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

[Northern Rose]

Potential Lead in Stafford Case

Tue, 26 May 2009 8:37:56 EDT

A potential lead in the Tori Stafford case. Police are reportedly testing a discarded gray rear car seat found in Kitchener for forensic evidence to see if it's connected to the kidnapping and murder of the eight-year-old girl. Police had earlier asked the public to search their properties for a similar car seat. Authorities have yet to confirm the seat they found in Kitchener is the one they have been looking for.

http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/news/5280068_Potential_Lead_in_Stafford_Case_083730.php

[Northern Rose]

Tori's accused killer on suicide watch
May 26, 2009
Cherri Greeno
Mercury News Services and the Canadian Press

KITCHENER

The man accused of abducting and killing Victoria Stafford is in segregation and on suicide watch in a London jail, his Kitchener lawyer said yesterday.

"He's in a six by eight (foot) jail cell trying to survive," Hal Mattson said.

"That's what he's concentrating on right now."

Michael Rafferty, 28, was charged last week with first-degree murder and abduction in connection with the April 8 disappearance of Victoria 'Tori' Stafford. She was taken as she walked away from her Woodstock school.

Rafferty's girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, is charged with abduction and being an accessory.

Police are now hunting for the missing back seat from Rafferty's 2003 blue Honda Civic. The car, which had been partially spray-painted black, is believed to be the vehicle used to abduct Tori.

Three car seats have been found -- one in Guelph and two in Kitchener.
In Kitchener, police seized a car seat found alongside garbage on Old Chicopee Drive yesterday morning.
A citizen called police after hearing media reports about the investigation, said Waterloo Regional Police Supt. Bryan Larkin.

Officers believed the seat matched the description of the grey rear car seat being sought in the case, and called the Ontario Provincial Police. Waterloo Regional identification officers processed the scene and turned over the seat to OPP investigators, Larkin said.

Police checked out another seat found on Morrison Road but didn't report any link to the car at the centre of the investigation.
The car at the centre of the investigation was recently seized by the police and "was not part of the information we had prior to the arrest of the suspect (Rafferty)," explained Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland, spokesperson for the investigative team.

But the car had been caught on tape at an Esso Station half a kilometre from Oliver Stephens School, where Tori studied.

The day Tori was abducted, Oxford Community Police officers visited the gas station at about 9 p.m. and checked video footage, said owner Jigar Patel. "A technician came the next day (April 9) and spent five or six hours and recorded everything (from the surveillance cameras)."

Patel recognized his gas station -- on Norwich Avenue at Parkinson Road -- from a photograph released by the investigating team last Friday after the suspects were in custody. The photograph had the time 4:24:29 printed on it, but Patel said the time monitor on his surveillance cameras is an hour and a few minutes ahead and he put the actual time at about 3:32 or 3:33 p.m. That would have been within minutes of Tori being taken.

Police say they had no way of knowing what they had at the time.

Meanwhile, investigators in Guelph, shifted the focus of their search for Tori to a pair of lakes yesterday. Police diving teams were brought in to scour Belwood and Guelph lakes.

Since the arrests, officers have been searching rural areas north of Guelph.

McClintic had been accompanying the officers in the search for the girl's remains, 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.

Tori's father said yesterday he has come to the firm conclusion his little girl was targeted by her abductors and went willingly because she knew one of them.

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

"I strongly believe Victoria was targeted for some reason,'' Stafford 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.

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

Tori was captured on surveillance video leaving her school the day she went missing with a woman police now allege is 18-year-old Terri-Lynne McClintic.

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 also 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.

"I honestly believe Tori knew her and has talked and met with her,'' Stafford says.

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

Mattson will appear as counsel for Rafferty in Woodstock court. He said the case will likely be adjourned two weeks so he and Smart can review disclosure.

Mattson, a well-known Kitchener lawyer who has been practising law for more than 25 years, said he was contacted to represent Rafferty and spent about an hour with him last week, shortly after his arrest.

Mattson wouldn't comment on Rafferty's demeanour or what they spoke about in their meeting. He and Kitchener lawyer Brennan Smart also met with Rafferty's family.

"They are very supportive of him," Mattson said, noting that Rafferty is facing "a serious charge."

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/486208

[Northern Rose]

Rafferty on suicide watch, lawyer says
570 News  | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 7:00 am

The man accused of murdering Victoria Stafford is on suicide watch in a London jail.

28-year-old Michael Rafferty's Kitchener lawyer Hal Mattson tells today's Record his client is, "trying to survive."
Mattson says he and Brennan Smart, another Kitchener lawyer, have met with Rafferty's family and says they are, "very supportive of him."
Rafferty along with 18-year old Terri-Lynne McClintic have been charged in the case. While Rafferty faces a charge of murder and abduction, McClintic has been charged with abduction and accessory.
The two will be in court on Thursday.
As the search for Victoria's remains continue a provincial NDP member says he plans to deliver an online petition calling for changes to the Amber Alert system.
Toronto MPP Rosario Marchese says he hasn't taken a position on whether changes are needed, but says he welcomes any new information.
People who have signed the petition are also calling for harsher penalties for people convicted of crimes against children.
Yesterday, police were called to the Chicopee area of Kitchener after a resident spotted a grey rear car seat.
Police are examining it to see if it might be related to the case.
A 2003 blue Honda Civic, believed to have been used in the abduction of the Woodstock girl was seized by police earlier this week. The vehicle is missing its rear seat and police say the seat may contain key evidence.
There is no word on whether the seat found in Kitchener is the one police have been searching for.

http://www.570news.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090526_080238_7144 

[Northern Rose]

Police chief says case is strong
Posted By BRUCE URQUHART, SUN MEDIA
Posted 30 mins ago


While the chief of the Oxford Community Police Service wouldn't comment on specific details, he did confirm that "a break in the investigation" led to the arrests of the two suspects charged in connection with the abduction and murder of Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

Apologizing for the lack of public information, Chief Ron Fraser said police needed to protect the integrity of the investigation as officers collect evidence against Michael Rafferty, 28, Tori's alleged killer, and 18-year-old accomplice Terri-Lynne McClintic.

"This is a strong case," Fraser said, "and it becomes stronger as time goes on and we do our jobs."

With two suspects in custody, the tenor of the investigation has changed and now involves revisiting previously obtained evidence as well as searching for additional clues. Because police now know the identity of the suspects and have a description of the suspect vehicle, Fraser said investigators are able to look for specifics when they review video evidence and other materials.

This information prompted the recent police request for surveillance video from stores in Woodstock's downtown core.

"Now that we have this vehicle, we can go back and look again at what we had and go look at other things,' Fraser said. "We go with the investigation where the investigation takes us."

The ongoing search for Tori's body remains focused on the Guelph area, where the OPP's underwater rescue team began scouring the Belwood and Guelph lakes. McClintic had been helping investigators search the wooded areas and fields in the Fergus region until a judicial order that permitted her involvement expired Sunday night.

"We're doing the same thing we did here," Fraser said. "There are bodies of water -- you search. It's all part of the search process."

Investigators are also intent on finding the grey rear seat of the 2003 blue Honda Civic that is suspected of being involved in the abduction. This cloth seat, investigators say, may contain valuable evidence and, if discovered, should not be touched. Police did ask that, if found, the rear seat be covered to protect potential evidence from the elements.

While Fraser wouldn't address when police began to focus on Rafferty and McClintic, he said investigators followed "every imaginable lead," including more than 4,000 tips received since Tori's April 8 disappearance. Because of the "mystery" of Tori's disappearance, Fraser said officers had no choice but to treat "everyone and everything as suspect ... until we know otherwise."

"We had to investigate every possibility," he said.

Tara McDonald, Tori's grieving mother, lashed out at investigators Friday for treating her as a suspect during the 42-day investigation into her daughter's abduction. McDonald told reporters that one investigator said she was the "prime suspect" in Tori's disappearance. Echoing comments made by Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland, the principal spokesperson for the joint OPP-OCPS investigation, Fraser said McDonald could register a formal complaint about an individual officer or a police department if she "feels mistreated."

"I feel that ... our officers have done an exceptional job and were looking to bring Tori home, whatever it took," Fraser said.

Despite the discovery that Tori was murdered, Fraser said the investigation remains massive, with roughly 100 OPP and OCPS officers involved with both the search for the eight-year-old's remains and the ongoing collection of evidence.

As for the public's questions about the police investigation, Fraser said the "trial process" will provide most of the answers.

"But it's information we can't give to the community," he said. "It's information we can't share now."

http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1583087

[Northern Rose]

'Fear is not the answer,' says murdered girl's mother
'The worst thing we can do is lock up our children'

May 26, 2009 04:30 AM

Peter Edwards
STAFF REPORTER

A stranger told Lesley Parrott something quite startling last week: he called her one of the happiest people he has ever met.

The stranger had only seen her in her work environment, where the former advertising executive works with corporations promoting team-building and growth.

He didn't know that Parrott has been coping for more than 20 years with the abduction, rape and murder of her 11-year-old daughter Alison. Memories came flooding back to her last week with the news of two arrests in the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford of Woodstock.

"Evil is out there in life," Parrott said, "and the worst thing we can do is lock up our children. ... We don't need more paranoid kids and paranoid families."

Parrott also couldn't help but recall the abduction and murder of other young girls, like 10-year-old Holly Jones in Toronto in 2003.

"After Alison's death, Holly Jones, and then Tori, people get scared," Parrott says. "They lock up the children. They create scared children. When people are scared, they're vulnerable and the evil takes over."

She likens evil to terrorism, which triggers irrational fear and blinds people to good things. She says the best response in the face of evil is to stay strong and embrace life.

"This kind of evil is rare," Parrott says. "We can let evil win by being so fearful. That's no way to live a life ... A brave thing to say? It's the only thing to say. We can't live in fear. We can't live in the past. All we have is our attitude."

Alison was stalked, abducted, raped and strangled by Francis Carl Roy in July 1986.

But it wasn't until 1996 that DNA testing led police to Roy, who was on parole for raping two girls at the time of the murder, and who is now serving a life sentence.

For her part, Holly Jones' mother said Holly was streetproofed, but even that wasn't enough.

"We had drilled her over and over about safety and strangers," Maria Jones says. "What to do. How to kick and scream. ... We used to go over it. We used to drill it.

"And it didn't help her."

Michael Briere is now serving a life sentence for Holly's abduction, rape and murder.


With last week's flood of news on Tori Stafford, Maria Jones found herself torn in opposite directions. At times, she felt like she needed to know every detail. At other times, she had to turn away from the coverage altogether for fear it would consume her.

In her victim-impact statement at Briere's trial, she said: "You can only try to imagine the nightmare. ... Never to hear her say the words 'Mommy' or 'I love you' ever again."

Parrott says she'd like parents to make streetproofing an ongoing dialogue "but not in a fearful way."

"Get out and make it part and parcel of table conversation," she said.

She helped develop a national program called Stay Alert-Stay Safe, which delivered safety messages to some 8,000 elementary schools and 600,000 children. Corporate funding ran out for the program in 1999, but she hasn't given up hope it could be revived again.

Among the program's messages:

Discuss, write down house rules.
Know your child's world; i.e. routes to school or friends' homes.
Encourage using "buddy" system when walking to and from school.
Reinforce that strange-looking people aren't the only ones who might be dangerous.
If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Tell a trusted adult.
Parrott says she constantly wonders what else she can do to make things better. But some things are already very clear, she says.

"We need to be resilient. I have a PhD in resilience. Fear is not the answer."

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/640346

[Northern Rose]

Tori case: Third abandoned car seat reported to police

May 26, 2009
Waterloo Region Record staff

A third abandoned car seat has been reported to police in Kitchener, in the hunt for clues in the murder of Victoria Stafford, 8.


Police are seeking the missing rear seat from a 2003 blue Honda Civic. It’s believed to be the abduction vehicle.


Two abandoned seats were reported to police in Kitchener Monday and one abandoned seat was reported in Guelph. A Kitchener seat drew the attention of OPP investigators but there’s been no report linking it to the Civic.

Police expect to receive many calls about abandoned car seats, as garbage pickups rotate. "A lot of them are van seats," said Staff Sgt. Dave Bishop, of Waterloo Regional Police. Some seats can be ruled out because they have been abandoned for years and are rusting out.


A man and a woman have been charged with abducting Stafford in Woodstock.

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/486277

[no rose colored glasses]

Thank-you so much for all the updates Northern Rose, much appreciated 

[Kat_Gram]

It is SOP for a person in custody with these  charges to be on suicide watch.
Don't read anything else into it re : state of mind of the suspect.

[canadianmonkey]

this is a link to a FB group petition for stiffer penalities in cases like Tori's, if anyone is interested.  Does anyone know the link for the petition to get the Amber Alert changed?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104002155445

[Edward]

It is SOP for a person in custody with these  charges to be on suicide watch.
Don't read anything else into it re : state of mind of the suspect.

I have some nice cotton rope I can send him.
Save money on a trial and let the judge be God Himself..
jmho

[canadianmonkey]

It is SOP for a person in custody with these  charges to be on suicide watch.
Don't read anything else into it re : state of mind of the suspect.

I have some nice cotton rope I can send him.
Save money on a trial and let the judge be God Himself..
jmho

I have to respectively disagree with you Edward.  Dying would be too easy for him it lets him off too easily.  There has to be a better punishment.

[Northern Rose]

this is a link to a FB group petition for stiffer penalities in cases like Tori's, if anyone is interested.  Does anyone know the link for the petition to get the Amber Alert changed?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=104002155445

Tori's Law Petition

http://www.petitiononline.com/vict888/petition.html

[Northern Rose]

*PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS OR SIGNATURE IS INVALID -ALL EMAILS ARE VERIFIED*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To:  Ontario Member of Parliament
Tori's Law

This petition is to better the Amber Alert. In any case that a child under the age of 16 goes missing an Amber Alert should be issued without question if the mother/father/guardian finds it out of character for the child to be missing for any length of time. A mother/father/guardian knows their child's routine and when something is out of character they know and feel it. In the case of Victoria Stafford who went missing April 8th 2009 an Amber alert was never issued. Police say that in order for an Amber Alert Police must believe the child is in danger of serious harm and they must have a description of a suspect or vehicle to broadcast. It usually begins and ends within five hours of an abduction. An Oxford Community Police spokesperson said an emergency broadcast alert won't be issued now "because it hasn't just happened. I cannot stress enough that it does not change the investigation in any way of how serious it is," Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said. Over 40 days later a man and woman have been charged with the murder of 8 year old Victoria Stafford. Police now search for her remains in the Guelph area. A green car in police video was wanted for questioning. Had an Amber alert been issued someone somewhere could have spotted something and Tori could possibly still be alive today. Please sign this petition so that no other family has to go through the feeling of helplessness when a child goes missing. There is nothing to lose and so much to gain by this law that could possibly save many children's lives.

Sincerely,

http://www.petitiononline.com/vict888/petition.html

[Northern Rose]

Amber Alert Petition Draws Enormous Response Online
Tuesday May 26, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff
It was a question that kept coming up over the course of the Tori Stafford disappearance.

Why did police not call an Amber Alert? Doing so would have resulted in relevant information being broadcast on radio and TV, posted at gas stations, on electronic highway billboards, and lottery terminals in the hopes someone would spot the missing youngster.

In this particular case, the response was always the same, whether you asked officers from the Oxford Community Police or the Ontario Provincial Police, both of which were eventually involved: the case didn't meet the guidelines for an Amber Alert. The main reason here was that police didn't have a description of a possible abductor, nor did they have any information on a suspect vehicle.

Now an online petition, under the name Tori's Law, is circulating that would make it easier for police to issue the advisory, and so far the appeal has gathered more than 21,000 names.

New Democrat MPP Rosario Marchese has promised to deliver it Wednesday at the Ontario legislature - it was started by a woman in Marchese's riding.

"It appears that there's a great deal of emotion surrounding some of these issues, particularly the issue of Tori Stafford, and people are saying that perhaps a review might be necessary in terms of the criteria that is used," Marchese noted.

Last week police charged a man with murder in the case, news that left little question as to Tori's fate. The youngster's body still hasn't been located, and on Monday the search for her remains moved to two lakes in the Guelph area.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34856.aspx

[Tracygirl]

"He's in a six by eight (foot) jail cell trying to survive," Hal Mattson said.

I wonder if Tori was "trying to survive"? S.O.B. let him hang himself and be done with it.

[Northern Rose]

OPP to conduct a review of Amber Alert system
Updated Tue. May. 26 2009 2:38 PM ET

ctvtoronto.ca

The Ontario Provincial Police said it will be conducting a review of the province's Amber Alert system after more than 20,000 people signed a petition calling for changes.

The petition, titled "Tori's Law" after missing schoolgirl Victoria Stafford, was launched in light of the controversy surrounding the way police handled the child's case.

An Amber Alert was never initiated when eight-year-old Victoria went missing in Woodstock, Ont. on April 8 because police did not have enough information about her disappearance to send out the special signal.

An Amber Alert is a frequent bulletin that is broadcast in the media and on highway overpasses across Ontario in the immediate hours after a child goes missing. Police say they have to meet a certain criteria, such as a car description, before sending out the alert.

That type of information was not available to police at the time Victoria went missing. The girl was taken at around 3:30 p.m. from her school and was not reported missing to police until 6 p.m. The media was alerted later that evening.

A review of the program will be conducted in partnership with Ontario's Police Services, the Amber Alert Steering Committee and other stakeholders.

"To ensure that the Amber Alert program protects the most vulnerable members of our society, our children, the OPP has taken the initiative to coordinate the review of Ontario's Amber Alert," said OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino.

Rick Bartolucci, Ontario's minister of community safety and correctional services, said the Liberal government supports the review.

"Our government is supportive of any measure that proposes to make Ontarians safer, and in particular, that protects children," he said in a news release on Tuesday. "I look forward to seeing the results of the review of the Amber Alert program and if there are recommendations for change, we will certainly look at those."

Ontario NDP MPP Rosario Marchese will reportedly bring up the issue at Queen's Park on Tuesday.

Woodstock's police chief said Tuesday that he, too, is open to a review of the Amber Alert system.

"Tori's Law" suggests an Amber Alert be initiated "without question" whenever a child under the age of 16 goes missing and their parents believe it is not in the child's character to disappear.

"Had an Amber Alert been issued someone somewhere could have spotted something and Tori could possibly still be alive today," the petition says. "There is nothing to lose and so much to gain by this law that could possibly save many children's lives."

Police were criticized for not calling the case an abduction sooner, despite having access to footage from a surveillance camera that showed Victoria walking away from school with an unidentified woman.

Police said they had no reason to believe she was kidnapped because Victoria appeared to go with the woman willingly.

Six weeks after the child disappeared, police arrested two suspects. Authorities are still searching for the child's body.

A 28-year-old man, Michael Thomas Rafferty, is facing charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder.

Rafferty, who is said to be on suicide watch in a London, Ont. prison and is in isolation, is expected to make a video appearance in court on Thursday.

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

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090526/Tori_law_090526/20090526?hub=TopStories

[Northern Rose]

"He's in a six by eight (foot) jail cell trying to survive," Hal Mattson said.

I wonder if Tori was "trying to survive"? S.O.B. let him hang himself and be done with it.

General pop or no watch, I am happy with either.

[Northern Rose]

O/T we have another one missing 

Police Launch Huge Hunt For Missing 12-Year-Old Girl
Tuesday May 26, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff
As police north of the city look for clues to where Tori Stafford may be, another manhunt has begun in the city. And this time the missing child is just 12 years of age.

Her name is Stephanie Rotman and what started off as a normal day for her family has quickly escalated into one of fear, worry and frantic searching.

The girl left her Bellamy Rd. home around 8:30am Tuesday morning, heading to John McCrae Senior Public School at 431 McCowan Rd.

She never arrived.

Her family tells police that their daughter has never gone missing before and that it's totally out of character for her to disappear without a trace or to miss her regular classes.

Police are scouring the area for her and are preparing to release her picture to the media so they can help in the hunt. We'll add that photo as soon as it's available.

Stephanie is described as:

White,
5'3",
Slim,
Brown hair past her shoulders,
Grey shorts with an orange stripe down the side,
Black T-shirt with a bumblebee and flowers on the front.
Multi-tone green backpack
She was also wearing Nike high-tops with a white shoelace in one sneaker and a black coloured lace in the other.

If you think you know where she is, call (416) 808-4300 and let police know.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34861.aspx

[canadianmonkey]

O/T we have another one missing 

Police Launch Huge Hunt For Missing 12-Year-Old Girl
Tuesday May 26, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff
As police north of the city look for clues to where Tori Stafford may be, another manhunt has begun in the city. And this time the missing child is just 12 years of age.

Her name is Stephanie Rotman and what started off as a normal day for her family has quickly escalated into one of fear, worry and frantic searching.

The girl left her Bellamy Rd. home around 8:30am Tuesday morning, heading to John McCrae Senior Public School at 431 McCowan Rd.

She never arrived.

Her family tells police that their daughter has never gone missing before and that it's totally out of character for her to disappear without a trace or to miss her regular classes.

Police are scouring the area for her and are preparing to release her picture to the media so they can help in the hunt. We'll add that photo as soon as it's available.

Stephanie is described as:

White,
5'3",
Slim,
Brown hair past her shoulders,
Grey shorts with an orange stripe down the side,
Black T-shirt with a bumblebee and flowers on the front.
Multi-tone green backpack
She was also wearing Nike high-tops with a white shoelace in one sneaker and a black coloured lace in the other.

If you think you know where she is, call (416) 808-4300 and let police know.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34861.aspx

Let her be found soon...that's two people missing in Toronto..right.  The 19 year old reservist and now Stephanie Rotman.

[Northern Rose]

Yes Shane Fair is the 19 year old .  There is a thread for him, news conference was today.