🚨 AFTER 9 MONTHS OF SILENCE — THEY CAN’T HOLD BACK ANYMORE 🚨

“The past nine months have been absolute torture.”

These are the heartbreaking words from Cyndy Murray, maternal grandmother of missing siblings Lilly (6) and Jack (4) Sullivan, finally breaking the family’s long silence in an exclusive interview.

“It’s just a nightmare. Like I can’t describe it. It’s mental torture to figure out… how come it’s taking so long for them to find out what happened?”

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After nine long months of near-total public silence amid intense scrutiny, the inner circle of Malehya Brooks-Murray — mother of missing siblings Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4 — has spoken out, with the maternal grandmother calling the ongoing uncertainty “absolute torture” and a “nightmare” that defies description.

In an exclusive interview with CBC News published February 4, 2026, Cyndy Murray, Brooks-Murray’s mother and the children’s grandmother, opened up about the family’s emotional devastation since Lilly and Jack vanished from their rural trailer home on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, Pictou County, on May 2, 2025.

Murray, who last saw her grandchildren about a month earlier during an Easter egg hunt at her home, described the past nine months as unrelenting mental anguish. “It’s just a nightmare. Like I can’t describe it. It’s mental torture to figure out … how come it’s taking so long for them to find out what happened?” she told CBC. “You wonder every day where they are.”

The siblings were reported missing at 10:01 a.m. on May 2 when Brooks-Murray called 911, stating they had apparently wandered away overnight or early morning after being put to bed the previous evening between 9 and 10 p.m. Brooks-Murray and her common-law partner at the time, Daniel Martell, provided initial accounts to police, though minor discrepancies later emerged in statements about exact timelines.

What followed was an exhaustive search: more than 1,700 personnel logged over 12,000 hours across 8.5 square kilometers of thick woods, employing drones, helicopters, cadaver dogs, and ground teams. Key evidence included a pink blanket believed to belong to Lilly found hanging in a tree roughly 1 kilometer from the home, and child-sized boot prints matching Lilly’s rainbow rubber boots on a nearby trail. No additional clothing, toys, remains, or conclusive signs of the children’s fate have been recovered.

Surveillance footage from a Dollarama store in nearby New Glasgow captured the entire family — including Lilly, Jack, their infant sister, Brooks-Murray, and Martell — together and alive on the afternoon of May 1 at 2:25 p.m., the last verified public sighting.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation remains active under the province’s Missing Persons Act. Officers have reviewed over 8,000 video files, conducted 75 interviews (including polygraphs for some family members), followed more than 1,000 public tips, and performed 1,400 investigative tasks. Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon of the major crime unit has repeatedly stated the case “is not going to be a cold case” and that the team remains “fully committed” to determining what happened.

A provincial reward of up to $150,000 for information of investigative value continues to stand.

The family’s recent comments come amid heightened public and online speculation, particularly following unsealed court documents in January 2026 that revealed Brooks-Murray’s prior allegations of physical abuse by Martell, including blocking her, holding her down, pushing her, and taking her phone to prevent contact with family. Martell underwent a polygraph early in the probe, as did Brooks-Murray voluntarily.

On January 26, 2026, Martell was arrested and charged with assault, sexual assault, and forcible confinement involving an unrelated adult victim. RCMP has stressed these charges are separate from the children’s disappearance; Martell was released on conditions and is scheduled for court March 2, 2026.

Neighbor accounts have added layers: court records noted reports of a “loud vehicle” coming and going multiple times after midnight into the early hours of May 2, including around 1:30 a.m. near railroad tracks close to evidence locations. RCMP reviewed area surveillance and stated no vehicle was substantiated as key, though timelines remain under scrutiny.

In the CBC interview, friends and loved ones close to Brooks-Murray described her current state: she has lost significant weight, avoids online speculation and public attention entirely, and is “taking it day by day” while relying on a small support network. One friend, Cheryl Robinson, noted the mother’s struggle to simply survive amid the grief and scrutiny.

Paternal grandmother Belynda Gray has been more vocal in prior months, sharing private conversations with Martell and questioning household dynamics, though she was not part of the recent CBC piece.

Cyndy Murray declined to appear on camera but spoke emotionally off-camera, emphasizing the daily torment of not knowing. “Someone knows something,” she implied, echoing pleas from earlier family statements for information that could resolve the mystery.

The remote, densely wooded location has long fueled theories of accidental wandering and exposure, but the absence of further environmental evidence and household complexities have sustained speculation of foul play or concealment.

As National Missing Persons Day approached in early February 2026, RCMP highlighted the Sullivan case as a priority, underscoring the rarity and complexity of such disappearances involving very young children from a home setting.

For the family, the silence has been broken — but the answers remain elusive. Cyndy Murray’s words capture the raw toll: nine months of wondering, waiting, and enduring what she calls “absolute torture.” With no breakthrough in sight, the plea for information persists, as does the hope that one tip could finally end the nightmare.

RCMP continues to urge anyone with details — no matter how small — to come forward. Until then, Lilly and Jack Sullivan’s fate remains one of Canada’s most agonizing unsolved cases, with a grieving family now voicing the pain that has consumed them in silence for far too long.