Police in Canada have announced they are dialing back the search for two young children who vanished from their home into the woods of Nova Scotia last week.
Jack Sullivan, 4, and his sister Lily, 6, were last seen about 10am on Friday on a road close to their home in the Canadian town of Lansdowne Station.
Their parents believe the kids went out a sliding back door of the family’s home while stepfather Daniel Martell and mother Malehya Brooks-Murray fed their baby.
Cops are working on the assumption that the children, who are both autistic, wandered off. Their stepdad Martell said he feared they may have been abducted.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Staff Sgt. Curtis MacKinnon, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the search for two is now being scaled back.
MacKinnon added ‘we’re not packing up and we’re not giving up’, saying that all missing persons files remained ‘suspicious until our investigation leads us to determine otherwise’.
‘Many of us have children of our own and want nothing more than to reunite Lily and Jack with their loved ones’, he added.
Brooks-Murray last week begged for their safe return in an emotional TV interview after searching the neighborhood for them.
‘I’m just staying as hopeful as possible,’ she told CTV News in an emotional interview.
‘I want them home. I want to hold them, and I want them home. When they’re found it will be the biggest relief to hug them.’
Brooks-Murray explained that she and Martell thought the children were playing, and they sneaked away the short time the couple were occupied.
‘We always make sure that we’re out there with them, watching them, and they happen to just get out that sliding door, and we can’t hear it when it opens,’ she said.
‘They were outside playing, but we weren’t aware of it at the time, and the next thing we knew it was quiet.
‘We get up and look outside. We’re looking everywhere, yelling for them, and I instantly just called 911. I just had the instinct I needed to call.’
Brooks-Murray said her children may have mild autism but were friendly, contrary to rumors online claiming they were non-verbal.
‘They’re both really happy-go-lucky children. They’re so sweet. They talk to anyone. They’ll talk your ear off. They will speak to anyone in a store, everyone. They’re just extremely sweet kids,’ she said.
The distraught mother questioned why an Amber Alert wasn’t issued, but police said there was no reason to believe they were abducted.
Martell told CBC News on Sunday that he was frightened the children were taken by a stranger.
He pleaded with police to monitor the border with neighboring New Brunswick and nearby airports in case someone is trying to escape with them.
RCMP Corporal Sally Rice told CTV News on Saturday that there ‘is no information to suggest [the siblings] were abducted’.
‘Based on what we know, it appears they wandered off,’ she added. ‘The search will continue until we receive any new evidence that changes our direction.’
Police had been scouring a 2.2 mile radius around Pictou County Forest, with searchers focusing their efforts there before they announced the change on Wednesday.
Jack is described as having short-ish blond hair. He was wearing blue dinosaur boots.
Lily has light brown, shoulder-length hair with bangs. She may be wearing a pink sweater, pink pants, pink boots and may be toting a white backpack.