Fifteen months have passed since two young siblings seemingly disappeared from their rural Nova Scotia home without leaving behind a clear explanation of where they went.

There have been enormous searches.

More than a thousand tips.

Police interviews.

Polygraph examinations.

Search dogs.

Thousands of pieces of video footage.

And countless theories online.

But Lilly and Jack Sullivan have never been found.

Now their mother, Malehya Brooks-Murray, is speaking publicly about the morning her children vanished — and about why, despite everything that has happened since, she still believes they are alive.

“I have dreams about them coming home,” she said in a recent joint interview with CBC News and The Globe and Mail.

And she still believes those dreams could become reality.

The Last Morning She Saw Lilly and Jack
Lilly Sullivan was 6 and her younger brother Jack was 4 when they were reported missing from their home on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, Nova Scotia, on May 2, 2025.

The property sits in a sparsely populated and heavily wooded area of Pictou County.

According to Brooks-Murray’s account, the morning initially seemed ordinary.

She said Lilly briefly entered her bedroom.

Afterward, Brooks-Murray could hear Lilly and Jack playing together in another bedroom.

She drifted back to sleep.

When she woke again, something had changed.

She could no longer hear the children.

Lilly and Jack were gone.

At approximately 10 a.m., RCMP received the report that the siblings were missing.

Their family initially believed the children had wandered away from the rural property.

What followed became one of Nova Scotia’s most extensive missing-person investigations.

An Enormous Search Produced No Clear Answer
Police quickly mobilized a massive operation.

Ground search-and-rescue teams combed the woods.

Aircraft searched from above.

Waterways were examined.

Police dogs were deployed.

Investigators collected surveillance footage from the surrounding area.

As the investigation continued, specialized RCMP units from across Canada became involved along with the National Centre for Missing Persons and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Yet the searches produced no definitive explanation.

No confirmed trail showing where Lilly and Jack went has been publicly identified.

No person has been charged with causing their disappearance.

And police have not announced evidence establishing that the siblings were abducted.

By the one-year anniversary, RCMP said investigators had interviewed more than 100 people and received well over 1,000 tips.

The investigation has generated more than 1,400 investigative tasks.

Still, the central mystery remains.

How did two young children disappear from a rural property without being found?

Their Mother Has a Theory Police Have Not Confirmed
Brooks-Murray now says she believes it is possible Lilly and Jack were taken.

She has questioned whether someone could have approached the property and removed the children before anyone realized what was happening.

But police have not confirmed that scenario.

In fact, RCMP Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon said around the one-year anniversary that investigators had found no evidence establishing an abduction.

The case officially remains a missing-person investigation.

Police say they continue considering the available evidence and pursuing information rather than publicly committing to a single theory.

That distinction is important.

Brooks-Murray’s belief that someone may have taken her children is a mother’s theory about what happened — not a conclusion reached by investigators.

Police Say the Chances They Are Alive Are “Very Slim”
There is also a painful difference between the mother’s hope and the assessment publicly expressed by police.

Brooks-Murray believes Lilly and Jack could still be alive.

RCMP officials have been considerably more cautious.

Asked in April whether he believed the siblings could still be alive, McCamon said the chances were “very slim.”

But he also emphasized that investigators have not stopped looking for answers.

The absence of evidence showing the children are alive is not the same as proof establishing what happened to them.

That uncertainty is precisely what Brooks-Murray says allows her to continue hoping.

Without definitive evidence telling her otherwise, she cannot accept that her children will never return.

Their Mother Says She Had Nothing to Do With Their Disappearance
The case has attracted enormous online attention, much of it directed toward the children’s family.

Brooks-Murray’s relative silence during parts of the investigation fueled speculation on social media.

In her new interview, she addressed that criticism directly.

She said she had nothing to do with Lilly and Jack’s disappearance and does not believe she is considered a suspect.

Brooks-Murray also rejected the idea that she owes the public an explanation simply because she has not spoken frequently to the media.

What she believes she is owed, she said, are answers about her children.

RCMP has not publicly named Brooks-Murray as a suspect.

Investigators have repeatedly urged the public to provide factual information rather than speculation, stressing that rumors can interfere with efforts to establish what actually happened.

Police Are Also Examining the Family Dynamic
One aspect of the investigation involves the relationship between Brooks-Murray and her former partner, Daniel Martell.

Martell was living at the home when Lilly and Jack disappeared and is the father of Brooks-Murray’s younger daughter.

The couple has since separated.

Previously unsealed court documents revealed that Brooks-Murray told police about problems within their relationship.

She alleged that Martell had sometimes physically restrained or blocked her during arguments and had taken her phone when she attempted to contact her mother.

Martell disputed allegations of physical violence, according to reporting based on the court records.

Those allegations have not been proven in court.

RCMP has confirmed that investigators are examining the nature of the couple’s relationship around the time Lilly and Jack disappeared.

But police have not publicly established that those relationship issues explain what happened to the children.

The Family Left the Home After the Children Vanished
Brooks-Murray also provided more detail about what happened immediately after the disappearance.

The day after Lilly and Jack went missing, she left the property with her baby daughter following tensions involving relatives.

She said police advised that leaving the home would be appropriate amid the situation.

The house that had once been filled with three children became another location investigators had to examine while trying to reconstruct the siblings’ final known hours.

For Brooks-Murray, leaving also meant losing the last place where she had seen Lilly and Jack.

She Still Keeps Their Things Waiting
Fifteen months later, Brooks-Murray describes living in a state of waiting.

Birthdays and holidays have passed without Lilly and Jack.

But she continues preparing for the possibility that they could return.

She has kept gifts and cards for them.

At night, she sleeps with their favorite stuffed animals — Lilly’s white unicorn with a pink bow and Jack’s green-and-blue brachiosaurus.

She has also begun making artwork and keychains featuring her children’s faces.

Rather than withdrawing completely, Brooks-Murray has participated in efforts to raise awareness.

On Canada Day, she walked in a Westville parade carrying a homemade sign about Lilly and Jack while wearing a sweatshirt identifying herself simply as “mommy.”

She has even helped search for other missing people.

For her, helping another family represents a way to channel the uncertainty she has lived with since May 2025.

She Is Frustrated With the Lack of Answers
Hope does not mean Brooks-Murray is satisfied with how the investigation feels from her side.

She says she repeatedly asks investigators about new directions in the case and often receives the same response: police are working on it.

After more than a year, she wants more information.

RCMP, meanwhile, says the investigation has not stalled.

Police say investigators continue assessing tips and completing investigative tasks while pursuing information capable of being verified.

That creates a familiar tension in long-running missing-person cases.

Families want to know everything investigators are doing.

Police frequently cannot disclose details about active investigative avenues without potentially compromising their work.

For Brooks-Murray, however, that explanation does little to relieve the uncertainty of not knowing where her children are.

A $150,000 Reward Remains Available
Authorities are still asking anyone with concrete information to come forward.

The Province of Nova Scotia is offering a reward of up to $150,000 Canadian for information that helps solve the disappearance.

Police have specifically emphasized “fact-based” information.

After more than a year of social-media speculation, investigators say they need details that can actually be verified — something a person saw, heard or knows firsthand.

RCMP says the investigation remains active.

No suspect has been publicly named in connection with the disappearance.

No evidence of an abduction has been established publicly.

And despite enormous searches of the area, Lilly and Jack have not been found.

Two Very Different Views — and the Same Unanswered Question
Fifteen months into the case, the contrast could hardly be sharper.

Investigators publicly acknowledge that the likelihood of finding Lilly and Jack alive appears very small.

Their mother refuses to abandon that possibility.

Until someone can show her what happened, Brooks-Murray says she will continue believing there is a chance her children are somewhere waiting to come home.

She still keeps their belongings.

She still marks the milestones they are missing.

She still dreams about seeing them again.

And somewhere between a mother’s hope and an investigation that has produced more than a thousand tips lies the answer everyone has been searching for since the morning of May 2, 2025.

Two children disappeared.

Fifteen months later, no one has publicly established how.

And Malehya Brooks-Murray is still waiting for Lilly and Jack to walk back through the door.

Main Sources: The Globe and Mail, CBC News, PEOPLE, Nova Scotia RCMP, Global News