As search and rescue crews once again depart a rural Nova Scotia community without finding two children who disappeared more than two weeks ago, a retired RCMP dog handler says it is baffling the siblings are still missing after such wide-scale searches.
Lilly Sullivan, 6, and brother Jack Sullivan, 4, have been missing since May 2, when police received a 911 call reporting they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, a sparsely populated area about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
The children’s disappearance set off a massive operation that included upward of 160 ground search and rescue officials, dog teams, drones and helicopters.
But after six days of scouring the heavily wooded areas surrounding the siblings’ home, covering 5.5 square kilometres, there was no sign of the children and RCMP announced the search was being scaled back.
Search and rescue crews were called back to Lansdowne Station on Saturday and Sunday for yet another search, focusing on specific areas around Gairloch Road. An RCMP spokesperson said officials would be reviewing the information collected and determining next steps.
Glenn Brown, who worked as an operational dog handler in the RCMP in several provinces for 26 years, said the fact the Sullivan children haven’t been found “is just really strange.”
“I find it hard to believe that a six- and four-year-old would just disappear like that,” said Brown, who was involved in hundreds of searches during his career.
“I can guarantee you if I was still working today, it would be the thing to be racing around your mind all the time. Where would they have gone? We have done everything.”
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