Nova Scotia, November 29, 2025 – In a case that’s gripped the nation like a vice, the baffling disappearance of siblings Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, from their rural home in Lansdowne Station has taken a sinister turn. Nearly seven months after the children vanished into thin air on May 2, fresh investigative leads – including haunting surveillance footage, a passed polygraph that’s now under fierce scrutiny, and eerie sightings of late-night vehicles prowling the family’s wooded property – are fueling whispers of a desperate cover-up. At the center? Stepfather Daniel Martell, whose every move is being dissected as the prime suspect in this heart-wrenching saga.

It was a crisp spring morning when Malehya Brooks-Murray, the children’s mother, woke to an empty house. The kids, both on the autism spectrum and known for their playful energy, had been home sick the day before. By 10 a.m., panic set in – Lilly, with her strawberry-printed backpack and pink ensemble, and little Jack, clad in a blue jacket, were gone. No forced entry, no screams, just silence in the dense Pictou County woods bordering their Gairloch Road home. Martell, 33, who had been in a three-year relationship with Brooks-Murray, sprang into action, scouring nearby roads on his ATV and pleading for public help. “They’re not wanderers,” he insisted early on, his voice cracking in media pleas. But as days turned to weeks, cracks in the narrative emerged.

Enter the polygraph bombshell. Martell voluntarily underwent the test in June, facing the gut-wrenching opener: “Did you kill Lilly and Jack?” Sweating under the wires, he later recounted passing with flying colors – “You did a good job,” the investigator allegedly said. Yet, unsealed court documents from August reveal RCMP’s exhaustive probe into Martell and Brooks-Murray’s digital footprints: cell pings, bank records, even GPS from their shared devices between May 1 and 2. No smoking gun, but inconsistencies abound. Why did Brooks-Murray reportedly call police that first night suspecting the biological father had snatched the kids, only for leads to fizzle? And Martell? He’s handed over phones, encouraged property searches, but online sleuths point to family rifts – relatives accusing him of involvement, Brooks-Murray blocking him on social media post-disappearance.

Now, the footage that’s sending chills down spines: Newly analyzed CCTV from nearby New Glasgow captures the family – Martell, Brooks-Murray, baby Meadow, and the missing duo – just days before. But it’s the unreleased clips from the property’s perimeter that have insiders buzzing. Grainy night-vision shows unidentified cars circling the dirt roads after midnight in the weeks leading up, headlights slicing through fog like predators. Were these routine patrols, or something more nefarious? A single boot print near the back door – matching no one’s in the household – and a discarded blanket in the woods add fuel. RCMP, tight-lipped, has interviewed 54 people and chased 355 tips, deploying drones, dogs, and divers in swollen rivers. A $150,000 provincial reward dangles, but no breakthroughs.

Martell’s pleas have evolved from desperate to defiant. “The stepfather’s always suspect number one,” he admitted in a June interview, amid rampant social media conspiracies tormenting Brooks-Murray’s grief. Renewed searches in May yielded nothing but black flies and heartbreak. Experts whisper of abduction theories – human trafficking rings preying on rural isolation – or worse, an inside job gone wrong. As winter bites, the Sullivan home stands abandoned, a ghost of laughter lost. Is Martell the devoted dad hiding a “key” to bring them home, or the architect of unspeakable horror? One thing’s clear: this web of lies, late-night shadows, and lie-detector truths is unraveling. The clock ticks – will justice drag these ghosts into the light, or bury them forever in Nova Scotia’s unforgiving wilds?