As a search continued for a fourth day for two young children believed to have wandered from their rural home in northeastern Nova Scotia, the children’s stepfather said Monday he is worried they may have been abducted.
Daniel Martell said he was in his home in Lansdowne Station, N.S., early Friday morning with the children’s mother and their 16-month-old baby when he could hear six-year-old Lily Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan on the move elsewhere in their home.
“As soon as I noticed that I didn’t hear anything, I immediately jumped out of bed,” he said in an interview outside the home. “I searched the bedrooms and looked in the backyard because they go looking for bugs and grass to feed the chickens … and when I noticed they weren’t there, I jumped in my vehicle and surveyed every dirt road and culvert I could find.”
Martell, 33, said the pair probably slipped out a back door.
“They went to the back sliding door …. (and) it’s virtually silent when you try to open it,” he said, adding that both children were home from school because Lily had a cough. “We only found two boot tracks outside of the house … about 10 feet away from the backyard.”
Asked why he thinks the pair may have been abducted, Martell said, “I have no idea why (anyone) would want to take them, but they’re easy to take. If they would have wandered to the road, they would get in any car as long as you offered them food or water, or even candy or anything like that — or even to see mom and dad, they would immediately get in.”
Police have said there is no evidence to suggest the children were abducted.
RCMP Cpl. Carlie McCann told an afternoon briefing that police continue to believe the children wandered from their home. “The searches are ongoing with that understanding. It is the information that’s being acted on here.”
Search director Amy Hansen said between 100 and 140 people were working on the search during the day, and 60 to 75 were expected to work through the night. McCann said drones, police dogs and specially trained crews would handle the night shift.
Meanwhile, Martell said the two children are outgoing and get along well. They came to live with him two years ago, he said.
“They’ll talk to anyone. They’re just looking to have as much fun as they can …. Jack just absolutely loves bugs, dinosaurs and anything like that,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “But Lily loves girlie things, but she also loved doing everything with Jack. They’re like best friends, not just brother and sister.”
Martell said that since the disappearance, the children’s mother has left to be with her family in another part of the province and has blocked him on social media.
“I’m feeling terrible, just like the last few days,” he said. “It’s just me on my own with my family out here …. I don’t know why she left.”
Martell said Lily and Jack would not have made it far in the woods on their own.
“They would have found them in the woods by now,” he said. “So I’m urging the public to come forward if they have anything to say or to offer .… I don’t think they’d make it far. As soon as they get their clothes or boots wet, they immediately want to take them off and go back inside the house.”
READ FULL STORY: https://www.newwestrecord.ca/atlantic-news/stepfather-of-two-children-missing-in-rural-ns-worries-they-may-have-been-abducted-10614371
x
