Renewed ground and air search efforts took place in Lansdowne Station, N.S., on Saturday for six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan.
“We have five of the teams across the province here from the Strait area, Pictou County, Colchester, East Hants, and Halifax. We also have civil air search and rescue on site as well with one of their drones. We have approximately about one hundred people on site right now,” said search manager Amy Hansen.
The two children were last seen at their home on Gairloch Road on May 2. The children’s stepfather, Daniel Martell said seeing the renewed effort brings him hope.
“I know some people take days off work to even be here, so I am grateful for that and I am grateful for everybody that is applying their search efforts,” said Martell.
Police scaled back search efforts last week and said there was little chance the siblings were alive but that didn’t deter search and rescue teams on Saturday.
“Just come back in with fresh people and cover more areas because we haven’t resolved the situation yet,” said Hansen. “We just want to find these children and bring them home,”
After fifteen days, Martell said he’s still hopeful the children will be found and still believes an abduction is possible.
“I’ve been calling for abduction since the first or second day as you guys have seen on the news,” he said “I wanted officers at all the borders, New Brunswick and P.E.I. and the airports but they said it wasn’t a concern and now it’s obviously a concern.”
Exhaustion and injuries stall search
Two search and rescue crew members went to hospital and several others were injured during the first part of the search. Hansen said heat exhaustion, sprained ankles, twisted knees and a few bad falls were to blame but everyone seemed rested and in good spirits Saturday.
“One of the reasons we did actually suspend was because of the exhaustion and the stress and we were starting to see more injuries,” said Hansen.
Saturday’s search did not include helicopters, but Hansen said they have multiple drones in the air from different agencies. She said they do a quick search of some areas – known as “hasty taking” – before they send in search teams for closer inspections.
“We are also expanding out into areas that we haven’t really had boots on the ground in just to get more areas covered off,” said Hansen.
Search and rescue have scoured several square kilometres of dense forest and swampy terrain through muggy temperatures and swarms of bugs since the children went missing.
“The woods here are pretty nasty,” said Hansen. “There is a lot of storm damage so there is a lot of deadfall in that. The ticks are really bad; we’ve had people come out and say they could see them crawling around on the ground. Black flies obviously.”
Search continues Sunday
Hansen said the team decides where to search next by analyzing behaviour. He said children follow patterns.
“We have statistics for distances travelled and stuff like that, so we try to cover off all the areas that we just haven’t had the time or the manpower to get into yet,” she said.
More than two weeks have passed since the search began but Hansen said the timeframe has no bearing on their approach.
“Children in that age range tend to hide anyway even early on,” she said. “So it’s just a very thorough effort to get into all of these areas because if somebody is hiding under a deadfall or something like that, they have to be able to see.”
Search and Rescue personnel said they plan to continue the search Sunday if Lilly and Jack Sullivan are not found.
“The only reason we would stop would be because we found them today,” said Hansen. “The plan is to go tomorrow, hoping to have at least another hundred people here tomorrow and push through until the end of the day at least.”
Plans for the search after Sunday are unknown.
RCMP declined to comment on the search Saturday.
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