Grandmother of missing N.S. children says she’ll ‘never stop speaking out’

The grandmother of Lilly and Jack Sullivan speaks with CTV News Atlantic.

From her quiet home in Upper Musquodoboit, N.S., Belynda Gray remembers the hour-long drive north toward Lansdowne Station – the stretch of winding road she once took often, passing fields and forests.

In the last year, she drove past a weathered house along that route, unaware that’s where her grandchildren, six-year-old Lilly and four-year old Jack Sullivan, lived.

It wasn’t until she went to the home for the first time – the day she learned the siblings were missing – that it became a place she would never forget.

“When I finally got there and saw it for myself, I thought, how could the kids live here?”

Gray is the paternal grandmother of Lilly and Jack, who were reported missing from their Pictou County home on May 2. She says their father, Cody Sullivan, has chosen not to be involved in their lives for the last two years.

She describes Lilly and Jack with a mix of warmth and heartbreak, noting Jack is “going to be five this month.”

Gray remembers them as bright and curious – Lilly a “happy little girl, always laughing,” and Jack “more somber, quiet and thoughtful. Fascinated by these bottles.”

“The last time they were here, they were basically babies,” Gray recalled. “Lilly was four. Jack was starting to walk.”

Gray says her relationship with their mother, Maleyha Brooks-Murray, became distant over time before the children went missing, as Brooks-Murray moved to rural Pictou County and didn’t always have access to cell service.

A few weeks before the children disappeared, Gray says Brooks-Murray called her, cheerful and apologetic for being late with getting in touch.

“She said she thought she’d bring the kids by for a visit.”

The call, Gray says, was in March, but the visit never happened.

Gray says she joined the search effort in Lansdowne Station shortly after the children were reported missing, walking trails and creeks near the home.

“We followed the paths, the brook, the train tracks,” she said. “But after that second day, I knew something wasn’t right.”

According to Gray, Brooks-Murray told her the last time she saw the children was Thursday night.

After Brooks-Murray left Pictou County, Gray says her relationship with the children’s mother declined.

“She stopped contacting us,” Gray said. “I tried calling her. I texted. I even checked Facebook, but she had blocked me.”

Now, months later, Gray says she wants accountability and answers.

She is pursuing guardianship over her grandchildren’s records – a step she hopes will allow her to access files from child protection services and their school to understand what led up to the days before they went missing.

“I want to see what CPS had, the school had,” she said. “I want to know who’s to blame here.”

She also believes an Amber Alert should have been issued immediately.

“I do believe an alert should have been done right off the bat,” she said. “When you have vulnerable children missing, it should be automatic. Roads should’ve been shut down. Their faces should’ve been everywhere.”

The RCMP says its investigation remains active, but Gray says it feels like little progress has been made.

“Police don’t seem any closer than they were on the day they went missing,” she said.

Still, she checks her phone every morning, hoping for an update – or a miracle.

“Every morning when I get up, I check my phone to see if anybody’s posted anything, if they were found,” she said. “Then I turn on the TV and check YouTube and that’s all day, up until I go to bed.”

Nov. 2 will mark six months since Jack and Lilly disappeared, but Gray says she refuses to lose hope.

“I’ll never stop speaking out,” she said. “I owe them that.”

Gray says she plans to organize an independent search next month with a group of volunteers, determined to keep looking for Lilly and Jack.

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