4 weeks after disappearance of N.S. children, stepfather remains hopeful
CBC
Four weeks after two children vanished without a trace in rural Nova Scotia, the children's stepfather is still holding on to hope.
Lilly Sullivan, 6, and her brother Jack Sullivan, 4, have been missing since May 2, when police received a 911 call from their mother and stepfather reporting they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, a sparsely populated area about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
The disappearance sparked an extensive six-day search through 5.5 square kilometres of mostly dense woods and included upward of 160 search and rescue officials, dogs, helicopters and drones.
The effort was scaled back on May 7, but subsequent searches have taken place, including ground searches around the children's home on Gairloch Road and underwater searches of bodies of water in the region.
On Friday, RCMP said ground search and rescue crews and police will return to the area on the weekend.
In a news release, RCMP said they will "focus on specific areas around Gairloch Road and the nearby pipeline trail, where a boot print was previously located.
"We continue to ask that the public avoid the search area to allow trained searchers to do their work."
Daniel Martell, the children's stepfather, has previously told CBC News that two boot tracks were found near his home, as well as another nearby.
The RCMP's major crime unit has been involved since the day after the children were reported missing.
Martell said the disappearance has taken a toll on him and his family.
"Every day when I wake up, it feels like I'm reliving a nightmare," said Martell in an interview Friday in Lansdowne Station, nearly one month after the children went missing.
"The main feelings of sadness just turn to anger because there's no evidence after one month."
Still, Martell said he has not lost hope.
"That's all we have at this point," he said. "That's the only goal I have ... is to bring Jack and Lilly home."
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