RCMP forensics examining pink blanket found during search for missing N.S. children
Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, were reported missing on the morning of May 2 when police received a 911 call saying they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
The disappearance sparked days of extensive searches of the property and surrounding woods. Two boot prints were located on the driveway of the property and on a nearby pipeline trail, and a piece of a blanket was also found on a nearby road.
In a news release Wednesday, RCMP said the major crime unit is leading the investigation with help from units in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, along with the National Centre of Missing Persons, Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and provincial and municipal police agencies from other parts of the country.
The release said a pink blanket that was seized on Lansdowne Road during the search is being forensically examined. The children's stepfather, Daniel Martell, previously told CBC News that the blanket belongs to Lilly.
The Mounties said they are reviewing about 5,000 video files obtained through a video canvass of Lansdowne Station and the surrounding areas.
They have formally interviewed more than 60 people, some of whom were given polygraph tests. Martell has confirmed he participated in a polygraph test last month, and that he was told he passed.
The Mounties are also following up on more than 600 tips from the public, and are "submitting judicial authorizations to seize and examine materials and devices that may provide information useful to the investigation."
"Right now, there are more than 800 tasks associated to this investigation," Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon, the acting officer in charge of major crimes and and behavioural sciences.
"A tremendous amount of careful, deliberate investigative work is underway by people here at home and in other parts of Canada. Our collective efforts will continue every day until we determine with certainty the circumstances surrounding Lilly and Jack's disappearance."
MORE TOP STORIES
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Lam sisters acquitted in 2022 killing of 88-year-old mother
A pair of sisters left the Ottawa Courthouse with lawyers by their side after being found not guilty Sunday afternoon of first-degree murder in the killing of their mother almost three years ago. It took the 13 jurors five days to acquit Chau and Hue Lam in the death of their 88-year-old mother Kieu. Throughout the trial, the sisters never denied they killed her in her sleep. Both admitted so to police on the night of her death in October 2022. In the end, the jury accepted their argument that they acted in self-defence after enduring decades of abuse. Chau Lam's lawyer Ewan Lyttle had told jurors the life the sisters knew was one of "isolation ... devoid of love, compassion and protection, and filled with control, violence and cruelty." Both sisters left the courthouse Sunday evening as free women. Hue, who has Parkinsons, was pushed by a lawyer while Chau walked slowly ahead of her. Another lawyer carried black trash bags filled with the sisters' belongings. They have been in custody since their arrest. Crown prosecutors had argued that Chau, 59, and Hue, 62, brutally murdered their aging and frail mother. Prosecutors had told the jury the woman was "sleeping defenceless" in bed when the sisters smashed her head with a hammer and strangled her. Chau Lam, who testified during the trial, acknowledged that she was "angry" at the time of the killing — as she told police following her arrest. Justice Narissa Somji delivered her instructions to the jury Tuesday night after hearing closing arguments, before sending them to deliberate on a verdict. The trial started at the Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa in June.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
A theft, a sting and an apology: How these Toronto cyclists got their stolen bikes back
The thief who cut a hole into Noah Rosen and Suzanne Carlsen's fence to steal their bikes probably didn't expect what happened next. Rosen and Carlsen run VéloColour, a Toronto shop known for painting high-end bikes. The couple says the stolen bikes, which they lovingly modified, have a combined value of more than $5,000. They weren't planning to let them go without a chase. "There is sentimental value, but also just a straight cost. And we weren't prepared to lose that much money and then have to replace them," said Rosen. The thief messed with the wrong cyclists — who set up a sting operation to get their bikes back — a solution police don't recommend, but some Torontonians resort to as bicycle thefts remain a widespread issue. The heist It all began last Friday, when the couple was working at their shop. Outside, a security camera captured the culprit cutting through their fence, where the bikes were locked, and riding away with them. "I just started to cry because it was like my baby," said Carlsen, whose bike carries memories from a recent trek through Kyrgyzstan's mountains. The couple shared the ordeal with their large social media following in the hopes other cyclists and shops would recognize their unique bikes if resold. The first clue of the bikes' whereabouts came on Sunday, when Carlsen spotted an ad on Facebook Marketplace for a Surly Bridge Club that looked familiar. "I clicked on it and it was my exact bike," she says. The couple reported the theft to Toronto police, who they say wouldn't help without proof the bike in the ad was one of the ones stolen. That's when they decided to take matters into their own hands. Toronto police were unable to confirm the couple's account prior to publication. The sting With the help of friends, the couple says they set up a meeting with the seller and hid in an alley until they had a chance to confront him. "I went straight into his face and I said, 'You stole our bikes,'" said Rosen. The couple says they retrieved the bike and quickly snapped a photo of the seller as he ran away. Then they messaged the seller, saying they had his photo and phone number as leverage to get the second stolen bike back. The couple says the seller sent a "heartfelt" response. "I'm truly sorry. I don't want any violence….I left the bike up the street and the key is under the front tire," Carlsen says the seller replied. Carlsen says she is still shocked they managed to bring their stolen bikes home in just 48 hours. More than a thousand bicycles have been stolen in Toronto so far this year, police data shows. The number of bike thefts has gone down gradually over the years but spikes over the summer months, according to the data. Toronto police say they advised the couple against the sting out of concern for their safety as the interaction could become aggressive or violent. "Not everybody wants to meet the person that has taken their stuff. You have to decide where your comfort level is," said Rosen. If your bike is stolen, police recommend reporting it and including the serial number, a unique number usually engraved on the frame that can identify a bike even if it's modified. That's the big takeaway for Carlsen, who didn't have her serial number and couldn't prove to police the bike being sold online was hers since she had no up-to-date photo showing how she modified it. "I feel incredibly lucky because there's so many people out there who don't get stolen bikes back."
Washington Post
5 hours ago
- Washington Post
Maryland mom whose kids went missing in 2014 is re-indicted on murder charges
A Maryland woman whose young children went missing in 2014 — leading to murder charges against her that were later dismissed — has been indicted again in their deaths, Montgomery County prosecutors and Hoggle's attorney said Sunday. Catherine Hoggle, 38, remains held in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility charged with two counts of murder after being arrested on Friday. She is scheduled to appear in court Monday, according to the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office. The new charges are the latest turn in twisting case marked by the disappearances of a 2-year-old and 3-year-old; Hoggle's longtime battle with mental illness; and the conclusion reached long ago by police and prosecutors that the children would never be found alive because Hoggle allegedly killed them. Hoggle's attorney, David Felsen, said Sunday that he will seek her release and seek to have the charges dismissed. Over the course of the case, Hoggle was held beyond the five-year limit that someone in her condition can be detained without facing trial. Felsen said there is nothing about the new indictment that should change the five-year cutoff. 'We believe that she cannot be held, given she was already held under a finding of incompetency to stand trial for eight years,' Felsen said. When the case began 11 years ago, three people were reported missing — the two children and Hoggle. But after several days, on Sept. 12, 2014, Hoggle was found walking by herself down a street in Germantown. She was arrested and at first held on child neglect and obstruction charges. Hoggle was determined to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and transferred to a maximum-security state psychiatric hospital. She was indicted in 2017 on two counts of murder and continued to stay at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Howard County. In 2022, Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Bonifant, citing the five-year law, ordered the charges dropped. But as he did so, Bonifant ordered Hoggle to remain in a psychiatric hospital under Maryland's civil commitment procedures. 'She has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and general anxiety disorder,' Bonifant said at the time. 'She suffers from chronic symptoms of impaired judgment, poor insight, paranoia and disorganized thinking. Without the structure and stability of a hospital setting, she would be a danger to herself or others.' Hoggle was released from Perkins on July 23, according to the Montgomery State's Attorney's Office. She was arrested on Friday in Maryland's Kent County, the office said. It is not clear exactly where Hoggle was staying in Kent County. But Felsen said that while there, she was still receiving medical care and was being supervised under her civil commitment order. The children's father, Troy Turner, who spent years organizing searches for the children, Jacob and Sarah, also has said he believes Hoggle killed them. Prosecutors have suggested in court filings that Hoggle, whose IQ was once tested as above average at 135, had exaggerated the extent of her mental illness to avoid facing a jury. And the county's top prosecutor, John McCarthy, vowed in 2022 that Hoggle would be recharged if she were ever released from a hospital. 'As long as I'm state's attorney,' McCarthy said, 'if she is ever deemed safe enough to be released, and gets out, I will recharge her with two counts of first-degree murder.' Bonifant in 2022 spoke about the fundamental fairness of not putting people on trial who can't adequately speak with their attorneys to help defend themselves. He cited legal principles going back to 1790, when a court held that 'no man shall be called upon to make his defense at a time when his mind is in that situation as not to appear capable of doing so.' Felsen has long said his client's thinking was far too delusional and tangential to discuss legal proceedings or participate in a trial.
