There’s a search and rescue training exercise happening in Guysborough County on Saturday, May 16.
The Strait Area Ground Search and Rescue (SAGSAR) team and RCMP officers will be in the area around Green Barren Lake and Loon Lake from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
During that time, you may see search and rescue vehicles, responders, and drones operating.
SAGSAR is a volunteer organization that’s on call 24-7, year-round, to assist with searches, rescues, and other emergencies in Victoria and the Quad Counties.
They appreciate your understanding and support while they complete this essential training.
A man in distress was arrested after Digby and Annapolis RCMP responded to a report of a car that had gone over a cliff into water.
Around 7 p.m. on May 10, officers say the man had been alone and exited the vehicle before it crashed. He then fled to an empty cabin nearby.
When officers attempted to speak with him from outside, he did not respond.
Police say they were unsure whether the man was armed, prompting the deployment of Police Dog Services and drones to search the area.
After the man threatened to use explosives to destroy the cabin, officers were able to convince him to come out. It took approximately four hours before they were able to negotiate his safe exit. He was arrested without incident.
Once inside the cabin, officers say they located several knives. No further information is available at this time.
A Yarmouth man is facing attempted murder charges after shooting another man with a BB gun.
The Yarmouth RCMP says they got a call on Saturday around 5:30 in the afternoon about a shooting in the 7700 block of Highway 308.
They say two men who know each other allegedly got into a fight outside of a home. One shot the other and then got in an SUV and drove off.
The 22-year-old was hurt and taken to hospital, police say.
On the way to the scene, responding officers saw the vehicle on Highway 308 leaving the Quinan area and managed to pull the car over in Tusket.
Two women and one man were in the vehicle. They say they arrested two, but one woman was not part of the incident and they let her go.
A 25-year-old man from Digby faces several charges, including attempted murder, assault, and uttering threats. He remains in custody and will appear in court on June 9.
And a 25-year-old woman, also from Digby, faces multiple charges, too, including assault and weapons charges.
A search warrant has been executed by RCMP in relation to an ongoing investigation.
They say resident’s around the 11200 block of Highway 2 in Masstown and the 0-50 block of Charlotte Court in Debert should expect to see a large police presence on May 12.
Officers will remain on scene while the investigation continues.
A year after Jack and Lilly Sullivan disappeared from their Pictou County home, some statistics from the RCMP shed light on just how rare their case really is.
The four- and six-year-old reportedly walked away from their family’s home on May 2, 2025, and have not been seen since.
It is very rare for a missing person case to hit that one-year mark.
According to the RCMP, they received 2766 reports of missing people from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2026.
That is:
1133 in 2024
1389 in 2025
244 up to March 31, 2026
But not all of those have been solved. That includes three cases from 2024, 17 from 2025, and 7 from 2026. In total, out of the last two years, there are 27 reports still under investigation.
In total, there are 260 people reported missing in the province who have not been found.
The oldest case, according to RCMP, dates back to 1962. A 92-year-old man from Amherst went missing in the Lake Ainslie area in Inverness, where police believe he was hunting.
The police said they could not provide statistics on exactly how many reports they get of missing children 10 years old or younger, because that would require them to review all of the reports they have received in the last two years.
“I can advise, however, that the overwhelming majority of missing persons reports we receive are youth (over age 10) or adults,” wrote Cindy Bayers, a spokesperson for the RCMP, in an email to our newsroom.
These statistics come with one caveat: they do not include cases from local police departments. Nova Scotia has ten, and you can see a list here.
We are in the process of reaching out to those departments for similar statistics.
Police still searching for information
Many have speculated online about what could have happened to the children, and the RCMP addressed that directly on Thursday, speaking to reporters at their headquarters in Halifax.
They have maintained that there is no evidence to suggest anything criminal, but all potential options are open.
In a press conference on Thursday, Staff Sergeant Rob McCamon said at this point they need facts to prove the case may be criminal in nature.
“We make all of our decisions based on the evidence that we collect,” says McCamon. “Once we have that evidence, then we’ll move forward in those areas if that’s appropriate.”
They have reviewed a massive amount of evidence, and they are still investigating with no plans to let up, according to McCamon.
A helicopter flies over Lansdowne Station in Pictou County, N.S., as part of the search and rescue operation to find Lilly and Jack Sullivan, two children who went missing on May 2. (Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting)
On top of that, the RCMP say they have not received any reports of human trafficking involving a child younger than 12 in the last two years.
In general, they investigated 60 incidents of human trafficking in 2024 and 50 in 2025, according to Bayers. She added that those numbers only reflect cases outside of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Missing person vs. criminal case
Despite the technical label on the case, Major Crimes has been leading the investigation since early on.
Missing person cases often stick with the local detachment of police, but in many cases Major Crimes will take over the investigation, according to Chris Marshall, acting Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of Major Crime Operational Support.
“These investigations are assessed on a case-by-case basis and criteria for an investigation to be turned over to a Major Crime Unit include, but are not limited to, the belief that criminality may be involved in the disappearance, complexity of the investigation, and the requirement to apply new technologies or novel investigative techniques to support moving an investigation forward,” he wrote in a statement to our newsroom.
Major Crimes took over the investigation because of the case’s complexity and the size of the investigation, said Marshall.
“In summary, just because a Major Crime Unit is leading a missing person’s investigation, it does not mean that investigators have confirmed that criminality is a factor.”
