Missing Nova Scotia woman and 3-year-old boy found dead in body of water: RCMP

SHEET HARBOUR, N.S. — A 36-year-old woman and a three-year-old boy who had been missing since the weekend were found dead on a shoreline in the Sheet Harbour area on Tuesday.

Searchers located the body of a woman from Ruth Falls, N.S., along a waterfront, about 150 metres away from where she was last seen, RCMP spokesman Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay said. Search teams then found the body of the young boy nearby.

“This is very tragic news … our thoughts are with the child and the woman’s family at this difficult time,” Tremblay said in an interview Tuesday. 

Police said in a statement early Tuesday that 36-year-old Holly Cooper and three-year-old Lucas Robert Cooper were last seen on foot at around 2 a.m. on Saturday on Ruth Falls Road, which is in the small community of the same name about 120 kilometres northeast of Halifax.

Ruth Falls Road is near an arm of East River Sheet Harbour and another smaller waterway. 

The woman and toddler were reported missing to police around 6 p.m. Monday, Tremblay said. He said the deaths are not believed to be suspicious, but the investigation is ongoing. Police would not confirm the relationship between the woman and the boy.

According to weather data from Environment Canada, it was lightly raining in the Sheet Harbour area around the time the pair were last seen outside early Saturday. That rain became heavy around 9 a.m., and more than 40 millimetres fell between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. that day.

Police air services, an underwater recovery team, police dog services, the Canadian Coast Guard and ground search and rescue teams from the surrounding area were involved in the search.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press