Malehya Brooks-Murray last saw her two young children in March 2025, and believes they will return home over a year after they disappeared

NEED TO KNOW

• Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, disappeared from their Nova Scotia home on May 2, 2025, sparking an ongoing investigation
• Their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, has criticized the lack of progress and continues to search for answers and raise awareness
• Authorities are offering a monetary reward as they continue to investigate

As the search for Lilly Sullivan and her brother Jack Sullivan continues after they disappeared last May, their mom Malehya Brooks-Murray is holding onto the hope that they’ll return.

Brooks-Murray, 28, has not spoken out publicly about the disappearance of her children in months. But in a recently published joint interview with the CBC and The Globe and Mail, she said, “I don’t feel I owe people anything. If anything, I’m owed answers and to have my children back to me.”

Lilly, 6, and Jack, 4, were last seen on the morning of May 2, 2025, at their home in Nova Scotia, Canada, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). 

Brooks-Murray said in the joint interview that she last saw her daughter when Lily briefly entered her bedroom that morning. She then heard Lilly and Jack playing together in another bedroom and drifted back to sleep. When she woke up, she no longer heard anything, and her children were gone.

The kids were living with their mom and stepdad, Daniel Martell, as well as the baby daughter Brooks-Murray and Martell share, at the time of their disappearance, the CBC previously reported.

The day after the two children vanished, Brooks-Murray and her family left the home she shared with Martell, taking her baby daughter with her, after a fight between her relatives and Martell’s family.

“The police had said that we should go and told my family privately to take me out of there and I was in too much state of shock that I just wanted to be with my family and my daughter,” Brooks-Murray told the CBC and The Globe and Mail.

Extensive efforts made in the many months since Lilly and Jack went missing have included a grid search of the woods surrounding their home, plus the use of cadaver dogs and polygraph examinations, according to the CBC.

The disappearance of the siblings has not moved to a criminal investigation. Authorities found no evidence of an abduction or criminal offense in the case as of April, The Canadian Press reported at the time.

As authorities continue, however, the investigation “could become criminal, and persons of interest in the disappearance of the children might be identified,” they said in recently filed court submissions obtained by the CBC.

The court documents also featured interview transcripts, including one from January in which investigators asked Brooks-Murray whether Martell had ever been physically abusive. According to CBC’s reporting, the mother said he “would try to block her, hold her down and once he pushed her.”

She also told investigators that Martell would take her phone when she tried to call her mother, which could sometimes become physical and cause her pain, the outlet reported.

The documents obtained by the CBC reportedly stated that Martell told authorities he and Brooks-Murray had a “good” relationship, although the couple had recently been arguing about money.

He reportedly said that while they would yell at each other during arguments, there was no physical violence in their relationship, according to the documents cited by the outlet.

Brooks-Murray and Martell are no longer together, but RCMP Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon confirmed to the CBC that investigators are examining the nature of their relationship at the time of Lilly and Jack’s disappearance.

While speaking with the CBC and The Globe and Mail, Brooks-Murray said she remains frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation, claiming that she repeatedly receives the same updates from authorities despite asking whether they are pursuing new leads.

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She added that she believes she deserves clearer answers about the investigation and, above all, wants her children home.

“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 deserve answers on where they’re at and I need them home.”

To cope with the uncertainty, Brooks-Murray said she keeps herself occupied by making art and creating keychains featuring her children’s faces. She has also helped with searches for other missing people, describing it as a way to give back. On Canada Day, she participated in a parade in Westville, N.S., carrying a homemade sign to raise awareness about Lilly and Jack’s disappearance while wearing a sweatshirt that read “mommy.”

At night, she sleeps with Lilly and Jack’s favorite stuffed animals: a white unicorn with a pink silk bow and a green and blue brachiosaurus.

“I have dreams about them coming home and I believe it,” she told the outlets.

Authorities are still offering a reward of up to around $107,000 ($150,000 Canadian) for any information about the siblings’ disappearance, according to a Nova Scotia government post.

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