Dozens of volunteers will be out searching this weekend for Lilly and Jack Sullivan in hopes they’ll find clues about the Nova Scotia siblings more than six months after their disappearance.
The renewed search in Pictou County is being led by the Ontario-based not-for-profit group, Bring Me Home.
The group’s co-founder, Nick Oldrieve, says the renewed efforts will focus on the banks along the Middle River.
“I think that if those children wound up in the Middle River of Pictou, then there’s a high possibility we locate them on Saturday,” he said.
“We’re going to do the best we can to locate these kids.”
Lilly and Jack, who were six and four at the time, were reported missing on May 2 from their home in Lansdowne Station, N.S.
The children’s family has said the siblings wandered away that morning from the home, which is situated in a heavily-wooded area.
In September, two RCMP police dogs specifically trained in human remains detection were brought in to search a 40-kilometre area near the children’s home. RCMP later said those dogs did not find any remains.
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Oldrieve says about 40 local residents are volunteering with the search this Saturday, covering a vast area directly across the road from the children’s home. The search will begin at dawn and last until dusk, with a possibility of carrying into Sunday if necessary.
He points out that water levels have changed in recent months and that’s why he believes certain areas need to be revisited.
“If they were underwater at the time of the initial searching along that river, they would have surfaced and they would’ve gone downriver a bit,” he said.
“It’s not so much that it’s a tactic (previous searchers) haven’t used. It’s maybe a tactic that they haven’t revisited since that initial time.”
The area’s councillor says he welcomes this latest search effort.
“The RCMP have done everything they can here, and the search and rescue have done a tremendous job and they just couldn’t find them,” said Donald Parker, district 7 councillor for Pictou County.
“But if we can get other searchers coming in and whether they find them or not, I don’t know, but at least they’re trying.”
At a vigil marking Jack’s fifth birthday last month, the children’s stepfather says he no longer believes the siblings are in the woods.
“I believe at this point in the case that they’re not in the woods and they didn’t wander into the woods,” Daniel Martell told Global News on Oct. 29.
“Speculations run wild. But I’d like everybody to know that I’m working with (the RCMP’s) major crimes (unit) almost every day, just trying to figure stuff out.”
Please Bring Me Home recently released a statement from the children’s mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray.
She wrote, “I will never stop searching for my children until they are found and brought home safe and sound. Someone, somewhere knows something so please bring my babies home.”
In a statement to Global News Thursday, Nova Scotia RCMP said their investigative teams remain “fully committed to determining the circumstances surrounding Lilly and Jack’s disappearance.”
They added they have received and followed up on more than 960 tips, reviewed over 8,000 video files, and conducted 80 formal interviews.
“We would welcome any findings from the Please Bring Me Home group,” the statement said.
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