Nova Scotia RCMP dispute witness accounts in missing children case

Nova Scotia RCMP say they have found no evidence to back up witness accounts of a vehicle driving back and forth near the rural, northeastern home where two young children went missing in May.

Spokesperson Cindy Bayers says investigators conducted a thorough review of surveillance footage from the area in Lansdowne Station, N.S., where six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan were reported missing on May 2.

The RCMP recently released new information about the case, including accounts from witnesses who said they heard a vehicle going back and forth near the children’s family home a few hours before they were reported missing.

But Bayers says there is no evidence of vehicle activity in the early morning hours of May 2 and no driver has been identified.

Bayers says the witnesses reported hearing a vehicle but did not visually confirm it, and this account has not been substantiated as a key element of the police investigation.

A witness had told police that in the early hours of May 2 he heard a loud vehicle coming and going from the family’s home on Gairloch Road, and another witness had said he also heard a loud vehicle at that time and believed it belonged to the children’s stepfather.