Stepfather of missing Nova Scotia children charged with sexually assaulting an adult

HALIFAX — The stepfather of two Nova Scotia children reported missing more than eight months ago has been charged with sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement involving an adult victim, RCMP confirmed Thursday.

The Mounties issued a brief statement saying 34-year-old Daniel Martell was arrested Monday morning by officers with the Pictou County detachment.

He was released from custody and is expected to comply with certain conditions, the RCMP said. Martell is also scheduled to appear in Pictou provincial court on March 2. No other details were released and Martell was not immediately available for comment.

The allegations against Martell have not been tested in court.

On May 2, Martell’s common-law partner, Malehya Brooks-Murray, called 911 to report that two of her children — five-year-old Jack Sullivan and his six-year-old sister Lilly Sullivan — had wandered away from the rural home they shared with Martell in Lansdowne Station, N.S., a two-hour drive northeast of Halifax.

Despite several extensive ground and air searches, including a search in October using cadaver dogs, few clues have been detected to indicate what happened to Lilly and Jack.

Earlier this month, the Nova Scotia Judiciary released partially unsealed court documents that include excerpts from police interviews with Brooks-Murray, who was asked on May 9 if Martell had been “physically abusive.” during their three-year relationship.

The documents, filed to support applications for search warrants as part of the police investigation into the missing children, include other unproven allegations and statements by police.

“Malehya said he (Martell) would try to block her, hold her down and once he pushed her,” one of the documents says. “She said he would also take her phone from her when she tried to call her mom, which would sometimes be physical and hurt.”

When reached by phone on Jan. 15, Martell denied the allegations, saying they are part of a narrative designed to make him look evil.

“I never abused Malehya,” he said at the time. “But the narrative was set that Daniel is an evil person …. You can see all the allegations online. It’s absolutely insane.”

Asked about the allegation that he hurt his partner when he tried to take her phone, Martell said, “Allegations to make me seem evil. It didn’t happen.”

The court documents also include portions of a statement Martell gave to police on May 6. At the time, he said he and Brooks-Murray would yell at each other when they were fighting, but he told police there was no physical violence in their relationship.

“He said their relationship is good, they have ups and downs like any couple,” says the document related to the May 6 interview.

The documents also say that on May 2 and May 4, Martell told police the couple had recently been fighting about money, but no other details were provided.

The couple separated soon after the search for the children started.

Martell has made many public statements insisting he played no role in the children’s disappearance, which has attracted international attention. By contrast, Brooks-Murray has said next to nothing, explaining that police have told her to keep quiet.

Earlier this month, Martell said he has been “completely honest and open with absolutely everything,” and he described himself as the “figurehead for the Lily and Jack investigation …. at the forefront, displaying everything I could and telling everything I could to the public.”

At one point during the interview on Jan. 15, Martell spoke about himself in the third person when he declared: “He has nothing to do with the disappearance. But in the public, as long as he looks evil, the public will judge him as being guilty.”

Meanwhile, RCMP have said investigators continue to assess hundreds of tips from the public and more than 8,000 video files, including footage recorded by motion-activated trail cameras and dashcam footage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2026.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press