For more than 15 months, Malehya Brooks-Murray says she has lived in perpetual anticipation — marking childhood milestones not with celebrations, but with a growing collection of sealed cards and wrapped gifts, awaiting a homecoming that has yet to materialize.
Her son and daughter, Jack and Lilly Sullivan, then four and six, disappeared from the sparsely populated community of Lansdowne, N.S., last May under mysterious circumstances, fuelling widespread and enduring speculation about what happened to the siblings.
There are few clues, no named suspects and little is known about the investigative avenues being followed by the RCMP’s Major Crime unit. All the while, Brooks-Murray has stayed out of the limelight, something that has been harshly criticized by members of the public.
In an exclusive interview with CBC News and The Globe and Mail, Brooks-Murray said she had nothing to do with her children’s disappearance, doesn’t believe she’s a suspect in the investigation and holds out hope that her children are still alive.
She explained that her silence was not a choice, but rather an instruction from the RCMP.
Now, her patience is running out.
“I just did whatever they told me to do because I didn’t want to jeopardize the case in any way. And I also wasn’t ready because I’m continuing to go through extreme trauma and even this is extremely hard for me,” said Brooks-Murray.
“I don’t feel I owe people anything. If anything, I’m owed answers and to have my children back to me.”
Why mother of missing N.S. children is speaking out after 15 months
Brooks-Murray, 29, recalled that the last time she saw Lilly was on the morning of May 2, 2025, when her daughter poked her head into the bedroom Brooks-Murray shared with her then-partner Daniel Martell and their one-year-old daughter.
Martell is not Lilly and Jack’s biological father, but the couple and three children had been living together in the Pictou County home since August 2023.
Brooks-Murray said she heard Lilly and Jack playing together in the other bedroom, and drifted back to sleep.
When she woke up to silence, she and Martell began searching the property before calling 911 at 10:01 a.m. What followed was one of the largest searches in Nova Scotia’s history — 1,700 search-and-rescue personnel logging over 12,000 cumulative hours across 8.5 square kilometres of dense, rugged woods.
The day after the disappearance, amid escalating tensions between her family and Martell’s, Brooks-Murray abruptly left the scene.
“The police had said that we should go and told my family privately to take me out of there and I was in too much state of shock that I just wanted to be with my family and my daughter,” said Brooks-Murray.
That day, the relationship between Brooks-Murray and the children’s stepfather came to an end and she never returned to the mobile home, she said. When asked about the dynamics in the home prior to May 2 or why she never went back, Brooks-Murray declined to elaborate.
Mother of Jack and Lilly Sullivan speaks on polygraphs, day of disappearance
Martell did not reply to a request for comment.
The RCMP’s Major Crime Unit is leading the investigation, but says there is currently no evidence of a crime. Nevertheless, investigators have executed search warrants and conducted polygraph examinations — of which Brooks-Murray has done two, along with multiple rounds of extensive questioning.
Brooks-Murray said she believes from her interactions with the RCMP that she is not considered a suspect. She stated unequivocally that she had nothing to do with their disappearance.
“I’m at the point now where I can’t worry about what people think of me because people who are close and know me [know] … I would never do anything to my children and that I love them very much,” she said.
Brooks-Murray said she trusts the RCMP are doing all they can to find out what happened, but the wait for answers is excruciating. She hangs on to hope that they are still alive and out there somewhere.
“If they see me on TV, they might recognize me and maybe somehow they’ll be brought back home,” she said.
“I have dreams about them coming home and I believe it.”
Brooks-Murray said when considering the possibilities, she can only assume the children were taken — “but for what reason, I don’t know.”
She believes an Amber Alert should have been issued that day, and was told by RCMP officers at the scene that one would be issued. But that didn’t happen. Authorities said the case did not meet the threshold for an Amber Alert, as investigators had no suspect or vehicle details to offer the public. Instead, a vulnerable persons alert went out across two counties.
Investigators have reiterated throughout the investigation that there is no evidence to support an abduction theory.
The RCMP declined a request for an interview. A statement said the case has “demanded sustained effort from specialized teams engaged in detailed police work.”
“As with any ongoing investigation, many of the investigative steps being taken, and the progress being made, can’t be shared publicly,” said spokesperson Allison Gerrard.
“An RCMP liaison is in regular contact with the family’s designated representative, who’s encouraged to reach out at any time.”
For Brooks-Murray, the RCMP’s comments offer little comfort as the communication from investigators slows to a trickle.
“I continue to get the same update over and over and I keep asking for new avenues and they keep saying we’re working on it and I just don’t feel like that’s enough,” she said.
“I feel like I deserve more than that and I deserve answers on where they’re at and I need them at home.”
As a way to cope, she keeps busy — creating art, making keychains bearing her children’s faces, helping with searches for other missing people as a way to give back. On Canada Day, she walked in a parade in Westville, N.S., holding a homemade placard meant to draw attention to the case and wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the word “mommy.”
Brooks-Murray also said she’s going back to school in September to become an addictions counsellor.
She sleeps with Lilly and Jack’s favourite stuffed animals every night: a white unicorn fashioned with a silk pink bow and a green-and-blue brachiosaurus.
She continues to collect birthday, Easter and Christmas gifts, and even tracked down brand-new versions of their cherished unicorn and dinosaur.
“Your children have a particular scent that you never forget. It’s just something that, especially when they’re born and you’re holding them in your arms, it always stays with you,” said Brooks-Murray.
“No parent should ever have to go through what I’m going through and I’ve never wished upon anyone. It’s unbearable.”
MORE TOP STORIES
Driving 10 minutes just to make a call: Cell outages plague northern Cape Breton
She thought she had cancer. All she needed was a daily pill
Longest-serving Kentville volunteer firefighter retiring after 65 years
‘You have to go through the fire’: How setbacks powered Halifax coach’s path to NFL
Shark teeth fossils discovered in Cape Breton
