"Tori" Stafford - Closure?

[StoneMtn]

I am so sickened by this...

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Two people appeared in court Wednesday charged in connection with the murder of 8-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford in Woodstock, Ont.

Court documents show that Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, has been charged with one count of murder and one count of abduction. Eighteen-year-old Terri-Lynne McClintic is also charged with abduction and accessory to murder.

It's alleged that Stafford was killed on April 8, the same day she went missing after she was seen on surveillance camera footage walking away from her school willingly with an unidentified woman.

McClintic's charge is in connection with knowing about the homicide and "enabled him (Rafferty) to escape," the documents said.

According to Global Toronto, Rafferty broke down sobbing in court early Wednesday and said: "I didn't do it."

The pair were arrested after midnight at a rundown house in Woodstock.

Police said a news conference will be held at 3 p.m. ET Wednesday in the city located about 50 kilometres west of Toronto.

Emergency crews were reportedly also searching an area outside of Guelph, Ont.

Tori's mother's best friend, Sarah Leeper, told the National Post that this was the "worst-case scenario" as she headed toward Tara McDonald's home.

When contacted at home early Wednesday by Canwest News Service, Tori's uncle, Rob Stafford, said the family had "no comment" about the arrests.

Barb Derbowka, Victoria's second cousin, said she is "at a loss for words over how people can be so cruel."

She was waiting for the extended family to gather at her house and then join the parents.

Police raided the house of a woman and her daughter just after midnight Wednesday.

Reporters and neighbours have gathered outside the home on Wilson Street. The house is under police guard.

A neighbour said a woman named Carol and her daughter, Terri-Lynne live in the home, which he said was in a rough area of town. The neighbour said the house regularly has broken up furniture on the patio.

Tori, as she is called by friends, has been missing for six weeks.

She was last seen on a surveillance camera willingly walking away with an unidentified woman after school on April 8. Police released a composite sketch of the woman. The sketch is of an unidentified white female, believed to be 19 to 25 years old, with long, straight, black hair past her shoulders, worn in a ponytail. She was wearing a white winter jacket and tight black jeans.

Rodney Stafford said at the time of the release that he "strongly believes" the woman is someone he knew in high school. Her mother, Tara McDonald, however, said she did not recognize the woman.

Oxford community police classified her disappearance as a missing-person case for 10 days until it was later determined she had been abducted.

McDonald has held daily news conferences outside her home since Tori's disappearance. The briefings have been, at times, emotionally charged, with Tori's parents fighting and McDonald admitting to a former drug addiction to the painkiller OxyContin.

McDonald dismissed claims her daughter's abduction was related to her addiction, saying suspicions that her daughter's disappearance is related to a drug debt are unfounded.

She told reporters she used OxyContin two to three times a week, but started going to a methadone clinic two years ago, because she wanted to gain control of her life.

She said Tori and her brother Daryn, 10, never knew she was taking drugs, and it never affected her ability to care for her kids.

Both the girl's parents were given lie-detector tests by police, and were never declared suspects.

On many occasions, McDonald told the media she believed Tori was taken because of her attractive physical appearance, and made repeated pleas to the captors to "just drop her off somewhere.'"

There are various online Facebook groups dedicated to finding the Grade 3 student, with one group having more than 120,000 members.

A reward of $50,000 was offered by the Oxford Community police for information leading to the arrest of Tori's abductors.

National Post with files from Lisa Hepfner, CHCH News, Global Toronto and Canwest News Service

© Copyright © Canwest News Service

Link

[edger]

So tragic. I can't even imagine coping with the pain, rage, and loss.

[Whitey]

Such sad news. I kept hoping that they would eventually find her alive. The sadness is hard to put into words.