More than a year after her two young children vanished from a remote property in rural Nova Scotia, their mother has spoken publicly in detail for the first time, insisting she believes Jack and Lilly Sullivan are still alive and that someone may have taken them.

Malehya Brooks-Murray, now 28, gave a wide-ranging interview to The Globe and Mail and CBC in late July 2026. It marked her first extended comments since the early days following the disappearance of six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack on May 2, 2025, from their home in Lansdowne Station, Pictou County.

Brooks-Murray recalled hearing the children laughing in their shared bedroom that morning. She said Lilly briefly came into the room where she was resting with her then-partner, Daniel Martell, and their infant daughter. Later she woke and realized she could no longer hear the children. The two adults began searching the property, and around 10 a.m. she called emergency services to report them missing, noting that the children’s boots were gone.

In the hours and days that followed, search teams that included volunteers, helicopters, tracking dogs, and divers combed the surrounding dense forest, wetlands, and waterways. A limited number of possible clues were noted, among them boot prints consistent with the style of footwear Lilly wore and a fragment of a pink blanket later found on a tree roughly a kilometre from the home. Brooks-Murray said the piece of fabric had originally been hanging on an outdoor railing.

She left the Lansdowne property the day after the children were reported missing and has never returned. She explained that she experienced a panic attack during a police briefing at the search command post and was advised by officers and family members to leave the area while in a state of severe shock. She has said she fully co-operated with the RCMP, including taking two polygraph examinations, and maintains that investigators have told her she is not regarded as a suspect.

Over the past 15 months Brooks-Murray has grown increasingly frustrated by the limited information she receives from police. “I keep asking for new avenues and they keep saying ‘We’re working on it,’ and I just don’t feel like that’s enough,” she said. “I feel like I deserve more than that… and I need them home.” She no longer accepts the possibility that the children simply wandered into the woods and says she does not believe they came to harm on the property itself. The only explanation she can accept is that someone took them, though she does not know the reason.

Nova Scotia RCMP Major Crime investigators have declined detailed interviews about the case. A spokesperson stated that specialized teams have been engaged in extensive work over the past 15 months and remain committed to determining what happened to the children. Many of the steps being taken cannot be shared publicly while the investigation continues. Police have previously said there is no evidence of an abduction and that all possible scenarios remain under consideration, while ᴀssessing the likelihood that the children are still alive as very low.

Brooks-Murray now lives in a one-bedroom apartment with her youngest daughter. She has kept many of Jack and Lilly’s belongings, including shoes, a stuffed unicorn, a toy dinosaur, and a bicycle helmet. She continues to buy gifts for missed birthdays, holidays, and other milestones, storing them for the day she hopes the children will return. She said this practice, along with the steady belief that they are alive and will come home, is what allows her to get through each day. She has also begun preparing to train as an addictions counsellor, a goal she has held for some time.

The disappearance has generated intense public interest and a large volume of online speculation, much of it directed at Brooks-Murray. She said she tries not to engage with the accusations, focusing instead on her conviction that her children will be found. “At the end of the day, the accusations – I can’t let them bother me because I know the truth, that I would never do anything to harm my children and that I love them very much and that I want nothing more than for them to come home,” she said.

The case remains open. Authorities continue to appeal for any information that could help establish what happened to Jack and Lilly Sullivan.

Sources: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-jack-and-lillys-mother-believes-her-missing-children-are-still-alive/