Five teams and 100 people from across the province are working with civil air search and rescue teams in the renewed search for Lily and Jack Sullivan who went missing from their home in Pictou County, N.S., on May 2.
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Ground and air teams renew search and rescue efforts for Lily and Jack Sullivan in Pictou County, N.S.
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.”
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,” he 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,” he 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.”