Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

8 Year Old Victoria “Tori” Stafford Missing Since April 8, 2009 in Woodstock, Ontario Canada

http://missingexploited.com/2009/04/12/8-year-old-victoria-tori-stafford-missing-since-april-8-2009-in-woodstock-ontario-canada/

Our friends to the north have a sad missing persons case. An 8 year old girl, Victoria Stafford who goes by the name of Tori is missing.

8 year old Victoria Stafford has been missing since Wednesday, April 8, 2009 in Ontario, Canada. Victoria Stafford was last seen Wednesday afternoon leaving Oliver Stephens Public School, where she was a Grade 3 student.

She was last seen with a woman caught on video tape.

(http://missingexploited.com/picture_library/Victoria_20Stafford_small.jpg)

Tori’s Description:

four-feet, five inches (134 centimeters) tall
weighing 62 pounds (28 kilograms).
blue eyes
blonde hair cut just below her ears
She was last seen after she left Oliver Stephens public school about 3:30 p.m.
Reportedly wearing a green shirt, a denim skirt, black and white shoes, and a black Hannah Montana jacket with white fur-lined hood.
She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz purse
Facebook that has been set up to help find missing Victoria “Tori” Stafford. Family makes Facebook plea for missing 8 year old.

The 3rd grade student, known as Tori, was last seem on a surveillance video walking with an unidentified woman as she left school Wednesday afternoon in the city of 35,000 east of London.

much more at MissingExploited.com

Did this child know the woman who took her?
My God...when will this stop? WTF!

Unfortunately, it will never stop.  ::MonkeyNoNo::

WOODSTOCK, Ont. – Police have no new leads in the disappearance of Victoria Stafford and are now calling off the ground search.

"But that does not mean we are not investigating the case," Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police said today. "It is still No. 1 priority for us. Every new lead we get, we are looking into it. And everyone who knows Tori is being investigated."

Victoria, known as Tori to her friends, has been missing since Wednesday afternoon. She was last seen leaving Oliver Stephens School, where she is a Grade 3 student, a little after 3:30 p.m. There has since been an extensive air and ground search and a massive poster campaign to locate the little girl.

Maitland said the hunt was restricted to Woodstock area but "no area that rescue and search officers felt was required to be searched was left out." Some "articles" were found during the search but they do not fit with the description of what Tori was wearing when she disappeared, Maitland said. She said OPP's behavioural sciences unit is looking into the blurry surveillance video that shows Tori walking off hand-in-hand with an unidentified woman after she left the school.

Maitland said she had not seen a Facebook message from Tori's "uncle Rob" asking whoever has the girl to call him to talk about it.

"Realistically, I am still hopeful of finding her," said Maitland. "There is no evidence of foul play." She said the police haven't ruled out anyone as a potential suspect, including the family. Police have so far received more than 300 telephone tips, she said.

Johanna Barrett, a friend of Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, said the family just wants Tori back. "We can't say anything much to that. Yes, we are scared of the worst because there is no new info but still hopeful of finding her."

The community searches are still on, said Mike Campbell, another friend of the family. Searchers continue to scour Woodstock's streets, parks, ponds, wetlands and the surrounding area for the missing girl, he said.

They have also plastered the city with thousands of posters showing Tori's smiling face, and have distributed thousands of purple ribbons — her favourite colour — in an effort to spread word of her disappearance far and wide.

Last night, over 400 people turned up for a candlelight vigil held for the little girl at a Zellers parking lot in downtown Woodstock where McDonald made an emotional plea.

Yvonne Kirby, a neighbour whose daughter is a friend of Tori's, said the lack of any evidence was "terrifying. It is almost as if she disappeared into thin air. Just like that," she said standing outside her home on Frances St. earlier in the morning.

She has forbidden her daughter, Courtney, from going anywhere alone. "If she is even going across the street, I stand at the door till I know she's gone inside her friend's home. Until Tori is found or we know what happened to her, parents will not feel secure."

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/617583

 ::MonkeyNoNo:: I hope Tori is home safe and sound very soon.
Here is the facebook group.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78966007726

Police halt ground search for missing Ontario girl

April 14, 2009

Police in Woodstock, Ont., called off a massive ground search for missing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford yesterday, saying they believe the little girl is alive.

Constable Laurie-Anne Maitland, spokeswoman for the local police service, said the end of the ground search is an encouraging development.

"When we're doing a ground search, every time I hear there's no news, that's a good thing," she said.

"We haven't found anything to indicate or support foul play, and that's what keeps me hopeful."

Victoria has been missing since Wednesday, when she failed to return to her mother's home after school. She was seen on a school surveillance camera walking with an unidentified woman in a white parka at 3:32 p.m. that day, the last time police can trace her whereabouts.

At that point, she was nearly halfway home from her elementary school, but she never arrived.

Her mother reported her missing at 6:06 p.m. that evening, and since then photographs of the blonde third-grader have been plastered all over this town of 36,000, and everyone is puzzling over the identity of the woman in the white parka.

Constable Maitland said the feeling among officers investigating the case is that Victoria is alive, but they must remain open to all possible scenarios.

Victoria's disappearance has so far confounded investigators, who have refused to describe her case as an abduction. Constable Maitland said she is being treated as a missing person because the available evidence indicates she went willingly with the woman in the parka. That does not change the intensity of the investigation, the constable said.

More than 30 officers from the local Oxford police are on the case, and were still doing a door-to-door canvass yesterday.

Officers from London and Waterloo are also involved, as is a behavioural specialist from the Ontario Provincial Police who was brought in to create a criminal profile that could assist detectives.

More than 300 tips have poured in to police about the identity of the woman in the video, but police have not made any arrests and so far no one has been identified as a suspect.

The girl's parents, Rodney Stafford and Tara McDonald, are separated and have lived apart for almost six years, a family member said yesterday.

Ms. McDonald is the primary caregiver to Victoria and older brother Daryn, 10, who normally would have walked home from school with Victoria but on Wednesday helped a disabled child home in another direction.

Ms. McDonald has lived with her boyfriend, James Goris, 31, for the past three years, while Mr. Stafford has been able to visit his children regularly, the family member said.

Both sides of the family have been co-operating with police.

Mr. Stafford has spoken publicly several times. And although Ms. McDonald was initially reluctant to talk to the media, she has appeared on television in recent days, often supported by a reassuring touch from her boyfriend, to appeal for her daughter to come home. Neither side believes the other is behind the girl's disappearance.

They received some words of encouragement yesterday from the family of Cedrika Provencher, a Quebec girl who has been missing for nearly two years. Cedrika's father, Martin Provencher, told The Canadian Press his best advice is to never lose hope and to keep up the pressure on the investigation.

Police released an enhanced version of the school surveillance video yesterday in the hope that it might help unlock the mystery of the woman in the white parka. It is still difficult to make out much detail from the images, but someone may be able to recognize the gait of the woman in the video as she escorts Victoria away from her school.

The woman is described as white, between 19 and 25 years of age, 5 foot 1 to 5 foot 2 and 120 to 125 pounds. She has straight long black hair past her shoulders.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090414.MISSING14ART2205/TPStory/TPNational/?page=rss&id=GAM.20090414.MISSING14ART2205

Tori's parents take lie detector

DAVE CHIDLEY/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Brandon, 12, and Emma Millen, 6, work on a sidewalk chalk message for their missing cousin Victoria Stafford April 14, 2009 in Woodstock.

 
The white coated woman a mystery
U.S. group questions reporting delay
Video: Tori with unidentified woman
Video: Father in anguish
Search for Tori
Police mum on results of polygraphs in case of missing 8-year-old
Apr 15, 2009 04:30 AM
Raveena Aulakh
STAFF REPORTER

WOODSTOCK, ONT. – Victoria Stafford's estranged parents have taken lie detector tests and their previous relationships are under intense scrutiny even as a small army of friends, family and strangers continues to search for their missing 8-year-old daughter.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/618600

Police not yet able to identify woman seen with missing Ontario girl
3-15-09

One week later, police in the southwestern Ontario city of Woodstock say they are still chasing leads and have no new information to share about the disappearance of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford.

On Monday, police released an enhanced video clip that investigators hoped would help identify a woman who led the missing girl away from her school on April 8.

But seven days later, police say they have not identified the woman in the grainy videotape.

"We are still looking for the identification positively of the female person in the surveillance video," said Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police.

"We still have officers canvassing in the area. They continue to do that. They continue to search properties, search business compounds … in the hopes of collecting some type of evidence that will hopefully lead us to finding Tori," she said.

"I have no extra information in the last few days to share," said Maitland.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/04/15/woodstock-missing.html?ref=rss

Boyfriend of mother of missing Ontario girl facing drug charges
The Canadian Press
April 15, 2009 at 12:09 PM EDT

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The boyfriend of Tara McDonald, the mother of missing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford, is facing charges of drug possession.
James Goris, 31, along with two co-accused made their third appearance in court on charges of possession under $5,000 on Tuesday.
The trio is scheduled to return to court Monday following resolution discussions with the Crown attorneys' office.
Victoria, known as Tori to family and friends, disappeared without a trace in Woodstock, Ont., last Wednesday after school.

The only tangible lead police have talked about is a surveillance video from around the time Tori went missing showing her walking with a woman with long brown hair and a puffy white coat.
Tori lives with her mother, Mr. Goris, and her 10-year-old brother in a house close to her school.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090415.wmissinggirl0415/BNStory/National/home

Video shows woman..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090410.wvstafford0410/VideoStory/National/?pid=RTGAM.20090412.wMissing13

A professional.

Well... Somebody has seen the woman up close.

Walks into a school and strikes up a conversation with an 8 year old
and then convinced Tori that she needs to go with her..
You mom sent me to pick up .. Lets hurry

A professional con... OR Somebody that Tori has met before.

This is going on all over the world.. They are selling these children..
jmho

America's Most Wanted takes up case of missing Ont. girl

The search for an eight-year-old southwestern Ontario girl who has been missing for eight days has widened after the U.S. show America's Most Wanted posted her picture on its website.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/04/16/missing-girl-stafford016.html

Denial girl's disappearance is linked to drug debt

By NORMAN DE BONO, SUN MEDIA

Last Updated: 16th April 2009, 8:48am

The mother of a missing Woodstock girl and her boyfriend are angrily denying rumours that Victoria "Tori" Stafford's disappearance is linked to an upaid drug debt involving the couple.

Read the full story
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/04/15/9125731.html

The police chief in Woodstock, Ont., will become the first senior police official to publicly comment on the disappearance of schoolgirl Victoria Stafford when he speaks at a news conference Friday.

Ron Fraser is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. ET.

The Toronto Sun reported in its Friday edition that Fraser will announce the Ontario Provincial Police is taking over the investigation.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/04/17/missing-girl-police017.html?ref=rss

I hope that this little child will be ok..
I agree  with one of the women on the video...no parent should have to go through this...and I might add, no child should have to go through this!
hoping and praying for Tori..

Live Press Conference starting in a minute.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/17/9145081.html

Press Conference: Victoria now declared abducted.  Should have been declared abducted from the beginning.  Blah, blah blah blah blah.  Blah blah blah blah.  Blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

OK, so that is MY interpretation.

what a nightmare for Tori and her family...

Tori Stafford case now an abduction

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/04/17/9146811.html

Psychics view on the situation.. Video..

http://video.lfpress.ca/video/_/_/5828787001/_/19947722001


Mom Talks ..

http://video.lfpress.ca/video/_/_/5828787001/_/19778110001

Here is one of the way police reconstruct the facial image from even a grainy video ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nice6NYb_WA

Are they seeking an award for The most unreported case of an abducted child ?

This is absurd.. she could be anywhere in the world by now. Sold like a slave.

My local channel, City T. V. will be airing a press conference at 1:00 p.m.
Apparently Victoria's Mother will speak.

Mother thanked the community for their support.  Also thanked an unknown. person who left a tree on the front lawn decorated with a ladder, stuffed animals, butterflies and a pic. of Tori. The little boy went out to the front lawn to play, noticed it and told Mom. 
She made a plea for the one/s that have her daughter to please bring her home.
They announced a ride taking place on May 2nd, called Tori's ride home - for charity - already have 400 bikers. An account will be set up to assist the family.
There is already an account set up - some of it in trust for the children.  Spokesperson said it is all legal.
There will also be a barbeque on May 2nd.
Mother asked how she felt about Tori not being home by May 2nd, since May 2nd seemed far away .  Mother said she hoped Tori would be home by then and take part in the celebration ( barbeque).
Mother was asked if she was interviewed by the police on Friday and she said no.
Asked what she thought happened and said she assumed she was with the person who took her from the school, or with someone/s that person may have taken her to.
Asked how she thought Tori would be and she said she would be giving them a hard time, she is a Mommy's girl and she would definitely be making noise, being a little hellion.
The appeal for funds was to help the fam. keep their home phone going, in case Tori calls home. 
That's about all I remember.



 

OMG !!

This is an emergency and all of Canada should be on High Alert.
Instead they are planning barbecues and the police have other things to besides finding this child.
This is a nightmare.. Mom is ignorant. Her child is being abused. Not just by the crimminals but by the system.
jmho

Hi Edward,
I agree this is a terrible situation.
The press conference I mentioned was not called by the police, but by the Mother.  As far as I know the police have nothing to do with the barbeque and motorcycle drive for Tori.

I haven't seen or read a single thing mentioning if the woman in the video picked Tori up from the school or as Tori was walking on her way home.  At what point did this woman first encounter Tori.
Was she seen at the school by other parents picking up their children.  Did any teachers or other children see Tori with this mystery woman? 
Did the police do interviews in a timely manner with parents, yeachers and students?  I think not. MO.

Other adults had seen this woman in passing and police have just hours to extract that info from witnesses who did see her. Past that time people will have memory loss and you will get all kinds of descriptions of her looks..

This little girl is in BIG trouble..
I know Canada is different then the United States.. But this stinks. 

Mother pleads with Tori's abductor to let child go
Police appeal for more help from public
Last Updated: Monday, April 20, 2009 | 1:36 PM ET
The mother of Victoria Stafford made another emotional plea on Monday afternoon to whoever has abducted her daughter: let the girl go free.

"If you have my child, please just bring her home," said Tara McDonald. "You cannot imagine how we are feeling and we are missing her so much that it hurts. Look into your soul and find the compassion to please just let her go and let her come home."

A weekend of intensified searching failed to turn up any new leads concerning the abduction of eight-year-old Tori, as she is called by her friends and family. She disappeared April 8 while walking home from school in Woodstock, Ont.

On Sunday police searched Pittock Lake in the north end of the city.

Provincial police divers and a boat using sonar equipment scoured the lake.

In addition to the search of waterways, 35 police officers did another sweep of swamp land and bush just a few kilometres from Tori's public school.

Police have now received more than 1,000 tips from the public.

But Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said they want more help, especially tips that could identify the woman that Tori is seen walking with in a surveillance video.

"We're confident somebody has information and we're hoping that despite how small it may seem to them — or how insignificant — that they're going to come forward and share it, even if they think we already have it," said Maitland.

Police said the search for Tori Stafford will continue to focus on the city of Woodstock, where most of the evidence is pointing.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/04/20/victoria-stafford.html?ref=rss

Unless the LE are keeping things quiet about what they know, I would hope
they have put this alert right across the country. Woodstock is right on the
401 highway which leads to everywhere. So why are they keeping the investigation just to the Woodstock area. I have to google Woodstock or London
to hear anything about this. Nothing on Toronto news this AM at all.
The aunt is asking for the donations to keep the family going and to pay for
their phone incase Tori tries to phone and then she adds "It is legal"????
I can't knock the Bikers coming to help, they use to do a run every year to the
Sick Kids hospital in Toronto with hundreds of gifts for the kids which was great
But Tori is probably long gone from Woodstock. My hinky meter is on high alert
right now. None of this makes sense. Am I the only one?????

I'd have to watch the interview again, but from what I recall the "It's legal" part was referring to the bank accounts?  The Aunt says there is an accountant taking care of it.  People want to make sure their donations are going where intended.

I'm in N. Ontario and there hasn't been any mention of Victoria on our local news sites.  ::MonkeyNoNo::  I sent some emails out to them this morning.

I guess it was on one of the local sites.  I emailed two others.  One posted it a few minutes ago.

Enhanced video showing woman kidnapper of Tori Victoria Stafford.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6FyN3Ct1Kg


Who are the OTHER people in the video and has LE found them and asked them  ?
LE needs a better description..

Tori is on the other side of the world by now.. How inept can LE be ?

They appear to take it all so casual.. When they should have been frantic in the first hour with all alerts up and running.

Like they say ..Be A Lert .. The world needs more Lerts.
Very depressing to see this kind of thing happen time and time again..

Same thing with Amber Dubois and so many others.
 

I saw on CP24 reports of the search in a landfill.

I googled Woodstock Sentinel for local news.  They have a short video of landfill and a lake they are searching with side scan sonar.

It doesn't sound very good for this little girl.

had one short article in our newspaper when it first happened...not a single word since...
I found out about it on another forum from one of the posters who lives in Canada...
this is so sad that this child is not getting more news...

They should be looking at airport surveillance and train station and bus station surveillance as well as gas station video.
There will be an attempt to move her out of the country  and they should understand she will be moved on a Private plane and probably not a public airline.
What do you think of that psychic ?

I think the poor child is up for sale.. It is Madeline McCain all over again..

This is a world wide organization doing this.. This is a kidnapping and this little child was tricked..
This woman is a professional Con Artist.

This is really sick. It makes my blood boil. :smt093
jmho

Sketch released in Victoria Stafford case

http://southwesternontario.ctv.ca/news.php?id=4446

(http://files.newswire.ca/156/composite.jpg)

Thank you Sieko.

Tori's dad thinks he might know woman in sketch

http://www.canada.com/News/Tori+have+identified+sketch+suspect/1520226/story.html

This is the reply I received from the second news site here in town, after sending two emails asking them to post Tori's flyer.

"We have been in regular contact with the OPP regarding this case, and will post information about it as soon as there is any indication that the investigation is turning to Northern Ontario."

Tori's relative say composite sketch looks familiar - girl's mother to speak live at 1 p.m.
Tue, April 21, 2009

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/2009/04/21/9196746.html

Thanks Sieko.

You're welcome.  ::MonkeyWink::

Just starting to set up for the press conference with Tara McDonald.  Scroll down a bit for live feed.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/2009/04/21/9196746.html

Thanks again Sieko.  I got an error message when I clicked on live feed.
I'll try again and also check the t.v. to see if it will be carried.

You shouldn't need to click on anything.  Scroll down the page a bit and it should automatically start.  It takes a few seconds.

Sieko, Guess I wasn't patient enough. 

I saw the press conf. on local t.v. 
Seems the Mother does not recognise the individual in the video.
Woodstock's population is 39,000 . . . if the composite is a good likeness of perp, hopefully there will be some that will recognise her and come forward.

Mother doesn't recognize the woman in the sketch, but the Father and the Aunt think they do.

"  Apr 22, 2009 01:18 PM
Raveena Aulakh
Staff Reporter

WOODSTOCK – Victoria Stafford's aunt said today that she has "strong beliefs" about the identity of the person in a composite sketch who police say is a prime suspect in the abduction of the 8-year-old everybody knows as Tori."
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/622365

Also from the above link:

""We all have our own theories, but obviously we don't want to say what we believe because if the theory is wrong it is quite insulting to the individual," said the aunt, Rebecca Stafford, who spoke to the media outside her house.

She said she wasn't completely taken aback by the sketch, "but at the same time, I didn't know the individual well enough."

She said the family had shared their suspicions with the police and had renewed hope Tori would return home soon with the release of the sketch.

But there's more anger, too, she said.

"There's that anger that is building and now that I have an idea who I can direct that anger to, it is something I have never felt before.""


Am I the only one here who's suspicion is turning towards the mother?

Sieko I'm not sure I know enough yet to direct suspicion to the Mother.  But, unsure of Mother's associates.

Why do you have suspicion toward the Mother? 

To me, that composite sketch almost looks to be a portrait of the mother.  The height of the woman doesn't seem to add up though.  Tara looks much taller than 5'1".  There is something about her demeanor also.  I don't know, just thinkin'  ::MonkeyTongue::

Thanks...and fair enough. Gut feelings shouldn't be ignored.  If the Mother picked Victoria up from school, it will come out.
I thought the shape of the eyes and nose of the composite sketch looked similar to Tori's...but didn't think about the Mother.

One thing re the conf. today I noticed is that the Mother said she had to be strong for her son.  She said that yesterday also. 
I waited to hear her say, she had to be strong for Tori.

WOODSTOCK – Victoria Stafford's aunt said today that she has "strong beliefs" about the identity of the person in a composite sketch who police say is a prime suspect in the abduction of the 8-year-old everybody knows as Tori."
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/622365


I sure hope she verbalized this to investigators..  ::MonkeyRoll::

Why is it everyone in this case seems kinda kicked back and not to worried about Tori ?

Even the mom saying she has to be strong for her son ?  Is her son missing ?

Who is worried about Tori ?

The Aunt should be screaming the name and half the army should be looking for this person NOW !

Anyways.. That is just the way I feel..

Maybe the name was asked to not be released by LE.  If they think they know who this person is, I'm sure LE is already looking for her.  If they can't find her, then the name should be released.

Thank You Sieko for bringing the currant info forward.. Hope they find her alive and well soon.

Gallery: Victoria (Tori) Stafford
Missing 8-year-old Woodstock girl

http://www.lfpress.ca/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?x=galleries&s=gallery&p=2975&pg=37

Thanks for the pics Blonde.

wouldn't it seem that Tori and this woman must have known each other for Tori to leave with her and for the woman to be there at the school to get her? that is ballsy isn't it?
that is a pretty good sketch..someone should be able to recognize her from that sketch...did they get that sketch from the video tape?

These are from the facebook group.

(http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97542616354_603011354_2965574_6926585_n.jpg) (http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97534001354_603011354_2965529_7800875_n.jpg) (http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97533986354_603011354_2965526_1282961_n.jpg) (http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97533991354_603011354_2965527_2185750_n.jpg) (http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97533996354_603011354_2965528_2590113_n.jpg)

Put her in dirty blonde and red hair too.
mo.

(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b104/Blondeonahd/In%20the%20News/tori.jpg)

She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz purse

No you aren't. There's been quite a bit of mud slinging on the facebook group.
I also belong to another site and suspicion has been lurking for at least the past week.
Eyebrows started to rise with all the fundraising.

I saw this video and couldn't help but think the woman sitting beside the mom looks like the sketch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inoeIcrvqdY

Also the height of the POI is incorrect! She is not 5'1", she's closer to 5' 8" or 5' 9".
I'll try and find the reference to it.

I don't have my sound on but I think this is the video explaining the height.
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/missing-ont-girl/#clip164256

First of all Welcome to Scared Monkeys, Victorian!!!!  We are glad to have you here. 

Second, OMG! That woman looks exactly like the person sitting next to the mom.  Do we have a name on her?  I'm going to ask Klaasend to do a screenshot & side-by-side with the sketch. 

Klaasend, or any other photo talented monkey:

Can you get a screen shot of the lady on the couch next to the mom in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inoeIcrvqdY about 1:58 in and do a side by side to the composite sketch?  TIA, Lovinlife

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/klaasen3/Sub6_022109/Stafford1.jpg)

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/klaasen3/Sub6_022109/Stafford2.jpg)

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/klaasen3/Sub6_022109/Stafford3.jpg)

BUMP~THANK YOU KLAASEND!!!!! YOU ARE TERRIFIC!!! ::MonkeyWink::

 ::MonkeyEek:: ::MonkeyEek:: ::MonkeyEek::

So is this the woman in the sketch? It sure looks like the same person.  I popped in to find out what is the latest with this case.

That is what I want to know Tracygirl, what is your take on it?  Lovinlife

I dont know who she is, who is she? If I was to see the sketch and then see her I would think it was the same person.

Who gave the information so they could do the sketch? Was it a witness? I saw the video, there are 2 people standing there, they don't recall anything?

The nostrils on the nose and the down turned mouth and jaw line, all 3 of these features are prominent on the woman in the pic and the woman in the sketch....

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/klaasen3/Sub6_022109/compositcompare.jpg)

That is a total match!

Tori Stafford's mother says media scrutiny wearing her down
WOODSTOCK, Ont. - The brother of Victoria Stafford marked his 11th birthday Friday still wondering about the fate of his eight-year-old sister, who has been missing for more than two weeks.

The children's mother, Tara McDonald, said at a news conference outside her home that her son Daryn received a metal detector as a gift, and he also enjoyed the day off school because it was a PA day.

McDonald also admitted she is growing exasperated by all the media scrutiny over a trust account set up to help her children amid accusations that she is attempting to profit from the abduction of her daughter.

"I'm so tired of all the negativity," she said. "It is wearing me down. A person can have only so much strength, and I've been strong through all of this, but I'm wearing down."

"I don't want that money. I don't need that money. There's people walking around with cans with Victoria's name on it - I haven't set that up."

People have approached the family and offered them money, she added.

"We've said there's been a trust account set up, take it there. We don't want it coming to us," McDonald said.

"I don't care about the donations. I enjoy going to the vigils and all the events that are set up by the community because it keeps me strong, not because I want money out of the deal."

Victoria, known as Tori to family and friends, went missing April 8 after school.

A surveillance video captured the girl walking with a woman with long brown hair and a puffy white coat the day she went missing. Police this week released a composite sketch portraying a woman with long dark hair tightly pulled back in a ponytail who is believed to be the woman in the video.

No one has been able to identify the woman pictured in the sketch, though McDonald has said her ex-husband Rodney Stafford believes it could be one of his former high school classmates.

Another vigil for the missing girl is to be held Saturday afternoon in London, Ont., and her case is to be featured that night on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."
http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/43631132.html

Seems professional to me ..This person dressed like mom and looks like mom..

BUT

It aint mom or her sister. This is a professional abduction.
This woman even has on a jacket that looks like one that mom owns..
Mom is correct they have been watched and targeted. This was a planned event.

jmho

I concure Nut.  I went to the link detailing the release of the sketch but the link is broken.  I cannot find details on who gave the info for the sketch.  I am assuming that it was the witnesses at the school who saw Tori and this woman walk by.  What does the Aunt have to say about who this woman reminds her of and who is the woman in the video sitting next to the mom?  Family "friend"?  Relative?  This smells like Lake Erie on a 90 degree day. God keep Tori safe until help can arrive. JMO, Lovinlife

Interesting suggestion Edward, I also found it strange that the woman had a coat exactly like the one mom owned.  I don't understand how all of this happened, why she walked away with this woman.  Did she normally walk home from school by herself? Or did she ride the bus?  Too many questions.  I hope the police have more information and leads than they are releasing.

Both mom and the girl sitting next to her "who I assume is her sister" look just like the sketch..

I do not see it in there faces.. It does not appear to be them ..


Look, half of the women on this forum knew on first sight of grandma lawless, that something was not right and that grandma knew something. She had it written all over her face and it takes a woman to see a woman..

So let me ask the women of this forum.. What do you see in these women ?

I am just a man.. So they look like angels missing a child to me.

That looks like the exact same person to me. Same eyebrows, cheekbones, lip lining, eyes.

I have not studied this case...
So just on a "cold comparison"...
I would say this is a  person that matches the drawing.

            Loner

Thanks Loner, sometimes those are the best...no emotion to sway your decision.  Thanks for answering.  Lovinlife

Yes!!! As I said before they are a match. Who is this person? A friend or relative?

Looks like the same person to me.
....
What was this about the abductor having the same kind of coat as the Mumma.
What about the same coat, borrowed ?
Mumma describes the girl as fiesty and would be giving a hard time, yet walking hand in hand, no fiesty in the video ?
OK. I have an almost eleven year old gd. She is picked up from school. Whereabouts known at all times by the Mama. How soon was this very weak alarm sounded ?
It's hockey season in Canada. Not alot in the news, eh ? 

Very, very good questions!   I can't find chit Kat-Gram, are you Canadian?

Yes, I am a Canuck. But not close to Woodstock.
Our news just sucks. The world could blow up and they would still be broadcasting a hockey game on our CBC.
Oh, it's been in the papers, but you have to look for the stuff you want to follow.
There was quite a passage of time before it was declared an abduction and before the news hit the rest of Canada.
The live in boyfriend having the drug charges makes me suspicious of the family's connections to this in some way. 

LOL it looks familiar because she was sitting there on the couch next to the mom! Who is that woman in the video next to the mom? Does anyone know?

I just watched the video on the first page, I think it was the day after she was missing. The boyfriend and the mom where on the couch, he has that same mouth, is the girl in this last video related to him?

I didn't get a good feeling when I saw him, is he being looked at?

I had to log back in to reply to you Tracygirl.  That to me, my monkey friend, is the question of the day.  The person who says she looks familiar is an Aunt on the father's side and IIRC the father also said she looked familiar.  The parents are divorced. The mom says she doesn't look familiar to her at all.  I find that difficult to believe.  I don't want to anger Edward and make him feel like I think he's wrong, I'm really trying to see if anyone else sees the similarities between the woman on the couch (who I don't know who it is, friend or relative maybe).  Anyway, the news from Canada on this is not like here in the US.  I have a hard time finding any information and when they have live feeds for press confrences they don't leave the video up very long so you can watch it again.  I'm on east coast time so I'm calling it a night.  Thank you for showing some interest in this case.  God bless Tori!  Lovinlife

I saw your request in the Haleigh thread for opinions on the images Klaas put side by side.

I think they are the same person.

I do not mind being wrong and you will never upset me if I am..
I appreciate everyone having a word in what they think of this sketch comparison.

In Life It is common that crimes against you are committed by people you know or have met.

If True, This one takes the old saying of "keep your friends close and your enemies closer "
to a whole new level. ::MonkeyWink::

I'm not familiar with this case either, but that definitely looks like the same person.  Same bone structure, same thin lips, etc.

I too saw your request in another forum.... I think they match. The nose, cheekbones, eyes. The only thing skightly dif is the hairline right in the middle, but sketches are not 100%. I would question this person for sure!

also, where the hair is parted is the same as well..with mine, I have thin,fine hair and if I try to part in a different spot then normal,it just goes to where it is normally parted, make sense?? in other words, it automatically parts in the normal spot... That IS the same person as in the sketch.. WTH , she was in a video sitting next to mom?? what was the video about?? don't tell me this is a dear friend as well as family spokesperson.....

I have not seen anything on this case, I just popped in at the urging of lovinlife so I dont know how much help my opinion will be however in my opinion the person in the sketch looks exactly like the person in the pictures to me. Now I need to go read the thread to find out what is going on.

I just popped in to take a look as well.  I believe they are a match not only in physical characteristics but the expression on the face is an uncanny match as well!  IMO

Just a fly-by....looks like a real match....now going to read about this case.

Thank you for letting us know....Mere

I think the composite is very similar to the "girl on the couch"

Running errands this afternoon and there was a radio talk show discussing Victoria Staffords case.  Unfortunately I was unable to listen as I was in and out of the car. 
I heard two callers.  One suggested the Mother appoint someone, or hire someone, who has no connection to the family to be her spokesperson.
The other was sympathetic to the Mother but thought she was becoming too worn down to make these daily pressers.

IIRC Victoria Stafford's case will be on AMW tonight.

Hello Monkeys,

New on here but couldn't resist signing up for this forum.  I live about an hour away from Woodstock where Victoria went missing.

Apparently she usually walks home with her brother.  Her brother walked home a different friend that day instead. 

It's hard to find up to date information from the police.

Hi canadianmonkey and welcome.
Yes, it is hard to find news.  The vigils are mentioned but little else.  I can't understand why they don't keep showing Tori's picture and the composite.
Do you have a theory? tia

Hi Can...

Tori's picture is shown everytime they have a news story, even if it's only about the vigil being held and the details about when she was last seen.  The police seem to be only concentrating on Woodstock at the moment.  Canadian police have a habit of keeping their cards close to their chests until they show ALL their cards.  Hopefully this is the case with Victoria.  I'm wondering why they didn't bring in sniffer dogs when they know exactly where she was walking and could have followed her "off camera."

Thanks for your reply.
Others have wondered same about tracking dogs.  It's a pity they didn't, and a lost opportunity, imo.
I agree with you about our police.  I'm from Ontario.

 ::MonkeyDance:: ::MonkeyDance:: ::MonkeyDance:: Welcome Canadianmonkey!!!!  ::MonkeyDance:: ::MonkeyDance:: ::MonkeyDance::

We're glad you joined the group! 

Link to Tori's info on AMW: http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=64826 nothing more than we already know...says they have received almost 500 tips.

at least some tips are still coming in...poor baby..hope that she is being treated well...she probably just wants to go home...sad...

Mystery Person Offers Cash For Safe Return Of Victoria Stafford

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34077.aspx

Thanks Sieko.
Wow, that's bizarre!

Isn't it?  ::MonkeyConfused::

Yesterdays news.  Been busy here.

Missing girl's mom hedges about polygraph
'I ended up breaking and I ended up leaving,' she says, adding that she would redo the test if asked

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090428.BLATCH28GTAART2245/TPStory/TPComment/Ontario/

Thanks Sieko...very interesting.  Glad Christie is covering this. 

What's that I smell?

Is it a movie deal?  ::MonkeyConfused::

This whole case stinks, IMO.  I hope the OPP is all over these people.  God bless Tori and keep her safe.

This is just the strangest thing ever.  Everday, this case gets more bizarre.  I have a bad feeling about how this is going to turn out.

can't figure out why the mom would walk out of a lie detector going on...
I know that you would be stressed and worried and all that...but if you felt like you did bad on the test, , wouldn't you stay there and re take it just so you would be out of the way to go concentrate on the guilty party? like Mark K. and Mark Lunsford and others did? right away, boom..that is done...now go find who has Tori....jmo...

She said she had been up for and her daughter had been missing for 3 days..

I can understand that..

She needed to get some sleep and come back and finish it.
Polygraphs can't be used in Canadian courts.
At Least that is what is written in the article.
jmho

I hope the Canadian police are HOT on the trail of a suspect unknown to all of us..

Look at this old article..

(http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/newspaper/20090428/sectionA-490.jpg)

It gives me good feelings about the police in Canada.
With Gods Speed Find Her.

ditto

Edward, it appears that the Mother has not gone back to take the test.  I wonder why?

The article you show is great news for that baby. 

Edward...I saw that article on here earlier when viewing the story of Tori...I went to the article and found it fascinating...<<<sound like JVM now right?..anyways, it is wonderful to hear some good news...hope that the father gets what is coming to him for leaving that little baby out there like he did...heartless a$$...

It is that look on his face..Like that is his own child
That boy is wrapped in a heat blanket and that man is like a locomotive headed for a destination of help.  ::MonkeyWink::

The police are not saying much.. I hope they are on it for Tori.

Tara McDonald's Limo ride - Audio interview

http://www.imeem.com/keminicationsmedia/music/28ocBPdx/keminications-media-ap-feed-tara-mcdonalds-limo-ridemp3/

 ::MonkeyEek:: $$$ Money never found a child or anyone ever.

Adding this into this case is sooooooooooooooooo strange and now will make the police look very close at her..
Taking a ride with a strange limo driver..alone.. What kind of behavior is that ?  ::MonkeyNoNo::

Mom spins 'crazy' tale of ransom, limo ride
Wed, April 29, 2009

" But a former Toronto abduction investigator said it's unlikely any ransom deal would be set up the way McDonald and her mysterious benefactor described it -- with money provided after Tori is returned safe and sound.

"It's ridiculous," said Dave Perry, a former Toronto police officer with 27 years experience"

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/29/9284576-sun.html

Expert skeptical about ransom deal

http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1545228

Police offer $50,000 reward

http://www.oxfordreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1544063

Sieko - thanks for the links posted today - read them all.

Read Christie Blatchford's article in Globe and Mail today regarding the curious trip Tori's Mother made to meet the (mystery) person @ Sheraton Hotel.  This person showed the Mother a lock of hair, the same colour as Tori's, saying it was from their own dead abducted child.

Too weird!!!!! imo

Sorry I don't know how to link article.   

WHAATTT???? this is really getting weird....wtf moment for me! how bout you?

Yep,  as I've said before, bizarre, weird. 
Meanwhile, where is little Tori?  Wish the police would give some encouragement that they are making some progress.

I have a feeling that they must have someone in mind.  MOO

Here's another article...they are confirming that the offer of a reward is real

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090429/Stafford_missing_090429/20090429/?hub=TorontoNewHome

Thanks for the welcome.  ::MonkeyCool::
Sorry i haven't been back sooner, but to answer your question...her name is Sara and she's Tara's best friend.
I see from catching up on this thread everyone is... ::MonkeyEek:: ::MonkeyEek:: ::MonkeyEek::

The moms best friend? have the police questioned her? maybe gave her a lie detector? This story is very strange.

Edward I agree with you, it is strange for her to go with some limo driver she doesn't know. There is something more to this story

Weird isn't it? I would be too afraid to go alone, if this mother did...after all, my daughter is missing, I don't know who took her, maybe they would take me too? but then, if I am desperate to get my child back, I might do anything....but I think that I would take someone with me or at least be wired by the police so they could be listening and find us if things went south...

I believe in one of the interviews she said she went with her boyfriend and best friend.  So she didn't go alone.  Although I do think it's strange to be going off in a limo to a hotel, not far from an airport when your daughter has gone missing.

Yes and her brother (step?)
But she went up to the hotel room alone. For approx 2 hours.
Live right now. Daily 1pm presser by Tara:
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/30/9298216-sun.html

 ::MonkeyWink:: Thanks Victorian!

Earlier yesterday, McDonald said police confirmed to her the story was "legitimate."

"I know those were Tara's words," Maitland said. "Our words are that it does not cause us concern."
The officer also addressed suggestions the offer was part of a police sting operation, using the mysterious and wealthy stranger to elicit information from McDonald and her family.
"Are you asking me if the people in the limo were police? Certainly not to my knowledge," Maitland said.   :smt083 :smt102 :smt077

But Maitland has acknowledged she has been kept at arms length from many aspects of the investigation, being co-ordinated by OPP.

The mysterious limo ride and a just announced $50,000 police reward dominated the two news conferences, one from McDonald and one from police, that are becoming tradition as the hunt for Tori reached its third week.

Tori was last seen after school April 8 on a video camera from a nearby high school, walking away with a woman in black jeans and a white coat. A composite sketch of that same woman, based on a witness account, was released by police last week.

Late Tuesday night, police announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tori's abductor.

The timing of the reward had nothing to do with the story about a potential benefactor and ransom, Maitland said yesterday.

Nor was it a sign police are getting desperate, she said.

McDonald said yesterday she did not think the mysterious offer was part of any police sting.

"No, no, I don't think they would go to such trouble."

McDonald provided more details about the offer, made by a person in a hotel room near Pearson International Airport she met after taking a limo ride to Toronto last Thursday.

The person, who refused to provide McDonald with even a name, supplied two telephone numbers.

If someone would like to return Tori, they can get those numbers from McDonald, she said. The answering machine message on the other end of the numbers says the caller can provide an account number, and a ransom request, and the money will be deposited once Tori is returned, McDonald said.

McDonald said she and her family have wracked their brains trying to determine a motive for the abduction.

"I don't really know what the reasoning would be, but they didn't think it would be so huge so quickly and maybe they just let it get out of hand," she said.

CHRONOLOGY OF A MISSING GIRL

April 8

Tori Stafford attends Oliver Stephens public school on Fyfe Avenue in Woodstock. School officials say she left when school let out at 3:25 p.m. -- not 3:40 p.m. as police have reported. Seven minutes later, in front of an adjacent secondary school, a security camera videotaped her walking north on Fyfe Avenue with a woman whose identity has become a focal point of the police investigation. Shortly after 6 p.m., Tori's mother and partner contact police and report her missing. Police begin their search.

April 9

Police issue a media release about Tori's disappearance, writing that while they haven't ruled out foul play, they had no reason to suspect it. Police announce and distribute the video of a young girl walking with the woman. Citizens in Woodstock take to the streets and fields to try to find Tori.That evening, police say they have confirmed it was Tori on the video. The Free Press later learns this was done with the help of at least two witnesses.

April 10

Police ask volunteers to confine their search to their own properties, saying evidence may be otherwise trampled and police resources drained. Media question why police haven't issued an Amber Alert . Police say it's because they have no evidence of an abduction.

April 11

Police sort through 200 tips, but still don't know what happened to Tori. Police dispel rumour Tori's clothes have been found. Tori's birth father, Rodney Stafford, issues a public plea for her return. Tori's family gives out purple ribbons to thank the community for their efforts.

April 13

Police call off the ground search for the girl, saying efforts by police and volunteers failed to turn up any clues and that "every indication we have tells us that Tori willingly walked away with the unidentified female (seen on the high school security video), so we are investigating a missing person's case." Police release an enhanced version of the security video, hoping the sharper image will help identify the woman.

April 14

More than 30 investigators are working on the case. Police don't release any new information as nervous parents drop off their children for the first full day of class at Oliver Stephens public school since the eight-year-old vanished.

April 15

Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, holds an impromptu news conference to dispel rumours a $20,000 drug debt led to the little girl's disappearance. She urged people to keep the focus on finding her daughter.

April 17

Police reclassify Tori's disappearance as an abduction, as OPP Det. Insp. Bill Renton takes over as case manager from Oxford Community Police. Late that night, police announce an "intensified" ground search for Tori will begin the next morning in Woodstock and could last up to seven days. Police also suggest they may be close to identifying the mysterious woman seen on a security video walking with Tori after school on April 8, the day she vanished.

April 18

Police go door-knocking in Tori's neighbourhood while an OPP team equipped with side-scan sonar scours a large pond in Southside Park in Woodstock, beginning the promised "intensified" ground search.

April 25

Tori's disappearance is aired on the Fox Network's crime-fighting program, America's Most Wanted, at 9 p.m.

April 28

Tori's mother tells the media of an incredible-sounding offer and limousine ride she took, journeying from Woodstock to Toronto to meet an anonymous donor willing to pay any ransom that might be asked for her daughter's safe return. Woodstock police announce a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever was responsible for Tori's abduction.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/30/9298216-sun.html

2 hour interview ? Sounds more like a interigation..
I think it was a setup for more info and would have been a sting had they gotten info that implicated the mom..

http://bit.ly/I2AWg



Then came the surreal claim that a limo driver picked up the beleaguered mother and took her to meet a mysterious wealthy benefactor, who had also lost a child in a similar way. That person offered to put up whatever ransom might be asked to get the charming eight-year-old home.

"The police have verified it was a genuine person that set this up," McDonald assures. "So I know I'm not crazy."

<snipped>

There is a video at this link.

also from the above article...
"It continued with a composite picture that many insisted looked very much like Tara McDonald, the child's mother."

Anything new going on here? Does anyone know if they questioned the moms friend Sarah that was posted about? Is this girl related to the moms boyfriend? I think they look alike.

I am hoping they find this little girl soon. Praying for you Tori!

I didn't watch today's Tara 1 o'clock press conference.
Saturday is the big bike rally/bbq/concert.
Pretty much praying for a miracle she magically appears.

 ::MonkeyEek::
Ok I found the presser from today:
http://www.mogulus.com/lfpress
 ::MonkeyEek::
I was a bit stunned at the end when Tara turned and walked away after Rodney gave a personal plea to Tori that they loved her and will get her back.
I wish she would stop wearing a white coat. It's taunting and weird.

To see the feed, click on the 'on demand' button at the bottom then click on May. It will take you to the clip.

watched the video...
maybe Tara was emotional at that moment at the end? dunno..hard to read her at times....

thanks for posting the press conference. I watched  a part of it. I hope this couple gets their little girl back soon!

I wanted to add, if that is the coat that has everyone concerned, i don't think it is the same one. The coat the mom was wearing is a lot longer and has a completly different cut then the one in the released showing a woman taking tori.

Very well could be under the circumstances. Just never saw her do that in any media coverage.
The reports had asked her a few times what she would say to Tori or speak directly to her and all she's offered up was a three page letter for Tori to read when she gets back.
So the direct words to Tori by Rodney were the first given in the media. May have hit a sore spot.

No it is not the same white coat. Tara's was taken by the police.
Maybe it's just me but I find it a bit grating considering the description of the woman in the video and sketch that Tara would repeatedly wear one.

I think they need to look into the moms best friend Sarah. She looks like the sketch and she would be trusted by the girl and the mom for that matter. I just don't get the feeling the mom has anything to do with this, I could be way off, but I just don't think so.
I hope I don't offend anyone but I must say, I find it is concerning the parents are put under such a microscope by the public for what they say, how they act, if they seem sad enough etc...Not only are MOST parents living through the worse thing to ever happen to them, they have to defend themselves. Again, I dont know enough about this case to say either way, I just don't get the feeling the mom did this.

 So is there anything new in this case? Uggg it is so frustrating when these kids just vanish! Where do they go? 

Tracy...I think in my opinion that the Susan Smiths of the world who have murdered their own children and then come on tv, get the public's sympathy, only to find out that she was lying to all of us...has soured the public rightly or wrongly...and made people cautious to believe them just because they are the parents if you get my drift....
it seems that the public is not giving a free pass to parents of missing children until they are proven innocent  because we have seen way too many cases where the parents were responsible for their children's deaths...jmo..doesn't make it right, but it might be human nature to be doubtful after all that has transpired in different cases...

There is also another woman who matches the sketch. She was at one of the vigils:
http://crimesearchersonline.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Who-Are-You-.html&Itemid=9

I am not one to normally scrutinize anyone in distress. Far from it. I am feeling this way after following this case from the day Tori went missing.
I do not get this 'hinky' feeling from Rodney the father nor his sister.
Even if Tara has nothing to do with Tori's disappearance, it has been bizarre none the less. Even the press are suspect and fed up with the circus.
Why less than a week after she disappeared was fundraising going on? And a trust fund for the kids education? So much so that the fathers' side of the family has made it clear they do not want any money, and please donate to Child Find etc.

TY Victoria, I'm going to bring it over...

http://crimesearchersonline.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Who-Are-You-.html&Itemid=9

Apr 29
2009 Who Are You?
Posted by Charlie in Woodstock. Ontario, Victoria Stafford, Tori, missing persons abducted, composite sketch
     
Oxford Police say there was a witness to Victoria Stafford's abduction. They created a composite sketch of the unidentified woman. She is described as in her 20's, 120-125 pounds, wearing a white coat and black jeans with long black hair. 

The composite sketch released by police is being compared to this woman below who attended a vigil for Tori in a Zellers parking lot.

(http://i44.tinypic.com/25gthyo.jpg)

Must say I have not visited Woodstock, Ontario. Maybe folks look a-like in that small community but I sure do hope the Oxford police checked this woman out?

was that sketch taken from that photo? otherwise they look very much alike I think...
surely this woman will see herself somewhere on the net and come forward and take the focus off of herself wouldn't you think?

I'm stunned by the likeness of the woman @ the vigil to the composite. 
I wonder who the man is to the right of her?

Thanks to everyone for the links.

That sketch is so vague it would match a bazillion people.
jmho

But, I agree the woman in the crowd looks like the sketch.

If memory serves me correctly, the sketch came from an eyewitness who was afraid to go public.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/05/9350976-sun.html

Mystery driver a clue?

Tue, May 5, 2009

TORI STAFFORD CASE: A mid-sized, dark-coloured station wagon was in the neighbourhood when the child was abducted
 
Police yesterday released video and still photographs from a surveillance camera showing this mystery vehicle. They say its driver could be a valuable witness. 
 
WOODSTOCK -- A mystery vehicle and potential new witness, a twist in the abductor's route and the desperate attempts to nail down the abductor's name marked Day 27 since Victoria (Tori) Stafford vanished.

Police investigating the disappearance of the eight-year-old yesterday released a video and still photographs from a surveillance camera, showing a vehicle whose driver may have seen the abduction.

Police also revealed yesterday the abductor -- an unknown woman -- and Tori crossed a street and headed into the parking lot of a nursing home before disappearing.

Meanwhile, Tori's parents said yesterday police are still trying to match names to the abductor's composite sketch.

Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, said she hasn't recognized any of the five or six names police have presented to her, but the girl's father, Rodney Stafford, said he has.

The latest developments came after a weekend of highs and lows -- including a motorcycle rally that spread word about the abduction and a battle over a Facebook group that implicated McDonald.

The video released yesterday was taken from the same surveillance camera on a nearby high school that caught Tori walking north on Fyfe Avenue with the woman after school April 8. It was the last time Tori was seen.

The video shows a small to mid-sized, dark-coloured station wagon.

The station wagon has a wheel base of about 262 cm and was heading north on Fyfe after Tori was seen.

"The make and model have not been identified at this time," Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of Oxford Community police said.

"Investigators are hopeful someone may recognize the vehicle. The driver is believed to potentially be a valuable witness," she said. "The police would like to speak to this person."

The release of the tape was postponed as police tried to enhance the images, she said.

"This can't be considered a suspect vehicle. It was one of many vehicles that were in the videotape. It is a very busy spot, especially after school on any day of the week."

The other vehicles in the video have been identified, she said.

Through the tape, investigators also determined Tori and the woman, seen walking north on the west side of Fyfe, crossed to the east side and into the north parking lot of the Caressant Care Nursing and Retirement Home.

The nursing home has a video camera pointing to the parking lot and intersection of Fyfe and Walter Street, but a supervisor there wouldn't say if police had taken tape from that camera as well.

Walter Street runs at right angles to Fyfe, and leads to a walkway that connects to Highway 59 -- one of the key routes in and out of Woodstock.

McDonald said yesterday police tell her little about the investigation but are still looking for that woman.

"Sometimes they throw a few names out at me here and there to see if I know these people or if I think there is a person who matches the description," McDonald said.

"They weren't anybody we recognized."

Most of the names were of local people, she said.

"I've lived here my whole life. If I know a person, I know a person.

Police have provided names of both men and women, she said.

Her ex-husband, Stafford, said some of the names sound familiar.

"There's the odd time they say a name that I recognize. Any name I hear they provide surprises me because I don't want to believe it is anybody I know."

Stafford said he had Facebook take down a social networking group implicating his ex-wife.

"This guy is insinuating my daughter is dead and he's making false accusations against Tara (McDonald)."

Police are still searching the landfill, going door to door and urging farmers to keep an eye out for anything unusual their fields, Maitland said.

Dianne Leard, a friend of Tara McDonald's family, posts a missing persons sign of Tori Stafford on a utility pole on Parkinson Road in Woodstock yesterday. Leard replaced signs damaged by the recent rainfall.

Link to Video: http://video.lfpress.ca/video/featured/police-release-new-video-related-to-stafford-case/22071587001

Through the tape, investigators also determined Tori and the woman, seen walking north on the west side of Fyfe, crossed to the east side and into the north parking lot of the Caressant Care Nursing and Retirement Home.

The nursing home has a video camera pointing to the parking lot and intersection of Fyfe and Walter Street, but a supervisor there wouldn't say if police had taken tape from that camera as well.
I think this is an important piece as Tara apparently visited her 'father' that afternoon in Caressant.  ::MonkeyEek::
I'm a bit baffled at the family tree though. She was calling a man 'dad' during a presser, and her step-dad died recently; so not sure who she visited in the nursing home.  ::MonkeyConfused::
I need to confirm if Rodney said he didn't know who was in the nursing home.

hmmmm...interesting...

My apologies. The mix-up is this would be Tara's grandfather not father.
This is still an important piece as there is a second video camera, but no information released.

Police sifting through almost 2,600 tips in search for Tori Stafford

The Canadian Press Woodstock, Ont.  | Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 8:15 am Woodstock, Ont. - Police in Woodstock, Ont., said they have been getting many tips since the release of a new video of a car in relation to the Tori Stafford abduction.

The eight-year-old girl has been missing now since April 8.

Oxford Community Police have said the driver of a dark station wagon seen in the video may be a key witness in the abduction.

Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said police have so far received 2,568 tips in the case, and counting.

Police went door-to-door on streets surrounding Tori's house Tuesday conducting more interviews, but Maitland wouldn't say why.

Meanwhile, Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, cancelled her daily news briefing outside her home Tuesday. Her ex-husband, Rodney Stafford, emerged instead and said McDonald had been up all night because of "some pretty bad dreams."

http://www.680news.com/news/headlines/more.jsp?content=20090506_081449_420

(http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/04/toristafford250.jpg)

What a beautiful little girl, God bless Tori!

Same gist but a little bit more info:   

Mysterious car triggers tips in Tori case

Tori Stafford's mom cancels news conference -- dad steps in with statement

By RANDY RICHMOND

The London Free Press     

WOODSTOCK -- The mother of missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford yesterday broke a month-long vow to hold daily news conferences to highlight her child's abduction, after a night of "bad dreams."

After a short news conference held by her ex-husband, police swooped down on the streets surrounding Tara McDonald's house and began going door to door again conducting interviews.

Oxford Community police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland wouldn't say if there was a particular reason investigators were on those streets again.

But she said police were getting many tips after the release Monday of a new video showing a station wagon whose driver may be a key witness in the April 8 abduction.

"They're still continuing to come in. This morning there were 2,568 and counting," Maitland said.

An OPP detective canvassing a street near McDonald's home said police received good tips on Monday from students at College Avenue secondary school, close to the site of the abduction, and would head back there today. 
 

As with many of the days since Tori went missing, only bits of clues into her disappearance and the police investigation into that disappearance surfaced yesterday.

Perhaps the most startling development of the day was the no-show on her own front lawn of Tori's mother.

About 15 minutes before the 1 p.m. news conference was to begin, Rodney Stafford showed up and went into his ex-wife's house.

He came out alone.

"Tara was up all night. I guess she was having some pretty bad dreams," he said.

Stafford then read a prepared statement.

He had decided not to continue his high school studies this term to dedicate his time to finding Tori, Stafford said.

He urged the public not to give up handing out flyers, ribbons and pamphlets, or stop arranging vigils and rallies.

Then Stafford spoke directly to the abductor or abductors.

"Victoria is just a little girl, a little girl with hopes, hopes and dreams . . . I am begging you not to take that away from her," Stafford said.

"No matter the reasoning behind this, Victoria herself does not deserve this. No child does."

Take his daughter to a mall, or store where she can tell someone who she is or to a pay phone and dial 911, he told the abductors.

Pausing to gather his composure, Stafford ended his short statement with another promise to his daughter.

"You call me your daddy for a reason, baby girl. I made you and I will defend you until I die."

Stafford didn't comment on a tape from a surveillance camera released by police Monday that shows a small to mid-sized dark coloured station wagon driving north on Fyfe Avenue.

Moments earlier, Tori and an unknown woman are seen walking north at the same spot.

"We'd like to question this person just to see what they saw," Maitland said.

She said she didn't know if the abductor and Tori passed in front of the car, or how many seconds after the pair walked through the scene the car passed.
 
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/06/9365276-sun.html

Thanks for posting the news report. Where is this little one? Her fathers words are so sad...The mom is probably coming out of shock now, poor woman I feel for her.

She is mind/heart connected to her daughter. The nightmares are real.
The situation is real. She is awakened to that.

so sad....I feel so bad for these families with missing loved ones..how do they cope from day to day?

Unfortunately people are coping very well at all.  This is the newest article.  I feel badly for Victoria's Mom if she isn't involved with Tori's disapperance but this disappearence just keeps getting stranger.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/630325

They should get a family spokes person, but then that will most likely cause people to wonder. Poor woman....

Very sad for Tori and her family...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090507.wblatch0507/BNStory/National/home

Tori's mother deflects suggestions she might be a suspect
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

From Friday's Globe and Mail


May 7, 2009 at 10:02 PM EDT

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Tara McDonald hinted Thursday that police consider her a suspect in the now month-long disappearance of her eight-year-old daughter, Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

During what has become a fixture since the little girl vanished on her way home from school on April 8 – Ms. McDonald's almost daily news conference on the front stoop of her small house – the 30-year-old mother was asked if detectives from the Ontario Provincial Police-led investigation “have ever actually come out and said to you they consider you a suspect?”

“Not blatantly, no,” Ms. McDonald replied. “Not flat out.”

But literally in the next breath, she began to back-pedal from that statement.
Victoria Stafford's mother Tara McDonald and father Rodney Stafford speak to reporters outside Tara's home in Woodstock, Ont., on May 6, 2009, four weeks after Victoria (Tori) was abducted.
Enlarge Image

Victoria Stafford's mother Tara McDonald and father Rodney Stafford speak to reporters outside Tara's home in Woodstock, Ont., on May 6, 2009, four weeks after Victoria (Tori) was abducted. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)
The Globe and Mail

“Ummm, like I mean, they've said they have to rule out from the inside out first, and that's all they've said. You know, like I mean like I said, if something was wrong, then I'm sure I wouldn't be standing here right now.”

She has offered a similar explanation before when speaking of her polygraph test, never saying directly that she had passed, but rather that if she hadn't, she wouldn't be a free woman now.

Asked if she believes she is being treated more as a suspect than a victim, Ms. McDonald quickly replied, “Not by the police,” but complained of her treatment on the Internet, in particular, on Facebook sites, some of them set up to help find Tori.

“It's ridiculous,” she said. “It's absolutely ridiculous. And the point of the matter is, there's nobody to point a finger at, so point it at me or at my family, and I just think it's disgusting because there is absolutely no evidence pointing at me or any of my family members, at all.”

But she said that despite the accusations made on Facebook, no one in this town of 35,000 about 130 kilometres southwest of Toronto has said anything cruel to her in person.

When out in public, she said, “People have said to me, ‘You know people are looking at you,' and it doesn't faze me at all. Like some people have come up to us like acting like we're some kind of movie star, ‘Omigod I can't believe that it's you!' – they want to hug us and everything.

“Like you know, if they're offering their hugs and their prayers and their positive thoughts, then [okay], but nobody's ever had the balls to be brave enough to come up and say anything negative. No, no, no people just hide behind their computers and do that, the ones that have absolutely no jam,” she said.

She referred to the infamous mystery woman, captured in surveillance video walking with Tori from the school, and said, “The lady in the video, like I said, when the video first came out – I'm five-foot-nine, I weigh 175 pounds, there's absolutely no way [the woman is me].

“And there's absolutely no reason why I would have something done to my child, you know kidnap or other, and if I was going to have one child kidnapped, why not the other one?” Then, using the words “kidnap” and “protect” as though they were interchangeable, she added, “You know, why would I only protect Victoria and not Daryn [her 11-year-old son]? It just doesn't make sense.”

Ms. McDonald and her ex-husband, Rodney Stafford, appeared Thursday with Daryn. “We brought out some backup,” Mr. Stafford said with a warm smile, while Ms. McDonald joked that their son “felt left out because he hasn't got to come to any press conferences.”

Daryn said he wanted to show his new shirt – the three all wore T-shirts with a balloon painting done by Mr. Stafford over which a photograph of Tori has been superimposed.

Bright and articulate, Daryn was asked if his friends have been helpful. He said quietly that they're “being nice about this,” expressed gratitude that the teachers and counsellors at the school are being so kind, but added that “there's always kids at school who are also being really rude about it [his sister's disappearance]. And it's very upsetting.”

During the 20-minute news conference, the bespectacled boy stood between his parents, seemingly comfortable as his mother in particular was peppered with questions. He grinned when she described how his little sister was usually pokey leaving the school, even if he was yakking at her to hurry; the mere mention of Tori's name seemed to bring him pleasure and make him happy.

At least twice Thursday, Ms. McDonald appeared to dodge pointed questions by deflecting attention elsewhere.

When being asked about her daughter's leave-taking from Oliver Stephens school that day, for instance – which of the doors she usually used; who were the adults approved to pick her up – she said, “Sometimes it surprises me because all the parents at the school know whose kids belong to who, so you, and you have to call ahead of time to the school if you're going to be sending somebody different to pick up your child.

“There's normally a teacher's aide, a principal, somebody's out front of the school almost every single day, even before this mishap,” she said. “So normally, if a child was leaving with somebody that didn't belong to them, then some sort of alarm should have been raised.”

In less than a minute, however, Ms. McDonald was backtracking from that suggestion: “I'm not saying that they're [school officials] responsible for not seeing where Victoria went, but I'm saying there's a lot of parents, like when you go into the school, I know which, not all the kids, but in Tori and Daryn's grades, which kids belong to which parents.”

And it was shortly after she was asked, what with police seizing her family's computers weeks ago and officers appearing to be watching her house, if detectives had told her she was a suspect that Ms. McDonald cheerfully volunteered the fact that her brother John Jacklin's house in Calgary was searched on Wednesday.

“I don't even know if I should even be mentioning it,” she said, “but they searched his house and his mum's house out there Thursday, so they're being as thorough as they absolutely can be. Like he's way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere in Calgary, and the police went out and searched his house and his mum's house and everything out there, so I mean, they're doing everything they can.”

Mr. Jacklin had been in Woodstock, at his sister's side, until recently.

She said she didn't think the search came late in the investigation. “Well, he was here you know, so I mean, so if you think about it, like his mum was my dad's first wife, so she would have nothing to do with it, but the fact that they're out there and checking, we appreciate the fact that they're checking into everything.”

She said Mr. Jacklin was happy about the search. “He said you know that means they're being thorough. He wasn't offended whatsoever.”

*there is no web link to this article as it was pulled.

Tara McDonald's best friend speaks out
Woodstock Sentinel Review - Woodstock,ON,Canada
WOODSTOCK — She bears an uncanny resemblance to the abductor of Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford in a police sketch and a surveillance video.

She’s been questioned repeatedly by police and they’ve searched her house.

She’s heard the accusations by Woodstock residents, and seen herself convicted online on Facebook.

She’s the best friend of Tori’s mother, Tara McDonald, and accompanied her on an infamous limousine ride.

She’s said nothing publicly, until now.

Sara Leeper told The Free Press yesterday — contrary to all the rumours — she had nothing to do with the abduction of Tori Stafford.

“It’s not me,” she said in an exclusive interview. “I haven’t done anything. It’s ridiculous.”

Leeper, a housewife and mother, has been thrust into the spotlight by a series of events that began with Tori’s abduction April 8.

Leeper’s appearances at news conferences and vigils prompted members of Facebook groups to note the similarity between her and an unknown woman seen with with Tori on a surveillance tape the afternoon she disappeared.

The accusations intensified after police released a composite sketch of the woman and further description from a witness’s account on April 21.

Many Woodstock residents have said they tipped off the police about the similarities between Leeper and the mystery woman.

Neighbours said police have interviewed them about the Leepers.

One father said police asked his children about seeing any “extra kids” on the street.

Police have been to her house three times, Leeper said.

“The cops keeping asking me, ‘you have to know something,’ ” Leeper said. “I have nothing.”

Police have searched her house, with no need for a warrant, she said.

“I let them in. I am trying to be co-operative.”

She spoke openly with The Free Press. The only question she didn’t answer is if she had taken a lie detector test.

Sitting on her spacious backyard deck on the modern home she rents, Leeper described a normal family life disrupted by the accusations.

Her husband works in a body shop and she’s licensed to sell cars. They raise a girl, 9, and a boy, 13, from her first marriage.

“We’re pretty normal. We try to make the best lives for our children.”

She and McDonald have known each other since Grade 6.

“Tara and I were really super close when we were younger. We are close but we have taken different paths.”

Those different paths took Leeper out of Woodstock. For the past six years, the pair kept in touch mainly by Internet and phone calls.

Leeper missed her hometown, but her husband and children didn’t want to move.

“I fought tooth and nail to come here,” she said, with a laugh. “I love Woodstock. I still do.”

She moved a week before Tori was abducted — another sign, say her accusers, of something suspicious.

In that week, though, Leeper said, she didn’t get a chance to meet Tori.

Police say Tori knew her abductor well enough to leave school with her.

“Tori couldn’t pick me out of a crowd,” Leeper said. “I don’t even know Tori.”

Police have asked Leeper to account for her whereabouts the day of the abduction.

“I don’t remember. Got up, put the kids on the bus, maybe cleaned the house, maybe got groceries,” she told The Free Press.

The afternoon Tori was abducted, she was waiting at home for her own children to get off the school bus — as she does every day, Leeper said.

When police released the composite sketch, her first reaction was “oh oh,” Leeper said, because of the similarities.

“Absolutely I did because I am Tara’s best friend. This is an obvious conclusion to come to.”

But Leeper said there are several differences between her appearance and the descriptions of the abductor given by police.

The abductor, police say, is about 5’2” and about 125 lbs.

Leeper said she’s 5’5” and 155 lbs.

“I am no little toothpick.”

The abductor is described as between 19 and 25.

Leeper is 31.

The abductor is described as white, and Leeper is half Ojibway.

The abductor has long straight hair. Leeper’s is curly.

The abductor didn’t wear glasses. Leeper said she wears sunglasses outside at all times because of one “lazy eye” that inhibits her ability to focus in daylight.

At home, she wears reading glasses, “24/7,” Leeper said.

Leeper backed up McDonald’s story that on April 23 they and two others were whisked by limo to meet a mysterious benefactor in Toronto who offered to help with any ransom money.

It was “exactly the way Tara explained it. It happened. We were nervous. You do what you can.”

Occasionally, Leeper will show up before or during the daily news conferences McDonald holds on her front lawn.

“They can say whatever they want about me. I am not going to desert my friend,” Leeper said.

“The cops, it’s no secret they suspect her (McDonald), which is crazy. When it comes to being a mother, she is exceptional. Because I am her best friend, they automatically suspect me.”

Leeper said she’s been tempted to respond online to allegations.

“I haven’t been replying to them because I don’t want to give them any more ammunition. They are going off on one picture.”

Leeper said she’s co-operated with police, letting them search her house without a warrant.

Hanging on the back of a chair in full view during that search was her own white jacket, a different style than the one worn by the abductor, Leeper said.

“My white coat has burgundy sleeves. It is not stylish. It is to go tobogganing with children in

Thanks for the above articles victorian.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/08/9392746-sun.html

Friend of Tori's mom resembles abductor

By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS

The London Free Press     
 
(http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/08/taras_pal_x2.jpg)



At left is a composite drawing of a mystery woman sought in the disappearance of Tori Stafford. At right is a photograph of Sara Leeper, best friend of Tori's mother, Tara McDonald.


WOODSTOCK -- She bears an uncanny resemblance to the abductor of Victoria (Tori) Stafford in a police sketch and a surveillance video.

She's been questioned repeatedly by police and they've searched her house.

She's heard the accusations by Woodstock residents, and seen herself convicted online on Facebook.

She's the best friend of Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, and accompanied her on an infamous limousine ride.

She's said nothing publicly, until now.

Sara Leeper told The Free Press yesterday -- contrary to all the rumours -- she had nothing to do with the abduction of Tori Stafford. 
 

"It's not me," she said in an exclusive interview. "I haven't done anything. It's ridiculous."

Leeper, a housewife and mother, has been thrust into the spotlight by a series of events that began with Tori's abduction April 8.

Leeper's appearances at news conferences and vigils prompted members of Facebook groups to note the similarity between her and an unknown woman seen with with Tori on a surveillance tape the afternoon she disappeared.

The accusations intensified after police released a composite sketch of the woman and further description from a witness's account on April 21.

Many Woodstock residents have said they tipped off the police about the similarities between Leeper and the mystery woman.

Neighbours said police have interviewed them about the Leepers.

One father said police asked his children about seeing any "extra kids" on the street.

Police have been to her house three times, Leeper said.

"The cops keeping asking me, 'you have to know something,' " Leeper said. "I have nothing."

Police have searched her house, with no need for a warrant, she said.

"I let them in. I am trying to be co-operative."

She spoke openly with The Free Press. The only question she didn't answer is if she had taken a lie detector test.

Sitting on her spacious backyard deck on the modern home she rents, Leeper described a normal family life disrupted by the accusations.

Her husband works in a body shop and she's licensed to sell cars. They raise a girl, 9, and a boy, 13, from her first marriage.

"We're pretty normal. We try to make the best lives for our children."

She and McDonald have known each other since Grade 6.

"Tara and I were really super close when we were younger. We are close but we have taken different paths."

Those different paths took Leeper out of Woodstock. For the past six years, the pair kept in touch mainly by Internet and phone calls.

Leeper missed her hometown, but her husband and children didn't want to move.

"I fought tooth and nail to come here," she said, with a laugh. "I love Woodstock. I still do."

She moved a week before Tori was abducted -- another sign, say her accusers, of something suspicious.

In that week, though, Leeper said, she didn't get a chance to meet Tori.

Police say Tori knew her abductor well enough to leave school with her.

"Tori couldn't pick me out of a crowd," Leeper said. "I don't even know Tori."

Police have asked Leeper to account for her whereabouts the day of the abduction.

"I don't remember. Got up, put the kids on the bus, maybe cleaned the house, maybe got groceries," she told The Free Press.

The afternoon Tori was abducted, she was waiting at home for her own children to get off the school bus -- as she does every day, Leeper said.

When police released the composite sketch, her first reaction was "oh oh," Leeper said, because of the similarities.

"Absolutely I did because I am Tara's best friend. This is an obvious conclusion to come to."

But Leeper said there are several differences between her appearance and the descriptions of the abductor given by police.

The abductor, police say, is about 5'2" and about 125 lbs.

Leeper said she's 5'5" and 155 lbs.

"I am no little toothpick."

The abductor is described as between 19 and 25.

Leeper is 31.

The abductor is described as white, and Leeper is half Ojibway.

The abductor has long straight hair. Leeper's is curly.

The abductor didn't wear glasses. Leeper said she wears sunglasses outside at all times because of one "lazy eye" that inhibits her ability to focus in daylight.

At home, she wears reading glasses, "24/7," Leeper said.

Leeper backed up McDonald's story that on April 23 they and two others were whisked by limo to meet a mysterious benefactor in Toronto who offered to help with any ransom money.

It was "exactly the way Tara explained it. It happened. We were nervous. You do what you can."

Occasionally, Leeper will show up before or during the daily news conferences McDonald holds on her front lawn.

"They can say whatever they want about me. I am not going to desert my friend," Leeper said.

"The cops, it's no secret they suspect her (McDonald), which is crazy. When it comes to being a mother, she is exceptional. Because I am her best friend, they automatically suspect me."

Leeper said she's been tempted to respond online to allegations.

"I haven't been replying to them because I don't want to give them any more ammunition. They are going off on one picture."

Leeper said she's co-operated with police, letting them search her house without a warrant.

Hanging on the back of a chair in full view during that search was her own white jacket, a different style than the one worn by the abductor, Leeper said.

"My white coat has burgundy sleeves. It is not stylish. It is to go tobogganing with children in."

At first, Leeper said, she treated the accusations as a joke.

Now, she worries about their long-term effect.

"I like peace in my life. This is absolutely destroying me. You think I will be able to get a job in this town after this?"

They can say whatever they want about me. I am not going to desert my friend.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

Other developments yesterday in the Tori Stafford case:

-- Police in Calgary searched the house of her brother, John Jacklin's, and his mother, Tori's mother, Tara McDonald said."The fact that they are out and checking, we appreciate that they are looking into everything," McDonald said. Jacklin had been helping McDonald the past two weeks, but had to return to Calgary earlier this week, McDonald said.

-- Tori's school was given a list of three people who were allowed to pick her up each day, McDonald said. Those three were herself, her boyfriend's mother and a girlfriend who lived in a townhouse complex with her at the beginning of the school year, she said. McDonald said she did not call the school to give anyone else permission to pick up Tori that day. "Normally, if a child was leaving with somebody that didn't belong to them, then some sort of alarm should have been raised," she said.
 

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/06/9371936-cp.html

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - Since becoming a mom, Tara McDonald has spent every Mother's Day with her two children by her side. But with her eight-year-old daughter Victoria Stafford missing for a month now, McDonald hopes for just one thing this Sunday: to get her daughter back.

"I just wish these people, this person, whoever it is, would just bring her home - let her go," she said Wednesday at a news conference outside her home.

McDonald fondly recalled the Mother's Day card that her daughter - who every calls Tori - made for her last year, and said she will likely spend this Sunday at her mother's place with her 11-year-old son Daryn.

"I really hope to have my child home for Mother's Day," she said.

Tori has missing since April 8, when she didn't return home after school.

Massive search efforts have continued throughout this small southwestern Ontario city, but local and provincial police have failed to turn up significant clues into her suspected abduction.

Standing outside McDonald's tiny white-panelled house, Tori's parents looked the same as they said they felt: drained.

"I'm just at the frustrated point," said McDonald, her pale face framed by large sunglasses that couldn't hide the fact she was on the verge of tears.

"I've hit the sad, the angry. I'm totally frustrated. My main concern is our daughter. Who has her? Is she being taken care of? And why is it that you want our child?"

Rodney Stafford, the girl's father who is separated from McDonald, joined her at Wednesday's news conference, wearing a homemade T-shirt emblazoned with "Daddy's Little Girl" and adorned with a painting he'd created of floating purple balloons and Tori's photo placed just below his heart.

Stafford said questions about his daughter's whereabouts stream through his head "all day, every day."

Tori's parents have continued to speak about the bubbly blond girl in hopes of keeping the case in the public eye, but like police, they too had no new information to share Wednesday.

The Grade 3 pupil was last seen in a grainy surveillance video walking with a dark-haired woman wearing a puffy white coat.

Police say they've determined the girl and her suspected abductor were walking away from her school and toward the parking lot of a nearby nursing home.

Investigators say they have received more than 2,500 tips since releasing a video this week of a dark-coloured car they are calling "a vehicle of interest." They're eager to speak to the car's driver, who passed by the abduction scene moments after Tori disappeared.

A police investigator joined the media Wednesday to record the parents' news conference on video.

"It doesn't bother me, I don't really think about it," McDonald said when asked what she thought of the surveillance, adding she believes "police are doing what they can," in the search for Tori.

The officer later explained he's been sent to several of the news conferences to collect information.

A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever abducted Tori.

A composite sketch of the woman seen on the video suggests the abductor may be 19 to 25 years old, about five feet one, weighing around 125 pounds, with long dark hair tightly pulled back in a ponytail.

Tori's disappearance has also been featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/07/9380111-sun.html


Police seize Tori Stafford mom's computer

By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS

The London Free Press

WOODSTOCK -- Police seized and are holding the computer of the mother of missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, she confirmed yesterday, but her ex-husband's family seems to have kept theirs.

But neither the seizure nor police surveillance of her house bothers her, said Tara McDonald, who focused not on the stories swirling around her, but on getting Tori home.

"My computer was seized . . . My mom's computer has been seized, any computer the kids have had access to has been seized."

Police told her they took the computers to see if anyone had sent strange messages to Tori or her brother Daryn, 10, either through e-mail or children's websites such as Webkinz and Build-a-Bear, she said.

"That's what they were looking into -- anything that didn't make sense," she said.

Asked if any of his family members had their computers taken, Tori's father and McDonald's ex-husband, Rodney Stafford, said, "No, not that I know of." 
 

As the pair spoke, an officer with Oxford Community police videotaped their comments, as he has for weeks.

McDonald said the daily police presence, including the stream of police cars that drive through her neighbourhood and park on the street, doesn't bother her.

"I don't really think about it. I just come and go in my regular routine and I don't pay attention."

Tori was last seen April 8 leaving Oliver Stephens elementary school on Fyfe Ave., where she's in Grade 3. She was seen on videotape, shot from a surveillance camera at a nearby high school, walking north up Fyfe with an unknown woman.

Her parents expressed surprise yesterday at how their little girl, known for being "pokey," made it off the school grounds so fast with a stranger no one noticed.

The videotape from the high school shows Tori and the unidentified woman walking north on Fyfe at 3:32 p.m., about two minutes after the girl left school.

"That seems very strange," McDonald said. When they lived two doors from the school, her daughter didn't get home until about 3:45 p.m. she said. "She's pokey. She takes her time putting her coat on. She talks to all her friends. I found it very, very odd that at 3:32 she was fully dressed, had her bag and was up the hill."

Stafford said he can't believe parents, bus drivers, classmates and others watched Tori leave with a perfect stranger without noticing something amiss.

"Somebody has had to see something. Now, I'd just like somebody to start talking and we can bring out daughter home."

For the first time since she began holding daily news conferences, McDonald missed one Tuesday.

Yesterday, she gave short answers weighed with exhaustion.

"Up until 10 minutes ago, I wasn't planning on coming out here today. I'm drained," she said.

With Mother's Day looming, McDonald said she's becoming frustrated. This will be the first Mother's Day spent without both her children, she said. "I would really hope to have my child home for Mother's Day," she said.

Did I read correctly, McDonalds Grandfather is at the nursing home next to the school? I am completely guessing, but I wonder if the person who took her posed as someone sent by the mom or mom's family to get Tori because Grandpa was ill and about to die? Maybe that is why she walked away with this person and seemed to not lolly-gag. So this would be someone that knew of the granddad there, an employee or another residents family member? If I knew the mom I would ask if someone at the nursing home had taken notice of Tori, maybe talked with her or if maybe family of another resident did. Just a guess

good thought Tracygirl! anything is possible..

Good thout TracyGirl..I had No idea grandpa was right next door to the school..

If it had been mom picking up Tori somebody would have recognized her.. The police are chasing there taails and wasting time by looking at the mom..
jmho

I'm not feeling that the mom is involved in Tori's disappearance either...

I must have 2 left thumbs today.. Sorry for all the typos.. lol

I hope the police have thought of things like this and are investigating outside of the obvious. Maybe someone in Canada can call and ask them if they have considered this option. It was a guess but you just never know.

That is my newest saying, I think I have said that in 3 different threads so far, lol.

I don't have the articles at my fingertips, but since her family members were searched in Alberta; the search for Tori has reached there.

This is yet another SAD  case " Tori " missing. I pray they Find Her.
I was looking at the video of Tori and Women suspect.

http://www.youtube.com/v/h65X3YBpfy4&hl=en&fs=1&border=1

In the video as you watch the body language of the " Woman" she looks to me as she is conveying " You Remember Me " and quiet possibly knew Tori's name.
Because as you watch the Woman she is talking and turning her body towards Tori and then away. And her steps quicken as if she is creating Urgency that Tori picks up her pace to keep up with the Woman. What was it that this Woman said to Tori for her to follow her " million dollar question".

I went to a website that offers information on Tori's school. And it says that they have programs that use " volunteers" and as well have events that they Cross Grades within the Students.

https://apps.tvdsb.on.ca/employees/profile/profile.asp?schoolcode=1485

I am wondering if this Woman was in High School at a point and time that Tori attended her school. And they have crossed paths that Tori would recognize her ~ and that the Woman would know Tori by name.

The Woman is short. In the video (0:15) as she walks past the Man - her head is level his shoulder. Then the boy walks up to the Man and he too -is about the same size once the Boy stands up straight. Boy's head is just below the Mans Shoulder.  This Woman is not much taller than the Boy. ** Has anyone found the Man and Boy in this video?

Her attire appears to be of a younger person. I can't tell what the Black stripe is on the Coat of the Woman.. at one point it looks to be straight across then it appears to be across her back " like a strap" of some sort of carrying case. But it would be a very wide strap if that was the case. Then I think is she wearing a Coat or is she wearing a Puffy Vest. Some Vests have a Stripe on them. And or its not a puffy at all but a Coat used in Ski, Snowboarding etc.. those coats seem to have slices of color upon them. Hmm.
Perplexed  ::MonkeyEek::.

Deenie, I agree with your observations of the woman, it does seem as though she is convincing her from her body language.

I went the link on the school site. I found this of interest.

snipped on section about volunteers.

 Volunteers at the school

Numerous parents provide reading to our students as part of our literacy program. Parents volunteer to help on trips, driving teams and in the library. They man the school safety patrol and sit on school committees such as, the Safe School.  They are involved in food days, helping with fundraising . We also have secondary school students who help out with numerous activities.

It seems like this school rely's heavily on parent/volunteer participation. I wonder if they do backround checks on these people? I am fighting at my childrens school they at least do this.

What type of school is this, it is your normal everyday, public school in Canada? I am not familiar with schools in canada but this seems to be very focused on behavioral and social issues as well as inclusion. They have two programs which seem to be important models for the school. One is Kids on Track http://www.kids-on-track.org/index.php?pr=All_About_Us
The other is Roots of Empathy http://www.kids-on-track.org/index.php?pr=All_About_Us

Roots of Empathy is a new one to me. In my opion, it seems to be a very unconventional teaching structure. I watched a video on it  and I have to say, it is not something I consider vital to learning, but I am a bit more logical then emotional.

Kids on Track? I am not quite sure if this is maybe an afterschool club that certain kids would participate in or if every child in school does.

Any opinions? I wonder if the police have looked into this.

TG I swear the Body Language of this "Woman" towards TORI is " You Remember Me Don't YOU, and Tori Did remember Her" - I cannot see nor fathom that this Woman was a Total Stranger to Tori. From all the Photo's I have seen of Tori herself she seems to be a more mature 3rd grader. The way she uses Bandanna's and her clothes she almost looks preteenish in her photo's. Not in a Teen way like trying to be a Teen. I don't want that to come across wrong. I mean Tori seems to be " creative and earthy more so than the ave 8 yr old" and I mean that in a positive way. That maybe Tori stood out even from the rest of the girls in her class. She is def a Beautiful little girl. She has a memorable face and that is why I think that there has to be some correlation within the School. That this person knew exactly what time Tori got out of school, knew her path to walk home etc.. And Knew Tori's name. And has met Tori before.
I can't see that this little girl would Willfully GO with a Stranger outside her School.
It does not make any sense.  :gaah:

I emailed Tori's Dad on Facebook with the link of the school and offered my Thoughts to him. I am sure he gets 100's of emails. I did tell him too that I was a Member of Scared Monkeys and that we have a Forum for Tori started. That we Would Do our Best to Aid in finding tips, " Anything" to bring Her Home.

Another email I sent was to a Magazine in Canada - " Snowboard Canada"

This magazine is everything and anything to do with Snowboarding and sports alike in Canada. http://www.snowboardcanada.com
I sent them the surveillance video of Tori and the Unknown Woman - Hoping they could offer information on the " Woman's" Coat. Even if they could offer up the Manufacturer.
The coat to me looks like a Snowboarder's Coat and or Ski Coat - not a random coat you buy off the rack. Due to the Black inlays on the Coat itself. To me that defines a winter " Sport" jacket.

They make the coats like that with Bright Noticeable Colors for many reasons - One is if that person is LOST in the SNOW their Coat will be seen and identifiable.

I am glad you emailed the dad. I am not a member of Facebook (gasp) so would you mind also offering to him the other idea of a person from the nursing home approaching her and maybe using her grandfather being there as a tool to lure her? I wrote about it earlier. I do think the school connection could be something though.


Did you read about that empathy training? Maybe I am just a little bit more conservative (as my friends and family laugh! that is something, trust me), and at this point a little skeptical but it seems as though it could make a child more vulnerable to a person luring a child. I am all for empathy but with children I think the line can get a bit blurred.

TG you need to join Facebook - You can email him yourself. You have too = :)

Have they identified the father who was standing waiting for his own child that Tori and this woman passed? Perhaps he saw or heard something...
this is all very odd...this woman had to have known Tori, and Tori had to have known her in some way or why would she go with her...? Unless the woman knew the mom or dad's name or maybe she just said, your mom told me to pick you up etc....would this child have gone with  her?

I am talking for now with Tori's Dad ..via facebook.
Pray for Tori

Glad to hear that. ::MonkeyCool::

send him some prayers from us too Deenie...

The roots of empathy program is in alot of schools in Canada.  Both my kids have been in the class.  It just teaches how to empathize with people.  They used a baby that one of their teachers had to show compassion towards a baby that can't explain what they want when they cry.  I'm hoping that it leads to a more caring generation.  That being said, my kids are well aware that adults do not need a child's help for anything and they need to ask permission to go anywhere.  I think teaching compassion doesn't make a child more vulnerable.  No offense.

I'm amazed at what the scared monkey can do...way to go... ::cartwheel::

No offence taken Canadian monkey. I suppose it is natural to feel leery of that we do not know. This program seems so different in theory then anything I, myself have heard of.
To explain my thinking, I tend to feel when we teach a child empathy, it is important to also teach to think of ones self first. There is a balance to it in my opinion.  I fear it may give those with unhealthy intentions an "in" so to speak.
However, being a mom to a disabled child, I do understand wanting the world to feel more empathy, it would make my sons life a bit easier.

Deenie, Facebook and myspace sort of scare me I suppose. I don't want the whole world to know everything about me or how to find me. I guess I feel it leaves me vulnerable. My husband and I have chosen to not join.

Tara was a no-show at her 1pm presser today. Rodney knocked and no answer. He then recieved a text message from Tara at 1pm to see she wasn't coming.
I haven't seen the presser yet, but apparently he did well.

There's also an odd development concerning the family dog. Story was it was missing, but it is currently at a vet hospital for close to a month. Rumour has it a good Samaritan is paying to get it returned to family.

David M. Smolin, “Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children,” ExpressO; Wayne Law Review 52.No. 1 (2006): 113-200.

Abstract: This article documents and analyzes a substantial incidence of “child laundering” within the intercountry adoption system. Child laundering occurs when children are taken illegally from birth families through child buying or kidnapping, and then ”laundered” through the adoption system as ”orphans” and then ”adoptees.” The article then proposes reforms to the intercountry adoption system that could substantially reduce the incidence of child laundering.

A MUST READ..

http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3679&context=expresso

 City animal hospital cares for Tori's pet dog
Posted 4 hours ago

The mother of a missing Woodstock girl has been given a few more days to pick up her 14-month-old Shi Tzu from an animal hospital in Brantford.

Tara McDonald, whose eight-year-old daughter, Victoria (Tori) Stafford, went missing April 8 after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock, where she was in Grade 3, had until Monday to pick up Cosmo.

But Dr. Sami Qureshi, owner of the Beattie Animal Hospital on Paris Road, said the clinic is making an exception because of the family's special circumstances.

Although many of McDonald's family members have called the clinic demanding that they be allowed to pick up the dog, Qureshi said they're legally bound to release the dog only to its owner.

"We're just like a hospital and we have to protect the confidentiality of our patients. We can't release information about the dog to just anybody who calls us."

The dog was taken to the clinic after it injured itself a few days after Tori went missing, said Tara's stepmother Sharon McDonald.

She said Tara McDonald received a letter from the clinic demanding full payment of a $1,400 vet bill before she could pick up the dog. The letter also stated that the dog would be turned over to the SPCA.

Qureshi said the clinic would never refuse to return anyone's pet because of an unpaid bill.

He said if Tara McDonald doesn't have the money to pay the bill in full, the clinic is more than willing to have her fill out a credit application and set up a payment plan.

"We can't hold anybody's pet because they don't have the monies."

In extreme circumstances, if an animal is not claimed by its owner within a reasonable time period, the pet will be turned over to the SPCA.

"We consider that animal abandoned."

Qureshi said the clinic tried to contact Tara McDonald on a number of occasions, through the mail and by phone, but never received a response. Still, they have cared for her dog.

"The pet is still here," he said.

Copyright © 2009 Brantford Expositor
http://www.theexpositor.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1563299

I believe the vet probalby sent the letter demanding the payment, but it doesn't look good on Tara McDonald when the vet says she can come pick up the dog and pay whatever she can with a payment plan.  It looks like Tara was just saying it so she could get more money.  I hope they find Tori soon and the family can get out of the spotlight.

All I can say is if my child was missing the last thing on my mind would be my dog. No offence to the animal lovers out there.

Snipped from the above article

Although many of McDonald's family members have called the clinic demanding that they be allowed to pick up the dog, Qureshi said they're legally bound to release the dog only to its owner

Just let the dog go to the family members? Sheesh give the lady a break!

This is more about Tara's character, not just about the dog. Also the point being that Tara said the dog was 'missing'. It was quite by accident that the public found out the truth.
Daryn has been missing the dog which coincidentally disappeared a day or so after Tori disappeared.
So I have an issue with mom 'fibbing' to her son about the family pet's whereabouts.
It was a topic avoided at today's presser as well. It's just plain wrong any way I look at it.
Heck, people have been donating money, if she said something early on she would have been helped out by the community.
I'm not trying to damn the woman, but I really think she suffers from some personality disorder(s)

why doesn't she just go pick up her family dog? the son wants the dog, and if it gives him some comfort...go get the darn dog! If she doesn't want the dog anymore, then let it be adopted out...but to just let it remain in the vet, racking up more bills, keeping it away from the son, let alone the dog's misery from being in a strange place, away from his family..... go get the dog! jmo....
I know that is not a priority right now with her daughter missing....but her son wants the dog! Most pets are like members of the family...and yes, why lie about the dog's whereabouts especially to her son who obviously loves the dog, is already grieving and missing his sister?

Mom writes love letter to missing daughter Tori
Wed, May 13, 2009
Tara McDonald said Mother's Day was emotionally devastating for her
   
By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS

WOODSTOCK -- Her missing daughter's reminder to "love your enimese (sic)" prompted Tara McDonald to vow she'll try to do just that to bring the little girl back.

Despite an emotional Mother's Day letter she wrote to her daughter, Victoria (Tori) Stafford, promising to put aside anger, an emotional McDonald said yesterday she doubts she could ever forgive Tori's captors.

"I'm not sure about that," she said in a halting voice. "I'd like to but, I mean, they've caused such pain."

McDonald and Tori's father, Rodney Stafford, were both at a daily news conference yesterday -- one day after McDonald suddenly canceled her appearance.

"I just didn't have the strength to come out here," McDonald said of her no-show Monday. "Mother's Day was really, really tough."

She dismissed rumours of Tori being seen in Alberta, where the homes of her brother and her brother's mother were searched last week.

"Those are my nieces, those are his (her brother's) children that are being sighted. They are Victoria's cousins so maybe there is a little bit of similarity," McDonald said.

One of her nieces is eight and one is 10.

"Somebody could very well mistake my youngest niece for Victoria," she said. "I think it is just people grasping at straws."

In the absence of any news again about her missing daughter, much of yesterday's conference focused on the letter McDonald wrote to Tori on Mother's Day and read aloud to reporters yesterday.

"I have never felt so empty and so helpless as I did that day," she wrote to her daughter.

"Not hearing your sweet little voice saying "Happy Mother's Day" absolutely broke my heart in a trillion pieces."

McDonald held up a small heart-shaped piece of paper on which Tori had written "Love your Enimese," days before being taken.

"I am trying very hard to do what you learned at Sunday school shortly before you were taken from me," McDonald said, reading from her letter.

"You taught (us) that we need to love our enemies. So I have given up on trying to figure out why this awful person or persons have done this to our family."

Instead, McDonald promised, she would take the "negativity, the anger, the pain" to fuel her determination to get Tori back.

"I am going to love my enemies and while I am praying for you and your safe return I am going to pray for whoever it is who has my princess will find the compassion within their own hearts to do the right thing."

McDonald said she decided to share the letter with the media so Tori's captors understand how deeply they have hurt the family.

"Just let her go."

Tori went missing April 8 after dismissal from Oliver Stephens public school. She was seen on a video surveillance tape with a woman walking north away from the school on Fyfe Avenue.

McDonald has been criticized on Facebook pages created since the abduction for not showing emotion at those conferences.

Yesterday, her voice was thick with sobs as she read the letter.

"One of the many things that keeps me strong and keeps me fighting is the thought of holding you in my arms and smelling your hair, stroking your little ears and hearing your sweet little voice saying 'I love you momma and I missed you,' " she read.

"Victoria, I need you home so badly and I will stop at nothing until you are here and that's a promise. You are a very (big) part of me and you have to know that I cannot live without you."

Randy Richmond is a Free Press reporter.

There is video at the link of her reading the letter. To the side is also a great archive of all the videos about this story. There is 30 of them.

http://is.gd/zuiZ

This speaks of her charachter as well....

Snipped from Angel's article

In the absence of any news again about her missing daughter, much of yesterday's conference focused on the letter McDonald wrote to Tori on Mother's Day and read aloud to reporters yesterday.

"I have never felt so empty and so helpless as I did that day," she wrote to her daughter.

"Not hearing your sweet little voice saying "Happy Mother's Day" absolutely broke my heart in a trillion pieces."

You know if you have ever lost someone close to you then you know you are not thinking like everyone else. To be honest with you, she may not be thinking of her other child right now and I think that is understandable. I lost someone very close to me once, broke my heart, I could not function enough to open a can of soup for my son who was sick. Did that go to my character? No, it meant I was terribly upset and others needed to hold me up and help me.

I don't mean to argue, we all have our own opinions but I don't see how bashing a mother who's daughter has been kidnapped is doing any good. Maybe as mothers and fathers we should all read the book that tells us just how to act in the event our children go missing so the public supports us rather then judges our every move. So far there is no evidence that links this mother to the kidnapping and when and if there is I choose to support her with understanding and compassion.

How can we find out what the police have investigated so far. In Canada is there anyway to find out?

I guess I'm a hardnose sometimes. A quote from a letter is not enough to sway me after watching Tara's daily pressers from day one.
I don't think I have been bashing her, but I have an odd feeling around this case. Something I can't put my finger on.
I do understand grief affects people differently, but does that include lying? Maybe going to the bar every Saturday night is her way of coping during this. None of us know do we?
In her defense, I would say her visible lack of emotion during pressers may be due to the methadone treatments she receives. That is a common side effect.
I don't want to believe she has any part in her daughter's disappearance, and if she doesn't unfortunately the damage has been done in the media.
How did we get from a missing child case to 90% of the followers thinking she's guilty?
How and why did this happen? Is this common in missing children cases?

The police have been very tight lipped. There has not been a presser for over 5 days I believe.

We have seen this all many times before..
Spain
Portugal
Aruba
Escandido
New york
Florida

Same old story from detectives.. Notta
Time has passed and LE has lost the edge..
That little girl is so far outisde of Canada by now... Could be almost anywhere..
Saudi Arbia
Cambodia
South America

Terrible situation.. This was very professional.. LE acts like they are looking for the kreepy man who lives down the street.
NOT!
jmho

I think there is a lot of rumors going around about this woman. I stand by what I first say, until there is evidence linking her to this kidnapping, I am going to do what I do, support the parent of the missing child. She can drink everyday, use drugs, swear, lie cheat, sleep with every man in town, and kick the family dog, that doesn't mean her child should be kidnapped and she be put through living hell. JMHO. If everyone thinks she is guilty, fine, but where is the proof? There is none that I can see. No one has to be friends with her, just give her a break and stop putting her under a microscope, again just my humble opinion. We are going to have to agree to disagree. And btw, lets pretend of a moment she is involved? I will be on the bandwagon of making sure she gets put in jail.

In the Sandra Cantu case people started going after the mom, they did the best thing, appointed a spokes person. Maybe that should be the first chapter in the book, "how to act if your child is kidnapped" ::MonkeyWink::!

To bad about the police being tight lipped. Sometimes it works against an investigation I think.

Edward I am beginning to believe you are right, although I pray you are not.

Media Interest Fades in Stafford Case

Written by Adam J. Nyp
http://www.1047.ca/news.php

It looks like the end of the 1 o'clock news conferences in front of Tara McDonald's house.

The mother of missing 8-year-old Tori Stafford was not home today when just three reporters showed up for the daily interview.

The reporters were from Heart FM, Rogers TV and Woodstock-Sentinel-Review. It signifies the first time since the day the story broke where only local media were covering the story of the missing girl.

Since Tori went missing, McDonald has been holding daily news conferences infront of her home to keep the story in the spotlight.

However, local reporters showed up with no subject to interview today.

Neither Tara McDonald nor Rodney Stafford was present.

Police say they have no new information to provide on the case.

It's very unfortunate the amount of rumours. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I think what happens in situations like this is people's lifestyle choices are what put them under the microscope. I'm not saying that's right or fair, but humans are judgmental creatures.

I would never entertain for a moment that her lifestyle caused or deserved her child to be abducted. Far from it. But I do wonder if LE didn't take it seriously enough based on the family history. Especially her boyfriend having a criminal record.

I do think you're right about getting a spokesperson. I believe this is where much of the damage was done.

I also think the biggest error in this case was right from the start not sending an Amber Alert out.

Sorry to hear that interest in this case is waning.  What about the car?  What about the big reward offered by the mystery person?  I have a bad, bad feeling about this one.

Well the media certainly has grown weary and critical. I will try and find a Globe&Mail article which references Tara' inability to shed a tear.

Here's today's explanation for the no-shows at yesterday's presser:
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/14/9452961-sun.html
It's very unfortunate that Tara didn't forewarn Rodney or the media. This won't bode well for her.

As for the reward? The mysterious limo ride? Police said it didn't 'cause them concern'.  :-|

It has to also be one of the strangest cases I can recall. I don't think anyone seriously following it has been able to unravel their complex family tree either.  ::MonkeyConfused::

I too have a bad feeling about it all and it weights heavy on my mind everyday she's missing.

I wonder if interest in the case is waning because the general feel is that Tara is somehow involved in Tori's disappearance and people are just plain tired of trying to figure out what's going on.  They need to focus on the fact that Tori is still missing, not that the dog is at the vets, or Tara's emotional state.  Another 8 year old girl has gone missing in Edmonton, Alberta yesterday.  Hopefully she will be found soon. 


 http://www.canada.com/Police+looking+missing+girl+Edmonton/1595655/story.html


 

EDMONTON - An eight-year-old girl who went missing after school was found shortly before midnight Wednesday night at a 7-Eleven convenience store.

Police arrived after a worker at the store notified them that Katawnie Bieganek, who had been missing since 4 p.m., was there.

The girl appeared to be uninjured, police said. They are still determining what happened to the girl over the last few hours.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Eight+year+girl+missing/1593679/story.html

Thank you Edward.  I'm still new to this.  I guess i should have looked into it a little further.  Sorry.

Nothing to be sorry about had you not reported it I would not have gone looking for more information..

All is good 2 missing children found and one 3 year old child who saved herself from an attacker in California..

This is a good day.
I hope we see Tori found today too.

Yes! This is true. Tori is still missing. Everyone needs to realize, the mom is never going to act the way people want her to.  I just don't get it to be honest with you. No matter what she does or doesn't do, it is getting thrown at her and good. Is this a class thing?

I'm baffled myself.  Everyone was very supportive until the sketch came out.  Then things started to turn.  I know on Facebook they are brutal to her.  I think Victorian was right.  A spokesperson would have been best.  I think there is some "mob mentality" happening...meaning that once one person says something then everyone just jumps on the band wagon, with the ability to post on Facebook it's easy to fall in with everyone else's opinion.  I would certainly hope it's not a class thing but it could be.

I know we have to agree to disagree on this subject, but correct me if I'm wrong...are we simply to ignore any red flag behaviour because she's the mother? Are we not supposed to look at a parent? Is this tabu?
How can any investigation move forward without scrutinizing ALL involved?
No one is feeling hinky about the father. Mind you, he's been straight up and honest from day one.
May I also ask you if you have watched each daily presser? Have you been watching Tara live?

This is where the media has worked against her. Prior to one presser, a reporter was overheard saying are we ready for 'The Tara Show'?
Here is the Globe and Mail with another negative swipe at her:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090416.wblatch16art2236/BNStory/National
She held off tears most of the day, until a television reporter, with one of those questions designed to elicit emotion, was rewarded on her third try with several drops.

I forgot to add. If you can keep an open mind in the face of all that has been presented...I commend you.
I don't know how to react when on live tv she said she's done nothing last week to help find her daughter. But she's on facebook. I find it painful.
Is it a class thing? Maybe so.
I don't want her to be guilty, but I can't help but look at 'anything' odd in the hopes of there being a lead or clue in finding this little girl.

I don't feel you are looking at anyone but the mom, that is what gets me. Who else do you have on your radar? Anyone? Because the person who took Tori is not the same person in that video. They are 2 different people. Tori is missing and all I read is she is wearing a white coat, she is not crying enough, she is not picking up the puppy, she had a press conference, she missed a press conference, she went to a bar, she, she, she....She most likely didn't do this and there needs to be focus elsewhere. Do you rule out the mom? No, no one including the dad is ruled out, you have to look elsewhere as well.
Such as, there has been suggestions posted on what else could have happened, but it is being ignored and the mom is the focus. You know when Sandra was missing from may area for gosh sakes I followed a psychic lead! No stone is left unturned, so far I only see one stone from you and others on facebook. Mean while, the little girl is missing and wants and needs to come home. I wish I could find out who is at that nursing home, names of people that work there, names of volunteers at the school....

Canadian Monkey, thank you for response and the explanation.
I don't think the look like the mom, it looks like her friend though, I thought. IMHO that doesn't mean the mom is involved.

Please don't make the assumption that I am only looking at Tara as a suspect. Om my radar is her best friend Sara, her boyfriend, and her step-brother. Maybe not directly involved but I suspect know something.
I have not ever looked at this abduction from a single dimension. It is your comments concerning Tara that have prompted me to give feedback of her in return.

You still have not answered my question...have you watched any of the pressers over the last 5 weeks?

From day one of the sketch being released, to me it only looks like Sara.

And for what it's worth...I'm not a poster on Facebook.

What? Can you clarify?

if you think this case is strange and hard to unravel the complex family tree, you must not have been over on the Haleigh Cummings thread!  ::MonkeyConfused:: now that is a cast of characters that is hard to keep up with...we even have a separate thread just to keep all the cast straight!
xxxxxx

The Susan Smith's of the world have ruined it for other parents of missing children imo...how one should act or not act when a child is missing....the public saw a crying mother who had already sent her children into a watery grave but was pleading on tv for her children to be returned to her...Emma Barker's mother, Casey Anthony...too many to mention who have murdered their own children and make up stories....Am not saying  that Tori's mom is involved in her disappearance, just that everyone is needs to be looked at until cleared imo....have no opinion of the mother at all...other than I don't think that she is involved....
Main thing is that Tori is missing and that we all want her home...

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/canada/2009/05/14/9462641.html

Tori's Mom fighting drug demon
By RANDY RICHMOND , SUN MEDIA

Last Updated: 14th May 2009, 6:15pm


WOODSTOCK — The mother of a missing eight-year-old girl admitted today she’s fighting an addiction to Oxycontin, facing straight-on the rumours drug use has something to do with her daughter’s abduction.

“If I was still a drug user, then maybe people could throw stones. But I have made the step into going and getting help, so people should look at that as a yeah for me and not a nay for me,” Tara McDonald told The Free Press.

“Instead of putting me down for it, they should be saying at least she has recognized that she’s had a problem and she’s doing something about it.”

McDonald said she was introduced to the drug about four years ago. It eased the pain of struggling as a single mother without a high school diploma, trying to feed and clothe and raise two children mostly on her own.

“It makes everything so happy when you’re not happy, when you are worried and depressed and upset. It masks the problems,” she said.

About two years ago she started going to a methadone clinic in Woodstock, McDonald said.

Doctors prescribed her the opioid methadone, often used to help people get off more harmful painkillers like Oxycontin.

Just more than a year ago she relapsed, McDonald said.

“I said I don’t need it. I can do it on my own. The last year I went back and probably in the last seven eight months I’ve been doing better than ever.”

The rumours of a drug addiction have shadowed McDonald ever since her daughter, Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford vanished after school April 8.

There’s been talk the abduction is somehow linked to a drug debt or drug deal gone bad, which McDonald denies.

Today, she dealt directly with the talk about addiction.

“There is so much speculation about it and I’m tired of people talking about it like I’m still kind of drug addict.”

Police have investigated her addiction and her effort to battle it, McDonald said.

“I am not going to get into the depths of it, but it has been looked into. The recovery has been looked into and everybody can say I have been doing extremely well.”

If there was ever a time when she’d relapse, it would be after the abduction of her only daughter, McDonald said.

“You would think that this would cause a hard-core relapse, and I have been doing so well.”

McDonald allowed herself a rare laugh in a wide-ranging interview about her struggles.

Before she was addicted, she weighed 300 lbs, she said.

On Oxy, also known as hillbilly heroin, she dropped to 150 lbs.

“If my weight at all (now) doesn’t tell you that I’m doing better, then I don’t know what does,” she said.

At no time did her addiction ever hurt her ability as a mother, McDonald insisted.

“It doesn’t make you any less of a mother because you are struggling with an addiction. It can happen to anybody.”

She dismissed rumours she and her boyfriend ran up thousands of dollars in drug debts, which prompted dealers to kidnap her daughter.

“I have never incurred any debts that way. When I was using drugs I never incurred any debts whatsoever.”

Between one private and police donors, about $60,000 has been put up for reward money, McDonald noted. An anonymous benefactor also promised whatever it took to bring Tori home, she said.

“If it was about money, then that would have been taken care of.”

McDonald spoke in the backyard of her Frances St. home after her daily news conference.

At the news conference, Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford, said he believes there are many people still withholding important information from police.

“I see these people just as responsible for Victoria’s disappearance as the people who have my daughter,” he said.

With all the teachers, parents, children, high school students, bus drivers, passersby and drivers near or at the school where her daughter vanished, someone must have seen something, he said.

“I have addressed everybody out there from Victoria to the general public, the media, everybody,” Stafford said.

“I haven’t had a chance to address anybody out there with any valuable tips who has not come forward. Please, please, I’m asking . . . please get it out there. I want to bring my daughter home.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 ::MonkeyAngel:: GOD BLESS TORI AND HER FAMILY!  Keep them strong during this difficult time!   Lovinlife

http://woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1570148

100 officers on Tori case
Posted By Bruce Urquhart, SENTINEL-REVIEW
Updated 2 hours ago
 

Thirty-five days after the abduction of Victoria "Tori" Stafford, the joint OPP-Oxford Community Police Service (OCPS) investigation remains a substantial operation.

And despite the number of officers dedicated to finding the little girl, OCPS Chief Ron Fraser said the investigation would continue until there "is some resolve to this." While the sheer number of officers means that some other investigations have been temporarily suspended, Fraser said the priority remained reuniting Tori with her loved ones.

"This investigation is massive by anybody's standards," Fraser said Thursday. "We have (OPP) officers from all over the province."

At the moment, the investigation involves 20 to 25 OCPS officers and roughly 80 OPP officers, including members of the emergency response team. These officers are supported in the investigation by a seven-member civilian support staff that helps deal with the tremendous amount of information being investigated.

"It takes a lot of resources to continue with this investigation because of the large amount of information that comes in," Fraser said. "We follow up on every piece of information."

Because of the size of the investigation, operations have largely moved from OCPS headquarters to the former Timberjack building on Devonshire Avenue.

---

VICTORIA "TORI" STAFFORD

Tori is four-foot-five inches (134 centimetres) tall and weighs 62 pounds (28 kilograms).

She has blue eyes and blonde hair cut just below her ears.

She was wearing a green shirt, a denim skirt, black and white shoes, and a black Hannah Montana jacket with a white fur-lined hood.

Continued After Advertisement Below

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She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz shoulder bag.

Email your comments, story ideas and letters to the editor or visit us online at

www.woodstocksentinelreview.com

Yes I have watched the pressers via the net. I do not get the feeling the mom did it or from what I can gather, the evidence does not point to her. What is her motive? Money? How does she get the money?  It doesn't connect in my opinion, who knows though and because "who knows" every angle needs to be explored such as the nursing home, the school, any outside activities etc....

The person in the video is not her because it is the wrong dimensions. She is smaller then the mom, you can see that. But doesn't it strike you funny that the person is meant to look like her? It does to me. Deenie made good points in her posts, it seems as though the person is convincing Tori to go with her or reminding her of who she is. I see that through body language. If it was her mother or someone Tori sees everyday or a relative she knows and loves I think there would be a different reaction, This is a strange reaction, in my opinion.

Cookie I agree with you, everyone needs to be looked at, but not at the exclusion of others, in my opinion. Wouldn't you agree, most times then not, a parent is not involved? If the evidence pointed to her then that is one thing, but the reasons people are gossiping about her have little to do with anything.

Now on to this missing little girl and where could she be! In Canada, do they do back round checks on volunteers at a school? One thing that Tara said is, "why didn't anyone notice Tori go off with a stranger and why did the school not do anything about it? Maybe it was not a stranger to the school? Didn't tori and her brother walk home together most days? Where did they meet up? Why was he not there? Did someone hold him up or distract him? There doesn't seem to be a lot of kids around, only Tori and the other student, what time was this at? Is this exit one few people take? Is it her usual way of leaving the school? 

I am done debating the mom for now. If you wish to talk of evidence or leads then I will engage, but in my opinion, this is doing nothing to bring Tori home to her family. I would appreciate it however if someone from Canada can help me to understand some of the rules regarding school policy. Information in Canada is very difficult to get. Is it right you all don't have a sex offender registry?

I don't feel you are looking at anyone but the mom, that is what gets me. Who else do you have on your radar? Anyone? Because the person who took Tori is not the same person in that video. They are 2 different people. Tori is missing and all I read is she is wearing a white coat, she is not crying enough, she is not picking up the puppy, she had a press conference, she missed a press conference, she went to a bar, she, she, she....She most likely didn't do this and there needs to be focus elsewhere. Do you rule out the mom? No, no one including the dad is ruled out, you have to look elsewhere as well.
Such as, there has been suggestions posted on what else could have happened, but it is being ignored and the mom is the focus. You know when Sandra was missing from may area for gosh sakes I followed a psychic lead! No stone is left unturned, so far I only see one stone from you and others on facebook. Mean while, the little girl is missing and wants and needs to come home. I wish I could find out who is at that nursing home, names of people that work there, names of volunteers at the school....
Canadian Monkey, thank you for response and the explanation.
I don't think the look like the mom, it looks like her friend though, I thought. IMHO that doesn't mean the mom is involved.
[/quote]

Tracygirl, the privacy laws are SO completely different in Canada then in the States.  It's really hard to get information about anyone in a nursing home unless you are actually a member of the family and even then it can be difficult.  I do believe someone posted something about it being Tara's grandfather that was in the nursing home. 

Each province is different as each State can be for certain laws.
I can't comment on the Ontario School system until I look up policy.
I do know in my school district a criminal record check is not required for parent volunteers, but is required for staff.

Canadian Sex Offender Registry:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/12/15/sex-offender-registry041215.html

I'm feeling positive to hear that they are still getting leads and continuing to work diligently on every lead. 

No I haven't been over there.  ::MonkeyNoNo::
I should probably wait until I have some spare time.  ::MonkeyWink::

My son's school requires all parent volunteers to have FBI fingerprint screening.  This is very important!  I'm not sure if this is a district or State law (we're in OH).  Please fight to get this mandated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IIRC, her brother went to a friend's house after school and that is why Tori was not with him.

victorian and tracygirl...I'm in Ontario and both my husband and I have volunteered at the school for various things and no crimal record check is required.  I'm sure if they were volunteering for a lunch supervisor or library assistant or something similar then one would be required but I'm not sure. 

I know that just dropping my kids off at the school, some of the other kids recognize me and have no issues walking with me and talking...I don't live in as small of a town as Woodstock so I can see how it could happen.

Thank you for your responses. Yes it was her grandfather at the nursing home, that is what hit me one day, that and it being so close to the school. I wish we could get a list of people who work at the nursing home, this maybe a start. It is common for sex offenders or molesters to employ themselves at these places from what I have unfortunatly learned, yuck!

Yes, schools need to do backround checks on everyone that comes into contact with children, including all volunteers and people conducting assemblies. Can you believe in my area, the pedo capital of the USA right now, the schools are fighting me on this? Crazy! I will win....These people are no longer strangers to our kids, I fear it may confuse some kids and may fall prey to them.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/12/15/sex-offender-registry041215.html

Sex offender registry now in effect
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 | 9:32 PM ET
CBC News
A national sex offender registry came into existence Wednesday, but past offenders who have already finished serving sentences won't be listed on it unless they commit new crimes.
INDEPTH: Sex offender registry

The $2-million project has been in the works since February 2002. That's when the federal government gave in to years of lobbying and agreed to establish a registry that would require sex offenders being released from jail to let police know their whereabouts.





They will be charged if they don't do so, or if they fail to update the information if they move.

Those convicted of serious sex crimes might have to continue updating police about where they're living for the rest of their lives.


FROM MAY 14, 2003: Ontario calls for national sex offender registry

The law creating the registry received royal assent on April 1 of this year.

Ontario already has a similar registry for sex offenders released within its borders, but has no jurisdiction to monitor people if they move to another province.

In Alberta, information about some high-risk offenders appears on a government website that any member of the public can read.

Police database will contain detailed information

The national registry starts out empty. Offenders will be added as court officials from the provinces determine who should be on the list from among the population of prisoners being released or finishing conditional sentences in the community.

The information will be available to police forces nationwide through the Canadian Police Information Centre database, and will include fingerprints and physical descriptions, as well as photographs in some cases.

In cases where they feel the community is at risk from a certain person, individual police forces can decide to issue a public warning.

Some skepticism over registry's effectiveness

Police and victims of sexual assault have long been calling for such a registry, but some critics are already questioning how effective it will be.

To stave off constitutional challenges, Ottawa decided to allow offenders to challenge their inclusion on the registry.

Ontario's three-year-old list of more than 6,000 offenders is now being challenged through the courts because it is a mandatory one, with no appeal avenues for people who object to letting police know where they are.


FROM JULY 1, 2004: Ontario judge rules province's sex offender registry is unconstitutional

As well, the rules for including someone on the list could vary across the country.

Justice officials within each province will decide which offences are sexual in nature, and come up with a system to let the thousands of convicted sex offenders now in the prison system know about their obligation to register.

Judges will hear challenges and could decide to take people off the list based on different criteria established in each province.

Finally, the federal government decided not to include people who have finished serving their sentences because of fears the law could be challenged on privacy grounds.

Still, Ottawa expects the registry to include several thousand names within a year.

(none)

Her brother had plans to visit a friend? Hmmm, I wonder who knew that and if this was common place?

Tracygirl~I know that SO issues have touched your community deeply, prayers to all of Tracy, CA that they may continue to heal and fix what is broken to avoid another tragedy like the Cantu case.  The bureaucracy is difficult to overcome but people are standing up and our voices will be heard.  Lovinlife

P.S. I left you a message in Billy's thread.

This is the problem with a presser everyday.  I'm feeling incredibly sorry for them.

http://www.canada.com/news/Parents+missing+girl+argue+publicly/1600836/story.html

Parents of missing Ont. girl argue publicly
 
 
By Jordana HuberMay 15, 2009 3:01 PMComments (2)
  StoryPhotos ( 1 )

  Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford, parents of missing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford. Minutes into the media conference, Rodney Stafford accused his ex-wife of showing a lack of emotion, while she countered he was able to cry before the cameras because he feels guilty for being an absentee father.Photograph by: Jordana Huber, Canwest News ServiceTension between the parents of missing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford boiled over Friday with the pair lashing out at each other during their daily news briefing in front of the mother's home in Woodstock, Ont.


Minutes into the media conference, Rodney Stafford accused his ex-wife of showing a lack of emotion, while she countered he was able to cry before the cameras because he feels guilty for being an absentee father.


The spat began when Tara McDonald started to explain that she wasn't the type of person who cried in public to which Stafford, her ex-husband for seven years, responded she was showing a "total lack of support" for her daughter, now missing more than five weeks.


"This is your daughter," Stafford said. "It doesn't matter who should be standing in front of you. I could have the world standing here and I would cry. I wouldn't care, Tori is missing."


McDonald responded: "You want to talk about a lack of support for my daughter? Where the hell were you for the last nine years."


She said she is frustrated that her ex-husband has been portrayed as "super dad."


"It just drives me crazy that every single day he comes out here and he cries and he carries on. It's because of guilt from not being there," McDonald said.


Tori has not been seen since April 8 while walking home from school. Video surveillance cameras caught her on school property with a woman in her 20s with a ponytail, wearing a white jacket.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

I do agree...most times a parent isn't involved...although, you always want to look at the person closest to the missing or murdered  person per Mike Brooks who is on HLN right now...

I don't think that this mother had anything to do with Tori's disappearance....my only point was that everyone needs to be looked at...was just adding my 2cents....I have no opinion or no clue who might or might not be involved although it appears that this woman who Tori was with,  was no stranger to Tori...or at least she knew enough to try to convince Tori to leave with her...

You brought up a lot of good questions/points in your above post as well...keep on digging up clues girl!
xxxxx

http://www.canada.com/news/Parents+missing+girl+argue+publicly/1600836/story.html

Please tell me that this didn't really happen.... ::MonkeyNoNo::

Oh god my ex husband and I would be giving a show too! I often wonder how the parents who are divorced hold up to being thrusted together again. Sounds like there is a lot of water under the bridge....He should not have said what he did to her about not crying, and she should have bashed him as a father. Both were hitting below the belt. They need to either get a spokes person or stop with the press conferences, they are not helping, imho

Has anyone looked into the father and his connections? I think he took a lie detector, right? Leave no stone unturned, that is what I have been told numerous times.....

Canadian Monkey
I have questions if you can answer

I have tried to look up as much info as I am able on Tori
What do you know about the " Limo Ride" that supposedly happened with Tori's Mom.

What I don't understand is the Montell Williams Show ?? It has not been in broadcast in over a year .. And then the psychic being a part of his show or even being Sylvia Brown that was the person to " meet" in Toronto.

I found that Ms Brown was in Toronto recently.
http://toronto2009.icandoit.net/speakers/speaker_info.php?author_id=192

And I found this Blog too - of people asking Her for help to Find Tori

http://mediumchannel.com/index.php/20090201409/Psychic-Blog/Sylvia-Brown-gives-away-free-psychic-reading-on-her-web-class.html

I have always thought that Sylvia is BUNK .. she to me is a just like the character on Disney Little Mermaid ..

(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k14/boxah104/ursellla-1.jpg)

Just wondering if you have heard anything more about this Mysterious Trip in the Limo?

I have talked to Rodney on Facebook briefly. He does respond to you if you mail him.
So if you have any questions to ask you can ask him. Not the Tori site but His personal facebook. I wrote to a mag site in Canada that is for Snowboarders/Ski about the Woman's White coat .. never received a reply. Hmmph.

Praying for Tori's Safe Return  ::MonkeyAngel::

There are numerous articles about the mysterious limo ride if you google it adding Tara's name.

Montel Williams was only brought up when someone asked Tara who Sylvia Brown was. So she responded that it was a famous psychic who was on the Montel Show.
The name Sylvia Brown only cam up as Tara 'thought' that's who she would be meeting.
They drove to the airport hotel then Tara went upstairs alone for two hours with the 'benefactor', who had a baggie of her own daughter's hair. Her daughter was abducted and found dead. Oddly the hair was the same colour as Tori's.  ::MonkeyEek::

The whole story is bizarre as apparently the limo driver snuck through people's back yards to get to Tara's back door.  ::MonkeyEek::

http://www.lfpress.ca/perl-bin/publish.cgi?x=articles&p=263745&s=missing

Also I think there were two separate pressers where Tara said Sylvia had called, but she can't called her back. When she was asked again if she'd talked to her, she still hadn't called her back. So I guess it wasn't worth following up.

Prayers for Tori,
Please god allow LE and searchers to find Tori and bring her home  to her family, where she belongs. Please send your heavenly angels to protect Tori, give Tori  strength and courage until we find her.

second this.....
miracles do happen as we have witnessed in this last week...

3rd this..
We have seen miracles in this last week, dear lord please let the miracles continue..Bring Tori home.

Searching for some news today and found this, not sure if it was posted or not...

http://toricomehome.com/index.html

From the London Free Press:

 

IN TUESDAY'S PAPER:
Who are Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford? Check out our feature profiles of missing Woodstock girl Tori Stafford's mom and dad, online and in print 
 
I guess they're going to have something tomorrow (5/19/09)

Thanks lovin. 
We didn't get newspaper delivery today.  It's a holiday. 
Will check tomorrow.
Very little news it seems.
Where could that poor little girl be - hope she is found soon.

http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1573694

Private investigator joins in Stafford search
Posted 28 mins ago
 

WOODSTOCK — A private investigator has joined in the search for missing eight-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford.

Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford revealed today that a private investigator is now on the case.

The privateinvestigator has offered McDonald and Stafford a lot of insight and has been on the case for about a week.

McDonald says she is considering decreasing her daily press conferences to weekly to allow her more time to go out and search for Tori.

This week, McDonald says, she and friends will be out distributing posters at trucks stops, the US/Canada borders and small towns, covering as much ground as possible.

Stafford and McDonald apologized for their actions Friday, and seem to be getting along better, sharing more memories of their daughter.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/19/9495601-sun.html

Dad searches for himself

Tue, May 19, 2009
By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS 

WOODSTOCK -- Upside down, his head under the muddy water pouring into the car, Rodney Stafford's messed-up life seemed to have reached its logical conclusion.

His past was a tangle of broken relationships. He'd lost his job and his Ontario Works payments were suspended. He wasn't seeing his kids, or his parents or siblings.

In one of God's quirkier jokes, the car he'd just flipped into a ditch was also his home for the past two months.

Yet, he couldn't ignore there were others in the car. And it had landed upside down on the only rock in the drainage ditch. One window, only one, was smashed open.

Stafford unbuckled his seatbelt and with his girlfriend, clambered to the back seat of the upside down car where -- thank God -- her two kids in their car seats were high enough to breathe in a small air pocket. All four managed to get out the broken window and up through the water.

Nobody had anything worse than cuts and bruises.

"I'm not a huge Bible thumper or huge believer in higher powers, but something saved us that day," Stafford says.

A few days later, Stafford went back to see what he could salvage.

Everything inside the car was covered with a cake of mud.

The only things dry were two Bibles he'd been given and put aside for his father. "I was like, 'OK, that was enough for me. I know things have got to change.' "

Deenie ~ I think Victorian answered all your questions.  Thanks Victorian...it was the long weeked and I didn't get a chance to get on the computer.

Thanks Lovinglife for the updates. 

I hope the private investigator can straighten out a few things and find Tori. 

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/19/9495611-sun.html

Mom battles inner self

Tue, May 19, 2009
 
By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS
 

WOODSTOCK -- Images of her face have been broadcast and reprinted across Canada.

Her every word and move are dissected on the Internet. When she touches up her hair, it means something. When she doesn't, it means something.

Sunglasses on, sunglasses off. Tears, or no tears. What does it all mean? Who really is this Tara McDonald?

Unless you're a friend, you'll probably never truly know, McDonald herself says.

"We stick a lot to ourselves and our closest friends," she says of her boyfriend and kids.

"People have turned our life into something exciting and it absolutely isn't at all. We don't go a lot of places. We don't do a lot of things. We go bowling. We go to the movies."

McDonald, 30, is the flint that each day sparks the media's flickering light onto the disappearance of her daughter, Tori Stafford, last reported seen after school April 8.

At the almost daily news conferences on the front lawn of her Frances Street house, she's been at times open, suspicious, friendly and angry.

In a one-on-one interview in her backyard, she answers each question about her life politely and openly. Her marriage to Tori's dad and ex-husband Rodney Stafford began as a "kind of cute" meeting as teenagers that led to dates at her parents' rollerskating rink.

The two shared a love of having fun and childhoods marked by absent fathers.

Stafford's mother and father divorced when he was six. Her father didn't come into her life until she was 12.

She married at 17 on Feb. 24, 1996. Rodney was 20.

"Rodney and I had been together for three years. We knew we were going to get married eventually, so why bother waiting?"

Both had dropped out of high school, McDonald to go to hair-styling school.

"We were really, really young and we did have a good marriage," she says. "We didn't grow together. We grew apart. It wasn't an animosity breakup. It was very civil."

The couple had two children, Daryn, 11, and Tori, 8. McDonald insists she's never kept the kids from Stafford or used them as pawns when she's angry with him.

"What would happen was he would not show up for a visit that he had set up and the kids were so upset. It wasn't that I used them as pawns. I just said if you can't be consistent I can't handle them sitting at the door crying for their dad any more."

Life has been hard enough, McDonald says.

"Just trying to raise two kids properly and on your own . . . you know it's hard. You always worry about where the next meal's going to come from."

She's on social assistance but dreams of finishing training as a doula, a childbirth assistant.

About four years ago, McDonald says, she was introduced to a pill that took the worry away, Oxycontin.

"It makes everything so happy when you're not happy. When you are worried and depressed and upset."

She's on a methadone treatment program now, she says.

Questions about her ability to look after her kids while she was addicted bring a fierce and firm response. Question her appearance, news conferences, moods, demeanour, but don't question her love for her kids.

"I have been the one who has worried about where the next meal is coming from, worried about all of their needs."

Without her, the kids would be lost. And without them, McDonald says, she might be more lost. Her search for Tori takes on a new poignancy.

"If it wasn't for them, a thousand times I'd probably have given up," she says. "You don't feel like you have anything to look forward to. You have no reason to get up.

"When we're sitting there and we're bummed out and we're cranky and we look at them and they're just happy to be kids. They are just happy to be healthy and alive."

There are videos of interviews but I can't get them moved over here for some reason:

http://www.lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/

I am so glad to read they hired a PI. I think this will make a big difference. I wish everyone would just leave them alone now and just concentrate on what is important, finding this lost little girl! One thing I hope the PI investigates is the person on Facebook hell bent on blaming Tara for the kidnapping. In my opinion it is suspect.

Thank you for posting those articles Lovinlife! ::MonkeyWink::

I really hope this PI will be the answer to bringing Tori home. Not a day goes by I'm not thinking about her.

Quote:

About four years ago, McDonald says, she was introduced to a pill that took the worry away, Oxycontin.

"It makes everything so happy when you're not happy. When you are worried and depressed and upset."

She's on a methadone treatment program now, she says.

END


Is she a Heroin addict ?  ::MonkeyEek::

No not herion which you inject I think.

There is some new style drug that is popular it seems with her generation. Oxyitocin(spelling???) or something. it is addicting but does not affect you as herion does. I believe it is a med given for certain mental health dx's?

I knew a girl who was addicted to herion, wow! there is no way that person could have taken care of 2 kids and have them be good, honest kids. Mcdonald's son is a sweet kid  and from what I have read about Tori, she is a cute, sweet little girl.

Not exactly. Oxycontin is a very powerful prescription painkiller. It is known as 'hillbilly heroin'. Hense the methadone treatment for withdrawal from Oxy just as heroin. The opiate family.
Oxycontin is made to be time released. The abuse of it/street use is crushing it to kill the time release factor. Then snort or inject for the high.

On one hand it is good she seeked help for the addiction, but it would be a serious addiction to require methadone.

Also for her to say she was never in debt for using is really a denial statement.
Whether you drink or smoke or play bingo...your addiction costs money. Money better spent elsewhere.
Oxy is not cheap either!

Opp! Wrong drug of choice, lol. Not into the drug research...here is a link to information on oxicontin. I think this is correct now!
http://www.drugs.com/oxycontin.html Seems like it is a prescription pain killer.

Amazing..

Thank You

Edward from what I understand, this drug is used as pot was, but this one is physically addictive. The mom said it was a mistake and has gotten help. If it was a bad addiction to the point of being a helpless drug addict, I don't believe her children would be as well adjusted as they are. Plus, I would think with as much as we know about her, she would admit to a huge drug debt if only to get her daughter.

FWIW, I ended up joining facebook and wrote to both Rodney and Tara and told them about my theories. I also told both of them they needed to say they were sorry and stop the fighting, lol. Maybe they read what I wrote! J/K....My ex and I cannot be in the same room I give them credit for going  through this and only having one argument.

I am hoping we get more information with them using a PI. We have nothing....

Did you not read my post in response to Edward?
Oxy is nowhere near the family of pot. Not sure where that came from.
We're talking similar to morphine. Huge difference.
Yes she sought help, but to need methadone to treat Oxy means it was a severe addiction.

There have been two arrests, LAST NIGHT, in the Tori Stafford case.
This breaking news came this morning @ 7:30 a.m. from CP24 t.v. channel.
A man and woman are in custody.  Apparently they were known to the family.
No details known about Tori at this time.

Imagine an arrests were made last night!   -  and press just learning of it this morning.

Victoria, it's my understanding oxycotin is an opioid (sp).
In Tara's own words, in a press release she gave she mentioned she had relapsed about a year ago after having been on a methadone program.
She's back on the program, according to her.

Her claim is that her addiction had no bearing on being a capable, responsible parent.

self edit for sp. and to add *narcotic*

This is wonderful news Can!!! Going to search for info now.  God bless Tori and keep her safe until help can arrive!
Isn't it ironic how Canadian police make arrests and don't notify the press.  If it's a high profile case here in US, the press is practically invited.

With hope that little Tori will be found safe and sound.  Though I cannot imagine a child being wrenched from the life she has known, without suffering a great deal of trauma. 

This is all I can find.  Can someone keep checking?  I've got to take my son to school!  Keep praying for her safe return...

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Report of arrests in Tori's abduction

Wed, May 20, 2009
 Email Print Write Size: A A A Share:

By JOE BELANGER, LONDON FREE PRESS
 


A Toronto all-news television channel is reporting arrests in the disappearance of eight-year-old Tori Stafford but there’s no word on whether the girl is safe.

Oxford Community Police would not comment on the report that a man and woman known to Stafford’s parents was arrested last night, nor the well-being of Tori, last seen on April 8 walking with an unidentified woman along Fyfe Avenue shortly after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School at approximately 3:30 p.m.

A CP24 correspondent in Woodstock says a man and a woman have been arrested.

It’s the first reported break in a case that sparked a massive search by police and the public, an outpouring of public sympathy, rumours and accusations and growing frustration for her divorced parents, Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford, police and the public.

For more on this breaking story, please return to lfpress.com throughtout the day.

Indeed it is good news - but I hope Tori is o.k. - off to jump between
news channels in other room. 

I don't believe it, JMO.  Maybe now that she's in recovery but I believe there were really bad times in that household.  I've seen addicts neglect their children.  The drugs win, children lose, unfortunately.

Thanks lovin.  This is a Toronto station.  Wouldn't you think the Woodstock region would have learned of it first.  back to t.v.

I agree.

GlobeandMail.com

Christie Blatchford has just reported that police will give a press conference later today and that they are presenting combing an area about an hour out of Woodstock.
Details of Tori unknown.

I agree as well....
this oxy stuff is called hillbilly heroin...powerful stuff...
I have seen the results of this addiction ....it takes over the person's life...nasty nasty stuff...

on another note...any more news in regards to an arrest? fingers crossed!

Police make two arrests in case of missing girl

    * Article
    * Comments (Comment10)
    *

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

Globe and Mail Update

    * E-mail Christie Blatchford
    * | Read Bio
    * | Latest Columns

May 20, 2009 at 8:10 AM EDT

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Ontario Provincial Police have two people in custody in the abduction of Tori Stafford.

The couple are believed to be acquaintances of Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford, the little girl's parents.

Tori disappeared April 8 on her way home from school, where she is in Grade 3.

She was last seen walking with a woman wearing a white puffy coat, an image captured on a surveillance camera located at an adjacent high school. That grainy video is believed to be the key to the case, with OPP and Oxford Community Police going over the image.

Police are expected to hold a news conference here today, with investigators now reportedly combing an area about an hour from Woodstock.

There's still no word on where the little girl might be or how she might be doing.

MORE TO COME
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090520.warrests0520/BNStory/National/home

Dear God in heaven!  CP24 just reported they are searching for Tori's body now, with the assistance of the woman who has been arrested.

God bless little Tori.

Reporter Sue Scambati said Tori was abducted for sexual purposes. 
Though it turns out she knew Tori's family - did not realize the child she abducted belonged to them.

They were trolling for a child - the bast*rds and reporter likened it to the case of Homolka/Bernardo.

Police make arrests in Tori Stafford case

Updated: Wed May. 20 2009 8:34:39 AM

ctvtoronto.ca

Two people have been arrested in connection with the case of missing 8-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford, according to reports.

The Woodstock, Ont., girl went missing on April 8 and was last seen walking away from her school with an unidentified woman.

Police sources close to the case confirmed a man and woman were arrested last night but released few details about the charges they are facing -- or the identities of the suspects.

Authorities are expected to release details of the arrest at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Sources say the suspects in custody are not the girl's parents, according to crime reporter Sue Sgambati. However, police say they are known to Victoria's family.

Police believe Victoria was abducted for "sexual purposes" and investigators are now looking for the child's body near Guelph, Ont., Sgambati told CTV's Canada AM in an interview from Woodstock.

"This was an opportunistic crime, described to me by sources as a worst-case scenario," she said. "Police are looking for Tori's body as we speak outside of this jurisdiction."

Although the suspects know Victoria's parents, police don't believe they knew who their daughter was at the time she was kidnapped, Sgambati said.

"I think there's a lot of shock, even among law enforcement," said Sgambati.

A call to the Oxford Community Police in Woodstock by ctvtoronto.ca went unanswered by press time.

Investigators have previously released a composite sketch of a suspect but despite a number of tips from the public, have failed to locate
any trace of the child.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/stafford_arrest_090520/20090520?hub=Toronto

So sad. And so many people vilified this poor child's mum.

Saying a prayer for little Tori and her family.

this is awful news if it is true that they are looking for Tori's body!! heartbreaking .....

good news that the perps are arrested!

wonder if this woman is the woman who matched the sketch who was also at the vigil for Tori?

PINK ANGEL - Thank you so much for posting those links.

I wonder also cookie. 
There is not enough justice in the world imo for ones that would hurt a child.  May they all rot in hell!

who could do such a thing???
it is shocking to me still when I hear of women being involved in such crimes against children...it goes against all that a woman/mother should represent...someone loving, nurturing, protective...etc...
grrrrr I am so angry right now....

As we've all heard, there has been police progress in this investigation. Since we are not sure of what is happening, out of respect for my family, I have closed down the wall temporarily. The rumour mill has already been put into overdrive this morning, and we are anxiously awaiting the answers to the same questions you are asking. Thank you for understanding my desire to protect my family from further uncertainty...

Thank you all for your support during these VERY trying times.

~ Rebecca






Above is from Tori's Facebook Page.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Two arrests in Tori Stafford case — live streaming and video throughout the day

Wed, May 20, 2009

Suspects are known to missing girl's parents
By JOE BELANGER, LONDON FREE PRESS
 
Police have arrested two suspects in the disappearance of Tori Stafford, who has been missing six weeks.

But the fate of the eight-year-old Woodstock girl is still not known, although there are media reports police are searching for a body in the Guelph area.  ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa::

A police press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. today.

Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford, confirmed the arrests in a brief telephone conversation, but said he’s still waiting for more information.

“All I know is that two people were arrested,” said Stafford, adding he was told by police around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. “I’m hoping to get more information later this morning.”

There's a heavy police presence at a house on Wilson Street in Woodstock, about a block from Tara's home.

CP24, a Toronto all-news television channel is reporting the arrest of a man and woman known to the girl’s parents, Stafford and Tara McDonald.

The station also reported that “police sources” say that the girl's abduction was not a random act but being viewed as an "opportunistic crime" and Tori may have allegedly been sought for "nefarious" purposes.  ::MonkeyNoNo:: ::MonkeyNoNo:: ::MonkeyNoNo::

God Bless Tori!!!!  ::MonkeyAngel:: ::MonkeyAngel:: ::MonkeyAngel:: ::MonkeyAngel:: ::MonkeyAngel::

I am sick...totally sick to my stomach...

God please don't let this be another Sandra Cantu case, I don't think I can handle it. 

Sorry for double posting the article, I got back from running to the school and I didn't know it was already posted.

Here's another article.  THey have the wrong time for the press conference however.

http://www.canada.com/news/arrested+disappearance+girl+Reports/1612290/story.html

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Police on Wednesday confirmed that two people have been arrested in the abduction case of missing Ontario girl Victoria Stafford.


Police said a news conference will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Woodstock, Ont., about 50 kilometres west of Toronto.


Members of the Oxford Community Police and the Ontario Provincial Police said in a release they will update the public about the "recent arrest of two suspects in connection to the abduction."


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


Police were not returning calls Wednesday, however local media reported police are now searching for a body.


The girl's aunt said there had been "police progress" in response to reports of the two arrests.


"As we've all heard, there has been police progress in this investigation," Rebecca Stafford wrote early Wednesday on a Facebook page dedicated to finding her niece.


Stafford closed the Facebook site shortly after posting the message to protect the family from further uncertainty.


"Thank you all for your support during these very trying times," she wrote.


Tori, as she is called by friends, has been missing for six weeks in the southwestern Ontario town.


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


Rodney Stafford said at the time of the release that he "strongly believes" the woman is someone he knew in high school. McDonald, however said she did not recognize the woman. In the video, the suspect was wearing a white winter jacket with tight black jeans.


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


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


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 Facebook groups online dedicated to finding the Grade 3, 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.

It's so incredibly sad. 

My 10 year old was watching the news with me when they said they had made the arrests and that they were looking for her body.  He asked me why would they take her then kill her?  How does one answer such an innocent question that has such an evil answer.

My thoughts and prayers are with Tori and her family.

Sue Scambati CP24 t.v. just said that she will be bringing a video soon, =(perps appeared in a courtroom this a.m.)
The male perp's head was covered and the female was described as a large white woman with corn row hair style. 
Did the woman on the abduction video look large?  - anyway - apparently the connection to the family was to the drug oxycontin, according to Scambati's (sp) report.  Unknown what the charges are.  Police Presser @ 3:00 p.m.

ah...don't be sorry lovin...all that you contribute is just great.

I don't know Canadianmonkey.  I know that I'm going to hug my 7yo extra tight tonight and also remind him that adults don't need help from children and unless they know the code word never go with someone, even if they say they know me or I sent them.  IMO, you can never remind them enough.

 :smt022 :smt022 :smt022 :smt022

I thought that the woman on the video looked small...

The perps have already been in court this morning????? WOW!

I have a stupid question...conflicting reports on the time of the presser, 2:00 or 3:00?  Are you guys on daylight savings time?  It's 9:56am here in Ohio, I assumed we are the same.  TIA, Lovinlife

I believe the discription was 5'...that was the reason everyone said Tara wasn't the perp, she was too tall.  Going back to look...

Reporter Scambati (sp) suggested that it's possible the police were hoping to find Tori, before the arrests became public.

Yes, I noticed the presser conflict.
It is 10:00 am here in Ontario.

BUMP

Yes, I though woman on video was small, so I am confused.

There's live streaming video at this link at the bottom.  I'm at work and can't have the volume on but it looks like they are talking about Tori.

Something about neighbours...

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Thanks lovin.  I wonder if it is a sex ring.  Would really like clarification on size of arrested female.

BTW CP-24 said they will be updating on their website all day.  I expect the video that Scambati is getting together will be there.
I might try to get there...not to savy about such things.

Thanks (fellow-lol) Canadian - I'll try to go there.

(http://i44.tinypic.com/25gthyo.jpg)

[/quote]Man & Woman in this pic at the Vigil?

Woodstock press conference pushed back to 3 p.m.
cp24.com

 http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/090520_stafford/20090520/?hub=CP24Home

A police press conference about arrests made in connection with Tori Stafford's abduction has now been pushed back an hour to 3 p.m., an hour after it had been previously scheduled.
Tune in to CP24 on TV or on Radio 1050 as we will carry it live.


Updates will also be posted online.

http://www.livestream.com/lfpress


lfp plans to do an update at the top and bottom of every hour
- broadcasting live
- too much feedback from sound
- new info, ppl deployed in woodstock, feeding that info
- 1 major thing . house on wilson .. reported earlier that police had descended on house about a block away ..neighbours of that house reported to LE something suspicious going on .. and that the arrests were made shortly after that
- slowly picture is emerging about how LE found out about people on wilson st & how that lead to an arrest - sounds like it happened quickly
- unknown if LE already were monitoring the house
- man & woman arrested - still in court as far as they know
- know woman , according to neighbours ,looks like comp sketch & also know that the woman is not tara's friend SL
- was lots of speculation around SL, but it is not TM friend SL
- woman arrested does look like sketch
- lots of chat ppl asking if they are looking for body & if tori is alive, dont have anwers
- will have twitter updates throughout the day
- if something does turn up in guelph, they will send someone to guelph from woodstock
- they dont know what the charges are let, will let us know when they know
- leaving live stream on so they can update at any time
- LE press conference is at 3pm, not 2pm - they will bring that press conference live at 3pm
- guelph search - not confirmed yet, some ppl say they havent seen police prescence there .. they 'heard' police searching near guelph
- will be updated again at 10:30

(borrowed from over yonder)

Just terrible.. I am happy to have seen an arrest.
These 2 people are known to the family. That is really sick.
Good job on LE part in Canada, The silence was deafening at times but they were working the case the whole time.

Pink Angel - thanks for the summary -
I was not able to get the live - kept getting error message.

Breaking news now: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Lovinlife, If that comparrison photo turns out to be true, whomever did that should get the monkey highest award.

Yes - it was deafening Edward. 
I would still like to know what charges the couple were arrested on.
Seems some neighbors reported suspicious activities.  Don't know if that was a key lead or whether the police were already focused.
Just a block away from Tori's home.  Oh, if one could only go back in time.

Michael Thomas Rafferty -- Charges abduction & murder 1
Terry Lynn Clintock -- I missed the charges but updating website

I'm not sure of the spellings.

I'm going to step away for a minute, I'm sick to my stomach.

Michael Allen Rafferty and Teri Lynn McLintock (sp)
lfp just announced the suspects

The man was charged with abduction and first degree murder.
The woman was charged with abduction and accessory to murder (after the fact)

I believe that's what was said.

From what i can tell from the chat at the bottom of the live streaming...they said murder charges.

Micheal Thomas sorry.

so, it's true then? that they did murder this innocent little child?? A child who was living her life, loving her family, innocently leaving her school, just being a little kid? 
I am sorry, but when ever I hear about such awful things, it is difficult to keep faith...for me anyway...
I hope that these 2  die a horrible death...
I am so sick about this...

michael thomas rafferty - charge abduction and first degree murder

terry lynn mclintoch - charge abduction, assisting Rafferty in escaping and accessory to murder after the fact

I agree Edward. Although I know we aren't here for a pat on the back, it is nice to know that sometimes we're on the correct path.  This case has stunk from day one IMO. 

If they are charged with murder, they must know that Tori is no longer of this earth.  If Tori is in God's hands now I can be comforted by that.  Now justice must prevail.

The station also reported that “police sources” say that the girl's abduction was not a random act but being viewed as an "opportunistic crime" and Tori may have allegedly been sought for "nefarious" or sexual purposes.

A police source told Sun Media that they are following leads in their search for the girl, but are "preparing for the worst."

 "nefarious"= flagrantly wicked or impious : Evil ..



Tori and mom moved in just one week earlier .. These 2 people, befriended the family and planned a professional, flagrant "In Your Face" kidnap of a innocent little girl for the purpose of sexual gratification..
and lived only 2 blocks away..
That is arrogance indeed...

There must be drug use in the middle of this ?

But it was not some world wide kidnapping ring.. Something to learn from when we look at other cases..
Very Sad.. Just like in Sandra's case it was somebody they knew..

Murder one. 
They must have evidence that life was not possibly sustainable.
Maybe a confession from the female as well?

Two arrests in Tori Stafford case — live streaming and video throughout the day

Wed, May 20, 2009

Suspects are known to missing girl's parents
 Email Print Write Size: A A A Share:

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By LONDON FREE PRESS
 



 
Victoria (Tori) Stafford 
 
WOODSTOCK — The investigation into little Tori Stafford's disappearance has now become a murder case before the courts.

A man and a woman arrested in the disappearance of the eight-year-old girl appeared in court in Woodstock this morning, charged with abduction and murder.

Charged are Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, who faces counts of murder and abduction, and Terri Lynn McClintic, who is facing counts of abduction, accessory to murder after the fact and helping Rafferty to escape authorities.

It was not immediately clear where the two accused live.

The fate of the eight-year-old Woodstock girl is still not known, although there are media reports police are searching for a body in the Guelph area.
*snipped

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Edward...I am not handling this one too good...the mere fact that it was planned, seeing someone leading Tori away from her school...the implications of what this kidnapping means...it is really really hard to handle...
WHY??!!! WHY WHY WHY!!! what pleasure does a grownup get from molesting a child????? I really have to step away for a few hours ...

The fact that they referred to it as a case like the Paul Bernardo and Carla Homolka cases is what got to me and started the tears.  I'm in the area where Paul Bernardo was and this city still feels the effects.  To think of another child going through what happened to Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffey makes me sick to my stomach.

She is 18 and he is 28.

Here is her pic.

(http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090520/450_female_suspect_090520.jpg)

The neighbor who lived next door to her and called in the tip to police said Terri said she cut her hair recently because "bubblegum" got stuck in it.

http://bit.ly/uW2hB

Here is the link to the above pic's article. The male is shown but he is covered. There is pics and video.

Two arrested for MURDER...


http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/stafford_arrest_090520/20090520?hub=Toronto

 ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa::
As many of you I was hoping and praying this would end differently. Please keep the updates coming. I am just sick another little girl.....I just can't stand it  ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa::

God Bless and be with Tori's family and friends, they are going through complete hell right now.

 It was reported on CP24 that it is believed that Tori was murdered on April 8th, the day she was abducted.


my heart has been breaking all morning.

it breaks for Tori and what she must have went through and it breaks for her family for all they have been through and what faces them going forward.

it's all so sad and so tragic.

(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/160/rafferty.jpg)

(http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/87/1d/b47fd98c48d18b54b210cf55186e.jpeg)

http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1575566

LFP Live
- chat room being turned on, pls be civil & remember just because they are charged doesnt mean they have committed it, or that a crime has been committed .. has to go through process .. trial - verdict, then can pass judgement
- one thing most important is that our reporters at CH is woodstock talked briefly with RS and asked him for his reaction and his quote "i'm devistated, i dont know where to go from here" ..
- reports through chat that a 3rd person has been charged (not confirmed yet, but LFP looking into it)
- right now they are in the media echo chamber - a lot of stuff being reported that hasnt been confirmed, they are only going with what can be confirmed for sure
- confirmed 2 ppl charged & charges, no body has been found, do have reporter on way to guelph (north of guelph) to nail down reports of police search in that area.
- report sr member of OPP on his way to highway intersection by guelph (not confirmed)
- ages Terri 18years, Michael 28 years old
- they are working on profiles, and will update on site throughout the day, please stop by website for stories and for live stream updates every half hr
- will come back as soon as they know anything, if something BIG they will come back right away(even if its not the top / bottom of hour)
- trying to establish whether the 2 that have been charged knew tori and her parents & how they are connected, will get that to us asap
- again LE press conference at 3pm

(per LuckyPenny, over yonder)

The Wilson Street home is four or five blocks from Frances Street, where Tori had moved with her mother, Tara McDonald, and older brother one week before her April 8 abduction.

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.

http://www.canada.com/news/Murder+abduction+charges+Tori+Stafford+disappearance/1612290/story.html

I am compartmentalizing as best I can to deal with the news received today to the best of my ability.  So, I'm curious to know more of the Canadian judicial system as I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know much of my northern neighbors even though it's about 50 miles from me "as the crow flies".  I found this link http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/research/guides/int_foreign/canada/index.html if anyone is interested in doing some reading on the subject.  I am also interested in what our Canadian monkeys have to say regarding this issue. 

I am also curious if some facebook members have access to comments being left on Tori's facebook site.  In a town of 36,000 there must be people who know these scumbags.

I'm with you on that, I'm in the middle of reading about these two evil people, and when I saw a reference to them this morning, I was sick.

Oh my God, I thought maybe these two evil freaks might have been keeping her alive for awhile. I'm not familiar with Canadian laws, but I sure hope they are kept away in a jail cell for life, unlike what happened with Karla H.

Tori's Aunt shut down the facebook site this morning. I posted her comments a page or two back. :)

http://www.am980.ca/home/News/GeneralNewsDetail/tabid/967/Default.aspx?id=7975

This station is reporting:
Tori's body was found late this morning north of Guelph in Rockwood along the Wellington Road 27-area.  Police have not yet confirmed those reports.

The murder charges for both specifically say for the murder of Tori Stafford on April 8 , 2009.  Reporters are saying to be that specific on the charges that the OPP has known for some time and have been waiting on enough evidence to bring down the charges. 

ive stream LFP
- they are getting together profiles
- some info to report .. accused Michael had moved in with his mother & her b/f @ 70 Tennyson Street(sp?), Woodstock .. he was quiet & kept to himself... month ago there was dispute, he was angry with his mothers b/f & police were on his door step (randy richmond is who the info is coming from - reporter)
- confirmed 2 suspects did NOT live together, not sure if they had relationship, Michael lived with his mother and her b/f and Terri lived with her mother (Carol)
- news from outside of court house in woodstock - RS brother & BIL were waiting for accused to come out of court house & there was a shouting match, had to be intervention
- still working on profiles
- reporter John Miner on way to north of Guelph
- Police press conference at 3pm
- will update again in the next half hour
- no confirmation that a body has been found

    
Tori Stafford case upgraded to murder
By JOE BELANGER, LONDON FREE PRESS
The London Free Press
         
Bookmark and Share


Reports out of Woodstock say that there have been two arrests in the Victoria Stafford abduction case. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO


   
Live streaming video: Arrests in Tori Stafford case
   
Private investigator takes Tori case
   
Tori's parents go at it in doorstep dustup
   
Tori's mom fighting drug demon
   
Chronology of a missing girl

   
Images: The search for Tori Stafford

What's your view on the Tori Stafford case?
Blog: The black hole where children disappear

   Where she went missing

WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- Two people have been charged with the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford.

Both made brief court appearances in a Woodstock court this morning to be arraigned on charges relating to the police investigation that started when Stafford was reported missing on April 8.

Teri Lynn McClintic is charged with abducting Stafford from her parents Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford. She was also read charges of assisting Michael Thomas C. S. Rafferty in escaping the area.

Rafferty was read charges of having abducted Stafford, and then, in Woodstock or elsewhere in Ontario, having murdered her. McClintic was read a third charge of having been an accessory to murder after the fact.

Security at the Oxford County Court House was high for the accused's first appearance. McClintic was read her charges first, appearing in the basement courtroom dressed all in black with her hair in braids. She remained composed as her charges were read.

Rafferty was visibly upset as he entered the courtroom, exchanging glances with his mother who was seated in the front row. Prior to the arrival of the justice of the peace, Rafferty broke down and began crying.
   

When he stood to have his charges read and was asked if he understood his charges, he said “yes” through tears.

McClintic is listed as a resident of Wilson Street, Woodstock, where a couple of Oxford Community Police Service cruisers were standing guard Wednesday. Rafferty is listed as a resident of Tennyson Street, Woodstock.

http://bit.ly/SRP0h

CBC Toronto

Rodney Stafford just outside police station .  Very distraught.  Went inside to speak with police.  May speak later but too distraught to speak now.

Michael Thomas Rafferty  28 - charge with murder and abduction. 

While police walked Rafferty to the police van one of Tori Stafford's uncles swore and lunged at suspect.  Had to be restrained by police

Terri-Lynne McClintic 18 - charged with kidnapping and accessory to murder.  Knowing that the murder had taken place she assisted Rafferty in escaping.

Both being held in London Ontario after today's court appearance.

Approximately 68 kms

CBC Toronto

Court documents show Tori was murdered day she was abducted. 

Police news conference schedule 3:00pm eastern time from Woodstock

Thanks for the updates and map  ::MonkeyAngel::

Guelph is predominantly farming community.  They just showed a OPP chopper waiting to commence search for remains.  They have not found the remains yet.

Would someone mind to put the link up to the live feed? Is there more then one? If so, please post them?

TIA

CTV is reporting that the 18 year old was new to the residence, had only been there a couple of months.  New video is out I will try to take some screen captures.

It is sickening...and so was the sweetheart deal Karla rec'd from the crown.
My friends and I agreed @ the time...it changed the way we raised our teenaged daughters.  The Scarborough Rapist (later known to be Bernardo)- stalked and viciously raped
girls in Scarborough, before meeting Karla Homolka.  She became his trolling partner.  The first death was that of Karla's little sister, in the Homolka family home.  A death that was thought to be accidental @ the time.  Homolka used the drugs she stole from the vet.  clinic where she worked, to subdue her sister for their sick pleasure.

Tori's alleged perp. and abductor is charged with accessory to murder after the fact. 
She'll be out on the streets in a few years just like Homolka. 
It makes me angry...she took the little girl in the first place!!!!
 

I am watching it live on TV. 

You can try this link but note sure if it is live or not  http://watch.ctv.ca/news/Redirect/?ClipId=173951

They are now showing the OPP chopper in the air as well as a search boat going along the shows of a body of water.

Thank you Nor Rose

Now showing search team walking along shores of a body of water as well.  Could be a river?

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Here's the link for the only live feed i know about.  They were having problems earlier.  It's a tiny place.  They aren't used to so many people being on their website.  All I can say is have patience.  It took me about an hour to get on.

Unconfirmed location of Tori's body. ::MonkeyWaa:: ::MonkeyWaa::

I'm livid about this, I'm reading all about Homolka/Bernardo, and to think this woman is going to get some deal, makes me sick.

Michael Thomas C. S. Rafferty

Can someone explain to me what C.S. stands for?  ::MonkeyConfused:: TIA, Lovinlife

I could, but you don't want me too.

  ::MonkeyEek:: Is it not his middle initials  ::MonkeyConfused::

in my head it means coxucker...but I wondered if it was some sort of title.  Sorry Mods--delete if necessary.

lol

http://www.livestream.com/lfpress

LOL.  That's great.

It appears Tori Stafford has been murdered.  But I am waiting for official confirmation that the body recovered is Tori's before I make that notation on the thread and before I move it.  I'm so sorry.  I was hopeful she would be found alive.    ::MonkeyNoNo:: ::MonkeyWaa::

What does those initials mean, I am really confused  ::MonkeyConfused::

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

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/arrested+disappearance+girl+Reports/1612290/story.html

It's short form for Laugh out Loud. 

Timeline: The Victoria Stafford file
 
 
By Natalie Stechyson, Canwest News ServiceMay 20, 2009 1:01 PM
 
April 8: Victoria Stafford is last seen in the afternoon walking home from school, but she never arrives. An Amber Alert is not issued.


April 9: Surveillance camera footage from a local high school surfaces, capturing what police say was the child and an unidentified woman. Victoria does not appear to be struggling in the video. The woman is described as between 19 and 25, white, five-foot-two and about 125 pounds with a black ponytail. Stafford's grandparents offer a $10,000 reward for her return.


April 10: Police appeal for woman in video to come forward.


April 11: Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police says that there have been many questions about why an Amber alert was not issued. "At the time of the call coming in, we didn't have what was required for an Amber alert — not even close." A Facebook group — Find Victoria Stafford — already has 10,000 members.


April 12: Hundreds gather in Woodstock at 8 p.m. to hold a vigil for Stafford. Tori's mother makes a tearful appeal for her daughter to contact her family. "Anywhere, anyway that she can get back to us, if she can call or get away, find a way to come home," said Tara McDonald.


April 13: Police call off the ground search after finding no clues. Const. Maitland says: "I think the feeling among police is, yes, she is (alive), and I am happy to report that feeling."


April 14: Stafford's classmates return to school for the first time since her disappearance.


April 15: Parents reveal they took lie detector tests on the weekend. America's Most Wanted features Stafford's case as its top story.


April 17: It is announced that Ontario Provincial Police take over the search. Det. Insp. William Renton says the case is now officially classified as an abduction, not just a missing person. Tara McDonald speaks to a throng of media outside her home and says she believes her daughter is still alive. "I'm her mother, I know her better than anyone else on the planet," she said.


April 21: Police release a composite sketch of the woman in the video.


April 22: Rodney Stafford says he believes he recognizes the woman in the sketch, but Tara McDonald says she is not familiar with her.


May 3: Rodney Stafford lashes out on Facebook. "If by chance the persons responsible for the disappearance of Victoria are reading this I hope you are scared, nervous or whatever your sick minds are feeling right now. But know this . . . Daddy and the world are coming for Victoria."


May 4: Police release video footage of a dark coloured station wagon being driven on the same street where Victoria Stafford was last seen walking with a woman.


May 8: Tara McDonald says she is tired of gossip and rumours that she is somehow involved in the disappearance of her child and urges people to focus on Tori.


May 12: McDonald reads an open letter to her missing daughter, and urges her to stay strong.


May 15: Stafford's parents fight publicly in a daily media conference. Stafford lashed out at his ex-wife for displaying a lack of emotion, while she countered he was able to cry for the cameras because he feels guilty for being an absentee father. McDonald later spoke in more detail about her past addiction to drugs, saying 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. Suspicions that her daughter's disappearance is related to a drug debt are unfounded, McDonald said.


May 20: Two arrests are made. Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, appear in court. Both are charged with abduction. Rafferty is charged with murdering Stafford on April 8. McClintic is charged with knowingly aiding and enabling Rafferty. Rafferty and McClintic are scheduled to appear in court on May 28 in Woodstock, Ont.

http://www.canada.com/news/Timeline+Victoria+Stafford+file/1612780/story.html

Rafferty, 28, was also read charges of having abducted Stafford, and then, in Woodstock and elsewhere in Ontario, having murdered her. McClintic was read a third charge of having been an accessory to murder after the fact.

Teri Lynn McClintic was adopted at age three by Rob and Carol McClintic, who would later split up. The parents both moved out of Woodstock.

Now 18, it's believed she moved back to Woodstock a few years ago and troble soon followed. "She was getting into trouble, hanging out with the wrong people," her paternal grandmother, Nancy, told The Free Press.

http://www.lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

I believe No Rose was asking about the "C.S" in the name.

CP24 just reported both people arrested ARE KNOWN to Tori's father.

Tori's dad just came out of the police station.  Reports are saying police have told him what they know .

House that Teri Lynn McClintic was arrested in last night

Arial view they are now showing

Police searching this morning

The step Dad ( the boyfriend )  or the real Dad.( Bio Dad ) ?
This is horrid. We are all talking about it at work. Well, mostly me.
Why wasn't the woman charged with kidnapping ? Tori left the school with the woman. The Justice Dept. here better not make any "deals" with this lady or there will be rioting in Canada on the streets. And we have different laws, no sunshine laws, so very little will come out until the trial. And we have no Death Penalty.
Twenty five is the maximum unless declared a habitual. Sometimes they "gate"  them and figure out some NEW charges on their way out.

I was, thanks. So McClintic lived with her mom and Rafferty lived with his mom, has there been something that I may have missed, how these two got together?

News conference feed

Oh my, did they say in which way?

The one with the tattoos on his arm I believe.  It was stated at the same time they were showing his images.

Nothing as of yet.  According to neighbours McClintic only lived there for 2 months.

Thank-you for all the pics that are being posted. And Kat_Gram, I didn't think there was the death penalty in Canada, but I wasn't sure, thanks.

They have not.  Newsnet was just saying that both may possibly be known by Tori's mom but had no confirmation.

Kat_Gram great explanation.  As Kat explained, there will be little to nothing reported about evidence or the trial.  25 years max if this is first time for either.  Habitual offender has to go through many hoops and granted by a judge before they are given that status.  Nothing like the 3 strikes in Cali.   

Sue Sgambati reported earlier that it is believed the connection was with oxycontin and also that the abductor knew of the family but did not know Tori or that she was part of that family.  Sgambati keeps saying this is an opportunistic abduction.

But, I have also heard Tori was targeted....go figger

http://www.youtube.com/wfYzab8Uw5A

Link to the court shuffle.


If one of the mod's scan this, you can remove that MESS I posted above.  ::MonkeyConfused::

tia

Thks Pink Angel  ::MonkeyAngel::

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34702.aspx

A neighbour of the accused couple on Wilson St. in Woodstock admitted to CityNews that he had suspicions about them for quite some time, and even called police at one point to express his concern.



"We got close to them to get information from them," said Craig Mancini. "We were always back and forth talking to them, she was nice and wanted to do our laundry and stuff. I would actually go into the basement, and my girlfriend would say 'look in the basement and see if there's anything in there.'"

Conference will only be for media and police officials, No family.

Rockwood  Ontario is where the search for remains have moved to.  Rafferty used to live not far from there.  Police has interviewed former neighbours and landlord.  Rafferty Moved Feb 2008 to Woodstock.  Rafferty originally from Newfoundland.  Reporters going to actual search location which is just outside of Rockwood.  Still nothing to confirm remains have been found.  20 officers, sniffing dogs and chopper are at staging area for search right now.

  ::MonkeyEek::  Is there a suggestion that perhaps Tori's mom was buying drugs from one or both of the suspects? If so the guilt and heartbreak must be completely overwhelming. My heart goes out to all of Tori's family and little friends  ::MonkeyAngel::

Since the female is not charged with murder but conspiracy to murder after the fact...I don't believe for a minute that she will get 25 years.
25 years is the MAX.
They will be eligible for parole. 
Unless the male is declared a dangerous offender - a rare happenstance.

I believe the parole cuts 1/3 off the time. 

This was a huge issue when Homolka was up for parole.  Citizens so outraged...wanted her to serve her complete sentence - a mere 12 years.
Corrections Canada seems to think that if a person is out on parole, they can be monitored to some extent...transition back into society...

All too liberal for my mindset...particularly when it applies to such heinous crimes.
 

Very liberal, and it makes me sick. ::MonkeyEek::

Could someone please throw up a map of Rockwood, Guelph and Woodstock.  I saw a previous map but that was before they announced the search was now in Rockwood.

I will keep watching the news feeds and reporting as it comes out.

I should have said when a person become eligible  for a parole hearing.
in my earlier post.  No guarantee after serving two thirds of their time.

lfp live feed update.

Another tragic fragmented family here. Rob McClintic, had seen video but did not recognize his daughter in the video. He had not seen her for 10 - 12 years. Terry-Lynne was adopted, Birth mother was stripper who put Rob on birth certificate as father, his then wife (also a stripper) and him adopted Terry-Lynne. They separated and he now lives on east coast.

Rafferty, an old girlfriend (Jennifer from 3 yrs ago) said he was likeable decent guy but started stealing from her (small claims court he had used her debit card to steal from her) some sexual deviance in relationship she would not allow. Jennifer's daughter was 2 1/2 yrs old at the time.
McClintic had lived in Guelph for some time. They met on internet.

(via kaas over yonder)

Thanks everyone for all the updates and screen caps.

I think they should have allowed the uncle to do a "little talking" to him.

I think the cs stands for chicken sh@# ! Hiding like that

I wonder if this was the woman in the video, could have been someone else? Maybe that is why she was not charged with kidnapping?
I suppose what the woman in the video could have been telling tori if she minded if she walked along with tori...This is a sad day

Here is his dating profile.

http://www.plentyoffish.com/member12212778.htm

bump

Sorry...messed up....there is a map showing ROCKWOOD on page 18 post 356

Wow he  looked and seemed so normal  from  that profile. Too bad these people  didn't have a big old tatoo on their forehead!

The profile said he has a car, wonder what type?

Did they have the news conference from the school yet? If not, is that going to be live streamed somewhere?

Latest from Newsnet:

Not clear what relationship between the two charged is. 

Rafferty's neighbours did not seem to know him even though he has lived there for a few months. 

Tara McDonald - Tori's mom, has not spoken to media today.   

Search going on in Rockwood right now.  Reports are young female arrested has given police information that led them to search area

Search is about 1 hour outside of Woodstock

OPP, canine, and chopper is involved.  No confirmation that remains have been found.

news conference will be in about 1/2 hour.  Not sure about the stream. I can look at the three local channels and let you know.

Pair charged with abducting and killing Tori Stafford

A man and a woman from Woodstock, Ont., have been charged in the abduction and killing of eight-year-old Tori Stafford.

Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, were taken into custody on Tuesday night. They made brief appearances as charges were filed Wednesday morning at a court in the southern Ontario community.

Rafferty was charged with abduction and murder. McClintic was charged with abducting the child, assisting Rafferty in escaping the area and being an accessory to murder after the fact.

The charges leave no doubt as to the fate of the little girl, though neither police nor family have confirmed the child's death. Victoria, known as Tori to her friends and family, has been missing since early April, when she failed to return home after school.

Police have scheduled a news conference for 3 p.m. ET to release more details.

The pair, who were taken into custody on Tuesday night, were driven to the Oxford County courthouse on Wednesday morning by police.

Rafferty pulled his shirt over his head to avoid having his image captured by news photographers. McClintic walked into the court wearing a black top and with her dark hair set in tight braids. Reporters in the courtroom said Rafferty broke down in tears while waiting for the judge to appear.

Both were remanded in custody until May 28.

Tori has been missing since April 8. The Grade 3 student was last seen in a grainy surveillance video that showed her walking from school with an unknown woman, who had long black hair and was wearing a white jacket.

Family 'anxiously awaiting' details
Victoria Stafford, shown in a family photo from July 2008, had been missing since she left her school in Woodstock, Ont., on April 8. (Canadian Press)Before the accused appeared in court Wednesday, Tori's father, Rodney Stafford, told CBC News that police had informed him on Tuesday night that two arrests had been made, but did not provide any further information.

"Tara [McDonald, Tori's mother] and I were both given a phone call last night and made aware that two arrests have been made. We're not sure where from or who they are — and they didn't give any details on Victoria. All we know is that two arrests have been made and we'll find out the details later this morning [Wednesday]."

Stafford and McDonald are divorced.

A message posted on the family's Facebook site on Wednesday said the family was "not sure of what is happening," while the comment section had been closed down.

"Out of respect for my family, I have closed down the wall temporarily," wrote Tori's aunt, Rebecca Stafford. "The rumour mill has already been put into overdrive this morning, and we are anxiously awaiting the answers to the same questions you are asking.

"Thank you for understanding my desire to protect my family from further uncertainty."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/05/20/tori-stafford.html