On a crisp May afternoon in 2020, three-year-old Dylan Ehler vanished from his grandmother’s backyard in Truro, Nova Scotia, sparking one of Canada’s most haunting missing child mysteries. Just yesterday, November 26, 2025, CTV News aired a poignant segment revisiting the case, five years and counting since that fateful day. The report, part of CTV’s ongoing commitment to unresolved stories, delved into the raw grief of Dylan’s family while gently correcting a persistent narrative flaw: the infamous boots found in Lepper Brook were not a fabrication or misdirection from Dylan himself, but a stark, tangible clue unearthed by searchers in the days following his disappearance.

Dylan, a curly-haired toddler with an infectious giggle, was last seen playing near his grandmother Dorothy Parsons’ home on Elizabeth Street. His mother, Ashley Brown, had dropped him off briefly while running an errand, a routine moment shattered in seconds. Parsons turned away to leash the family dog, and in that blink, Dylan was gone. An exhaustive six-day search mobilized hundreds—RCMP divers, helicopters, K-9 units, and volunteers scouring woods, fields, and the nearby Salmon River. Yet, the only remnant was a pair of tiny rubber boots, one discovered bobbing in the shallow waters of Lepper Brook, the other snagged downstream. Police theorized Dylan had wandered to the creek, slipped in, and been swept away by the current, his footwear dislodged in the flow. No body was ever recovered, leaving a void filled with speculation.

CTV’s broadcast highlighted this boot discovery as fact, not fiction—a detail corroborated by initial reports and forensic analysis. The stream’s swift waters, swollen from spring rains, could easily claim a curious child, experts noted. But the segment also amplified family frustrations: Jason Ehler, Dylan’s father, has long questioned the official drowning hypothesis, pointing to the boots’ pristine condition and lack of DNA evidence linking Dylan directly to the water.

“Boots don’t walk themselves,” Jason has said in prior interviews, fueling theories of abduction or foul play. Online sleuths and Facebook groups, swelling to over 17,000 members at their peak, have traded wild claims—from predatory birds snatching the boy mid-stride to familial cover-ups—often twisting facts into conspiracy fodder. Nova Scotia’s cyberbullying laws were even invoked to shutter toxic threads harassing the family.

Fast-forward to 2025: The case remains open, with Truro Police marking the fifth anniversary in May by releasing age-progressed sketches of a now eight-year-old Dylan. Volunteer groups like Please Bring Me Home rallied in June, combing CN Rail lines near the site, but yielded no breakthroughs. Efforts to qualify for Nova Scotia’s unsolved crimes reward program fell short in late June, as officials deemed it ineligible despite the Ehler-Browns’ petition for an “Ehler Alert” system to bolster child safety protocols. Jason’s 2022 fraud charge—unrelated, involving forged checks—added unwelcome scrutiny, though it was resolved without impacting the investigation.

CTV’s report humanized the toll: Ashley’s deleted TikToks, once lambasted as insensitive, were reframed as coping mechanisms amid unimaginable loss. The family clings to hope, organizing sporadic searches and posters, their Tim Hortons meetups dwindling but defiant. Broader implications linger—gaps in initial police response, like delayed DNA requests, sparked a 2023 review board appeal, exposing procedural hiccups. As winter grips Truro once more, the boots in the brook stand as silent sentinels, urging society to confront child vulnerability head-on. Dylan’s story isn’t just a cold case; it’s a call to vigilance, a reminder that seconds can swallow innocence whole. Will the streams ever yield their final truth? For now, the Ehler family endures, boots and all, in a quest that defies closure.