8 Year Old Victoria “Tori” Stafford Missing Since 4/8/09 in Ontario, Canada

[Northern Rose]

Teen 'had tough life growing up'

May 22, 2009 04:30 AM
Raveena Aulakh
Staff reporter

WOODSTOCK, ONT.–The 18-year-old woman charged in Victoria "Tori" Stafford's abduction and murder was molested as a child, her mother and friends said yesterday.

"She (Terri) told me she was sexually assaulted when she was about 4 or 5," said Nikki Kayla, an 18-year-old student in Parry Sound who grew up with Terri-Lynne McClintic. "She would get very emotional and even angry when she talked about it. It doesn't excuse what she did but, you know, she had a tough life growing up."

Terri-Lynne and her boyfriend, Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, both of Woodstock, were arraigned Wednesday morning; she for assisting in the abduction of the 8-year-old girl, and he for first-degree murder and abduction. Tori was abducted on April 8, a couple of blocks away from her home.

Kayla, who went to the same school as Terri-Lynne for four years, said the two were "best friends," and played together for the Parry Sound Phantoms, the local hockey team.

"We always knew each other's secrets but this (sexual assault) was a nightmare she lived with," said Kayla from her Parry Sound home.

Yesterday evening, Terri-Lynne's mother, Carol McClintic, confirmed her daughter had been molested as a child. "She told me but did not really understand what had happened. I did not let this man (near her) again."

Terri-Lynne lived with Carol, a former dancer-stripper, about four blocks from Tori's house. Carol adopted Terri-Lynne when she was 9 months old. Terri-Lynne has since lived with her, as well as in at least two foster homes and detention centres.

The young woman had been in and out of juvenile homes for the past five years for numerous misdemeanours like fighting and aggression, Carol said. But when Terri-Lynne came home last July, she had changed. "We have been tighter than before," said Carol, who is battling intestinal cancer. "She changed, for the better."

Then Terri-Lynne met Michael Rafferty five months ago. "He didn't like me because I was strict. I didn't know him and I didn't want him to pull her in a wrong direction."

Carol claims she warned Terri-Lynne about Rafferty. "He gave me the creeps ... he made my skin crawl," she said.

"I have five grandkids and Terri-Lynne is like a saint with them," said Carol, who has a 34-year-old daughter and a 31-year-old son who live in Brampton. Carol said Terri-Lynne and Tori had met thanks to dogs – Carol owns two small dogs.

"The only thing I knew about Terri-Lynne was that she walked the dogs and Tori had talked to her about Precious (one of the dogs) as she is the same as their dog," said Carol.

She met Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, and James Goris, her boyfriend, who she said wanted to breed their dog, Cosmo, with her dogs.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/638603

[Northern Rose]

Newsnet

Police are asking if anyone has seen this car to call the number.  The vehicle is in custody but police feel that the car is key.  It was seen in parking lot video at the HomeDepot in Guelph the evening of April 8th.

[can]

Thanks again NorRose.

I wonder if forensics have come back from the car.

[Northern Rose]

Thanks again NorRose.

I wonder if forensics have come back from the car.

I do as well.  I believe that the car was taken when Rafferty was arrested so I doubt it though as it is too soon.

[pink angel]

Thanks NorRose, hon. The updates are much appreciated.



Ya know, I am really sick of hearing about how all these abusers and murders had a "hard life". Plenty of people have hard lives and don't go on to murder and/or abuse people.

At least she has a life. Tori sadly doesn't any longer.

[Kat_Gram]

As far as I am concerned, Terri had a hard life. She was in the system and always it seems in trouble. Help was available for her, she chose not to go in that door. She probably had plenty of resouces available through the courts.
..
Here is Canada, we have a different health care system that in the US. A person can go to treatment for no cost. An individual's lack of resources for treatment is not a barrier.
..
I right now don't give a carp about Terri.
..
It was ten days before the police changed their status from missing to abducted.
Several persons reported their suspicions about Terri to the police with specifics. I was not following this case intently until recently but the articles I read and the issued police statments made me think that the police thought it was a family abduction. This will all come out as Tori's family is going to demand an explanation and an investigation into the investigation. And Tara will have the public in Canada behind her. 

[can]

I'm getting worried as to how long it is taking to find Tori.

Wonder if the perps made a purchase @ home depot, and if it was a blue tarp I think I saw on the garbage bin they took away for testing.

Guess crybaby isn't going to tell where Tori is.  He knows the area.  Just cry and maintain his innocence.

[Kat_Gram]

The case they have against Mr. Rafferty is Terri-Lynne and what she said.
The OPP better smarten up and do their damn job, else we have another Paul / Karla Love / Hate story.
..
There was a black strap in the video across the white puffy jacket. Tara thought Tori might have been lured with a small puppy / dog in a sling.
..
I am too far away to go to Woodstock, else I would.
I am just so damn mad at the Police and the OPP for their tunnel vision. 

[can]

The case they have against Mr. Rafferty is Terri-Lynne and what she said.
The OPP better smarten up and do their damn job, else we have another Paul / Karla Love / Hate story.
..
There was a black strap in the video across the white puffy jacket. Tara thought Tori might have been lured with a small puppy / dog in a sling.
..
I am too far away to go to Woodstock, else I would.
I am just so damn mad at the Police and the OPP for their tunnel vision. 

I hope they have more than T-L's words. 
Rafferty's car must contain some evidence.  Also they were probably both seen in the vehicle @ home depot, via security cameras.

There is a petition for changes to the Amber Alert.  CP24 has been talking about it all day and interviewing people "on the street" - The petition is up on CP-24's website.

[Kat_Gram]

I don't think a change in the Amber Alert would have made a difference in this one when they were treating it a a missing person and a family kidnapping rather than a stranger abduction. I know they have to look at the family, but can't they look at the family at the same time that they conduct an investigation ? If the suspect car was in Guelph at a Home Depot in the evening, there could have been a chance. If it wasn't for the surveilance camera and the tape, these creeps might still be on the loose.
My understanding is that Tara had a job and she was at work when the white puffy coat B took Tori. How could the police think it was her when she was at work ?

[can]

Amber alerts have been successful in family kidnappings as well.

I understand they were doing a parallel investigation. 

Tara said they had five looking @ the family and 95 investigating other possibilities.  She did say, that five were too many as they were wasting their time and resources.

I have no idea if Tara works or not.  Earlier in the case I remember some mention of a visit to her Grandfather @ the nursing home near Tori's school.  Don't know if this is fact or rumor.

[no rose colored glasses]

I don't think a change in the Amber Alert would have made a difference in this one when they were treating it a a missing person and a family kidnapping rather than a stranger abduction. I know they have to look at the family, but can't they look at the family at the same time that they conduct an investigation ? If the suspect car was in Guelph at a Home Depot in the evening, there could have been a chance. If it wasn't for the surveilance camera and the tape, these creeps might still be on the loose.
My understanding is that Tara had a job and she was at work when the white puffy coat B took Tori. How could the police think it was her when she was at work ?

I didn't follow all the rumors or some of the things that were being said about Tori's mom until a couple days ago. I read up on different forums, and oh my some of the things being said    Do some of you feel that perhaps some of the things being said, such as the drugs being purchased from Terri, and maybe that Tara isn't being as truthful about knowing Terri? I don't know, and the last thing I want to do is say anything wrong, because I can't imagine what Tori's mom and entire family is going through. Some people are suggesting there may be more to this than meets the eye, but I don't feel there is. I just pray this child is found and given to the family for a proper burial.

[Kat_Gram]

I did not follow this until someone over in the Caylee thread asked us to look at the sketch and a pic of Tara's sister.
..
From reliable and reputable media sources, ie the Globe and Mail, Christine Blatchford, I heard about the drug connection. And she reiterated this from reliable " sources " after the arrests were made. Ms. Blatchford has now set the record straight and said the only connection was that Tara had some conversations with Carol about breeding their dogs.
.. Terri was taken into custody April 12 on an unrelated matter. Several individuals recognized Terri from the tapes and reported it soon after the tape was played on tv.
Terri cut her hair and dyed the white puffy jacket pink.
Ms. Blatchford is was a respected journalist and it appears she got caught up in the gossip and went with the rumors and put it in print as if it was true.
The comment section in that paper are diasabled due to legal issues. It is one thing for me to say what I think on a blog on the internet. It is another matter when the Globe and Mail
published this nonsense of Ms. Blatchford as the gospel truth.
I have always read her stuff and I am going to try to contact her and tell her what I think of her and what she did to the family of this girl.

[Kat_Gram]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toris-mother-police-process-are-both-vindicated-at-last/article1150281/

Some of these persons who made comments before they disabled them due to legal issues said what I wanted to say except they did it much better than I could.

[no rose colored glasses]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toris-mother-police-process-are-both-vindicated-at-last/article1150281/

Some of these persons who made comments before they disabled them due to legal issues said what I wanted to say except they did it much better than I could.

Thank-you that was interesting.

[Kat_Gram]

I have to admit I thought there was something very hinky about Tara. I  didn't watch the daily pressers but rather based my opinion on what I read and quite a bit of it was from the Globe and Mail. I never did the Facebook for this and did not get caught up too much until just recently in this. And I am glad I didn't as many of my opinions would have been based on things that weren't true.
I work with logic, facts numbers and statistics all day. This case is off the curve for predicted behaviour. At each end of the bell curve there is the deviation from the norm and
that should have been built into this investigation.
I have been thinking about this most of the day and I intend to learn a lesson for me in the category of rushing to judgement.

[victorian]

I don't think a change in the Amber Alert would have made a difference in this one when they were treating it a a missing person and a family kidnapping rather than a stranger abduction. I know they have to look at the family, but can't they look at the family at the same time that they conduct an investigation ? If the suspect car was in Guelph at a Home Depot in the evening, there could have been a chance. If it wasn't for the surveilance camera and the tape, these creeps might still be on the loose.
My understanding is that Tara had a job and she was at work when the white puffy coat B took Tori. How could the police think it was her when she was at work ?

This is the first time I've ever heard about her being at work. Where did you get this information?
Tara herself gave 2 or 3 different times where she was that afternoon, and as far as I know both her and James are unemployed.

[Northern Rose]

No sign of Tori Stafford's body found

May 23, 2009 06:58 PM
Jasmeet Sidhu
Staff Reporter

After a fruitless four days searching for the remains of Victoria Stafford, Oxford Community Police and the OPP continue to scour 2,660 square kilometres of fields and woods near Guelph in hopes for any clue that could lead to the recovery of her body.

Since the arrests of Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, and her boyfriend Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, on Wednesday, police have conducted a vigorous search for Stafford's remains in fields near Guelph.

McClintic, charged with kidnapping and being an accessory to murder after the fact, was expected to continue assisting the search today.

"I spoke to her and the police this morning and that was the plan, to spend the day with them," said McClintic's lawyer, Jeanine LeRoy. "I haven't had any updates on the progress of the search."

The court order allowing McClintic to assist police in recovering Stafford's remains expires 10 p.m. on Sunday.

"I haven't heard anything about seeking a further extension," said LeRoy. "Anything's possible."

LeRoy also said that McClintic continues to be fully cooperative with the police and the investigation. McClintic's boyfriend Michael Thomas Rafferty, charged with first-degree murder, remains in police custody in Woodstock.

On Friday investigators released a photo of a four-door 2003 Honda, blue with black spray paint over parts, in the hope someone may recall seeing it in the Woodstock or the Guelph area. They believe the car, along with the young girl and her two alleged kidnappers, was at a Home Depot parking lot during the early evening of April 8, the day Stafford disappeared.

Police have asked anyone living within a 50-minute drive of Guelph to survey their property for anything "unusual or out of the ordinary."

Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland notes that the public involvement in the case was still strong.

"Tips are still coming in," she said. "Our focus is on recovering Victoria, to provide closure for the family."

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/639401

[Tracygirl]

I was checking in, hoping they found Tori. Prayers they find her tomorrow.

[no rose colored glasses]

I was checking in, hoping they found Tori. Prayers they find her tomorrow.

Me too, and the big question is, is this Terri continues to not be a great help in finding Tori, I'm worried what might happen to the case they have built against the two perps. And most of all the family not having their child to bury    Why would the perps take the child near a home depot? This isn't making sense to me.