Nova Scotia, Canada – Six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and her four-year-old brother Jack vanished without a trace on May 2, 2025. Their disappearance has shocked not only their hometown of Pictou County but the entire world. Now, newly unsealed court documents are shedding light on details so unsettling they could change everything we thought we knew.

At the heart of the revelations? A deleted messaging app that their mother, Malayaia Brooks Murray, erased from her phone just days after the children disappeared. Investigators believe it could hold vital clues.

What happened to Lilly and Jack that morning — and why do so many details just not add up?

A Quiet Morning Turns Into Horror

At 10:01 a.m. on May 2, Malayaia dialed 911 from her mobile home on Gearlock Road, claiming her children had wandered off while she dozed. She said she last heard them giggling at 8:00 a.m., only to realize by 9:40 a.m. that the house had gone silent.

Her partner, Daniel Martell, checked the front door — secured the night before with nothing more than a wrench against a bear — but it was still locked. That meant, he told police, the kids must have slipped out the back sliding door.

Within minutes, a massive RCMP search began, covering more than 8.5 kilometers of dense woods, wells, and abandoned mine shafts. Helicopters, drones, and hundreds of volunteers combed the landscape. But Lilly and Jack were nowhere to be found.

Chilling Discoveries: The Blanket in the Trees

On that same day, Malayaia’s relatives stumbled upon something terrifying: a piece of Lilly’s pink LOL doll blanket tangled high in a tree — a full kilometer away from the house.

Even stranger, another piece was later discovered stuffed inside a trash bag at the end of the driveway. Malayaia explained she had thrown it away because Daniel was using it to block a draft.

But how did a child’s blanket end up in a tree deep in the woods?

Adding to the mystery, investigators uncovered a child-sized bootprint on a nearby trail, scraps of fabric, and even a lone sock. Despite these clues, police dogs failed to detect any scent trail leading away from the home.

The Last Known Sighting

The final confirmed video of Lilly and Jack surfaced just a day earlier on May 1 at a Dollarama store in New Glasgow. The family had been out shopping, eating poutine, and running errands before arriving home around 10 p.m. Malayaia tucked the children into bed fully clothed, exhausted from the day.

It would be the last time anyone outside the family saw them alive.

The Polygraphs: Truth or Deception?

In the weeks that followed, investigators turned their attention to the family. Malayaia and Daniel both agreed to polygraph tests, which the RCMP claimed they passed. Daniel’s mother, who lived in a camper on the property, also underwent testing — though her results were deemed inconclusive.

While law enforcement wrote that the case was “not believed to be criminal in nature,” skeptics argue polygraphs are deeply unreliable. Could the family have passed while still hiding something?

The Witness and the Mystery Woman

Just when the trail seemed cold, a civilian witness came forward. On May 31, Natasha Haywood told police she saw two children walking hand-in-hand along Derlock Road the very morning Lilly and Jack vanished.

They were accompanied by an older woman beside a tan sedan with its door open. The children’s ages didn’t quite match, but the description was close enough to raise eyebrows — and hopes.

The Deleted App

Perhaps the most shocking revelation from the newly released court documents was the discovery that Malayaia had deleted the TextPlus app from her phone.

For those unfamiliar, TextPlus is a Wi-Fi messaging and calling app often used for private or temporary numbers. Unlike encrypted apps, its messages can sometimes be retrieved from servers — making the deletion all the more suspicious.

Why would a mother erase an app so soon after her children disappeared? What messages could it have contained?

Family Struggles Behind Closed Doors

The investigation has also revealed troubling aspects of home life. Reports surfaced of financial strain, tension inside the household, and allegations of controlling behavior by Daniel. The family’s child benefit payments had been suspended, and child support had dried up months earlier.

While police have not officially linked these struggles to the children’s disappearance, the timing raises haunting questions.

The Puzzle That Doesn’t Fit

From the blanket in the trees to the mysterious scream Daniel claimed he heard in the woods, to the deleted messaging app, nothing about this case fits neatly together.

The RCMP insists the investigation remains “very active,” but critics argue it has been too quick to rule out foul play.

As one local resident put it: “Kids don’t just vanish into thin air. Somebody knows what happened.”

Unanswered Questions

Were Lilly and Jack really abducted — possibly by someone the family knew?

Why did Malayaia delete her messaging app so suddenly?

And could the witness sighting of two children with an older woman be the break investigators desperately need?

Until those answers come, the disappearance of Lilly and Jack will remain one of the most haunting and mysterious cases Nova Scotia has ever seen.

👉 What do you think really happened to Lilly and Jack?