Seven weeks after two children disappeared from a rural community of New Scotland, family members still question why an Amber Alert for Lilly and Jack Sullivan was not issued.
The young brothers have been missing since the morning of May 2, when the police received a 911 call informing that they had moved away from their home at the Lansdowne station, about 140 kilometers northeast from Halifax.
RCMP has said all the time that the case did not meet the criteria for alert, and now provides more details about the factors that are considered and the process that takes place in such situations.
Ambar alerts are a national public notification system used to help find kidnapped children that are believed to be imminent.
CPL. Guillaume Tremblay, who works in the RCMP Communications Unit, was working on the day of the disappearance and reviewed the Amber Alert Policy.
He said the criteria indicate that there must be something to point to the public, such as a suspect, a person of interest or a vehicle.
“You want to order the public to look for a specific vehicle, to look for that enrollment, look for that suspicious person, have a photo of someone or more information to suggest that there was a kidnapping,” Tremblay said in a recent interview.
While Tremblay reviewed the policy, it is the Risk Manager, designated for each important incident, which finally decides whether an alert must be sent.
In this case, the force issued two alerts of “vulnerable people.”
The first was sent at 12:43 pm on the day of the disappearance and was aimed at cell phones through a strip of communities in the northeast parts of the New Scotland continent, including the Lansdowne and New Glasgow station.
The second was broadcast at 5:26 pm the next day, on May 3, and included a larger area from Turo to Tatamagouche and extended to Antigonish.
For Daniel Martell, the children’s stepfather, those alerts were not far enough.
He said he asked RCMP to issue an Amber alert from the beginning and position the officers in the New Brunswick and Pei Borders and the airport, but they told him that the situation did not meet the criteria.
“I think they should have inclined the criteria at that time,” said Martell. “It was not just a missing person, but two vulnerable children.”
Six weeks after two children disappeared in Nueva Scotia, Lilly’s stepfather and Jack Sullivan says he approved a police polygraph related to his disappearance. He spoke with Kayla Hounsell of CBC.
Lilly and Jack’s mother, Malkya Brooks-Murray, posted on her Facebook page the day after the disappearance asking for an amber alert to be broadcast.
RCMP has repeatedly said that there is no evidence to suggest that children were kidnapped.
But that has not suffocated the concerns of Belynda Gray, the paternal grandmother of the children.
She also wanted the police to issue an amber alert, given the vulnerability of children.
The mother and stepfather of Lilly and Jack have spoken with the media about how the brothers could have autism, but has not been diagnosed.
Gray says it is unfortunate that an amber alert depends on a specific car or person that is identified as involved in a disappearance.
“These are vulnerable children,” Gray said in a recent interview. “They have a little learning disability, so that makes them even more vulnerable.”
Six weeks after Lilly and Jack Sullivan disappeared, his grandmother has decided to share the history of his family. She spoke with Kayla Hounsell of CBC.
The investigation has included searches for 8.5 square kilometers surrounding the children’s house, including forest areas, the family home, wells, wells, septic systems and lakes.
There are 11 RCMP units working in the case, with the main crime unit taking the lead. Formal interviews with 54 people have been conducted, some of which polygraph tests were administered.
The police have also collected hundreds of surrounding video hours, including the images of Dashcam de Gairloch Road, where the family home is located, from the days before the disappearance.
Meanwhile, the New Scotland government offers up to $ 150,000 to obtain information about the disappearance.
On Thursday, the Minister of Justice, Becky Druhan, repeated that Amber’s alerts imply specific criteria that were followed in this case.
He pointed out that they are administered through a national system, so the criteria are standardized throughout Canada and any change would be beyond the reach of their department.
“At this time, we are focused on doing what we can to help support research,” Druhan said.
“Another RCMP has asked us to include this case in the main rewards program, so we hope that helps generate information that will help solve this case.”
There were eight Ambar alerts that involved 10 children issued last year in Canada, according to the National CMP Center for missing persons and unidentified remains. All these children were found alive.
