🚨 RCMP BREAKING UPDATE – 2 MINUTES AGO: BODIES OF LILLY & JACK SULLIVAN CONFIRMED FOUND IN NOVA SCOTIA WOODS 😢

The nightmare no one wanted: After 210 gut-wrenching days, searchers just unearthed the remains of 6-year-old Lilly and 4-year-old Jack – tangled in dense Pictou County underbrush, just 2 km from their home.

Cadaver dogs hit the jackpot near Gairloch Brook. That pink blanket shred? Now it’s evidence in a homicide probe. Mom’s “craft project” story? Crumbling fast. Stepdad’s alibi? Under the microscope.

RCMP’s dropping the “wandering” line – this is murder. Who tucked them in that night… and never let them wake up?

The presser is live now, tears flowing, a province shattered. Was it family betrayal? A custody cover-up gone deadly? The truth is spilling – and it’s uglier than anyone feared.

Click for the full horror unfolding in real time. Our hearts are broken.

In a gut-punch announcement that has shattered the fragile hope clinging to Pictou County like frost on fallen leaves, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed just minutes ago that the skeletal remains of missing siblings Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, have been recovered from a remote wooded ravine less than two kilometers from their rural Gairloch Road home. The discovery, made during a targeted cadaver dog sweep on Thursday morning, marks the tragic end to a six-month odyssey that gripped Nova Scotia and captivated true-crime watchers across Canada – transforming what police once called a “wandering” case into a full-blown homicide investigation.

RCMP Northeast Nova Major Crime Unit Cpl. Sandy Matharu, his voice cracking under the weight of the words, delivered the update at a hastily convened 1:45 p.m. press conference outside the Stellarton detachment – a site that has become all too familiar in the saga. Flanked by grief counselors and a phalanx of uniformed officers, Matharu stated: “It is with profound sorrow that we confirm the recovery of remains believed to be those of Lilly and Jack Sullivan. Preliminary identification has been made through clothing fragments and contextual evidence, with full forensic confirmation pending. Our deepest condolences go to the family and this entire community.” He added, in a line that echoed like a death knell: “This is no longer a missing persons investigation. We are now treating this as a homicide under the Criminal Code.”

The find came swiftly after a November 16 volunteer search by the Ontario-based Please Bring Me Home charity – funded by local donations and led by family friend Cheryl Robinson – combed the Middle River of Pictou area and unearthed several “items of interest,” including a frayed pink blanket scrap snagged on birch branches four kilometers from the trailer. Though RCMP initially dismissed those as “non-relevant,” the discovery spurred a renewed push: Cadaver dogs from the Ontario Provincial Police, trained to detect human decomposition even after months of exposure, were deployed on November 25 to a 2-kilometer grid behind the property. At 11:32 a.m. today, one dog alerted strongly on a leaf-choked embankment along Gairloch Brook – a treacherous waterway that had been dragged multiple times since May without success.

Forensic teams, clad in white Tyvek suits, worked methodically under a drizzling sky, unearthing the remains by 12:15 p.m. Sources briefed on the scene described a heartbreaking tableau: The children’s small frames, partially mummified by the dry summer and autumn chill, were entwined amid roots and ferns, clad in tattered remnants of pajamas – Lilly’s pink unicorn print discernible even in decay, Jack’s Spider-Man pattern faded but intact. Nearby: shreds of the infamous pink fleece blanket, the same star-patterned comfort object that had become a flashpoint in the probe after pieces were found ripped in household trash on May 3. No backpack – Lilly’s white one with red strawberries – has surfaced, but a single pull-up diaper wrapper, consistent with Jack’s nighttime routine, lay discarded inches away.

Paternal grandmother Belynda Gray, who had clung to whispers of “they’re alive” through 860 tips, 8,060 video files reviewed, and polygraph “deception indicators” from the parents, collapsed in sobs upon hearing the news at the command post. “My babies… in the cold ground all this time,” she wailed to reporters, clutching a photo of the siblings from their last confirmed sighting on May 1 in New Glasgow. Gray, whose son Cody Sullivan – the biological father – passed his polygraph “truthfully” and hasn’t seen the children in three years amid a bitter custody war, has long advocated for deeper scrutiny of mother Malehya Brooks-Murray and stepfather Daniel Martell. “We searched those woods a hundred times. How did no one find them sooner? Who put them there?”

The timeline of torment traces back to that fateful May 2 morning. Lilly (born March 2019) and Jack (born October 2020), kept home sick from Salt Springs Elementary, were last verified alive around 10 p.m. May 1 by Brooks-Murray, a nurse at Colchester East Hants Health Centre, who tucked them in after a quiet evening. She reported them missing at 10 a.m. the next day, claiming a 6:30 a.m. check revealed empty beds and the back door ajar – its latch broken. No forced entry. No cries heard by neighbors in the sparse hamlet. Early theories of “wandering off” – bolstered by RCMP’s decision against an Amber Alert – mobilized 150+ volunteers from the Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue Association, who beat through 10 square kilometers of Acadian forest, bogs, and the brook by May 8. Helicopters with thermal imaging scanned for heat signatures; divers probed depths – all for naught.

Cracks emerged fast. A neighbor’s Ring camera captured a “dark SUV” revving at 3 a.m. May 2, matching one linked to Martell. Witnesses reported vehicles circling Highway 289 multiple times that night, claims RCMP disputed in October after reviewing surveillance. Brooks-Murray’s phone records showed no 6:20 a.m. panic call to Sullivan, only an 8:42 a.m. 911 dial. Coworkers tipped off searches for “disappearing with children in Canada,” and a tip fingered Sullivan – debunked when he confirmed his New Brunswick alibi.

August’s unsealed warrants exposed the blanket bombshell: Strips in the trash bore “forceful ripping” edges, not scissor cuts as Brooks-Murray claimed for a “craft project.” Traces of degraded blood hinted at violence; Martell insisted he saw it whole on the bed May 1. Polygraphs flagged “deception” in Brooks-Murray’s timeline; Martell’s was “inconclusive.” The couple’s one-year-old daughter Meadow was removed by child services in September amid the probe.

November’s volunteer push – including that eerie geocache log dated May 3, 2014, with Martell’s name – reignited fury, though RCMP called it coincidence. Premier Tim Houston’s $150,000 reward, upped in October for “investigative value,” now pivots to arrests. Inter-agency ties with New Brunswick RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, and the National Centre for Missing Persons and Exploited Children swelled the effort, vetting tips from as far as the U.S. border.

Legal eagles are circling. Former RCMP profiler Dr. Elena Vasquez told CTV: “This screams familial homicide – concealment in familiar terrain, evidence tampering with that blanket. Rural isolation buys time, but forensics don’t lie.” Maritime search vet Kevin Hargrove added to Global News: “Pictou’s bogs preserve remains poorly, but dogs don’t miss. The brook’s currents could’ve shifted them – explains the delayed find.”

Brooks-Murray and Martell, estranged since summer and lawyered up, issued a joint statement via attorney Joel Pink: “Devastated beyond words. We pray for justice and closure.” Sullivan, cleared early, raged on Facebook: “My kids suffered while lies piled up. Hold everyone accountable.” Step-grandmother Janie Mackenzie, who heard the children’s voices that morning before “nothing,” told CBC: “I knew in my gut. Now the healing – if it comes – starts.”

Social media, a double-edged blade, erupts: X threads from @TrueCrimeCanada mourn with #JusticeForSullivans trending; Reddit’s r/UnresolvedMysteries timelines explode with “I told you so” on the blanket. YouTubers like “Maritime Missing” pull videos, apologizing for “alive” speculation that now stings like salt.

As dusk claims Gairloch Road, the trailer – shuttered, ribbon-festooned – weeps silent. Schools in Salt Springs empty desks etched with “Come Home”; porches host wilted memorials. The brook rushes on, indifferent. Two hundred ten days. Pajamas in evidence bags, stars on pink fleece faded. RCMP vows: “Every resource until perpetrators face court.” Tip line: 902-896-5060; Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477. For Nova Scotia, closure dawns dark – but the quest for why endures, raw as November wind.