Cadaver dogs fail to find remains in search for two missing Nova Scotia children

HALIFAX — Two tracking dogs trained to search for human remains have failed to find any trace of two children reported missing from their rural Nova Scotia home more than five months ago, the RCMP said Wednesday.

The Mounties said that in late September, the two cadaver dogs and their handlers covered 40 kilometres around the small community of Lansdowne Station, N.S., where six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and her four-year-old brother Jack were reported missing May 2.

Investigators issued a statement Wednesday saying the dogs searched the property in the province’s northeast where the children went missing, trails along and near a pipeline, and an area where a pink blanket had been found. Police said these locations were considered areas where there was the highest probability of finding the children.

In July, the Mounties said they were conducting forensic tests on the pink blanket, which was found during an earlier search of the heavily wooded areas near the children’s home. At the time, police said family members had confirmed the blanket belonged to Lilly.

In August, the Mounties released search warrant documents indicating that family members had found the blanket in a tree on Lansdowne Station Road on May 2, one kilometre from the family home.

Police later dispatched a tracking dog to the area where the blanket was found, but the animal was unable to pick up a scent, the documents say. On May 4, police found another piece of blanket inside a trash bag at the end of the driveway of the children’s home.

The recent cadaver dog searches were conducted by RCMP Insp. Luke Rettie and his dog, Narc, as well as RCMP Sgt. Dave Whalen and his dog, Kitt. Both teams are based in British Columbia.

Stephen Pike, spokesman for the RCMP Police Dog Services Training Centre, said that even though the dogs did not detect human remains, that doesn’t rule out the presence of remains in the areas that were searched.

“It means either the odour is there and couldn’t be detected or the odour isn’t there,” Pike said in a statement.

Meanwhile, RCMP said investigators continue to assess more than 860 tips from the public and 8,060 video files, including footage recorded by motion-activated trail cameras and dashcam footage.

“There are multiple aspects of this investigation ongoing simultaneously,” Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon said in the statement. “Each piece of information, including the results from the search teams, helps inform our next steps.”

Investigators are urging anyone with information about the case to call police or to leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers

“Sometimes, the smallest detail holds the biggest answers,” said McCamon, the Nova Scotia RCMP’s officer in charge of major crime and behavioural sciences.

“One piece of information may help reveal a key piece in the investigation that leads to finding Lilly and Jack.”

McCamon said the RCMP are working with agencies across Canada to validate or eliminate leads.

“At this stage, and as we’ve said all along, we’re considering all possibilities,” he said. “We’ll keep going until we determine, with certainty, the circumstances of the children’s disappearance and they’re found.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press