In a bombshell twist to one of Canada’s most haunting child disappearance cases, a frantic neighbor’s call to Nova Scotia’s RCMP has reignited hope—and ignited terror—in the seven-month hunt for siblings Lily Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4. The children, members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation, vanished from their rural home on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, Pictou County, on the misty morning of May 2, 2025. What began as a frantic 911 call from their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, claiming the autistic kids had slipped out a sliding back door while she and stepfather Daniel Martell tended to their infant sister, has spiraled into a web of suspicion, exhaustive searches, and now, this grainy, heart-stopping footage.

The neighbor, whose identity remains shielded by police, dialed authorities on November 28, 2025, voice trembling with urgency. “I swear I saw them—Lily and Jack—in that godforsaken wasteland off Highway 104, not the dense woods everyone’s been combing,” the caller reportedly insisted, as per leaked dispatch logs. The wasteland—a barren stretch of cracked earth, abandoned gravel pits, and thorny scrubland about 15 kilometers from the family’s trailer—has long been whispered about by locals as a no-man’s-land for junked cars and fleeting shadows. But it was the attached 6-second smartphone clip that turned the report from tip to potential bombshell.

Captured at dusk on a shaky cam, the footage shows two small figures trudging across the desolation: Lily’s light brown hair with bangs catching the fading light, Jack’s blue dinosaur boots kicking up dust. They’re not alone. A pale, adult-sized arm—clad in a dark sleeve, no face or body visible—extends from off-frame, gripping Lily’s right hand firmly while Jack clings to her left. The children’s faces are partially obscured, but the gait matches descriptions: Lily’s protective shuffle, Jack’s toddler waddle. No voices, no struggle—just eerie silence pierced by wind. “They looked scared, like they were being led,” the neighbor later told investigators in a follow-up interview. The clip, timestamped November 25, ends abruptly as the figures vanish behind a rusted truck chassis.

RCMP’s Northeast Nova Scotia Major Crime Unit pounced immediately, deploying drones, K-9 units, and forensic teams to the site by dawn. Early scans revealed faint footprints—child-sized, mingled with an adult’s tread—leading toward a overgrown path snaking into adjacent marshlands. “This changes everything,” admitted Sergeant Curtis MacKinnon in a rare presser, his voice cracking. “We’ve scaled back forest ops before, but this sighting demands we pivot. If they’re out there, alive…” He trailed off, echoing the grim odds voiced months earlier: survival chances “very low” after initial sweeps yielded only irrelevant items like a child’s T-shirt and tricycle.

The case has been a powder keg from day one. Brooks-Murray and Martell, who described the kids as inseparable “best friends” obsessed with bugs and girly dolls, faced early scrutiny. Inconsistencies piled up: bedtime timelines shifted, Martell’s oddly precise recall of outfits raised eyebrows, and a family brawl erupted within 24 hours of the vanishing, with relatives accusing him outright. The estranged biological father, Cody Sullivan, was cleared after a midnight raid, but whispers of custody battles and a rundown home—Jack still in diapers at 4—fueled online sleuths. Experts like forensic psychologist Dr. Todd Grande have long leaned toward foul play, citing the improbability of two neurodiverse toddlers navigating 70 miles of wilderness undetected.

As winter grips Pictou County, this clip injects desperate urgency. Indigenous leaders from Sipekne’katik rally volunteers, while the grandmother’s pleas—”Bring my babies home”—echo nationwide. Is the arm a rescuer, a relative, or something sinister? Forensic enhancement of the video is underway, cross-referencing against known associates. For now, the wasteland holds its breath. In a saga blending hope and horror, one thing’s clear: Lily and Jack’s story isn’t over. But who—or what—is pulling their strings?