, analyzing timelines, looking for answers in ways that didn't involve volunteers hiking through wilderness.

[00:14:57]Over the months that followed, additional organized search efforts took place. In November 2025, a charity organization called Please Bring Me Home, based in Ontario, led another extensive search. Volunteers split into groups, keeping meticulous records of areas searched and coordinates of items found. They found various objects, a child's t-shirt, another blanket, a tricycle. But the RCMP confirmed that none of these items were relevant to the investigation. None belonged to Lily or Jack. The leader of that search effort, speaking to media afterward, noted something significant. Based on the number of tags and ribbons marking areas that had already been searched, based on how thoroughly the woods had been combed, he was increasingly skeptical that the children had simply wandered into the forest. The searches had been that comprehensive. If the children were in those woods, he believed they would have been found. And yet no trace of Lily and Jack Sullivan has ever been discovered beyond that pink blanket. No bodies, no clothing beyond what was found early on, no definitive evidence of where they went or what happened to them.

[00:16:04]Which brings us to what investigators discovered when they started looking not at the woods, but at the people who had control over these children during their final confirmed hours of life. In the early hours of May 2nd, between approximately 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., witnesses who lived near the Sullivan property heard something that would become significant to the investigation.

[00:16:24]On May 17th, police took a statement from a local resident named Justin Smith. Smith told investigators he was awake during the early morning hours of May 2nd using Facebook on his phone.

[00:16:36]Around 1:30 a.m., he heard a vehicle on Highway 289 turn around by the railroad tracks near the intersection of Gerlock Road and Lansdowne Station [music] Road.

[00:16:45]This location is very close to where the Sullivan family lived. According to Smith's statement documented in court records, the vehicle made noise, then went quiet. The vehicle was silent for approximately 2 minutes, then drove toward Layer Road. Smith later spoke with another neighbor, Brad Wong. Wong told Smith that he'd also heard unusual vehicle activity that night. According to what Wong reported, a vehicle that sounded like Daniel's came and went from the property five or six times during the night of May 1st into May 2nd. These witness accounts created a serious problem for Daniel Martel's version of events.

[00:17:22]When interviewed about this information, Daniel stated flatly that no one from the family left the property that night.

[00:17:28]They had no visitors.

[00:17:29]The only vehicle that left was on the morning of May 2nd when he took Maleah's SUV to search for the missing children.

[00:17:36]In a phone interview, Daniel said the RCMP never specifically asked him about a vehicle coming and going during the night. He maintained that nobody left the property during those crucial hours.

[00:17:46]But if the witnesses are accurate, if a vehicle matching Daniel's did come and go multiple times during the night, the question becomes unavoidable. Where was someone going?

[00:17:56]Why would there be repeated trips during the hours when everyone claimed to be home sleeping? What was being transported? The RCMP addressed this discrepancy in their investigation.

[00:18:06]According to court documents, investigators reviewed surveillance footage from various sources to try to verify or disprove these witness accounts.

[00:18:15]As of the documents filed in July, police stated they'd found no video evidence of vehicles at the times the witnesses described. But the absence of video evidence doesn't definitively prove the witnesses were wrong. Rural areas don't have traffic cameras on every corner. There are vast stretches of road with no surveillance at all.

[00:18:34]A vehicle could absolutely travel through the area in the middle of the night without being caught on any camera, particularly if someone knew where cameras were located and avoided those routes. Daniel's explanation was that his vehicle isn't particularly loud. He suggested the witnesses might have been mistaken about what they heard. But multiple witnesses independently reporting similar observations creates a pattern that investigators take seriously. This is especially true when combined with what Janey Mackenzie initially told police.

[00:19:03]In her early statements, she mentioned hearing unusual sounds from the main house during the night. She said she woke up at some point. She wasn't certain of the exact time, but believed it was around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.

[00:19:15]She heard what sounded like movement in the main house, not normal walking around sounds. Sounds that made her think Daniel was up doing something, though she didn't investigate further because Daniel sometimes does things at odd hours when he can't sleep. When you put these pieces together, a picture emerges of activity during the night of May 1st into May 2nd. Vehicle sounds, movement in the house, all during hours when everyone claimed to be asleep, when the household should have been quiet. And then there's the question of the sounds Janey heard on the morning of May 2nd. The children's voices, the swing set chains.

[00:19:52]She assumed this meant Jack and Lily were playing outside, but investigators explored a disturbing possibility. Could those sounds have been manufactured?

[00:20:01]Could someone have deliberately created audio that would be interpreted as children playing, establishing a false timeline, [music] creating a witness who would testify she heard them alive at 9:00 a.m. when the reality might be very different? Think about how simple it would be. Play recordings of children's voices from a phone or speaker. Manually push empty swings to create the creaking sound of chains. Generate noise that someone hearing from a distance, not visually confirming the source, would interpret exactly as Janie interpreted it. Why would someone do this?

[00:20:34]To create crucial timeline evidence.

[00:20:36]To establish that the children were alive and well on the morning of May 2nd, playing outside, behaving normally.

[00:20:43]This would support the narrative that they disappeared after 9:00 a.m., wandering into the woods during a brief window when adults [music] weren't watching them closely. But if something had actually happened much earlier, during the night, creating false evidence of life in [music] the morning would be essential to deflecting suspicion away from the real timeline of events.

[00:21:02]Polygraph examinations became a significant component of the investigation into Lily and Jack Sullivan's disappearance.

[00:21:09]While polygraph results aren't admissible in Canadian courts, they're used as an investigative tool to help police assess the credibility of statements and determine where to focus their resources.

[00:21:19]On May 12th, 10 days after the children were reported missing, Daniel Martell and Maleah Brooks Murray both underwent polygraph examinations at the Bible Hill RCMP Detachment. Daniel would later describe the experience to media. He said he'd offered to take the test early in the investigation, realizing investigators would naturally look closely at the people who'd had access to the children. He described being extremely nervous, saying his stress level was astronomically high. Being hooked up to machines in an interrogation room while being asked whether you harmed children isn't an experience anyone handles calmly. The results of these initial polygraph tests were documented in court records.

[00:21:58]Both Daniel Martell and Maleah Brooks Murray's examinations indicated they were truthful in their answers.

[00:22:04]The specific questions asked were redacted from public court documents, but the overall assessment was that both had passed the polygraph. At that point in the investigation, according to an investigator's comment in the court documents, Jack and Lily's disappearance was not believed to be criminal in nature. The investigator stated there were no reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offense had occurred. The polygraph examinations were conducted with the intention of ruling out the possibility that the parents had harmed the children. But the polygraph testing didn't stop there.

[00:22:35]Court records show that both Daniel and Maleah underwent subsequent polygraph tests three more times over the course of the investigation.

[00:22:43]They were retested. According to documents released months later, each time the results indicated truthful answers.

[00:22:50]The children's biological father, Cody Sullivan, was polygraphed on June 12th, 2025.

[00:22:56]His examination also showed truthful answers.

[00:22:59]He'd had no contact with the children, hadn't seen them, had no involvement in their disappearance.

[00:23:05]On June 10th, Janie McKenzie, the children's step-grandmother, underwent a polygraph examination. However, her results were inconclusive. The documents note that her physiology was not suitable for analysis, and no opinion could be rendered on the examination.

[00:23:21]This doesn't indicate deception.

[00:23:23]It simply means the test couldn't be completed successfully due to physiological factors that sometimes make polygraph testing unreliable for certain individuals.

[00:23:32]On July 2nd, Cindy Murray, the children's maternal grandmother, and her boyfriend, Wade Paris, also underwent polygraph examinations.

[00:23:40]Both passed, their answers found to be truthful.

[00:23:43]So, what do we make of these polygraph results? On one hand, the tests don't prove innocence.

[00:23:49]Polygraphs measure physiological responses like heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductivity while someone answers questions. These responses can indicate stress or deception, but they're not infallible.

[00:24:01]Some people can pass polygraphs even when lying.

[00:24:04]Others fail despite telling the truth because their anxiety creates physiological responses the machine interprets as deception. On the other hand, the fact that both Daniel and Maleah passed multiple polygraph examinations over months is information investigators weighed carefully in assessing the case.

[00:24:24]It doesn't definitively clear them, but it also doesn't support a theory that they're lying about fundamental facts regarding what happened to the children.

[00:24:32]What the polygraph results suggest is that the investigation is more complex than a simple scenario where parents harmed their children and are obviously lying about it. Whatever happened to Lily and Jack Sullivan, the truth is buried beneath layers that polygraph testing couldn't penetrate.

[00:24:48]In January 2026, 8 months after Lily and Jack disappeared, court documents were unsealed that revealed troubling information about the household where the children lived, information that investigators had gathered early in their investigation, but that had remained sealed while the case was active. These documents included details from an interview police conducted with Maleah Brooks Murray in May 2025, approximately 1 week after the children vanished. During this interview, investigators asked Maleah about her relationship with Daniel Martell.

[00:25:20]Specifically, they asked if Daniel had ever been physically aggressive toward her.

[00:25:24]According to court records documenting Maleah's statement, she told police that Daniel would try to block her, hold her down, and on one occasion pushed her.

[00:25:33]She said he would also take her phone from her when she tried to call her mother, and that this would sometimes be physical and hurt. These allegations painted a picture of a relationship with elements of control and physical aggression.

[00:25:44]They suggested that in the months before the children disappeared, there were significant tensions and problematic dynamics in the household.

[00:25:51]Daniel Martell vehemently denies these allegations.

[00:25:54]When court documents revealing Maleah's statements were unsealed and reported by media, Daniel responded forcefully.

[00:26:02]He told the Globe and Mail that he did not ever abuse Maleah.

[00:26:06]He described the allegations as a narrative meant to paint him as evil, as a monster. He said the public automatically jumps to assumptions of guilt when such accusations are made, and that this is fundamentally unfair.

[00:26:19]In an interview with Global News, Daniel said he and Maleah yelled at each other during arguments like many couples do, but there was no physical violence.

[00:26:28]He characterized the abuse allegations as part of an attempt to cast suspicion on him when he maintains he had nothing to do with the children's disappearance.

[00:26:37]It's important to note that these allegations have never been tested in court. Daniel Martell has never been charged with any offense related to domestic violence or abuse.

[00:26:47]The allegations exist only in police interview records where Maleah described her version of their relationship dynamic, but context matters here.

[00:26:56]Maleah made these statements to police during her fifth interview with investigators.

[00:27:00]This occurred almost a week after she had broken up with Daniel and moved away with their toddler daughter, Meadow.

[00:27:06]In the days immediately after the children were reported missing, Daniel and Maleah presented as a united couple.

[00:27:13]They appeared together, supported each other publicly, coordinated their statements.

[00:27:18]But within less than a week, that unity fractured dramatically.

[00:27:23]Maleah left the area. She went to stay with her family in another part of Nova Scotia, taking baby Meadow with her.

[00:27:30]She blocked Daniel on all social media platforms. This was a complete and very public severing of their relationship.

[00:27:36]According to family members who were with Maleah during this period, family who were later interviewed by police about what they observed, she was in terrible emotional condition, [music] which would be completely understandable for a mother whose children had just vanished. But her distress reportedly included anger directed specifically at Daniel.

[00:27:54]Family members reported hearing her make statements expressing that Daniel was somehow responsible, that she should have protected the children from him.

[00:28:02]These were direct accusations, not vague expressions of grief looking for someone to blame. But when police followed up immediately, when investigators traveled to interview Maleah formally about these statements and what she actually believed about Daniel's involvement, her responses became much more guarded. She walked back the accusations. She said she was devastated and looking for someone to blame.

[00:28:25]She said she didn't actually believe Daniel had harmed her children.

[00:28:29]Then after some time passed, Maleah and Daniel reconciled. They got back together. They resumed living together and presenting a united front to investigators and to the public. This pattern, the initial separation and accusations followed by reconciliation and alignment, is something investigators see in cases where two people may share knowledge of what happened, where both understand that their safety depends on maintaining a consistent story, where breaking ranks and telling the truth about one person's involvement would implicate the other as well.

[00:29:00]Whether that's what's happening here, whether Daniel and Maleah are bound together by shared knowledge of what happened to Lily and Jack, or whether this is simply the complicated dynamics of a stressed relationship under impossible circumstances, investigators continue to evaluate carefully. Beyond witness statements and polygraph results, investigators gathered physical evidence from the Sullivan property and surrounding areas.

[00:29:24]While much of the forensic analysis remains sealed in court documents, some information has emerged that provides insight into what police discovered.

[00:29:33]Items were seized from the home for forensic testing. Court documents list the children's toothbrushes, collected presumably for DNA comparison purposes, a sock, pieces of the pink blanket, both the piece found in the tree and the piece discovered in the trash bag at the end of the driveway. The pink blanket became a focus of forensic examination.

[00:29:53]Police confirmed it belonged to Lilly, but questions remained about why part of it was found in a trash bag. Forensic testing was conducted to determine if the blanket contained blood, other biological material, or trace evidence that might provide clues about what happened. Daniel Martell later told media that police had requested his DNA in connection with testing of the pink blanket. He said he willingly provided it, emphasizing that they didn't need a warrant because he had nothing to hide.

[00:30:20]The implication was that investigators were looking for whether his DNA was present on the blanket in ways or locations that might be significant.

[00:30:28]Court records indicate police sought access to extensive video surveillance from the area. They specifically requested footage from the Cobequid Pass, a toll plaza on the Trans-Canada Highway on the route to New Brunswick.

[00:30:42]The request covered all camera footage of drivers leaving Nova Scotia between May 1st at 2:25 p.m. through May 3rd at 3:00 a.m.

[00:30:50]This request was likely related to Maleah's suggestion that perhaps the children's biological father had taken them to New Brunswick. But it also indicates investigators were looking at whether anyone had transported the children out of the province during that critical time window. Police also sought banking records and phone records for multiple individuals involved in the case.

[00:31:10]Financial information can reveal patterns, cash withdrawals, unusual transactions that might be relevant.

[00:31:17]Phone records can establish who was communicating with whom, when, and can sometimes provide location data that tracks movements. The volume of digital evidence was substantial. By July 2025, investigators reported they were reviewing approximately 5,000 video files that the public had provided in response to appeals for information. By the end of 2025, that number had grown to over 8,000 video files reviewed.

[00:31:44]Chief Superintendent Dan Morrow with Nova Scotia RCMP's Criminal Operations Division described the case in a year-end interview as extremely rare. In his 33 years of policing, he'd never seen anything quite like it. He explained that while the case is rare in its specific circumstances, what isn't rare is the complexity.

[00:32:04]These investigations must be done methodically, carefully, ensuring everything is documented properly and evidence is gathered in ways that will hold up if charges are ever filed. As of late 2025, investigators had received over 1,500 tips from the public. They'd conducted 86 formal interviews with witnesses and people connected to the case. Seven polygraph examinations had been administered. The investigation file continued to grow with every piece of information gathered, every forensic test completed, every lead followed. But despite all of this investigative work, despite thousands of hours and extensive resources devoted to finding answers, the fundamental question remains unanswered. Where are Lilly and Jack Sullivan? In cases where children disappear from their home with no definitive evidence of what occurred, investigators must consider multiple theories and follow every possibility until it's either confirmed or ruled out definitively. The first and most straightforward theory is the one the family initially presented. That Lilly and Jack, both young children who were reportedly possibly on the autism spectrum and known to wander, simply put on their boots, opened the back sliding door, and walked into the woods. That they became lost in the dense forest surrounding their property, disoriented by the terrain, and succumbed to exposure before searchers could locate them. This theory is supported by certain facts. The children's boots were missing. The back door was unlocked. The terrain around the property is genuinely treacherous with thick underbrush, steep banks, and areas where even experienced search teams had difficulty navigating.

[00:33:43]Young children could absolutely get lost and die of exposure in that environment within hours. However, this theory faces significant challenges.

[00:33:52]The most comprehensive searches in Nova Scotia history covered the area extensively. Over 160 trained volunteers plus professional search and rescue teams, helicopters with infrared, drones, police dogs, multiple organized efforts over months.

[00:34:08]The woods were combed so thoroughly that one search coordinator said he's skeptical the children are there because they would have been found.

[00:34:14]Additionally, cadaver dogs, which can detect human remains even when buried or concealed, showed interest in certain areas, but never gave the definitive alert that would indicate they'd located bodies. If the children died in those woods, the dogs should have found them.

[00:34:30]The second theory involves the children's biological father, Cody Sullivan.

[00:34:34]Maleah suggested early in the investigation that perhaps Cody had taken them to New Brunswick. On the surface, it's a possibility worth investigating. When a strange parent takes children during a custody dispute, it happens. But this theory collapsed quickly under examination.

[00:34:51]Cody Sullivan hasn't seen Lilly and Jack in 3 years. He has no relationship with Maleah.

[00:34:57]His mother confirmed he rarely leaves home, was there on May 2nd, and had no contact with the children's mother. He passed a polygraph examination.

[00:35:06]There's no evidence whatsoever connecting him to the disappearance.

[00:35:10]The third theory, the one that investigators cannot rule out and that evidence continues to point toward, is that something happened to the children inside or near their home. That they never actually walked into the woods.

[00:35:22]That their disappearance is connected to the people who had custody and control of them during those final hours.

[00:35:28]This theory is supported by troubling elements in the evidence.

[00:35:31]The witness accounts of a vehicle coming and going during the night. The pink blanket [music] found in a trash bag.

[00:35:37]The fact that nobody outside the immediate household saw the children after 2:25 p.m. on May 1st. The relationship tensions and alleged physical aggression in the household.

[00:35:47]The complexity of the timeline and the questions about whether sounds of children playing were actually what they seemed. If this theory is correct, if something happened to Lilly and Jack at or near their home, then someone disposed of their remains in a location that hasn't been discovered despite extensive [music] searching. Someone created a false narrative about them wandering into the woods.

[00:36:09]Someone has maintained that narrative for 8 months despite intense investigation and public scrutiny.

[00:36:14]Investigators have been clear that they're considering all scenarios.

[00:36:18]They've stated there's currently no reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offense occurred, but they've also been clear that they haven't ruled anything out. The case remains under the Missing Persons Act rather than being classified as a criminal investigation, but that could change if evidence emerges that definitively indicates foul play.

[00:36:36]The RCMP Staff Sergeant Rob McKinnon, acting officer in charge of Major Crime and Behavioral Science, stated in an interview that while he can't discuss specific investigative theories, police are making headway. They're collecting information from all areas.

[00:36:52]They're assessing evidence and forming pictures of what may have taken place.

[00:36:56]They'll continue working until they have answers.

[00:36:59]McKinnon emphasized that this isn't a file investigators pick up in the morning and put down at night. It's a case that keeps them awake. That weighs on them personally. That they're committed to resolving no matter how long it takes.

[00:37:12]The disappearance of Lilly and Jack Sullivan has had profound impact far beyond their immediate family and the small community of Lansdowne Station.

[00:37:19][music] The case captured national and international attention. News coverage in Canada was extensive from the first day. International media picked up the story.

[00:37:29]Online communities formed dedicated to discussing the case, analyzing every detail, speculating about what might have happened. While this attention keeps the case in the public eye, which can be valuable for generating tips and maintaining pressure for answers, it also created challenges.

[00:37:46]Staff Sergeant McKinnon noted that social media speculation sometimes hampers the investigation. Resources must be devoted to following up on tips that turn out to be based on social media comments rather than actual evidence.

[00:37:59]Misinformation spreads alongside facts, making it difficult for the public to know what's real and what's speculation.

[00:38:05]On June 19th, 2025, the government of Nova Scotia added the case to the Major Unsolved Crimes Program, offering a reward of up to 150,000 dollars for information deemed to have investigative value.

[00:38:19]>> [music] >> The reward is substantial, designed to incentivize anyone with knowledge to come forward. The case also raised questions about the involvement of Child Protective Services.

[00:38:29]The children's paternal grandmother, Belinda Gray, who hadn't seen her grandchildren in 2 years after Maleah began her relationship with Daniel Martell, called for a public inquiry.

[00:38:39]She asked what Child Protective Services knew, what they were investigating, what concerns they had. She suggested they might have information relevant to understanding what happened to Lilly and Jack. Court documents revealed that investigators interviewed social workers who'd been involved with the family.

[00:38:55]Police examined the children's movements and circumstances in the days before they disappeared. What exactly Child Protective Services knew, what concerns they documented, and what interventions, if any, had taken place, remains largely sealed in investigative files. Teachers at the school Lilly and Jack attended were interviewed. They provided information about their interactions with the family, about the children's attendance and behavior, about anything they'd observed that might be relevant. While specific details of these interviews remain protected, it's clear investigators left no stone unturned in trying to understand the household dynamics and the children's situation before they vanished. The impact on the community of Lansdowne Station and surrounding Pictou County has been profound. Small rural communities don't often experience this kind of tragedy and mystery.

[00:39:45]Neighbors who participated in searches, who've watched investigators work for months, who see the property where the children lived every time they drive by, carry the weight of knowing two children from their area are missing without answers.

[00:39:59]Multiple vigils have been held for Lily and Jack. On October 29th, 2025, a vigil marked what would have been Jack's fifth birthday.

[00:40:07]At that event, Daniel Martell told attendees he no longer believed the children were in the woods near the home.

[00:40:13]Given all the extensive searches and efforts, he said he didn't find it plausible they were still in that area.

[00:40:19]This statement was significant. If the children aren't in the woods, if they never were, then where are they? And why did the initial narrative focus so heavily on them having wandered into the forest if that's not what actually happened? As of January 2026, the investigation continues actively. The case file grows with new information.

[00:40:40]Forensic testing proceeds on evidence that's been collected. Investigators continue to receive and evaluate tips.

[00:40:47]The RCMP has made clear they remain committed to finding answers, however long that takes.

[00:40:52]Lily Sullivan was 6 years old. Jack Sullivan was 4.

[00:40:56]On May 2nd, 2025, they were reported missing from their rural Nova Scotia home. Their mother called 911 at 10:01 a.m. stating she believed they'd wandered into the woods.

[00:41:07]That was 8 months ago.

[00:41:08]In those 8 months, one of the most extensive search operations in provincial history has been conducted.

[00:41:14]Thousands of volunteer hours, professional search teams, helicopters, drones, police dogs, underwater recovery units, forensic examination of evidence, interviews with dozens of people, review of thousands of video files, over a thousand tips investigated, and yet Lily and Jack have never been found. The last independent proof they were alive is security footage from a Dollarama store on May 1st at 2:25 p.m.

[00:41:41]After that moment, only three adults claimed to have seen them.

[00:41:45]Three adults who lived on the property where the children disappeared. Three adults whose accounts of what happened contain elements that investigators found troubling enough to examine extensively.

[00:41:55]Someone knows what happened to Lily and Jack Sullivan.

[00:41:58]Someone knows whether they truly wandered into those woods or whether something very different occurred during the hours when only their immediate family claimed to see them alive.

[00:42:07]Someone knows where these children are.

[00:42:09]The question is whether that someone will ever tell the truth. Whether the weight of carrying such a secret will eventually become unbearable.

[00:42:17]Whether new evidence will emerge that definitively answers what happened.

[00:42:21]Whether advances in forensic technology will provide breakthroughs that current methods couldn't achieve. Lily loved pink and Barbie and rainbows and her strawberry print backpack. She was 6 years old with light brown hair and hazel eyes and a whole future ahead of her.

[00:42:36]Jack loved dinosaurs and bugs. He was 4 years old, about to turn 5. Dark blonde hair and hazel eyes just like his sister.

[00:42:45]Two kids who were best friends, not just siblings, and followed each other everywhere.

[00:42:50]They deserved safety. They deserved protection.

[00:42:53]They deserved to grow up. Instead, they vanished. And 8 months later, their [music] family, their community, and a nation watching this case unfold are left with devastating questions and no definitive answers.

[00:43:07]What do you think happened to Lily and Jack Sullivan?

[00:43:10]What evidence do you find most compelling?

[00:43:13]What questions do you believe investigators should be focusing on?

[00:43:17]Share your thoughts respectfully [music] in the comments below.

[00:43:20]If this investigation has moved you, if you believe these children deserve justice and answers, subscribe to True Crime Vault. We're committed to covering this case until it's resolved, to examining every development with the thoroughness and respect Lily and Jack deserve, and to keeping their story alive so it's never forgotten and never given up on.

[00:43:40]Hit that notification bell so you don't miss updates as this case develops. Lily and Jack Sullivan deserved better. They deserved to be found. They deserved justice. And we will not stop examining this case until answers emerge. Thank you for watching this investigation.

[00:43:55]Thank you for caring about what happened to Lily and Jack. The truth is out there. Someone knows it. And we'll keep searching until it's revealed.