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

[Northern Rose]

Newsnet

Still talking about the seat found in Kitchner.  It is at forensics.

Police searched bottom of Guelph lake today with sonar.  It is man made lake and about 8 meters deep.

OPP returned to dock after being on water for 8 hours and have found nothing.

Two officers on horseback are going around the lake looking in the woods as well today.

Police are counting on public to check their property.

[Northern Rose]

'I strongly believe Victoria was targeted,' says Tori Stafford's father
May, 25, 2009 - 06:05 pm Jones, Allison - (THE CANADIAN PRESS) WOODSTOCK, Ont. - Victoria Stafford's father struggled Monday to accept that his daughter will not be found alive, but said he has come to the firm conclusion his little girl was targeted by her abductors and went willingly because she knew one of them.Tori went missing on April 8, the day she was captured on surveillance video leaving her school with a woman who police now allege is 18-year-old Terri-Lynne McClintic. She is charged with abduction and being an accessory. Her boyfriend Michael Rafferty, 28, is charged with first-degree murder and abduction.

Police have said McClintic may have been familiar with Tori's mother Tara McDonald, who has said she met McClintic two or three times.

Rodney Stafford said Monday he believes Tori's abduction was not random.

"I strongly believe Victoria was targeted for some reason," he said. "There's too many coincidences for it to be random."

April 8 was the only day Tori had walked home alone without her doting brother Daryn, who turned 11 less than three weeks later, Stafford said.

It's possible his daughter's abduction was a horrible, random act and that her captors took the first child they saw, Stafford said. But the thought that someone knew her habits and had been watching her is gnawing at him as the search for her remains enters a full week Tuesday.

Stafford said he is frustrated by a lack of information from police about the search, though he said they have made it clear to him there is no point in holding onto any hope Tori will be found alive.

"I seriously don't know how I'm not supposed to hold out hope," he said. "If they truly know she is dead, prove it. Show me how you think she's gone.

"Let my head rest."

In addition to the connection police have made between McClintic and McDonald, the latter has said she discussed breeding dogs with McClintic's mother and offered to give them a couch because they had no furniture.

A source told The Canadian Press that McClintic sold OxyContin to McDonald, who has admitted to battling an addiction to the painkiller but denies buying it from the woman facing charges in Tori's abduction and murder.

McDonald said she has heard suggestions the woman in the video may have been carrying a puppy in a bag or was leading Tori to a puppy, saying it is believable that her daughter would go with someone if an animal was involved.

According to a published newspaper report, Tori was chosen at random, for no other reason than she was the first girl her alleged abductors saw.

Stafford said he believes that Tori - and not just McDonald - was familiar with McClintic.

"I honestly believe Tori knew her and has talked and met with her," he said.

McDonald and her boyfriend James Goris suspected McClintic after seeing the surveillance video of Tori and a woman with long dark hair walking away from her school, and again after a composite sketch was released, McDonald has said.

Goris told police shortly after the video was released that McClintic had cut her hair and that the couple thought she looked like the woman in the video, she said.

McClintic helped police search the Guelph, Ont., area for Tori's body for five days, but after a judicial order allowing her to do so expired Sunday night, her lawyer said in an email to The Canadian Press that she did not expect McClintic to have any more "direct participation in the search."

Jeanine LeRoy said her client is being held at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ont.

She had no comment about competing suggestions as to whether Tori's abduction was random or targeted.

But earlier she said she did not have permission to address the allegations against her client.

McClintic and Rafferty are scheduled to appear in court again on Thursday.

Ontario Provincial Police shifted the focus of their search for Tori's remains Monday to a pair of lakes in southern Ontario. Police diving teams were brought in to the Guelph area east of Stafford's hometown of Woodstock, Ont., to scour Belwood and Guelph lakes.

Police say the vehicle Tori was abducted in was likely a 2003 blue Honda Civic that had been partially spray-painted black. Police have the car, but are now looking for its grey rear seat, which had been removed and may contain valuable evidence.

Police were examining a car seat found in the nearby Kitchener, Ont., area, according to media reports, but it was unclear if it was the seat they were seeking in this investigation.

More than 16,000 signatures have been gathered on an online petition calling for changes to the Amber Alert system. Police have said they did not issue the alert because Tori's case - which police were still calling a missing person case and not an abduction more than a week after she disappeared - because it did not meet the criteria.

People who have signed the petition have also called for harsher penalties for people convicted of crimes against children and updating the technology the Amber Alert system uses to include text messages and other emerging technologies.

One person proposed a "Tori Alert," which would notify the public when a young child may be in trouble, with the option of upgrading it to an Amber Alert when danger is confirmed.

Tori left school on April 8 around 3:30 p.m. and was reported missing around 6 p.m. Police issued a notice to local media overnight and a broader release the morning of April 9.

http://www.570news.com/news/national/more.jsp?content=n211882319

[Northern Rose]

Tori search extends into Kitchener

Mon, May 25, 2009
Waterloo police are examining a discarded, grey backseat that may be connected to the Victoria (Tori) Stafford case.

Police have asked the public to look out for a grey, cloth rear seat they believe may have been removed from a Honda Civic linked to the eight-year-old’s disappearance and death.

A seat similar to that description sits amid a pile of garbage outside a Kitchener home and police were called there Monday morning. It’s unclear how long the seat has been there, said Const. Michael Kong-Labrie.

“We’re trying to determine when it was put on the curb,” he said. “There’s no indication (it’s from a Civic), we’re just taking precautionary measures.”

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/2009/05/25/9565936.html

[Northern Rose]

Accused wants to help bring Tori home
Posted By Kristi Setterington, SENTINEL-REVIEW
Updated 3 hours ago
 

Terri-Lynne McClintic simply wants to help bring Tori home. Her attorney, Jeanine LeRoy, says her client feels an obligation to help police in their investigation.

Since Wednesday, the 18-year-old accused of abducting eight-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford, has been assisting police in searching for Tori in the Fergus area.

LeRoy says McClintic voluntarily offered to help police even before she had an attorney.

When asked if McClintic will seek leniency for her assistance, the London-based attorney said her client has told her that she's not looking beyond the next couple of days.

LeRoy met with her client Wednesday evening and again on Thursday morning. The two have spoken on the phone as well. LeRoy says she will continue to discuss the case with her client in the coming days. McClintic is expected to make a video court appearance on May 28 at 9 a.m.

McClintic has yet to spend any time in jail since she was charged. Currently, she is being held at the Oxford Community Police station and each day is being shuttled to the Fergus search area.

An initial judge's order that allowed McClintic's release until Thursday night was extended until Sunday evening.

http://woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1582424

[Northern Rose]

Police continue search for Tori

Author: Ron Wassink, STAFF
Date: May 25, 2009

OPP are into their second week of searching for the remains of Victoria (Tori) Stafford in south Wellington County, including the Fergus area.


Eight-year-old Tori Stafford was abducted as she walked home from her Woodstock school on April 8. Two Woodstock residents have been charged with her abduction and murder.


Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 29, is charged with abduction and first-degree murder. Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, is charged with abducting the child, assisting Rafferty in escaping the area and being an accessory to murder after the fact. Rafferty used to live in an apartment in Guelph.


Police spent the better part of last week on foot, in the air and with the aid of cadaver dogs searching the countryside of Fergus, rock piles on farmland, parks, etc., with no luck.


Police have now asked for the public’s help to search their properties. Anyone who sees anything that’s out of the ordinary is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers immediately.


The public is also asked to help locate the complete rear seat of a blue/black Honda Civic. Investigators are hoping someone spotted the 2003 Honda 4-door. The car was spray painted black over some portions of it. The seat is grey cloth.


If anyone finds the seat, they’re asked not to touch it and to call police immediately.
The News Express hasn’t been able to confirm with OPP a possible link with an earlier news story (April) of a woman in a black car allegedly trying to pick up young girls in the area of Elora Public School shortly after the disappearance of Tori Stafford.

Parents, at the time, were notified by local school officials to take precautions and to review safety procedures with their children.


OPP set up a command post at the Fergus OPP detachment last week In the days following, investigators spent considerable time searching through a rock pile at the rear of a farm on County Road 22. The field was sealed off to the public, but police later abandoned that area.


A dumpster located about a kilometer from the farm was sealed off and taken away by police.


McClintic assisted police last week in the search, but on Monday her lawyer indicted to the media that McClintic was having difficulty locating the area where it’s thought Tori’s body was dumped due to the changing season. She was seen getting into a police vehicle and the OPP helicopter last week as police scoured the area. She’s not expected to be involved in the physical search this week, but will remain in custody.


Grey/Bruce OPP Const. Frank Lauzon assisted with the search last week with his cadaver search dog, Ottie. The five-year-old black Lab has been working for two and a half years and “has been successful,” said Lauzon.


Ottie was one of two OPP search dogs assisting in the search last week.
Meanwhile, OPP have moved their command centre to the Rockwood detachment as the search continues.
Police say they are searching an area of 2,600 square kilomtres in south Wellington County.
http://www.barrieadvance.com/barrieadvance/article/136636

[Northern Rose]

Stafford investigators inspect discarded car seat
Updated: Mon May. 25 2009 2:10:08 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

Police are testing a discarded grey rear car seat they found in Kitchener, Ont. for forensic evidence, to see if it is connected to the kidnapping and murder of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford.

Investigators asked the public for help this weekend in locating the rear seat of a 2003 blue Honda Civic -- a vehicle they believe is part of their investigation.

Authorities have yet to confirm the seat they found in Kitchener is the one they have been looking for.

The vehicle, which is blue and partially covered by black spray paint, was spotted in a Guelph, Ont. Home Depot parking lot hours after Victoria went missing from her hometown of Woodstock on April 8.

Police had previously asked the public to come forward if they remembered seeing the vehicle that same day.

Investigators ask that it not be touched, so that it can be preserved in its existing state for use in the investigation.

"It could have some forensic value, there could be some trace evidence on it," Bruce Smollet, a retired staff inspector from the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit, told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

"If the back seat was taken out prior to Tori being taken it certainly shows some pre-planning."

Lake search

Meanwhile police looking for the missing girl's body have called in a dive team to help search lakes in Guelph and Fergus, Ont.

The OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit arrived in Fergus, about an hour-and-a-half northwest of Toronto, early Monday and searched part of the Belwood Lake.

The dive team also went to Guelph Lake for a search.

Three police officers were seen heading out into the murky man-made lake on a small boat with a torpedo-like device called a side-scan sonar.

This device takes an acoustic image of what is underwater and projects it on a computer screen. If police see anything unusual, divers are then instructed to inspect the area.

The search of the lake is not based on any new investigative tips but rather is a sign that investigators are being thorough in their search, a police source told CTV News.

Last week, police charged Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, with kidnapping and murder.

Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, faces charges of kidnapping and being an accessory to murder after the fact.

For the last five days, McClintic has been helping the Ontario Provincial Police find Tori's body in a search radius that covers the span of a 50-minute drive from Guelph, Ont.

The court order allowing McClintic to aid police in the search expired Sunday night.

McClintic's lawyer, Jeanine Roy, said in an email to The Canadian Press that her client is now at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre in London, Ont.

Roy said she did not expect McClintic to have any "direct participation in the search."

Rafferty and McClintic are due to appear in court Thursday.
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090525/stafford_search_090525/20090525?hub=Toronto

[Northern Rose]

Oxford County : Police Searching Lakes and Footage For Stafford
Posted by Ashley DeGroote 

Oxford Community Police spent their weekend asking Woodstock businesses on main streets for surveillance footage for the day Victoria Stafford was abducted. According to the London Free Press, only two businesses were able to provide footage. Other businesses were upset at the timing of the police request and said their footage was taped over weekly and felt police should have been asking for the tapes weeks ago. OPP dive teams have also been called in to scour Belwood and Guelph lakes today. Locals are being asked to keep their eyes open for the back seat of a 2003 Honda Civic that was spray painted black. A retired staff inspector from the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit told a Toronto television station this morning that it could have some forensic value and some trace evidence on it. Police have asked anyone who spots it, not to touch it so it can be preserved in its existing state for use in the investigation. Meanwhile, accused Terri-Lynn McClintic, is no longer directly aiding police in the search for the eight year old's body. McClintic's lawyer Jeanine LeRoy says she doesn't expect McClintic to be out and about with police again and that her client is now at the Elgin Middlesex Detentioin Centre in London. McClintic and Michael Rafferty, who is charged with first-degree murder and abduction are schuduled to appear in court Thursday.

http://cd989.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16472

[Northern Rose]

Well my blood is boiling.  The police are NOW asking businesses for the video.  You have got to be kidding me that they would be this remiss. 

[Northern Rose]

Community shocked after former neighbour charged in child's abduction

MacTier residents are still shocked after police charged their former neighbour, Terri-Lynne McClintic in connection with the abduction of an eight-year-old Woodstock girl.

Eighteen-year-old McClintic appeared in court Wednesday, charged with assisting in the abduction of young Woodstock resident Victoria Stafford.

McClintic lived in MacTier until a few years ago, attending MacTier Public School from kindergarten through to high school, where she played on the girls' hockey team.

MacTier residents who knew her say she appeared outwardly happy most of the time, but clearly lived a troubled home life.

"The mother was kind of scary, always drinking," said a former neighbour, adding that the young girl spent a lot of time in foster homes. "She'd (Terri-Lynne McClintic) be walking down the street, crying her eyes out, and I'd wonder why," he said. "It wouldn't be 10 minutes later, here comes her mom, walking down the street, crying, saying 'have you seen my baby?"

One neighbour, a young girl who didn't want to be identified, said she knew Terri-Lynne well when she lived in MacTier, since the McClintic's lived just a few houses down on Joseph Street.

"I used to hang out with her when I was at school, at recess," she said. "She didn't seem like that kind of a person, but you don't know people."

Read more in next week's Parry Sound North Star.

http://www.parrysound.com/press/1242997328/

[no rose colored glasses]

Well my blood is boiling.  The police are NOW asking businesses for the video.  You have got to be kidding me that they would be this remiss. 

Unbelievable

[pink angel]

Well my blood is boiling.  The police are NOW asking businesses for the video.  You have got to be kidding me that they would be this remiss. 

Unbelievable

I read that earlier. It's unfreakin'believeable!!!!!

I think police should scour all the area where the child was last spotted for video surveillance and hang on to ALL those tapes in case they may need them in the future, so they are not taped over.

[Northern Rose]

Well my blood is boiling.  The police are NOW asking businesses for the video.  You have got to be kidding me that they would be this remiss. 

Unbelievable

I read that earlier. It's unfreakin'believeable!!!!!

I think police should scour all the area where the child was last spotted for video surveillance and hang on to ALL those tapes in case they may need them in the future, so they are not taped over.

Tara may have one heck of a case against them if this is really true.  Were the police sure that she did it that they did not do their jobs?  With a child missing why did they not get those tapes immediately to have other angles of what took place?  It sure would have spared many family members the pain and anguish of being suspects up until they arrested the MR and T-L if they got other tapes that showed what happened.

[Kat_Gram]

Blood has been boiled few times here in my house too.
..
Something else I have noticed.
They ( CTV) network I watch have not shown MR's POS's face too much. They show him with his jacket over his head.
Why don't they ask the residents of the area :
Have you seen this man at your gas station ? Store, etc ?
And show his mug shot or a very clear picture of him. And of her without the corn rows.
..
 

[Kat_Gram]

Blood has been boiled few times here in my house too.
..
Something else I have noticed.
They ( CTV) network I watch have not shown MR's POS's face too much. They show him with his jacket over his head.
Why don't they ask the residents of the area :
Have you seen this man at your gas station ? Store, etc ?
And show his mug shot or a very clear picture of him. And of her without the corn rows.
..
 

I have someone hunting down the police to make the above happen. They agree with me that here has been very little full face for either one of them.

[Northern Rose]

Blood has been boiled few times here in my house too.
..
Something else I have noticed.
They ( CTV) network I watch have not shown MR's POS's face too much. They show him with his jacket over his head.
Why don't they ask the residents of the area :
Have you seen this man at your gas station ? Store, etc ?
And show his mug shot or a very clear picture of him. And of her without the corn rows.
..
 

I have someone hunting down the police to make the above happen. They agree with me that here has been very little full face for either one of them.

You Rock!  If he has nothing to hide they should show his face so he can be proven not guilty.  If he has done something they need to show his face so the family gets closure.  Why are they being so quiet about him?

[Northern Rose]

Police ask public to check properties for Tori

OPP are into their second week of searching for the remains of Victoria (Tori) Stafford in south Wellington County, including the Fergus area.

Eight-year-old Tori Stafford was abducted as she walked home from her Woodstock school on April 8. Two Woodstock residents have been charged with her abduction and murder.

Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 29, is charged with abduction and first-degree murder. Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, is charged with abducting the child, assisting Rafferty in escaping the area and being an accessory to murder after the fact. Rafferty used to live in an apartment in Guelph.

Police spent the better part of last week on foot, in the air and with the aid of cadaver dogs searching the countryside of Fergus, rock piles on farmland, parks, etc., with no luck.

Police have now asked for the public’s help to search their properties. Anyone who sees anything that’s out of the ordinary is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers immediately.

The public is also asked to help locate the complete rear seat of a blue/black Honda Civic. Investigators are hoping someone spotted the 2003 Honda 4-door. The car was spray painted black over some portions of it. The seat is grey cloth.

If anyone finds the seat, they’re asked not to touch it and to call police immediately.
The News Express hasn’t been able to confirm with OPP a possible link with an earlier news story (April) of a woman in a black car allegedly trying to pick up young girls in the area of Elora Public School shortly after the disappearance of Tori Stafford.

Parents, at the time, were notified by local school officials to take precautions and to review safety procedures with their children.

OPP set up a command post at the Fergus OPP detachment last week In the days following, investigators spent considerable time searching through a rock pile at the rear of a farm on County Road 22. The field was sealed off to the public, but police later abandoned that area.

A dumpster located about a kilometre from the farm was sealed off and taken away by police.

McClintic assisted police last week in the search, but on Monday her lawyer indicted to the media that McClintic was having difficulty locating the area where it’s thought Tori’s body was dumped due to the changing season. She was seen getting into a police vehicle and the OPP helicopter last week as police scoured the area. She’s not expected to be involved in the physical search this week, but will remain in custody.

Grey/Bruce OPP Const. Frank Lauzon assisted with the search last week with his cadaver search dog, Ottie. The five-year-old black Lab has been working for two and a half years and “has been successful,” said Lauzon.

Ottie was one of two OPP search dogs assisting in the search last week.
Meanwhile, OPP have moved their command centre to the Rockwood detachment as the search continues.


Police say they are searching an area of 2,600 square kilomtres in south Wellington County.

http://www.barrieadvance.com/barrieadvance/article/136636

[Northern Rose]

Stafford case: Cops seize car backseat in KW

Mon, May 25, 2009

The search for Victoria (Tori) Stafford moved today into Kitchener, where police found a car’s discarded back seat similar to one linked to the girl’s abduction.

“We’re trying to determine when it was put on the curb,” said Waterloo police Const. Michael Kong-Labrie. “There’s no indication (it’s the missing car seat); we’re just taking precautions.”

The OPP have asked the public to help find a discarded grey, cloth back seat that may have been pulled from a Honda Civic they say is linked to the Stafford disappearance. They’ve seized the car but its back seat is missing, police say.

Searchers today also took to the water near Guelph, where investigators have been looking since last Wednesday for the eight-year-old Woodstock girl’s body. They searched Guelph Lake and Belwood Lake.

Those efforts, though, were without the help of one of the accused who had been helping until then.

 

After several days spent guiding police in their search for the girl’s body near Guelph, Terri-Lynne McClintic of Woodstock, the 18-year-old charged in the abduction, has been transferred to London’s Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, her lawyer says.

“She was emotional, then hopeful and then frustrated” about the search, said defence lawyer Jeanine LeRoy. “The change of season made it more difficult for her.”

As the search grinds on, the emotional healing of those who knew Tori continued slowly yesterday. Psychologists were back at her Woodstock school, Oliver Stephens, and expect to remain until year’s end.

Dr. Sally Christensen, a Thames Valley school board psychologist, says coping strategies put in place over the past few weeks appear to be helping shaken pupils.

“Some of the kids who have had the most difficulty, we’re starting to see them smiling again,” she said.

Tori’s Grade 3 teacher, who is expecting a baby soon and left last week on maternity leave, is struggling, like many colleagues, with the tragedy.

It’s no surprise school staff are devastated, Christensen says.

“They very much see (pupils) as their kids in a way,” she said. “They feel a close attachment to them.”

Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, charged with first-degree murder and abduction in Tori’s death,is to appear in court Thursday with McClintic, who is charged with abduction and accessory to murder after the fact.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/25/9568686.html

[Northern Rose]

Search for remains of Ont. girl nears end of 6th day
 
Canwest News ServiceMay 25, 2009 7:37 PM
WELLINGTON COUNTY, Ont. — The search for the remains of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford moved from land to water Monday.

Police divers were called in to scour two lakes near Guelph, Ont., — about a 100 kilometres west of Toronto — as authorities entered their sixth day of looking for the slain girl. Investigators also continued to ask for public assistance in their search for the grey, cloth-covered back seat of a car believed to have been used in her abduction.

A discarded back seat was found Monday, but police said there is no indication yet that it is the one missing from a suspect vehicle seized Friday.

Oxford Community Police are asking residents of Wellington County to check their properties for the grey cloth seat and report it to police immediately.

Oxford Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland would not say where the car was found.

She said police are appealing to anyone who may have seen a blue 2003 four-door Honda with black spray-paint over portions of it at a Home Depot store in Guelph — about 100 kilometres west of Toronto — on April 8, the day Victoria was abducted.

Police also returned Monday to a rock pile in a field just north of Guelph and south of Fergus, Ont., where the search for the girl's remains began last week.

"We continue to receive information on all different parts of the investigation and each piece of lead or tip, if you will, is being investigated as far as it can take us," Maitland said.

Meanwhile, the two accused in Tori's disappearance and murder — Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, and Michael Rafferty, 28, — are expected in court later this week to face charges.

McClintic had been assisting police with the search and had been in their custody by judicial special order. That order expired Sunday night.

Specifics of the search area are not being released but police have said they are looking for evidence in and around Wellington County, in proximity to the City of Guelph, approximately 80 kilometres northeast of Woodstock, where Tori lived.

The girl was last seen on a surveillance tape, willingly walking after school with an unknown woman in a white jacket.

Her disappearance wasn't classified by the Oxford police as suspicious until April 18, 10 days after she went missing.

The Amber alert system was never activated.

Last week McClintic was charged with abduction and accessory after the fact to murder. Rafferty faces one count of first-degree murder and one count of abduction. Both are set to appear in court Thursday.

Both were charged in Woodstock, following a 42-day search for the Grade 3 student.

According to court documents, it is believed the young girl was killed the same day she disappeared.

With files from Global News

http://www.canada.com/news/Search+remains+girl+nears/1628003/story.html

[Northern Rose]

New video in Tori Stafford case was seized weeks ago

Tue, May 26, 2009

By PATRICK MALONEY, LONDON FREE PRESS
 


What may become a key piece of evidence in the Victoria (Tori) Stafford investigation has been in police hands since the night the little girl disappeared.

Investigators, though, say there was no way to know what they were looking at on that date.

A video still of the blue car now believed connected to the April 8 abduction — released last week by Oxford Community Police — was taken from Woodstock gas-station footage investigators seized within hours.

Jigar Patel, the owner/operator of the Norwich Avenue gas station, saw the video clip and recognized the backdrop as being his parking lot, which is about a five-minute drive from Tori’s school.

The time code, he says, shows the footage was taken within minutes of her abduction.

Officers examining security tapes were at Patel’s business that night and returned the next day, spending four hours copying the footage.

“It’s the police. Why should I (say no)?” he said. “I want to help them.”

Patel assumes the car’s driver would have been in his lot to get gas, though he has no memory of the afternoon.

Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police says investigators only learned the blue car may be significant last week — after the arrests of two suspects.

“We didn’t have any suspect vehicle information at all on April 8,” she said. “That was the whole issue with (not calling) the Amber Alert.

“It wasn’t part of the information we had prior to the arrest of the suspect.”

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/26/9572981.html

[Northern Rose]

Toronto MPP promises to deliver petition from Tori Stafford case to Queen's Park

Tue, May 26, 2009
TORONTO — A provincial New Democrat is pledging to deliver an online petition to the Ontario legislature that calls for changes to the Amber Alert system following the death of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford.

Rosario Marchese, who represents the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, says he hasn’t taken a position on whether changes are needed, but welcomes any new information.

The petition, which has thousands of signatures, was started by Suzie Pereira, a Toronto resident who says the alert system is flawed.

People who have signed the petition are demanding harsher penalties for people convicted of crimes against children.

An Amber Alert is a bulletin issued by police in serious, time-critical child abduction cases and in Canada, each province is responsible for its own system.

Police have said Tori’s case didn’t fit the criteria of an Amber Alert.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/26/9572821.html