Discussion~ Victoria "Tori" Stafford, 8, (Remains ID'd) 4/8/09 Woodstock, Ontario #1 [Archive]

TigerLily

04-13-2009, 04:37 PM

Of course she appears to walk away willingly, but under what pretense/lure........a puppy or candy?

4 whole days of ground search, "scoured the city" in 4 days. What??? OMG, are you kidding me? Thank goodness they did not "give-up" on Sandra that quickly.

Beautiful child. I pray she is safe and returns home soon.

I'm not one to criticize LE, but I really don't understand how an eight-year-old child can be considered to have walked away of her own volition.

It's not clear to me from the video that she actually left with the woman. They could have been walking separately and just happened to pass in front of the camera at the same time. At one point the woman is walking ahead of Tori. Whatever the case may be, Tori did not disappear on her own. Four days does not seem like very long to search, even in a small town.

I wonder if the police actually have a suspect (e.g. neighbour or relative) and they think it's a waste of resources to continue the ground search? There seem to be a few unanswered questions here, such as where exactly was Tori heading when she left school? One report said she was expected at her uncle's home. I wonder which home she was going to, and who was at home to meet her. She wasn't reported missing until 6:00pm. I don't want to make accusations here. The family has enough to deal with, without people expressing suspicion toward them.

All of the above are just my thoughts and my opinion only. I pray that Tori will be found safe and well, but with every day that passes, that seems less likely.

TigerLily

04-13-2009, 08:11 PM

I remember Cedrika and I still pray for her. May she yet return home to the arms of her loving family. Now I'm praying for Tori's safe return also.

packy

04-14-2009, 07:10 AM

I hope the enhanced version will finally helpt to identify this woman. If she is not involved she may have seen something.

Roamer

04-15-2009, 12:48 PM

Someone needs to keep searching. This little girl should be brought home!

Faith

04-16-2009, 02:16 AM

I pray Tori is found safe soon.

mrsmcgoo

04-16-2009, 07:32 AM

Unfortunately here in Canada it is much harder to get information about prior criminal records. I see that some of the people around Tori had ongoing criminal issues. Not saying this person is responsible, but it could be someone else around that child via this person.

I don't want to say too much because nothing is available on paper to post as far as criminal records go.

Praying for Tori....:innocent0001:

Roamer

04-16-2009, 07:48 AM

sarahhod

04-16-2009, 08:19 AM

Tori's family is going through hell right now, and I wish the rumors would stop. The b/f's charges are not a felony, and no one is going to steal a child for $5000 or $33,000 or any other dollar anount.

This little girl just needs to be brought home. If she'd gone willingly, she would have come back by now, which proves to me that she can't.

ITA Roamer.

The b/f's charges have absolutely nothing to do with Tori missing. IMO

Everyone just needs to concentrate on finding this precious child.:missing:

Claycat

04-17-2009, 07:29 AM

mrsmcgoo

04-17-2009, 12:19 PM

Because of Sandra Cantu's case, it doesn't bring any relief to know that Tori is with a woman. Dang, people need to stop taking children!

If Tori had been an adopted child, it would have been noted, wouldn't it? I mean, if there might be a birth mother in the picture, that would have been brought forward, wouldn't it? It's just something I was considering...

Wow!! I was actually thinking the EXACT same thing. This case seems strange to me and I know our laws differ in alot of circumstances here in Canada, but this one just seems that there is more than meets the eye. I don't believe they would announce if she was adopted here in Canada . The laws are so secretive and protective, mostly for criminals.

Faith

04-17-2009, 02:58 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY6GQVJz3HE&feature=player_embedded

Faith

04-17-2009, 05:12 PM

Apr 17, 2009 16:04 ET
Toronto Crime Stoppers Issues UNDERGROUND ALERT

Toronto Crime Stoppers escalates hunt for 8 Year old girl by issuing an UNDERGROUND ALERT on the Onestop Toronto Transit Commission’s Digital Display Network

TORONTO/ ONTARIO / PRESS RELEASE--(Marketwire - April 17, 2009) - In response to the ground search for missing eight-year-old girl coming to an end recently in Woodstock, Ontario, Crime Stoppers quickly teamed up with ONESTOP Media Group to issue an UNDERGROUND ALERT on the Onestop's TTC Network. Made up of over 300 digital displays, the ONESTOP TTC Network will message over a million people daily about Victoria "Tori" Stafford's disappearance by displaying pictures, video and a plea to call or email tips to Crime Stoppers.

The UNDERGROUND ALERT for Tori on the ONESTOP TTC Network stands as testimony to Crime Stoppers and Toronto Police Services continued commitment to finding the missing child by expanding their search beyond the Woodstock community using new and innovative search tactics that go beyond traditional media methods.

Crime Stoppers Lorne Simon, says "We are very proud of our partnership with Onestop. It's unique because it allows Crime Stoppers to message over a million people in the TTC daily, and in the case of emergency situations like Tori's, instantly!

Crime Stoppers' Public Service Announcements play regularly on the TTC ONESTOP Network up to 6 times per hour. In emergency situations, such as Tori's, an UNDERGROUND ALERT was disseminated to millions within minutes of receiving the request.

Michael Girgis, President of ONESTOP Media Group adds, "The success of instant messaging capabilities using ONESTOP's TTC Network was seen in 2007 with Child Find, when a tip lead to the return of a young girl who went missing. Her picture was instantly posted on the screens on TTC platforms; somebody recognized her and called the 24-hour Toll Free Crime Stoppers line, bringing the girl home two days later. Hopefully the same will come true for Tori."

If you have any information about the disappearance of Victoria "Tori" Stafford, please call Crime Stoppers. If your tip leads to an arrest you will be eligible for a cash reward. You will never have to give your name, testify in court and Crime Stoppers doesn't have call display. Call Crime Stoppers locally at 416-222-8477 (TIPS) or toll free at 1-800-222-TIPS.

/For further information: Toronto Crime Stoppers (www.222tips.com) is a unique partnership between the community, police, and local media. The program is dedicated to providing the public with opportunities to actively engage in fighting crime. Crime Stoppers encourages the Toronto community to assist police by offering anonymous tips. In 2005, over 7000 public tips aided in 415 arrests.
ONESTOP Media Group (OMG) is an internationally recognized, award-winning, Out-of-Home Digital Media company. OMG is a world leader in the development, operation, and innovation of digital media networks for the mass transit, retail, hospitality and education industries. Experience, innovation and flawless operation are the three pillars that drive ONESTOP’s success and industry leadership. www.onestopmediagroup.com
/
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Onestop-Media-Group-976267.html

Faith

04-17-2009, 05:13 PM

Missing Woodstock girl abducted OPP says.

By Jordana Huber, Canwest News ServiceApril 17, 2009

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - The disappearance of eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford is now being treated as an abduction, Ontario Provincial Police said Friday.

``It is now our belief that it is an abduction,'' said Det. Insp. Bill Renton. ``To the person or persons responsible for this horrendous crime, I want you to know that the Oxford Community Police are committed to finding Tori. ''

``The OPP . . . are following the evidence that will lead us to Victoria Stafford.I encourage you to do the right thing and bring her home.''

Renton officially became involved in the case on Wednesday, but it wasn't announced until Friday that he would spearhead the provincial force's efforts in tracking down the girl.

Ron Fraser, Oxford's community police chief said cases involving missing children require more resources than community police forces, such as those in Woodstock, typically have at the ready.

``We need their expertise to continue on in this investigation,'' said Fraser. He said provincial police weren't taking over the case; only providing assistance. Neighbouring forces also have aided in the search for the girl.

After examining the case over the previous two days, Renton said he determined that ``the focus of the evidence is still in the City of Woodstock.''

Fraser's comments marked the first time the police chief has spoken publicly about the case.

Rebecca Stafford, Tori's aunt, said the family was exhausted but that it is pleased the provincial police have become involved.

``This is the proper step to be taking at this point,'' Stafford said.

Tori was last seen on a blurred surveillance video walking without a struggle with an unidentified woman just before she went missing after students were let out of class last Wednesday.

The U.S. crime website America's Most Wanted made Tori's disappearance its top story on Wednesday.

Headlined Video may hold clues in Canadian girl's disappearance, the story included descriptions of Tori and the woman she was spotted with, as well as photos of the girl and her purple Bratz-brand purse.

Tori's disappearance has gripped this city of 35,000, 145 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
http://www.canada.com/Missing+Woodstock+girl+abducted+says/1507489/story.html

Claycat

04-17-2009, 09:57 PM

Wow!! I was actually thinking the EXACT same thing. This case seems strange to me and I know our laws differ in alot of circumstances here in Canada, but this one just seems that there is more than meets the eye. I don't believe they would announce if she was adopted here in Canada . The laws are so secretive and protective, mostly for criminals.

Great minds! :)

I'm sure there have been cases where a birth mother went looking for her child and wanted her back. I don't know if that is the case here, but it is certainly a consideration.

Faith

04-18-2009, 08:24 AM

OPP intensify search for missing Woodstock girl
570 News

The OPP have taken over the search for Victoria Stafford, and will continue searching today.
The OPP is planning an intensified search today for Victoria Stafford, after taking over the search yesterday.
Eight-year-old Victoria Stafford was last seen 10 days ago walking with an unknown woman in a surveillance video.
Police say OPP teams will be searching waterways all over Woodstock, and teams of detectives will also be canvassing homes and people today.

http://www.570news.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090418_054256_720

Faith

04-18-2009, 08:27 AM

Search for Victoria Stafford "Intensifies"

Caroline Franks
Saturday, April 18, 2009

The search for eight year old Victoria Stafford who was last seen leaving her school in Woodstock, Ontario continues today.

The Ontario Provincial Police have now taken over the case which they now call abduction.

Detectives will be canvassing homes and people and re-checking areas they already searched.

Victoria was seen on a video surveillance tape near her school with an unidentified woman.

The girl’s mother Tara McDonald wants the search to expand beyond the current boundaries, noting the woman who took her daughter has probably left town.

http://www.cfra.com/?cat=3&nid=64568

sarahhod

04-18-2009, 08:50 AM

Faith why is the media links closed. TIA.

sarahhod

04-18-2009, 08:50 AM

Oxford County (http://cd989.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5) :

Ground Search Resumes for Missing 'Tori'

Posted by Jen Waumsley (http://cd989.com/userinfo.php?uid=1003)
http://cd989.com/uploads/thumbs/433ac1a2-abc1-c257.jpg (http://cd989.com/uploads/433ac1a2-abc1-c257.jpg)
OPP will take another shot at an extensive gound search for a missing Woodstock girl today. Eight-year-old Victoria Stafford was last seen 10 days ago walking with an unknown woman in a surveillance video. Police say O-P-P teams will be searching waterways all over Woodstock and teams be canvassing homes and people. OPP say the heightened police activity is to ensure no evidence that could lead to 'Tori' is missed.

on 2009/4/18 6:30:24

Faith

04-18-2009, 09:04 AM

Faith why is the media links closed. TIA.

I didn't know it was closed. I opened it. Ty.

Faith

04-18-2009, 09:07 AM

I am confuesed- what is -- an UNDERGROUND ALERT?????

Toronto Crime Stoppers Issues UNDERGROUND ALERT

Faith

04-18-2009, 09:10 AM

In response to the ground search for missing eight-year-old girl coming to an end recently in Woodstock, Crime Stoppers quickly teamed up with ONESTOP Media Group to issue an Underground Alert on the Onestop’s TTC Network. Made up of over 300 digital displays, the ONESTOP TTC Network will message over a million people daily about Tori disappearance by displaying pictures, video and a plea to call or email tips to Crime Stoppers.

Faith

04-18-2009, 09:11 AM

ONESTOP Media Group (OMG) is an internationally recognized, award-winning, Out-of-Home Digital Media company. OMG is a world leader in the development, operation, and innovation of digital media networks for the mass transit, retail, hospitality and education industries. Experience, innovation and flawless operation are the three pillars that drive ONESTOP’s success and industry leadership. www.onestopmediagroup.com

Harmony

04-18-2009, 09:30 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY6GQVJz3HE&feature=player_embedded
The other link would not work for the video but this one did.

I noticed in the video there is a man standing waiting for his child at the school yard as the woman and Tori walk by. It should not be difficult to find this man. He may be able to provide enough information for a sketch artist to render a sketch of the woman Tori was with. I wonder if LE has spoken with him...

Faith

04-18-2009, 11:54 AM

Police beginning 'intensified search' for missing girl in Woodstock, Ont.

14 minutes ago

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The Ontario Provincial Police are launching an intensified search Saturday in Woodstock, Ont., for missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

Under the direction of Det.-Insp. William Renton, police will be scouring all local water ways looking for clues.

Police will also be re-examining older information and tips, and detectives will be canvassing homes and residents in the hope of uncovering some new leads.

Police say the renewed investigation could last seven days or longer and there will be "significant police activity" in the local area.

Later Saturday, a "Walk for Tori" is being organized at the College Avenue Secondary School, where the Grade 3 student was last seen before disappearing on April 8.

On Friday, police reclassified Tori's disappearance from a missing person case to an abduction investigation.

A brief security video showing a woman with long brown hair and a puffy white coat walking with Tori is the only tangible lead police have publicly discussed. No one has come forward to identify the woman, and her face is not clearly visible in the grainy footage.

Tori's mother remains convinced the woman is a stranger to her daughter and family. However, relatives on the girl's father's side pray the abductor is known to the child.

"My belief is if it is someone that knows her, there's less of a chance that she would be hurt by that person," said Rebecca Stafford, who explained her family drew that conclusion after watching the footage.

"I do honestly believe her body language is that of Victoria when she is happy, and if I dare say it, excited. I did have a memory flashback when I was watching that video."

Police say they have "pretty substantial direction" regarding the woman's identity, but declined to divulge any more details.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jVA0oEzPkGRaxWK0XtzM4A-WqCrg

sarahhod

04-18-2009, 02:04 PM

OPP searches Woodstock pond

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/f5/cd/9a6476a74d2ea1c4fb5244250528.jpeg
CATHAL KELLY/TORONTO STAR
Police search a pond in Woodstock, Ont. on April 18, 2009 as the search for missing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford proceeds.

Apr 18, 2009 01:50 PM
Staff Reporter

Officers with the OPP's underwater search and recovery unit spent the morning criss-crossing a shallow pond about a kilometre from the school where eight-year-old Tori Stafford was last seen.
"If she is here - if the missing person is here - we'll find her," said OPP Const. John Edwards, team leader of the unit.
Three officers in a pontoon used sonar to scan the bottom of the pond, three metres below.
Police said they had no specific information linking the pond and Stafford, who has been missing for 11 days.
"This was an area that was targeted because of proximity to the school," said Edwards.
Meanwhile, local police re-started a door-to-door canvass in the area. According to police, many residents were missed in the initial survey, which took place over the Easter long weekend. Others are seeing the police again.
"We have, in some cases, talked to the same person four or five times," said Oxford Community Police Sgt. Wayne Czepanski. "We're not going out questioning these people. We're just letting them talk to us as a community."
A march in support of the search is planned for this afternoon, to be led by Tori's mother, Tara McDonald.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/620741

Claycat

04-18-2009, 02:21 PM

Unfortunately, it is not always good when the abductor is known to the child. Sandra Cantu knew Melissa Huckaby.

:(

sarahhod

04-18-2009, 02:43 PM

Hope stays high as search for missing girl intensifies

By With files from Jordana Huber, Canwest News Service

April 18, 2009 2:01 PM

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.canada.com/news/hope+stays+high+search+intensifies/1510864/1499059.bin (http://javascript<b></b>:setClass('storypage','story_video_content');)

Facebook photo of Victoria (Tori) Stafford who is missing in Woodstock, Ontario.

Photograph by: Facebook,

WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- As the massive search effort for a missing eight-year-old girl expanded in Woodstock, Ont. on Saturday, the city's mayor wants to make sure Victoria 'Tori' Stafford is "not forgotten."

Mayor Michael Harding said the intensive search for Victoria - which now includes scouring local waterways - is keeping up people's optimism in the community.

"Our city supports any action that will improve the chances of returning Tori back to our community and back into the arms of her parents," Harding said. "The mood (of Woodstock) would be best described as anxious and hopeful. What the community wants is to make sure this young child is not forgotten."

Stafford has been missing since April 8.

Search "masters" and additional detectives have been assigned to the case, police said in a news release Friday night.

Officials added they would continue canvassing homes in Woodstock, which is 145 kilometres southwest of Toronto, and revisit some areas Saturday.

It was announced earlier Friday that the Ontario Provincial Police was taking over the search from local police.

Rebecca Stafford, Tori's aunt, said the family was exhausted but that it is pleased the provincial police have become involved. "This is the proper step to be taking at this point," Rebecca Stafford said.

Tori was last seen on a blurred surveillance video walking without a struggle with an unidentified woman just before she went missing after students were let out of class last Wednesday.

The U.S. crime website America's Most Wanted made Tori's disappearance its top story this week.

The story included descriptions of Tori and the woman she was spotted with, as well as photos of the girl and her purple Bratz-brand purse.

http://www.canada.com/news/Hope+stays+high+search+missing+girl+intensifies/1510864/story.html

sarahhod

04-18-2009, 02:45 PM

Ont. police to scour waterways for missing girl

By Jordana Huber, Canwest News Service

April 18, 2009

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Police planned to search all local waterways Saturday as they stepped up the hunt for eight-year-old Victoria Stafford, the Ontario girl who has now been missing for a week and a half.

"Search masters" and additional detectives have been assigned to the case, police said in a news release Friday night, adding they planned to canvass homes in Woodstock and revisit some areas Saturday.

"This is normal procedure to ensure that we don't miss out on any pieces of evidence that will lead us closer to Victoria's whereabouts," said Det. Insp. William Renton, who is now spearheading the effort to find Tori.

It was announced earlier in the day that the provincial force was taking over the search from local police.

As the new game plan was rolled out, Tori's mother said she believed police were making progress.

"I feel that they are closer. I feel that a change has taken place between yesterday and today," said Tara McDonald on Friday.

Tori hasn't been seen since April 8.

Speaking to a throng of media in front of her home in Woodstock, about 145 kilometres southwest of Toronto, and appearing well-composed in a pair of dark sunglasses, McDonald said something inside her tells her that her daughter is still alive.

"I'm her mother, I know her better than anyone else on the planet," she said.

McDonald said she thought it would have been better if the provincial force had been involved much sooner.

"I do wish they (the OPP) would have been there at Day 1," she said adding she wants the search for Tori to be expanded.

"If she was in Woodstock somebody would have seen her," Stafford said. "I want them to start looking outside of the Woodstock area."

Woodstock has a population of approximately 35,000.

Stafford said she thinks Tori was taken by someone she didn't know.

"I'd like to think it was a stranger because I would not like to think that any friend or acquaintance or anybody that I know would do something like this," she said. Investigators said Friday they are no longer classifying Tori as missing person.

"It is now our belief that it is an abduction," Renton said.

"To the person or persons responsible for this horrendous crime, I want you to know that the Oxford Community Police are committed to finding Tori."

"The OPP . . . are following the evidence that will lead us to Victoria Stafford. I encourage you to do the right thing and bring her home."

Ron Fraser, Oxford's community police chief, said cases involving missing children require more resources than community police forces, such as those in Woodstock, typically have at the ready.

"We need their expertise to continue on in this investigation," said Fraser.

He said provincial police weren't taking over the case; only providing assistance. Neighbouring forces also have aided in the search for the girl.

After examining the case over the previous two days, Renton said he determined that "the focus of the evidence is still in the City of Woodstock."

Fraser's comments marked the first time the police chief has spoken publicly about the case.

Rebecca Stafford, Tori's aunt, said the family was exhausted but that it is pleased the provincial police have become involved.

"This is the proper step to be taking at this point," Stafford said.

Tori was last seen on a blurred surveillance video walking without a struggle with an unidentified woman just before she went missing after students were let out of class last Wednesday.

The U.S. crime website America's Most Wanted made Tori's disappearance its top story on Wednesday.

Headlined Video may hold clues in Canadian girl's disappearance, the story included descriptions of Tori and the woman she was spotted with, as well as photos of the girl and her purple Bratz-brand purse

http://www.canada.com/news/police+scour+waterways/1506559/story.html

sarahhod

04-18-2009, 05:34 PM

Sat, April 18, 2009

'Intensified search' for missing girl aims to cover old ground, get new leads

By TAMSYN BURGMANN, The Canadian Press
WOODSTOCK, Ont. — A police dive team is scouring a pond in Woodstock, Ont., and officers are canvassing door-to-door in an “intensified search” for eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, 10 days after she went missing.
The renewed abduction investigation, which police say could last another week or longer, comes after the case was handed over to provincial officers by this southwestern Ontario city’s chief of police.
Police continue to re-examine older information and tips, while detectives are also speaking again to residents in the hope of uncovering some new leads.
An around-the-clock ground search had been conducted by the Oxford Community Police with the assistance of other nearby forces starting on April 8, the day Victoria disappeared. The Grade 3 student, who family and friends call Tori, vanished after leaving school.
They concluded that search the following Monday, though the investigation has been ongoing.
In the coming week, police say there will be “significant police activity” in the city.
It was a long weekend when police did their first canvass of the community so police will be treading over much of the same ground again, said Oxford police acting-Sgt. Wayne Sczepanski.
“We have in some cases spoken to the same person four or five times. It’s just more or less to remind them of the ongoing investigation and to provide additional information,” he said.
A brief snippet of security video showing Tori walking with an unidentified woman with long brown hair and a puffy white coat is the only tangible lead police have publicly discussed.
No one has come forward to identify the woman, and her face is not clearly visible in the grainy footage.
Police say they have “pretty substantial direction” regarding the woman’s identity, but declined to divulge any more details.
On Saturday afternoon, a “Walk for Tori” was to be held at the College Avenue Secondary School, where the footage was captured.
At Southside Park — a popular recreational ground with fields, a picnic area, baseball diamond and pond — a provincial police dive team used a boat and sidescan sonar to search for clues.
It was one of the first locations to search with that underwater equipment due to its proximity to Tori’s school, said Const. John Edwards, team leader with the underwater search and recovery unit.
Police said the search was completed without finding anything and they planned to examine all other local waterways.
While walking her dog near the pond, resident Nancy Happl said she’s glad a search continues but wondered why provincial police weren’t called in sooner.
“It’s been so long. That’s not a good sign,” she said.
“I don’t know how (police are) so confident in Woodstock. How are they so confident she’s here?”
On Friday, police reclassified Tori’s disappearance from a missing person case to an abduction investigation.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Cana...8/9159736.html (http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/04/18/9159736.html)

sarahhod

04-19-2009, 07:41 AM

Woodstock pond searched for Tori Stafford

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/67/52/6c10bc2a49489d1d483046363e3e.jpeg
DAVE CHIDLEY/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Members of the OPP underwater search and recovery unit walk through a pond in Woodstock April 18, 2009 seeking signs of Tori Stafford, 8, who has been missing since April 8.

PROBE INTO DAY 11

April 8: A security camera captures a blurry image of Tori walking away from Oliver Stephens school with a woman dressed in a puffy white jacket.
April 9: A massive search operation begins and hundreds of tips start flowing in.
Easter Weekend: Rodney Stafford and Tara McDonald, Tori's parents, take polygraph tests at the request of Oxford Community Police. Police do not comment on the results of the tests.
April 13: Police call off the ground search for Tori, a move sharply criticized by locals. Members of the OPP behavioural sciences unit arrive in Woodstock to examine an enhanced version of the security video.
April 15: Tara McDonald says rumours her daughter was abducted over a $33,000 drug debt are false. She asserts she is not taking drugs and is not a dealer.
April 17: OPP reclassifies Tori's case from "missing person" to "abduction."

OPP underwater team joins hunt for missing girl while local police repeat door-to-door canvassing

Apr 19, 2009 04:30 AM
STAFF REPORTER

WOODSTOCK, Ont. – For the second time since 8-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford disappeared 11 days ago, Southside Park Pond has been searched.
The shallow body of water is less than half a kilometre from where Tori was last seen, caught on video walking hand in hand from school with an unidentified woman.
Rodney Stafford said yesterday that in the hours after his daughter was reported missing, he wandered down to the pond and searched along its banks with a flashlight.
"I kept saying to the people I was with, `I'm out here looking for my daughter, but this is the point in time I don't want to find her,'" Stafford said.
The search for Tori was bolstered yesterday by members of the Ontario Provincial Police's underwater search and recovery unit, who started their work at the same pond that drew Rodney Stafford.
"If she's here – if the missing person is here – we'll find her," said team leader Const. John Edwards.
Police said they have received no specific information that led them to the pond, and they are still holding out hope that Tori is alive.
"This was an area that was targeted because of proximity to the school (where Tori was last seen)," said Edwards.
While three officers in a pontoon boat criss-crossed the pond, scanning underwater with sonar, residents crowded benches at the edge. Nearby, picnickers sat on blankets under an unseasonably warm sun.
By mid-afternoon, the underwater search unit had packed up and moved on to another nearby pond.

According to police officials, the OPP expects the intensified search to carry through the next week.
Meanwhile, the local Oxford Community Police restarted their door-to-door canvass in the working-class neighbourhood.
"We're not going out questioning these people. We're just letting them talk to us as a community," said Sgt. Wayne Czepanski.
The first door-to-door search ended last Monday. Czepanski said the Easter long weekend meant many residents weren't home when officers came knocking.
"They are trying to hit the people they've missed," said Czepanski. "Surprisingly enough, you do come across the odd person who's not aware of (the abduction)."
Odd, since Woodstock is wallpapered in reminders of Tori. Nearly every storefront carries a poster of her. Reminders to pray for Tori and her family are posted at churches.
As the afternoon began to fade, about four dozen residents gathered behind College Avenue Secondary School. It was that high school's security cameras that caught the last image of Tori.
They planned to walk the school track for several hours to call attention to the case. Rodney Stafford, flanked by relatives, was one of the first to arrive. He said he has not been sleeping, and he looked it.
"Everybody's starting to crack," Stafford said. "It's starting to get really frustrating. For myself, I'm starting to get really upset because I know there's somebody out there who's not saying something."
It was only on Friday, nine days after Tori vanished, that police changed the investigation status from "missing person" to "abduction."
There have been rumblings about why that took so long. But Stafford declined to throw blame at the police: "Whether they say `missing' or `abduction,' it's the same thing to me. She's not in my arms."
Stafford's former wife and Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, wasn't at the start of the walk. McDonald's family said she is "exhausted."
They are planning their own event, a motorcycle rally on May 2 called "Tori's Ride Home."
Tori's aunt, Linda "Pepper" Jacklin, said, "It's a lot of days (away), but we're hoping that this is a celebration for Tori's return."
She paused: "If Tori's not home, it's obviously going to be to bring her home."

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/620827

Claycat

04-19-2009, 08:25 AM

sarahhod

04-19-2009, 09:33 AM

A photo of Tori with her mother and brother.

http://www.lfpress.ca/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?x=galleries&s=gallery&p=2975&pg=14

The brother looks like the mother, but Tori does not. I'm assuming she looks like her father?

Gallery: Victoria (Tori) Stafford
Missing 8-year-old Woodstock girl
http://www.lfpress.ca/gallery/2975/photos/n570185385_6446389_6114500.jpg

Thanks for the pic Clay. Had to post it here because it's beautiful and they all look so happy. :1222423:

Faith

04-19-2009, 12:10 PM

I pray sweet precious Tori will be found soon.

Claycat

04-19-2009, 12:18 PM

Thanks for posting that pic, Sarah!

Faith

04-20-2009, 12:26 AM

No Trace of Victoria

Josh Pringle
Sunday, April 19, 2009

An "intensified" weekend search for a missing Woodstock girl has produced no "new or significant" information on eight-year-old Victoria Stafford.

Oxford Community Police Constable Laurie-Anne Maitland says police hope the search will produce a lead in the case.

The Grade 3 student was last seen on April 11th.

Maitland says police have received more than one-thousand tips in their investigation.

Investigators are trying to identify a woman seen walking with Victoria on a surveillance video the day the girl disappeared.

An OPP dive team searched area waterways on Saturday, including a pond at a park about one kilometre away from Victoria's school.

Victoria's father, Rodney, said Sunday "it's getting harder" for the families, adding "it's starting to get more and more frustrating."

http://www.cfra.com/?cat=3&nid=64590

sarahhod

04-20-2009, 05:45 AM

Mon, April 20, 2009

Fatigue a new foe in abduction

By PATRICK MALONEY, SUN MEDIA

WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- Nearly two weeks after Victoria (Tori) Stafford was abducted, people fighting to find the missing eight-year-old are battling a new opponent -- fatigue.
Investigators now have a bulked-up complement of officers to help sift through 1,000 tips in the hunt for the Woodstock girl, police said yesterday.
But Tori's loved ones are feeling the strain of the ongoing emotional grind.
"People are going with no sleep for nine, 10 days," said John Jacklin, the missing girl's uncle. "People are zombied out."
As if the police investigation into her daughter's disappearance weren't stressful enough, Tori's mother Tara McDonald was already reeling from personal woes.
Her stepfather died suddenly last month and it's been only about nine months since her brother died. His 44th birthday would have been two days ago.
McDonald was asked on the weekend if a full night's sleep had changed her perspective on the case. Her boyfriend, James Goris, who last week faced some heat from reporters over his criminal past, replied incredulously, "Sleep?"
[/URL]
Yesterday, Oxford police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said drained officers investigating the case have been bolstered by OPP reinforcements.
"Certainly the addition of extra detectives and investigators is helping us keep the intensity up," she said yesterday. "It's certainly helping everyone be fresh."
On Friday, new lead investigator OPP Det.-Insp. Bill Renton re-framed the disappearance as an abduction, not a missing person case.
Weekend developments in the case include:
- OPP divers again searched a pond near where Tori was last seen but found nothing.
- Tori's parents, who are separated, and their families attended a walk in the girl's honour Saturday that drew several dozen well-wishers.
- A new video on YouTube, using the title of Britney Spears's song Where are You Now and a montage of photos of Tori, is attracting hundreds of viewers.

[URL]http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/04/20/9170781-sun.html (http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v8/3815/0/0/%2a/a;211065487;0-0;0;22177439;4307-300/250;26346768/26364622/1;;~aopt=2/0/ff/2;~sscs=%3fhttp://www.morgex.com/mortgages.faces)

sarahhod

04-20-2009, 05:48 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deIiJLaZ9Jk

sarahhod

04-20-2009, 05:51 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anoFW5pUQrE

sarahhod

04-20-2009, 06:03 AM

Police search water for missing eight-year-old

News Services

April 20, 2009

Divers with the Ontario Province Police expanded their search Sunday for missing eight-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford to include local streams, rivers and lakes in the southwestern Ontario city.
"We have no information that Victoria was in the water, but this is a matter of due diligence," said Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police on Sunday.
Stafford has been missing since April 8 when she failed to return home after school.
A clip of surveillance video footage showed the blond-haired girl walk with an unidentified woman in a white jacket when students were let out of class that day.
Investigators were still trying to identify the woman.

http://www.canada.com/Police+search+...197/story.html (http://www.canada.com/Police+search+water+missing+eight+year/1514197/story.html)

sarahhod

04-20-2009, 06:05 AM

Toronto Crime Stoppers Issues UNDERGROUND ALERT

Posted by mincho2008

Monday, 20 April 2009

In response to the ground search for missing eight-year-old girl coming to an end recently in Woodstock, Ontario, Crime Stoppers quickly teamed up with ONESTOP Media Group to issue an UNDERGROUND ALERT on the Onestop's TTC Network. Made up of over 300 digital displays, the ONESTOP TTC Network will message over a million people daily about Victoria "Tori" Stafford's disappearance by displaying pictures, video and a plea to call or email tips to Crime Stoppers.
The UNDERGROUND ALERT for Tori on the ONESTOP TTC Network stands as testimony to Crime Stoppers and Toronto Police Services continued commitment to finding the missing child by expanding their search beyond the Woodstock community using new and innovative search tactics that go beyond traditional media methods.
Crime Stoppers Lorne Simon, says "We are very proud of our partnership with Onestop. It's unique because it allows Crime Stoppers to message over a million people in the TTC daily, and in the case of emergency situations like Tori's, instantly!
Crime Stoppers' Public Service Announcements play regularly on the TTC ONESTOP Network up to 6 times per hour. In emergency situations, such as Tori's, an UNDERGROUND ALERT was disseminated to millions within minutes of receiving the request. Michael Girgis, President of ONESTOP Media Group adds, "The success of instant messaging capabilities using ONESTOP's TTC Network was seen in 2007 with Child Find, when a tip lead to the return of a young girl who went missing. Her picture was instantly posted on the screens on TTC platforms; somebody recognized her and called the 24-hour Toll Free Crime Stoppers line, bringing the girl home two days later. Hopefully the same will come true for Tori." If you have any information about the disappearance of Victoria "Tori" Stafford, please call Crime Stoppers. If your tip leads to an arrest you will be eligible for a cash reward. You will never have to give your name, testify in court and Crime Stoppers doesn't have call display. Call Crime Stoppers locally at 416-222-8477 (TIPS) or toll free at 1-800-222-TIPS.

/For further information: Toronto Crime Stoppers (www.222tips.com (http://www.222tips.com/)) is a unique partnership between the community, police, and local media. The program is dedicated to providing the public with opportunities to actively engage in fighting crime. Crime Stoppers encourages the Toronto community to assist police by offering anonymous tips. In 2005, over 7000 public tips aided in 415 arrests.
ONESTOP Media Group (OMG) is an internationally recognized, award-winning, Out-of-Home Digital Media company. OMG is a world leader in the development, operation, and innovation of digital media networks for the mass transit, retail, hospitality and education industries. Experience, innovation and flawless operation are the three pillars that drive ONESTOP’s success and industry leadership. www.onestopmediagroup.com (http://www.onestopmediagroup.com)

http://pr-canada.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92260&Itemid=61

sarahhod

04-20-2009, 06:09 AM

No breaks in the case

Search continues for Tori Stafford

Posted By The Canadian Press

WOODSTOCK - Despite an "intensified" search for missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, there have been no major breaks in the case, a police spokeswoman said Sunday.

A provincial police dive team continued scouring area waterways with sonar technology, while detectives canvassed neighbourhoods hoping to generate new leads.

Also, about 10 police vehicles were parked at a dead-end near thick, two-metre-tall reeds not far from the girl's home.

"We have nothing new or significant to bring anyone up to date with, but we're hoping with all these efforts that something becomes available to assist us in our focus, which is locating Tori," said Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland, with Oxford Community Police.

On Saturday, police used a small aircraft to conduct an aerial survey.

Tori has now been missing for 11 days. She was last seen leaving her school April 8 accompanied by an unidentified woman.

While her mother has urged police to extend searching beyond this small southwestern Ontario city, police continue to stay within city limits.

"To keep an investigation thorough, it's common practice to go over certain areas and make sure that every stone's been turned," Maitland said.

She says more than 1,000 tips have poured in and police are sifting through them one at a time.

So far, none has led to the identification of a woman with long brown hair wearing a puffy white coat captured in video surveillance walking with Tori around the time she went missing.

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com...aspx?e=1530643 (http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1530643)

mrsmcgoo

04-20-2009, 08:00 AM

Still waiting and hoping Tori is located.

:1222423:

I am concerned that Ontario Provincial Police weren't on this case sooner. We have small communites similiar to Woodstock here in PEI, there big bust is a speeding ticket. I know they wouldn't have a clue where to start with a case like this and am afraid the LE in the small community of Woodstock would have been the same. I hope OPP can get some results from retracing and going house to house, which I think they have been doing. Glad they are finally on this case. :1222423:

annalyzer

04-20-2009, 12:57 PM

MISSING GIRL: Her loved ones feel 'zombied out' as the search for Tori Stafford carries on

Searchers fight fatigue

April 20, 2009

Nearly two weeks after Victoria (Tori) Stafford was abducted, the people fighting to find the missing eight-year-old are battling a new opponent -- fatigue.

Investigators now have a bulked-up complement of officers to help sift through a near-overwhelming 1,000 tips in the hunt for the Woodstock girl, police said yesterday.

But Tori's loved ones are feeling the strain of the ongoing emotional grind.

"People are going with no sleep for nine, 10 days," John Jacklin, the missing girl's uncle, said. "People are zombied out."

As if the police investigation into her daughter's disappearance wasn't stressful enough, Tori's mother Tara McDonald was already reeling from personal woes.

Her stepfather died suddenly last month and it's been only about nine months since her brother, Scott McDonald, died. His 44th birthday would have been two days ago.

McDonald was asked on the weekend if a full night's sleep had changed her perspective on the case. Her boyfriend James Goris, who last week faced some heat from reporters over his criminal past, replied, incredulously, "sleep?"

Yesterday, Oxford police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said drained officers investigating the case have been bolstered by OPP reinforcements.

"Certainly the addition of extra detectives and investigators is helping us keep the intensity up," she said yesterday. "It's certainly helping everyone be fresh."

On Friday, new lead investigator OPP Det.-Insp. Bill Renton, re-framed the disappearance as an abduction, not a missing person case.

http://lfpress.ca/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?p=263047&x=articles&s=societe

Faith

04-20-2009, 08:37 PM

Mother of missing girl pleads for safe return
Updated Mon. Apr. 20 2009 8:27 PM ET

http://southwesternontario.ctv.ca/images/headline/TORIMOM.JPG

The family of Victoria Stafford is planning a motorcycle ride to raise money to help with expenses and to keep the case of the missing eight-year-old girl in the public eye.

The girl's mother Tara McDonald is pleading for the safe return of her daughter, who has been missing for almost two weeks.

McDonald's aunt Linda Jacklin says the motorcycle ride, dubbed "Tori's Ride Home," will be held May 2nd in Woodstock.

Jacklin says the money raised will be used to help the girl's family with expenses during their ordeal, and is separate from an account set up for counselling expenses for Tori and her brother.

Video

http://southwesternontario.ctv.ca/news.php?id=4428

sarahhod

04-21-2009, 07:22 AM

OPP search landfill

Posted By Bruce Urquhart, CRIME REPORTER

An Ontario Provincial Police search team combed through piles of garbage at the Oxford County Landfill Monday as the investigation into the abduction of Victoria "Tori" Stafford entered its 13th day.
The team of roughly 20 Emergency Response Team officers sifted through garbage that had been collected from Woodstock since the night of Tori's disappearance, looking for any evidence that could be connected to the abduction of the missing eight-year-old. Because of the rainy weather, OPP officers suspended their search in the early afternoon but should return to the landfill early this morning.
"There has been no information to suggest there is evidence in regard to this case at this location but, as part of due diligence, sections are being searched," Oxford Community Police Service spokesperson Laurie-Anne Maitland indicated in a media release.
Police investigators contacted county officials Sunday about their plans to search the Salford-area dump. Clad in Tyvek protective suits, the officers began looking through the mounds of garbage at approximately 7:30 a.m., landfill supervisor Dave Vanmeeren said.
"It's not the first time (a search) has happened here, but this is the most intensive that we've seen," he said.
Despite the renewed intensity of the search, investigators had no new public information about Tori's abduction.
Even with the OPP assuming management of this joint investigation, the search for Tori does remain largely focused on the Woodstock area. On Monday, OCPS officers continued to canvass city neighbourhoods as part of the ongoing search. The OPP's underwater search and recovery unit also continued to search the city's waterways, focusing much of Monday's efforts to Pittock Reservoir.
Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, said investigators were "doing the best they can" to find her missing daughter.
"They're looking everywhere they possibly can," she said.
Tori was last seen April 8 walking with an unidentified woman north along Fyfe Avenue shortly after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School at approximately 3:30 p.m. Video footage obtained from a high school security camera indicates the unidentified woman, who was wearing a white coat and tight black pants, is between 19 and 25 years old.
The mystery woman, who investigators consider a crucial "person of interest," is estimated to be roughly five-foot-two inches tall (157 centimetres) and 125 pounds (56 kilograms).
At the time of her abduction, Tori was wearing a green shirt, a denim skirt, black and white shoes, and a black Hannah Montana jacket with a white fur-lined hood.
She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz shoulder bag. 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.
Anyone with information about Tori's abduction is asked to contact the OCPS at (519) 537-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

http://www.oxfordreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1532810

Faith

04-21-2009, 11:56 AM

"Tori's ride home" planned
Posted By Bruce Urquhart, CRIME REPORTER
Posted 5 hours ago

The mother of Victoria "Tori" Stafford made an impassioned plea Monday for the safe return of her missing daughter, begging the people responsible for the abduction to give her back to her family.

Fighting back tears, Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, implored the people responsible to simply drop off her daughter and end the family's nightmare.

""I'm praying to God that somebody feels in their heart and soul that what they've done is wrong and just drop her off," McDonald said. "Anywhere. In a field. Somewhere remote where nobody sees them drop her off. Just drop her off so that somebody can find her."

Describing Tori as a "mommy's girl," McDonald doubted her daughter would be quiet for her captors.

"She's missing her mommy, guaranteed," McDonald said. "I doubt that she's been quiet for them or calm for them. I guarantee that she has been a hellion, I'm sure."

Despite the uncertainty of the past 12 days, McDonald said the family was "staying strong" through the support of friends and the Woodstock community. Linda Jacklin, Tori's aunt, said this support would be vital to a planned charity motorcycle ride that is being planned for May 2. The family, though, hoped "Tori's Ride Home" would be more of a celebration than a fundraiser.

"We hope she will be on the ride with us," Jacklin added.

The money from this event, which Jacklin hopes will attract more than 400 bikers, will be used to defray some of the expense of the family's search for Tori.

"This (fundraiser) is to keep the phone going because obviously no one here is working right now," Jacklin said. "We want Tori to be able to call home, not to call and there be no phone."

The charity ride is tentatively planned to begin at the parking lot of the city's Zellers plaza at 1 p.m. and will end with a barbecue at South End Appliances.

The registration for the charity ride will run from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

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.

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

http://www.oxfordreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1532808

Faith

04-21-2009, 01:58 PM

Oxford County (http://cd989.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5) : Extensive Search Continues In Stafford Case Posted by Ashley DeGroote (http://cd989.com/userinfo.php?uid=461) http://cd989.com/modules/news/images/topics/blank.png (http://cd989.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5)
http://cd989.com/uploads/thumbs/433ac1a2-0223-07bf.jpg (http://cd989.com/uploads/433ac1a2-0223-07bf.jpg)
Oxford Community Police are continuing their search for missing eight year old Victoria Stafford. The OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit is working in the Pittock Lake area and other waterways in Woodstock. Officers are continuing to comb through the Oxford County Landfill Site looking for clues, while others are canvassing door-to-door throughout the city. Investigators are also following up on information phoned in from the public. The girl has been missing since April 8.

on 2009/4/21 13:28:01

http://cd989.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16090

annalyzer

04-21-2009, 11:52 PM

at 23:38 on April 21, 2009, EDT.

'I don't know why you've done this to my family,' Tori Stafford's mom says

http://www.am770chqr.com/_Shared/CPContent/n0421161A.jpg
Woodstock police released this composite drawing released on Tuesday April 21, 2009, showing the unidentified person observed in a surveillance video from College Avenue Secondary School with Victoria Stafford.

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - Tori Stafford's mother said Tuesday she hopes a guilty conscience drives her daughter's abductor to let the eight-year-old girl go and had a direct message for whoever has hurt her family.

"I don't know why you've done this to my family," Tara McDonald said outside her small, Woodstock, Ont., home. "I don't understand, but just let her go. She doesn't deserve this. We don't deserve this." McDonald said she hopes that the "guilt just eats" at Tori's abductors.

"Honestly, I hope that they see the pain and agony that they are causing my family."

After nearly two weeks of an apparently fruitless search of the city of Woodstock for the bright and bubbly little girl, her frustrated mother hopes the search area will be expanded.

"I want it to start going elsewhere," McDonald said. "Who would be stupid enough to keep her in this small community?"

Provincial and local police have scoured the city of about 35,000 since April 8 for the missing girl with door-to-door canvasses, searches of lakes and even the landfill.

But they have come up empty-handed. Not only have they not found Tori, no physical evidence of the girl or whoever took her has turned up at all. Police are treating the case as an abduction.

The only tangible lead police have discussed publicly is surveillance video showing Tori walking with an unidentified woman near her school the day she disappeared.

Late Tuesday, investigators released a composite image of the woman in the video.

Police said the woman in the composite is 19 to 25 years old, 5' 1" tall and about 125 pounds with long black hair worn in a ponytail.

"I am appealing to the community to review this composite image and if anyone has any information relating to this person to please call us," Oxford Community Police Chief Ron Fraser said in a release.

Det. Insp. Bill Renton of the Provincial Police said investigators believe there are people in the Woodstock area who have knowledge of the crime.

"We are urging these people to immediately come forward to help us in this investigation," Renton said.

Meanwhile Tori's family members have watched the video hundreds of times, looking for any little clues that could lead to the woman's identity.

"I've laid in bed many nights in the last two weeks and thought to myself, 'Who would do this? Why?"' McDonald said.

McDonald said police are talking to everyone close to the family, to acquaintances and have even contacted friends on her Facebook page, adding investigators have chatted with people she hasn't even talked to in years.

McDonald's family announced Monday that a motorcycle ride, dubbed "Tori's Ride Home," will be held May 2 in Woodstock to raise money for the girl's family to help with "expenses that come up."

McDonald's aunt, Linda Jacklin, said the money raised from the ride will be used to set up a second bank account to help with the family's phone bill. A separate bank account had previously been set up for other expenses such as counselling for Tori and her 10-year-old brother, Daryn.

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/National/Article.aspx?id=103940

Faith

04-22-2009, 12:15 AM

My prayers are with Tori and her family.

sarahhod

04-22-2009, 11:46 AM

Witness helps Canadian missing girl case

Published: April 22, 2009 at 11:22 AM

http://www.upi.com/r/m/12404137011682/

WOODSTOCK, Ontario -- Ontario Provincial Police composite sketch of the woman last seen with 8-year-old Victoria Stafford in Woodstock, Ontario, on April 8, 2009. The pair was seen walking together on a security video after the girl got out of school.

WOODSTOCK, Ontario, April 22 (UPI) -- Canadian police in Woodstock, Ontario, said Wednesday a witness helped them create a composite sketch of a woman last seen with a missing 8-year-old girl.
At an Ontario Provincial Police new conference Wednesday, Detective William Renton said he could offer no details about the witness, who saw the woman walking with Victoria Stafford April 8 after the girl completed school, CTV News reported.
A security video shows the woman and girl walking together, but the woman's face is obscured. Based on the video and the witness account, the woman is between 19 and 25 years old, at least 5-foot-1, weighing about 125 pounds, with long dark hair in a ponytail, police said.
Foot searches and dive team sweeps of area waterways have yielded nothing in the past two weeks, the report said. Renton said about 1,200 tips have been received in the disappearance of the girl known as Tori.
Meanwhile, the U.S. television show "America's Most Wanted" has posted information about the case on its Web site, and will be broadcasting a segment about the Stafford case Saturday night, Renton said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/22/Witness-helps-Canadian-missing-girl-case/UPI-50421240413778/

Harmony

04-22-2009, 12:56 PM

I noticed in the video there is a man standing waiting for his child at the school yard as the woman and Tori walk by. It should not be difficult to find this man. He may be able to provide enough information for a sketch artist to render a sketch of the woman Tori was with. I wonder if LE has spoken with him...

Witness helps Canadian missing girl case

Published: April 22, 2009 at 11:22 AM

http://www.upi.com/r/m/12404137011682/

WOODSTOCK, Ontario -- Ontario Provincial Police composite sketch of the woman last seen with 8-year-old Victoria Stafford in Woodstock, Ontario, on April 8, 2009. The pair was seen walking together on a security video after the girl got out of school.

WOODSTOCK, Ontario, April 22 (UPI) -- Canadian police in Woodstock, Ontario, said Wednesday a witness helped them create a composite sketch of a woman last seen with a missing 8-year-old girl.
At an Ontario Provincial Police new conference Wednesday, Detective William Renton said he could offer no details about the witness, who saw the woman walking with Victoria Stafford April 8 after the girl completed school, CTV News reported.
A security video shows the woman and girl walking together, but the woman's face is obscured. Based on the video and the witness account, the woman is between 19 and 25 years old, at least 5-foot-1, weighing about 125 pounds, with long dark hair in a ponytail, police said.
Foot searches and dive team sweeps of area waterways have yielded nothing in the past two weeks, the report said. Renton said about 1,200 tips have been received in the disappearance of the girl known as Tori.
Meanwhile, the U.S. television show "America's Most Wanted" has posted information about the case on its Web site, and will be broadcasting a segment about the Stafford case Saturday night, Renton said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/22/Witness-helps-Canadian-missing-girl-case/UPI-50421240413778/

Hopefully someone recognizes this woman and comes forward. Time is of the essence.

Claycat

04-22-2009, 01:21 PM

You were probably right that the man in the video gave them the description, Harmony!

annalyzer

04-22-2009, 03:09 PM

Tori's dad thinks he might know woman in sketch

By Jordana Huber, Canwest News Service

April 22, 2009 12:03 PM

The father of an Ontario girl who vanished more than two weeks ago believes he knows the person in a composite sketch of a woman caught on surveillance video with his daughter, but the girl's mother says she doesn't recognize the woman.

Rodney Stafford said Wednesday the woman last seen with his abducted daughter, eight-year-old Victoria Stafford, looks like someone he knew "years back" in high school.

"There's a lot of similarities in the eyes, cheeks and face to someone a lot of people know," said Stafford. "If anybody out there notices what I noticed in the photo there are going to be a lot of phone calls coming into the (police) station today."

Police investigating the abduction of Tori, as the girl is known, released the composite sketch late Tuesday night of a young woman seen in a surveillance camera with the girl shortly after she went missing.

The sketch is of an unidentified white female, believed to be 19-25 years old with "long, straight, black hair past shoulders, worn in a ponytail."

The Ontario Provincial Police describes her as around five foot one and around 55 kilograms. In the video, she was wearing a white winter jacket with tight black jeans.

But while Tori's father believes he knows the woman, Tara McDonald, his separated partner and Tori's mother, told reporters Wednesday she has no clue who the woman is.

"I've watched the video over and over to try and put that face on that body, on that walk and tried to put it together and I don't recognize anybody as of yet," she said, adding that she had not spoken to Stafford yet.

McDonald said she planned to sit down with Stafford later and add different attributes to the picture to see if they could figure out who it is.

"We're going to try and add different hairstyles . . . because I mean people look really different. Even myself, I have pictures of me with short hair, with long hair, with different coloured hair and my face changes, you know. So maybe I might recognize her if we find a different hair colour or hair cut of some kind."

McDonald said she is angry at the person in the composite sketch.

"I've stared at it for hours and I feel animosity, and to be honest, anger and I have a lot of questions, like why whoever this person is — and I don't recognize them — why would they do something like this?"

At a news conference in Woodstock, Ont., on Wednesday, Det. Insp. Bill Renton said he would not comment about what Stafford had told Canwest News Service about recognizing the woman in the sketch.

"The sketch was based on an independent witness," he told reporters. "We've had several tips so far and I hope there will be more," he said. "We're hopeful someone will recognize the person."

Renton said he would not comment further about the witness who helped the composite artist sketch the woman of interest in the case.

Police are also continuing to follow up on other tips. Renton said investigators have received more than 1,200 leads in the case.

Renton believes people in Woodstock, about 150 kilometres southwest of Toronto, have "knowledge" of the crime and he is asking them to come forward.

Ed Miller, a correspondent with FOX television's America's Most Wanted program said the show will air a brief segment Saturday night on Tori.

"We are going to do our basic story," Miller said. "We're going to outline the facts of the story, which for the most part in the United States have not gotten very much publicity."

Miller said the show aims to get "millions of extra eyes and ears" on the cases it features.

"If it's on the television, then frequently people will go to the website. It whets their appetite and they stare at it and read it. We found it's very successful. It seems to prod people's memory or motivate them to help out and call police."

Tori has been missing since April 8, when the blond-haired Grade 3 student didn't come home from school.

On Tuesday, McDonald told reporters outside her house that she is strong in her resolve that Tori will be found alive.

McDonald continues to believe Tori was taken because of her attractive physical appearance and repeated a plea she made Monday for the captors to "just drop her off somewhere."

http://www.calgaryherald.com/News/Tori+thinks+might+know+woman+sketch/1520226/story.html

Claycat

04-22-2009, 04:40 PM

I was looking for a photo of Tori's father. I found one here. There is quite a gallery of photos at this link.

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

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 03:35 AM

Missing girl: Family divided over mystery abductor

Wed, April 22, 2009

By RANDY RICHMOND, (randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca) SUN MEDIA (http://www.lfpress.com/)

WOODSTOCK — Some relatives of Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford believe they recognize the suspected abductor of the eight-year-old in a newly-released police composite sketch.
But they insist the mysterious woman isn’t a family member.
“I can't see it being any member of Tori's family,” Tori’s aunt, Rebecca Stafford, said Wednesday, the 14th day since the girl vanished with a mysterious woman after school.
Tori’s mother, meanwhile, told reporters she has no idea who the woman is.
“I’ve been staring at it all night and I don't have a clue at all. I don't even recognize the facial features," Tara McDonald said during a news conference outside her home.
McDonald also said she’s not involved in her daughter’s disappearance, but hasn’t got back results of a police lie detector test she took.
“I know that at the end of the day, I have had nothing to do with this,” she said.
The sketch of the woman — she was seen walking with Tori after school April 8, in images from a nearby high school security video — was based on a witness’s memory, police said.
Who that woman is has baffled police and the public, and until the sketch was released late Tuesday had no face.
"There are individuals in the family that have beliefs about the woman in the sketch. Our beliefs have been shared with the police," Rebecca Stafford said.
"For me, personally, I can't say that I was completely taken aback by the picture. But at the same time I don't know the individual well enough."
Another family member said the woman looked a lot like a high school friend of Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford.
Rodney Stafford was at a vigil in Brantford for Tori Wednesday night and couldn’t be reached for comment. Earlier, he was quoted in one news report saying he thought the woman looked like a former high school classmate.
Tori, in Grade 3 at Oliver Stephens public school, was last seen walking with the woman north on Fyfe Avenue.
The OPP, leading the investigation but working with local police, released the composite.
McDonald said she was frustrated the sketch was released two weeks after Tori vanished.
“I am a little disappointed by the timeline of the way things have gone. I guess that is the way it goes, but that is a little frustrating at times."
Police said little about the sketch Wednesday, except that it was created with the help of an “independent witness.”
They described the woman as white, 19 to 25, about 5'1" to 5'2" and 120 to 125 pounds.
She has long straight black hair past her shoulders, worn in a ponytail and was wearing a white puffy winter jacket and tight black jeans.
“We’re very hopeful that somebody may recognize the composite and give us a call," said lead investigator OPP Det. Insp. Bill Renton.
With a population of about 36,000, Woodstock should be able to help solve the mystery of the woman in the after- school video, he suggested.
"Realistically, it is 3:23 in the afternoon on a week day," he said. "There are a lot of people out and about. I am hoping somebody in the community has seen her and maybe this composite will jog their memory. "
Asked for an explanation of the length of time it took to prepare and release the sketch, Renton would only say, “It has been done in a timely manner. We felt this was a time to release this."
He declined to comment on the accuracy of the sketch, reliability of the witness's memory or when and where the witness saw the woman.
Police had received about 1,200 tips as of early Wednesday.
By day's end, that number had reached about 1,300, said Oxford Community Police Const. Laurie -Anne Maitland.
The sketch gave Tori's family a small measure of hope.
“I am hoping that somebody can figure out show she is,” McDonald said. "I am hoping to God, because Woodstock is a small town and everybody knows everybody."
But the sketch has also brought anger.
"I have stared directly into the yes of that for hours and (felt) a lot of animosity, a lot of anger and a lot of questions, why would they do this to my family?" McDonald said.
"Now I can put a face to the person that has caused so much hurt to the family," Stafford said. "There is anger building and now I have an idea of who I can direct that anger to."

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/22/9211186.html

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 05:21 AM

Sketch triggers suspicions

Missing girl's family reacts to composite of suspect

By ALLISON JONES, THE CANADIAN PRESS

A composite sketch of the suspect in the disappearance of Victoria Stafford has raised "suspicions" among her father's family about the identity of her abductor, suspicions the eight-year-old girl's aunts and uncles said yesterday they've shared with police.
The sketch, which portrays a woman with long dark hair tightly pulled back in a ponytail, builds on video evidence of a woman with long brown hair and a puffy white coat walking with Victoria on the day she went missing - April 8.
The girl's father, a weary-looking Rodney Stafford, gathered with his siblings, brother-in-law and his mother yesterday afternoon, as they have often done these torturous two weeks, and discussed the question on everyone's lips: who is that woman?
"We do have suspicions," Tori's uncle, Steve Millen, said.
"We have our own beliefs and we have brought those to the authorities," Tori's aunt Rebecca Stafford added, choosing her words carefully. "We've shared those beliefs and they are being investigated."
It has been two weeks since Victoria, known as Tori, vanished, but for her father it just seems like one long, horrible nightmare from which he cannot awake.
Earlier yesterday, provincial police Det.-Insp. William Renton said he hoped the composite, which shows a woman 19 to 25 years old, about five-foot-one and some 125 pounds, will spark a memory with someone in the community.
When it was suggested by a reporter that the image on the tape resembles Tori's mother and asked directly whether McDonald or any other family member had been eliminated as suspects Renton replied: "I certainly can't speak to the evidence in that regard."
Police have turned this small southwestern Ontario city upside down looking for her and have received some 1,200 tips. The television show America's Most Wanted will air a segment on Tori on Saturday night, police said.
The widely distributed surveillance video shows Tori walking with the mystery woman.
The sketch, released late Tuesday, gives Rodney Stafford hope the police are one step closer to bringing their beloved Tori home. "You've seen this sketch, now you have a face and now it haunts you that much more," her dad said.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Cana...14196-sun.html (http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/04/23/9214196-sun.html)

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 05:23 AM

Police release sketch but remain tightlipped

TIMOTHY APPLEBY
With a report from The Canadian Press
April 23, 2009

In a short news conference that seemed to raise as many questions as answers, the detective heading the investigation into the disappearance of an eight-year-old girl from Woodstock, Ont., said yesterday he hoped the release of a composite sketch would jog the memories of potential witnesses.
Ever since Tori Stafford went missing on April 8, a blurred video clip showing her calmly walking away from Oliver Stephens Public School with a mysterious woman has prompted hundreds of tips.
But the sketch is based on an independent sighting of the woman, Detective Inspector William Renton of the Ontario Provincial Police told reporters in Woodstock.
The woman is believed to be in her early to mid-20s, about 5 foot 1, weighing about 125 pounds, with long dark hair tied in a ponytail. In the video, she was wearing a puffy white winter jacket and tight black jeans.

Investigators were unusually reticent about the sketch.
The usual practice is to say where the sighting occurred and at what time, along with the direction in which the person was headed and any other information deemed pertinent.
In this instance, however, Det. Insp. Renton would not elaborate on the source of the sketch, or say when or where the woman was seen, and he turned aside most questions.
Asked whether police have ruled out members of Tori's family as suspects, Det. Insp. Renton declined comment.
Tori's uncle, Steve Millen, said yesterday that they "have suspicions" about the identity of the person portrayed in the sketch.
Anyone with information relating to the case is asked to call police at 519-421-2800.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090423.WOODSTOCK23ART2251/TPStory/National

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 05:25 AM

Police reticent about composite sketch of girl

TIMOTHY APPLEBY
April 23, 2009

The detective heading the investigation into the disappearance of Tori Stafford, 8, of Woodstock, Ont., said yesterday he hoped the release of a composite sketch would jog the memories of potential witnesses.
The sketch is based on an independent sighting of a woman who accompanied the girl from her school, Detective Inspector William Renton of the Ontario Provincial Police said.
She is believed to be in her early to mid-20s, about 5 foot 1, weighing about 125 pounds, with long dark hair tied in a ponytail.
Investigators were unusually reticent about the sketch. Det. Insp. Renton would not elaborate on its source.

Anyone with information relating to the case is asked to call police at 519-421-2800.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...Story/National (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090423.NATS23ATLART2156-1/TPStory/National)

Claycat

04-23-2009, 07:34 AM

Whoa! I hope they are able to find Tori as a result of that sketch.

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 08:57 AM

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97556181354_603011354_2965794_3060863_t.jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2965794&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=78966007726&aid=-1&id=603011354&oid=78966007726)http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97542616354_603011354_2965574_6926585_t.jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2965574&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=78966007726&aid=-1&id=603011354&oid=78966007726)http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97534001354_603011354_2965529_7800875_t.jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2965529&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=78966007726&aid=-1&id=603011354&oid=78966007726)http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97533991354_603011354_2965527_2185750_t.jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2965527&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=78966007726&aid=-1&id=603011354&oid=78966007726)http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs009.snc1/2876_97533986354_603011354_2965526_1282961_t.jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2965526&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=78966007726&aid=-1&id=603011354&oid=78966007726)

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78966007726#/photo_search.php?oid=78966007726&view=all

Facegroup for Tori set up by her family.

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 10:05 AM

OPP Receive Thousands Of Tips

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 9:32:52 EDT
http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/files/00006_Stafford_Suspect_Composite_Photo.jpg
Police have been flooded with tips after the release of a composite sketch of the woman last seen with missing eight year-old Tori Stafford. Tori's aunt has raised suspicions following the release of the sketch saying the person in the drawing appears to look like an old highschool friend of Tori's father. In a press conference yesterday OPP told media they have received over 1,200 tips, and believe someone in the community knows something about the disappearance of Stafford.
OPP continue their search in the landfill and other areas of interest in Woodstock. Over 200 people along with Tori's mother and fathers family gathered in Brantford Wednesday evening to hold a vigil for the missing girl.

http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/ne...ips_093207.php (http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/news/5280068_OPP_Receive_Thousands_Of_Tips_093207.php)

texanne

04-23-2009, 11:23 AM

There were other people on the street at that time. Have any of them come forward? That must postively be Tori and her abductor in the video if no one has come forward and said "No, that was me". You know the publicity surrounding the Tori's disappearance would spark the interest of all who were in the area at the time.

Several years ago there was a video of an actual abduction of a girl walking to school in Houston. That one ended badly. I can hope that the woman seen with Tori has kept her safe. Prayers for this child and her safe return.

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 01:49 PM

Tori Stafford's mom denies sketch looks like her

Updated Thu. Apr. 23 2009 1:30 PM ET
The Canadian Press

WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- The mother of Victoria Stafford says any suggestion that a composite sketch of her daughter's abductor looks like her makes her laugh.
Tara McDonald says people who are making that suggestion on the social networking site Facebook should be ashamed.
At a news conference, McDonald says the sketch looks nothing like her and adds she knows she had nothing to do with her daughter's disappearance.
She says the composite sketch reminds her ex-husband of a high school classmate, but McDonald adds she doesn't recognize the face and that she and Rodney Stafford went to different schools.
Victoria, known as Tori to her family and friends, went missing April 8 after leaving school.
In addition to the sketch, police have released a grainy video of the Grade 3 student walking with a woman outside her school the day she went missing.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090423/stafford_update_090423/20090423?hub=Canada

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 03:26 PM

Missing Ont. girl's mom aware of 'negative' claims

Canwest News Service
April 23, 2009 3:02 PM

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.canada.com/missing+girl+aware+negative+claims/1526667/1507224.bin (http://javascript<b></b>:setClass('storypage','story_photo_content');)

'Quit pointing the finger at me and quit pointing it at everyone else until there is somebody we can point a finger at.' said Tara McDonald, whose daughter Victoria (Tori) Stafford has been missing since April 8.

Photograph by: Jordana Huber, Canwest News Service

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The mother of an abducted Ontario girl said Thursday she is aware of "negative" accusations against her on Facebook that claim she looks like the woman in a police sketch of the suspect in the disappearance of her daughter.

"It looks nothing like me," Tara McDonald, the mother of Victoria (Tori) Stafford, 8, told reporters at a news conference.

"At the end of the day, I know I had nothing to do with this and I am a good mother and either one of my kids will tell you that. . . . Whoever it is that is saying negative things about me, you know you really don't have anything to do with yourself, and that's pretty sad and they should be ashamed of themselves," a composed McDonald said.

"Quit pointing the finger at me and quit pointing it at everyone else until there is somebody we can point a finger at."

McDonald told reporters at the news conference, which has become a daily ritual outside her Woodstock, Ont. home, that the strain of dealing with her daughter's abduction has been great.

"There's times when I sit in my house and bawl my eyes out and I curl up into a ball and I sob. But I'm not going to come out here and do that. It's just not the kind of person that I am."

She also said she still doesn't recognize the woman in the composite sketch made from an image caught on a surveillance video, which shows an unidentified woman walking with her daughter after school more than two weeks ago.

Tori's father, Rodney Stafford, said Wednesday he "strongly believes" he knows the person in the sketch and that it may have been someone he went to high school with.

"Rodney mentioned to me who he thinks that it is, but we went to different high schools and so I'm not sure," McDonald said.

Also on Thursday, Tori's aunt spoke to media outside her house, saying she has been contacted by several people who believe they know the identity of the woman in the sketch. Rebecca Stafford, the sister to Rodney Stafford, said both her brother and father believe it is the same woman although there are some differing opinions in the family.

"I believe that limiting myself to this one possibility is not thinking critically and there is a possibility that I could be wrong and I'll leave myself open to more than one belief," she said.

Oxford Community Police said in a news release Thursday the investigation into Tori's abduction continues with door-to-door canvassing in Woodstock, about 150 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

The Ontario Provincial Police Underwater Search and Recovery Unit completed its search of local waterways and found no evidence in relation to the case.

Investigators say they are continuing to follow up on more than 1,400 tips.

Police, who released the composite sketch late Tuesday night, say they will not comment on any leads.

The sketch, which was based on information provided to police by an independent witness, 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."

The OPP describes her as around five foot one and approximately 55 kilograms. In the video, she was wearing a white winter jacket with tight black jeans.

http://www.canada.com/Missing+girl+aware+negative+claims/1526667/story.html

sarahhod

04-23-2009, 03:30 PM

Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters

http://www.ccnmatthews.com/logos/20051214-loon200.jpg (http://www.ofah.org/)
Apr 23, 2009 14:48 ET
Hunters' assistance sought in finding missing child

Season opener Monday puts hunters in the field

Attention: Assignment Editor, City Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor, Sports Editor

ON, O.F.A.H. MEDIA RELEASE--(Marketwire - April 23, 2009) - The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (O.F.A.H.), the largest nonprofit conservation-based hunting and fishing organization in Ontario, is asking its members and all hunters in the field over the next few weeks to aid in the search for Victoria "Tori" Stafford. Tory went missing from the area of Oliver Stephens School in Woodstock on April 8, 2009.
Hunters are well versed with their natural surroundings. With wild turkey season beginning on Monday April 27, 2009, all hunters, particularly those in the Woodstock and surrounding areas of the province, are urged to pay particular attention to anything out of the ordinary, such as ground displacements or depressions; garbage bags; sleeping bags; comforters/blankets; clothing; personal items like a knapsack or anything else that seems out of place.
Victoria is described as 4'5"- 4'6" in height, 62 lbs., with blue eyes and blonde hair, cut just below her ears. She was last known to be wearing a black Hannah Montana jacket with white fur lined hood, a green shirt, purple velvet skirt and may have been carrying a Bratz backpack.
Oxford Community Police have released a composite sketch and description of a person of interest who may have information about Victoria's disappearance. The person is described as a white female, 19-25 years of age, long straight black hair past shoulders, worn in a ponytail, 5'1" - 5'2" in height, 120 -125 lbs., last seen wearing a white puffy winter coat and tight black jeans.
Oxford Community Police are asking the public to report anything found that could be connected to this case. Please call 519-537-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Be advised that it is important NOT to disturb the site of any findings, and to call police immediately.
With over 100,000 members, subscribers and supporters, and 655 member clubs, the O.F.A.H. is the largest nonprofit, charitable, fishing, hunting and conservation-based organization in Ontario, and the voice of anglers and hunters. For more information, visit www.ofah.org (http://www.ofah.org/).
/For further information: Lezlie Goodwin
Communications Coordinator
705 748-6324 ext 270
705-760-5537
lezlie_goodwin@ofah.org/

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...rs-979116.html (http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Ontario-Federation-Of-Anglers-And-Hunters-979116.html)

Faith

04-23-2009, 11:23 PM

I was looking for a photo of Tori's father. I found one here. There is quite a gallery of photos at this link.

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

Thanks CC. Love this photo.

http://www.lfpress.ca/gallery/2975/photos/2876_92032646354_603011354.jpg

Claycat

04-23-2009, 11:59 PM

Thanks CC. Love this photo.

http://www.lfpress.ca/gallery/2975/photos/2876_92032646354_603011354.jpg

Do you think that is her grandmother, Faith? Tori doesn't look like her mother at all.

Even though it is upsetting to the mother, I think the composite looks like her, too, after looking at all those photos! However, that photo probably looks like 10,000 other people. IMO

Faith

04-24-2009, 12:30 AM

Do you think that is her grandmother, Faith? Tori doesn't look like her mother at all.

Even though it is upsetting to the mother, I think the composite looks like her, too, after looking at all those photos! However, that photo probably looks like 10,000 other people. IMO

I figure that is her grandma. I think the composite looks like her mom also but like you said could look like 10,000 more people also.

annalyzer

04-24-2009, 12:40 AM

Was Tori walking home from school that day by herself? Was this a normal thing for her to do? Where was her mother at that time?

sarahhod

04-24-2009, 05:16 AM

Mom slams shameful online critics

Fri, April 24, 2009

By BRUCE URQUHART, SUN MEDIA

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/24/ln.jpg
Tara McDonald holds a list of 2009 new year's resolutions written by her missing eight-year-old daughter Victoria Stafford, during yesterday afternoon's press conference. The anguished mom lashed out at critics on Facebook who have suggested McDonald was involved in her daughter's disappearance. (Elliot Ferguson, Sun Media)

WOODSTOCK -- Frustrated by innuendo and accusations, Tori Stafford's mother yesterday lashed out at online critics who've suggested she's somehow involved in her daughter's disappearance.
Tara McDonald denounced Facebook commentators who've tried to link her to her eight-year-old daughter's mysterious abduction, saying they should be "ashamed of themselves."
She also said the accusations bother her son Daryn, 10, who's had a tough time since his sister vanished 16 days ago.
"At the end of the day, I know I had nothing to do with this," McDonald said. "I'm a good mother. They should be ashamed of themselves. They really should."
Instead of pointing fingers, McDonald said critics should be more concerned with finding Tori, missing since leaving Oliver Stephens public school on the afternoon of April 8.
Refuting the critics who have drawn comparisons between McDonald and the mystery woman seen walking with Tori in security camera footage, McDonald pointed out a litany of differences, noting she is about seven inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than the woman shown in the video.
"It looks nothing like me," she said.
McDonald also countered critics who've suggested she hasn't shown enough emotion when dealing with the media.
"I have to do this for Daryn," she said. "I have to be strong for him.
"There are times when I sit in my house and bawl my eyes out; I curl up in a ball and sob. I don't do it out here. I do it in there with friends and family who can console me."
McDonald showed a collection of drawings and mementoes during a brief media conference yesterday. She also showed a list of Tori's 2009 new year's resolutions. Anyone with information about Tori's abduction is asked to contact the Oxford Community Police at 519-537-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/24/9227131-sun.html

sarahhod

04-24-2009, 05:20 AM

Was Tori walking home from school that day by herself? Was this a normal thing for her to do? Where was her mother at that time?

IIRC anna, she was supposed to be walking home with a couple of her schoolfriends and meeting her brother. IMO

ETA - Found This:-

For one thing, Ms. McDonald said, only two people knew Tori would be walking home that day - "me and my mother," who for the whole week previous, because it was still cold, had been driving the children to school.
Daryn, Tori's brother, customarily escorted home two other youngsters, one of whom has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, from the subsidized townhouse co-op where the family lived until two weeks ago. The complex is just a few doors up from the school, and Tori would either go with Daryn or dawdle about at the school until he returned to fetch her.
But the Wednesday Tori went missing, when Daryn got home about 4.15 p.m., he was alone, Ms. McDonald said. "Where's Victoria?" she asked, but he didn't know, both believing she would arrive shortly. When she didn't, Ms. McDonald began calling her daughter's friends and went about the neighbourhood, calling Oxford Community Police shortly after 6 p.m.

Roamer

04-24-2009, 07:24 AM

I can't blame Tori's mom for being upset. If it isn't her, find out who it is, and find this child!

nomadpatti

04-24-2009, 11:07 AM

IIRC anna, she was supposed to be walking home with a couple of her schoolfriends and meeting her brother. IMO

ETA - Found This:-

For one thing, Ms. McDonald said, only two people knew Tori would be walking home that day - "me and my mother," who for the whole week previous, because it was still cold, had been driving the children to school.Daryn, Tori's brother, customarily escorted home two other youngsters, one of whom has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, from the subsidized townhouse co-op where the family lived until two weeks ago. The complex is just a few doors up from the school, and Tori would either go with Daryn or dawdle about at the school until he returned to fetch her.
But the Wednesday Tori went missing, when Daryn got home about 4.15 p.m., he was alone, Ms. McDonald said. "Where's Victoria?" she asked, but he didn't know, both believing she would arrive shortly. When she didn't, Ms. McDonald began calling her daughter's friends and went about the neighbourhood, calling Oxford Community Police shortly after 6 p.m.
_________
Didn't the intial reposrts say that she was going to her Uncle's house after school? I haven't heard anymore about the "uncle"

annalyzer

04-24-2009, 12:32 PM

THE ABDUCTION OF TORI STAFFORD: News of door-to-door efforts has raised concerns some may be taking advantage of the abduction for personal gain
Family torn on fundraising
Randy Richmond
London Free Press
April 24, 2009

Cracks are beginning to open between the two families of missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford over fundraising efforts in the little girl's name.

The father's side of the family pleaded with the public yesterday to stop raising or donating money and focus on the search for the girl, last seen April 8 after school.

"The only thing we want people to be spending is their time and effort," said Rebecca Stafford, Tori's aunt.

The Stafford family has been horrified to learn people are going door to door with jars plastered with Tori's picture, she said.

"We are afraid people are taking advantage of this for their own personal gain."

The family had earlier supported a trust fund set up to help Tori and her brother Daryn get counselling.

But Tori's grandmother's employer, Cami Automotive Inc., has agreed to pay for counselling, Stafford said.

Stafford also expressed concerns about a second fund created this week to help the mother's side of the family pay for phone bills and lost wages.

"I don't know what to say to that other than . . . with public money here comes a great deal of responsibility."

Tori's parents are divorced but have until now presented a unified face over the search for their daughter.

Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, dealt with questions about fundraising at an earlier news conference yesterday.

"I don't have a clue how much has been raised. I don't take care of that. It goes into a trust fund for Daryn and Victoria."

McDonald also dealt yesterday with questions about a composite sketch released by police two days ago.

The sketch is of the woman seen in a surveillance video walking with Tori at 3:23 p.m. after school April 8, based on someone who saw her in person.

http://lfpress.ca/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?p=263366&x=articles&s=societe

sarahhod

04-24-2009, 01:34 PM

For one thing, Ms. McDonald said, only two people knew Tori would be walking home that day - "me and my mother," who for the whole week previous, because it was still cold, had been driving the children to school.Daryn, Tori's brother, customarily escorted home two other youngsters, one of whom has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, from the subsidized townhouse co-op where the family lived until two weeks ago. The complex is just a few doors up from the school, and Tori would either go with Daryn or dawdle about at the school until he returned to fetch her.
But the Wednesday Tori went missing, when Daryn got home about 4.15 p.m., he was alone, Ms. McDonald said. "Where's Victoria?" she asked, but he didn't know, both believing she would arrive shortly. When she didn't, Ms. McDonald began calling her daughter's friends and went about the neighbourhood, calling Oxford Community Police shortly after 6 p.m.
_________
Didn't the intial reposrts say that she was going to her Uncle's house after school? I haven't heard anymore about the "uncle"

She sure did patti:-

Barb Murray, a local parent and former neighbour of Tori, said the girl was supposed to go to her uncle’s townhouse located in the Trillium Co-op after school.

Murray said it was out of character for the girl not to show up.

annalyzer

04-25-2009, 01:11 AM

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.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5g3kThBJKV-uJV4cDu9Ge1kgCfFKQ

Claycat

04-25-2009, 03:34 PM

You know what's weird? Haleigh's brother had his birthday soon after she disappeared. Now Tori's brother is having his birthday soon after she disappeared.

I just thought that was an odd coincidence!

annalyzer

04-25-2009, 05:30 PM

Missing Woodstock, Ont. girl's case to be featured on 'America's Most Wanted'

Published Saturday April 25th, 2009
THE CANADIAN PRESS

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - The case of missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford will be featured tonight on the TV show "America's Most Wanted" in the hopes of developing new leads about the girl's disappearance more than two weeks ago.

(more at link)

http://www.canadaeast.com/front/article/647143

sarahhod

04-26-2009, 04:39 AM

Short segment about Victoria Stafford runs on America's Most Wanted

| Sunday, April 26th, 2009 3:55 am
[/URL]
After a lot of talk about Saturday evening's episode of "America's Most Wanted", in which missing Woodstock girl Tori Stafford was to be profiled, the final product was only a nine second clip, sandwiched between two commercials.

However, on the program's website, amw.com, her full profile has been posted, as well as specific details on the case, a number of photos, the surveillance video of her with the unidentified woman, and the composite sketch.
The OPP are continuing to search the Woodstock area for any clues, but they have been unable to come up with new information.
This afternoon, people will gather in Harris Park in London, to offer hopes and prayers for Tori's safe return.
Tori has now been missing for two and a half weeks.
[URL]http://www.680news.com/news/headlines/more.jsp?content=20090426_035338_1412 (http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php)

Faith

04-26-2009, 12:46 PM

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — A woman said she was mistakenly arrested earlier this week in connection with the abduction of an eight-year-old Ontario girl, who has been missing for 17 days.

Angela Posch said she was in the health foods aisle of a supermarket in nearby Cambridge, Ont., Wednesday when she was surrounded by a group of police officers.

"This is what I was wearing (a white jacket), and I had it zipped up and my hair was back in a straight ponytail like that," Posch said Friday.

She was told police had received a tip that she resembled the woman in a composite sketch released earlier Wednesday, believed to be Victoria (Tori) Stafford's abductor.

Posch was subsequently arrested and then released.

Stafford was abducted on April 8 in Woodstock, about 150 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

She was last seen walking away from her school with an unidentified woman.

On Friday, Stafford's mother, Tara McDonald, in her daily media conference disputed claims from her ex-husband's family that she was benefiting financially due to her daughter's disappearance.

"I'm so tired of all the negativity," McDonald told reporters.

She said she is going to be heartbroken when she watches the television episode of America's Most Wanted Saturday which is focusing on her daughter.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Mistaken+arrest+girl+abduction/1531904/story.html

Faith

04-26-2009, 12:48 PM

I pray to God Tori is safe and home soon.

Pandabear

04-26-2009, 10:01 PM

I hate it when the families in these case start to bicker back and forth. The only thing that is important is finding Tori and bringing her home.

sarahhod

04-27-2009, 06:36 AM

Tori's disappearance takes toll on father

http://media.guelphmercury.topscms.com/images/32/d8/92a856ed4856b74dadd087d20b4e.jpeg DAVE CHIDLEY, THE CANADIAN PRESS

April 27, 2009
Allison Jones
The Canadian Press

WOODSTOCK, ONT.
When Victoria Stafford was born on July 15, 2000, her father held the tiny newborn in his arms, kissed her on the forehead and promised her he would never let anything happen to her.
"I feel like I broke that promise,'' Rodney Stafford said yesterday, his weary voice faltering with emotion.
"I don't know where she is. I can't be there to protect her -- and that kills me.''
The bubbly and bright eight-year-old girl vanished on April 8 after leaving school. She can be seen on surveillance video walking with a woman, who 18 days later, remains unidentified. A composite sketch of the mystery woman was released on April 21.
More than 1,500 tips have poured in to police in Woodstock, Ont., but the woman has still not been named. Relatives have said they have "suspicions'' about who the drawing resembles, but have not elaborated.
A brief clip about Victoria aired on the TV show America's Most Wanted on Saturday night, but it was just a few seconds long and did not show the surveillance tape or the composite sketch.
About 25 tips alone came in between 6 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. yesterday, police said. The television show aired at 9 p.m. ET.
Stafford wishes the segment was longer, but knows that his daughter's story has now reached much further.
As for Stafford, he says his little Tori is always on his mind, even when he is asleep.
"Every dream I have is about Victoria,'' he says. Sometimes he dreams about her coming home, other times she will be in a dream and magically disappear.
"It's taking a toll mentally on me.''
Investigators in Woodstock spent yesterday following up on the many tips they have received and continuing door-to-door canvasses.
Also yesterday, family and supporters gathered at a park in London, Ont., for a release of purple balloons. Purple is Tori's favourite colour.

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/473046

sarahhod

04-27-2009, 06:39 AM

Messages sent on balloons
Effort to find missing girl

By KELLY PEDRO (kelly.pedro@sunmedia.ca), SUN MEDIA

LONDON, Ont. -- On a day when Victoria (Tori) Stafford should have been playing outside, about 75 people launched 1,000 balloons yesterday in a London park, hoping that somehow one would find the missing eight-year-old and bring her safely home.
"The kids have lived in London a number of times and met a couple of people here. It's nice to see people remember them and are there for them," said Victoria's father, Rodney Stafford.
Victoria, known to her family and friends as Tori, was abducted April 8 while walking home from Oliver Stephens public school in Woodstock, where she is a Grade 3 pupil.
She was last seen after school that day - on security video shot from a nearby high school - walking with an unidentified woman.
Stafford said yesterday his emotions have run the gamut - "extremely tired, frustrated, angry, sad."
Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, thanked the organizers and people for turning out and keeping media attention on her daughter.
"Do whatever you have to do to keep it going until she's found," she said.
Ashley Johnston, who doesn't know the family, and co-organizer Tiffany Rea stayed up all night making small purple cards with Tori's photo instructing people to call 911 if they see her. The cards were attached to the 1,000 purple balloons that were released at the park.
Meanwhile, investigators probing the abduction received a boost Saturday night after the U.S. crime show, America's Most Wanted, aired a brief clip on Tori's disappearance.
Ontario Provincial Police received tips on the case after the show aired, though not as many as they had prepared for. From 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. yesterday, police received 26 tips.
Police were still canvassing door-to-door yesterday and following up on more than 1,500 tips they have received in the case.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Cana...57866-sun.html (http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/04/27/9257866-sun.html)

sarahhod

04-27-2009, 06:41 AM

Most Wanted airs story of abducted Ontario girl.

Canwest News Service

April 26, 2009

FOX television's America's Most Wanted program aired a segment Saturday night on an abducted Woodstock, Ont. girl who vanished nearly three weeks ago while walking home from school.
Victoria (Tori) Stafford has not been seen since a video surveillance camera caught her walking with an unknown woman.
Putting her story on the U.S. program means potentially millions more people have been made aware of her disappearance, which has been the subject of a police investigation since early April.
On Friday, Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, said she would be heartbroken when she watched the episode.
Tori has been missing since April 8. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to her safe return.

http://www.canada.com/Most+Wanted+airs+story+abducted+Ontario+girl/1537040/story.html

Pandabear

04-27-2009, 08:43 AM

Barb Murray, a local parent and former neighbour of Tori, said the girl was supposed to go to her uncle’s townhouse located in the Trillium Co-op after school.

Murray said it was out of character for the girl not to show up.

Now just how would a former neighbor of theirs know what Tori's schedule was or that she was supposed to go to her uncle's after school that day? Gives me a really weird feeling...just saying.

Claycat

04-27-2009, 10:03 AM

Now just how would a former neighbor of theirs know what Tori's schedule was or that she was supposed to go to her uncle's after school that day? Gives me a really weird feeling...just saying.

That strikes me as odd, too, Pandabear!

Harmony

04-27-2009, 10:46 AM

Claycat

04-28-2009, 03:31 AM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gLpdxMN6fBgpXOkhFVmU7C0gONsQ

Anonymous donor offers reward for safe return of missing Tori Stafford

9 hours ago

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The mother of Victoria Stafford said Monday an anonymous donor has offered to put up however much money is needed to bring the missing eight-year-old girl home.

"The police are in the process of looking into it, but I feel in my heart that it was a genuine offer," Tara McDonald said at her daily news conference outside her home.

"I don't think that it's just a person who's trying to get into the media or get their two cents in. I really feel that it's a genuine offer."

McDonald and police both stressed that the girl's abductor has not contacted family members or investigators asking for a ransom.

The girl, known as Tori to family and friends, hasn't been seen since she left her school on April 8.

Police have released a composite sketch based on a video of a woman seen walking with Tori the day she went missing, but have disclosed no other major leads in the case.

McDonald also admitted Monday she broke down after police gave her a polygraph test three days after her daughter was taken.

"I ended up breaking, and I ended up leaving, so it's not because they didn't give me the results of my polygraph test, and it's not because I had anything to hide," McDonald said after being pressed by a reporter on her test results.

"It's because it had been three days since my daughter was missing. I hadn't slept, I was ready to snap, and I said, 'I just want to go. I want to get out of here and I want to go home."'

Although she said she completed the test, McDonald said she would be willing to take another one now that she's calmer.

Faith

04-28-2009, 08:50 AM

ICTORIA STAFFORD DISAPPEARANCE

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
Headshot of Christie Blatchford

April 28, 2009

WOODSTOCK, ONT. -- cblatchford@globeandmail.com

Victoria Stafford's mother says she "ended up breaking" and bolted after her polygraph test about two weeks ago because she was sleep-deprived and at her wits' end, but that she would take another if police ask.

Tara McDonald made the remarks yesterday as she met reporters on her front stoop for what has become her daily press conference to keep the disappearance of her eight-year-old daughter, nicknamed Tori, squarely in the news and in the public imagination.

Since the little girl disappeared on April 8 on her way home from school shortly after her Grade 3 class was dismissed, her 30-year-old mother has suggested that while she took a lie detector test on April 11, she neither asked for nor was given the results. Several times, in reply to questions, she has told reporters that if she hadn't passed, she wouldn't have been allowed to leave.

But it is standard procedure for Canadian polygraph examiners to give the test subjects their results in what's called the post-test interview, and when Ms. McDonald was presented with this widespread practice yesterday, she replied, "That's really, I can't even discuss it, what happened that day.

"I went to Kitchener, I took my polygraph test, and it is also a polygraph examiner's job to try to - what's the word I'm looking for? - to try to mix you and to try to, and I ended up breaking and I ended up leaving, so it's not because they didn't give me the results of my polygraph test, and it's not because I had anything to hide, it's because it had been three days since my daughter was missing, I hadn't slept, I was ready to snap and I just said, 'I want to go, I want to get out of here and I want to go home.' "

Ms. McDonald said she saw a doctor the next day "because I just, imagine being three days and then onto the fourth without your child and people are berating you and looking at you and pointing a finger at you, you're going to lose it sooner or later, and I snapped at that point, and I left."

She was prescribed medication, she said, but added that she doesn't use it regularly, only when she is feeling "really, really, really anxious."

Ms. McDonald, her former husband and Tori's father, Rodney Stafford, Ms. McDonald's boyfriend, James Goris, and other family members took the polygraph tests, which, while not admissible in Canadian courts, are used frequently as an investigative tool by police.

Wearing a top in her daughter's favourite colour, purple, the young mother said clearly twice that it wasn't a question of the police failing to give her the test results, yet she appeared reluctant to discuss them.

Asked directly if she had passed, Ms. McDonald laughed a little, then said, "Honestly, I don't know.

"Because they come back and they sit down and they don't, like, immediately come out and tell you what your results are so, I mean, I didn't make it to that level."

Yet if in one breath she appeared to be suggesting she left before she could be given the results, in the next she said she had finished the test and said again that, "I'm sure if I didn't pass my test, I wouldn't be standing right here with all of you now, guaranteed.

"So anybody who's got negative [feelings,] take that one to the bank. Think about it, you know - if I didn't [pass,] I'm pretty sure I'd be somewhere else right now."

When asked if she had been "pressed hard" after the test and perhaps that was why she snapped, Ms. McDonald replied, "I've been pressed harder than anybody can even imagine, you know, and there does come a breaking point, when you lose it, like when somebody, because I feel like if even one person is pointing a finger in the wrong direction, that's one person that's not going in the right direction or in a different direction, so that's the way I feel."

She said when she left after the polygraph, "There was no yelling or screaming, like I just said you know, 'If we can continue this at another time, I would really prefer to do so because I am just mentally drained.' Like at that day I pretty much hadn't slept in three days, and it was just enough for me. People can speculate on that you know because they're going to no matter what you say, no matter what you do, you can't win for losing and that's just ..."

But she said, "I would take another one, now that I'm a little calmer, but like I said, I completed the test and I had a great discussion with the person afterwards, but I was just frustrated and tired and I had just had enough, and I still get that way almost daily, there comes a point when I don't think I can go on and I don't really have much choice."

Mr. Stafford, who was at his former wife's side yesterday because, he said, it was time for the little girl's family to come together as one, also found the polygraph nerve-wracking: "Every time they said something to do with Victoria, my heart would crush."

Ms. McDonald interjected, "They say 'Clear your mind, clear your mind'; it's not physically, humanly possible when your child is missing to clear your mind. It's just not going to happen."

There was a wild rumour here early yesterday that the little girl had been found in Embro, a village not far from this southwestern Ontario town about 130 kilometres from Toronto, but it proved to be false. It was in part to quash that rumour that Mr. Stafford skipped an exam to be with Ms. McDonald.

"Victoria has not been found, okay?" the 33-year-old father said yesterday, his voice close to breaking. "We can't be having people say Victoria has been found because that turns heads away from Victoria ... nobody will search because they believe she's home."

But Oxford Community Police and the Ontario Provincial Police, who lead the investigation, were in fact yesterday continuing both a door-to-door canvas and a search of the Oxford County landfill southwest of town.

While detectives had no break in the case to report, Ms. McDonald did - announcing that an anonymous donor has come forward to offer "whatever amount that whoever has our daughter wants ... If you have our daughter and it's money you want," she said, "there's somebody that is willing to give it to you."

Ms. McDonald said that while police are still investigating the offer, she believes the donor is genuine.

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

Harmony

04-28-2009, 12:33 PM

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

Mystery Person Offers Cash For Safe Return Of Victoria Stafford

video at link

Faith

04-28-2009, 08:56 PM

Tori's mom assumed limo would take her to psychic

Updated: Tue Apr. 28 2009 3:17:15 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

Victoria Stafford's mother thought renowned psychic Sylvia Browne had come to give her a clue about her missing daughter's whereabouts.

Instead, the mystery guest who requested to speak to Tara MacDonald Thursday afternoon is an anonymous person who is offering the eight-year-old child's captors a reward for her safe return.

Victoria has been missing from her Woodstock, Ont. town for 20

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090428/160_tara_mcdonald_090428.jpg
Tara McDonald speaks to reporters from outside her home in Woodstock, Ont., Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

Victoria has been missing from her Woodstock, Ont. town for 20 days.

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090422/160_victoria_stafford_090422.jpg
Tara McDonald holds a photo she says was taken at school the day before her daughter, Victoria Stafford, disappeared, in Woodstock, Ont. on Wednesday, April 22, 2009.

MacDonald told reporters on Tuesday she didn't know what to believe when a limo driver knocked at her door and told her that his wealthy boss wanted to speak with her.

The driver had apparently walked through the woman's backyard, far away from the prying eyes of reporters who were camped out front.

"(It all sounds) crazy? I know," she said. "I thought that we were going to see Sylvia Browne."

MacDonald said she has left a message for Browne, wanting to speak to her about Victoria's disappearance.

But it wasn't Browne. Rather, it was an anonymous traveller who had a stopover in Toronto wanted to help after seeing the case on TV.

This person, who MacDonald has refused to describe because of her promise to keep them anonymous, has reportedly also lost a child to a kidnapping.

MacDonald said the person was told by police not to pay a ransom demand for their child and as a result their child was killed.

"They didn't want that to happen to me," MacDonald said. "They said it was fate and that they wanted to help."

MacDonald said she, her boyfriend and best friend travelled to see the stranger in Toronto, at the Sheraton Hotel located by Pearson International Airport. A limousine was provided for them for their travel.

MacDonald said she was the only one who went upstairs to talk to the stranger and when she did, she stayed for about two hours.

MacDonald said she told police about the encounter and forwarded a number to authorities that has been set up to facilitate the transaction should it be necessary.

So far, both police and MacDonald say there have been no ransom demands.

Victoria's father Rodney Stafford stood next to MacDonald while she spoke to reporters.

He said he only heard about the trip to Toronto from MacDonald after it happened and that he wished he went along to meet the stranger.

"If someone is willing to help then that's great, Other than that, I don't know anything about it other than what Tara has told me," he said.

MacDonald said she's well aware the story sounds "crazy" and that people are speculating about the encounter.

"A lot of weird things have taken place (since Victoria disappeared)," she said. "A lot of weird messages, a lot of weird letters. It's not any more weird than anything else that has happened."

Victoria, known as "Tori" by close family and friends, has been missing since April 8. She was last seen walking away from her school with a woman whom police have not been able to identify.

Video @ link
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090428/stafford_update_090428/20090428/?hub=TorontoNewHome

Faith

04-28-2009, 08:58 PM

Missing Girl's Mom Faces Questions About Mystery Person Who Offered Cash
Tuesday April 28, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff

Tara McDonald first told CityNews about a mysterious limo driver who took her to a hotel, where claims she met an anonymous benefactor who said their own child had been abducted and murdered. The mother of missing 8-year-old Victoria Stafford said that person offered to put up the ransom money for her daughter's safe return.

No one knows who that person is, and a ransom demand has never been made. Those two factors have caused some to question the validity of the story.

A day after coming forward, McDonald was put on the defensive by inquisitive reporters who wanted more details than she was willing, or able, to give.

"It was an anonymous person," she said. "I have shown (Cynthia Mulligan) and she's listened to the message and seen the picture of us in the limo so people don't think we are crazy and made everything up."

Victoria has now been missing for 20 days, and McDonald is hopeful the offer of ransom money could be the key to bringing her home.

"When they bring my daughter back safety, whatever it is they ask for is going to be deposited into a safe account for them," she promised.

Video @ link

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34112.aspx

Faith

04-28-2009, 08:59 PM

Police respond to latest news in Stafford case
Posted 6 hours ago

WOODSTOCK — Oxford Community Police Services Const. Laurie Anne Maitland spoke to the media Tuesday afternoon in response to the latest information about missing eight-year-old Tori Stafford.

Maitland says the OPP and OCPS are aware of the meeting Tara McDonald, Tori's mom, had with a benefactor late last week, but said it won't affect the investigation.

She says the police remain focus on finding Tori.

The door-to-door search continues, as does the search of the landfill in Salford.

http://woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1543750

Faith

04-28-2009, 09:02 PM

Tori Stafford's mother takes limo ride to meet with person offering to aid ransom

6 hours ago

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The mother of Victoria Stafford is recounting her mysterious journey in a limousine to a Toronto hotel room where a stranger offered to aid with any ransom demands.

Tara McDonald says she assumed when the limo arrived at her Woodstock, Ont., home, some 140 kilometres west of Toronto, that she would be meeting with a psychic from the Montel Williams daytime talk show.

Instead, McDonald met with someone who warned her to consider offering a ransom for her daughter's return because when they had been in a similar circumstance police advised against paying and their child was killed.

She says the person, who she did not identify, happened to have a stopover in Toronto and saw a story about Victoria's case on TV.

While McDonald acknowledged that the meeting might sound strange she says many weird things have happened since her daughter disappeared.

The girl, known as Tori to family and friends, hasn't been seen since she left her school on April 8.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hTkRjDRimo9n0C9kNDWL1Fa80wQg

Faith

04-28-2009, 09:06 PM

* Tara McDonald talks about mysterious donor

Tara McDonald talks about mysterious donor
Details limo ride to Toronto to meet with anonymous person
Posted By Elliot Ferguson, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Posted 4 hours ago

Video

http://woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1543914&auth=Elliot%20Ferguson,%20STAFF%20PHOTOGRAPHER

Faith

04-28-2009, 11:17 PM

Police offer $50K reward in Tori case
Tue, April 28, 2009

Oxford Police announced tonight they are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the abduction of eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

“We’re hopeful that this incentive will be the catalyst for anyone with information to come forward,” Oxford Community Police spokesperson Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said tonight.

The reward comes on the heels of a day when Tori’s mother, Tara McDonald, revealed new information about a mysterious benefactor who had her whisked off to Toronto in a limousine for a clandestine meeting in a hotel room and offered “whatever (money) it takes” to bring the little girl back.

Maitland said the two events -- the story about the mysterious benefactor this afternoon and the police putting up a reward tonight -- are not linked.

“I know it doesn’t come across like that,” Maitland said.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/04/28/9283571.html

sarahhod

04-29-2009, 05:11 AM

The curious case of a mother's mystery benefactor

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
April 29, 2009 at 4:39 AM EDT

WOODSTOCK, ONT. — Not 20 minutes from the little house where Tara McDonald has "my one o'clock," as she calls her standing daily appointment with the press, between 12 and 16 police officers are grimly sifting through garbage at the Oxford County landfill on the Salford Road.
They are looking for any trace of the little girl who vanished exactly three weeks ago today.
She is eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, and she is Ms. McDonald's youngest child.
While the methodical search and an accompanying door-to-door canvass of this entire Southwestern Ontario town of about 35,000 respectively grind on, the young mother busies herself with the more bizarre aspects of a case that grows stranger by the minute.

In the most recent turn of events, in a disappearance where no ransom demand has ever been made, there is an anonymous alleged benefactor who allegedly has offered as much money as it takes to get Tori back and who apparently travels the globe always carrying a plastic baggie of his or her dead child's hair.
Ms. McDonald says she was whisked to meet this mystery benefactor, by limousine, at the Sheraton Hotel at Pearson airport after the person's flight made an unexpected stop in Toronto.
The benefactor is the second "mystery" person in the case, the first being the still officially unidentified woman who was the last to be seen with Tori; the two were captured on grainy surveillance video as they walked from her school on April 8.
The newest mystery person, whose name Ms. McDonald doesn't have and never sought, believes it "was fate that brought them to me, because they were supposed to be flying from one place directly to another place and for some reason they had to stop in Toronto and for some reason they turned on the television and saw what was going on."
According to Ms. McDonald, the benefactor had a child who was abducted "and there was a ransom that was asked for and they were told by police not to give it, so they didn't and their child ended up dead, and they don't want me to go through that." The benefactor didn't give her any details of the abduction, Ms. McDonald said, but "they had a little baggie of hair the same colour as my daughter's and that broke my heart and obviously, it was somebody genuine. I felt that. Like they weren't just making things up or trying to get into the news because they made it very clear that they wanted to remain anonymous."
The news of the alleged benefactor and the mysterious sum of money was announced by Ms. McDonald three days ago, but detailed first only to Cynthia Mulligan, a CITY-TV reporter.
The 30-year-old mother addressed some of her remarks to Ms. Mulligan yesterday, saying, "I know that people are speculating and thinking that we're crazy because, like I told you, you came in to discuss it with me, people are going to think that we're nuts, people are going to think we're absolutely crazy, and we woke up the next day and all looked at each other and thought, like, 'Did that really happen?' "
According to Ms. McDonald, a limo driver parked on a side street, sneaked through her neighbour's backyard out of sight of the waiting throng of reporters and arrived at her back door last Thursday, telling her there was someone who wanted to meet her.
Ms. McDonald didn't ask who it was, but asked for time to discuss it with her boyfriend, James Goris, her brother John and her best friend Sarah. Two hours later, the driver phoned back and two hours after that, the limo picked them up and took them to the hotel, stopping on the way at Tim Hortons.
Ms. McDonald explained that "obviously, I wasn't just going to jump in a limo with a stranger and just go somewhere," yet once at the hotel, she effectively did just that - leaving her boyfriend, brother and best friend in the lobby and going upstairs alone with the limo driver.
Her willingness may have been based in part on her hunch that the mystery benefactor was Sylvia Browne, she told the media yesterday.
"Who's Sylvia Browne?" a reporter asked.
"A psychic, for Montel Williams [host of a daytime talk show]," Ms. McDonald replied. "The world's most renowned psychic."
She said she had called Ms. Browne "a few days prior" and left a message that she would like to talk to her, and "that's what I honestly thought I was going to do" when she was approached by the limo driver. "Crazy, I know," she said, "I thought we were going to see Sylvia Browne ... and that's what I honestly thought I was going to do."
"Your daughter's been abducted," a reporter asked her yesterday. "A lot of people would say that's kind of weird, you get into a limo - something bad could have happened to you?"
"A lot of weird things have taken place," Ms. McDonald said. "A lot of weird messages, a lot of weird letters. It was no more any weird than anything else we have encountered so far."
There is apparently no firm plan as to how the money would be delivered into an abductor's hands. "When they bring my daughter back safely," Ms. McDonald said, "then whatever it is that they ask for is going to be deposited into a safe account for them."
A little later, she added, "I know it sounds crazy. However they want to do it. If they want to drop Tori off, if they want to wait until they have the phone number, like whatever - they're the ones who are obviously holding the cards right now, not us, so I mean, whatever they ask for, the money is there, if that's what they want."
She said she has passed the two phone numbers given her by the benefactor to the police, whose spokeswoman, Constable Laurie-Anne Maitland, said only that "police have the information Tara's been given." While she said "everything is taken as possible evidence," Constable Maitland said the focus of the now-massive police investigation remains "in locating Tori."
Last night, the Oxford Community Police Service issued a press release announcing its own $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible fot the little girl's abduction. Constable Maitland said the reward was unrelated to any money allegedly offered by the mystery benefactor.
Ms. McDonald told Ms. Mulligan in an interview aired last evening that she has revised her belief that a stranger took her daughter, and now agrees with friends who "feel somebody who we know has taken Tori and they have no idea, they were just being mildly vindictive, and it went so far out of control so fast they have no idea what to do now."
"Mildly vindictive," after a child has been gone for 21 days, seems a curiously mild way of framing things.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090429.wblatch29art2245/BNStory/National

sarahhod

04-29-2009, 05:19 AM

Police offer $50,000 reward in Tori Stafford case

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/4f/0b/0beadcbe424cac664b1da49aad11.jpeg
DAVE CHIDLEY/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO (left), WOODSTOCK POLICE HANDOUT/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE IMAGE
Tori Stafford, 8, was last seen in Woodstock April 8, while walking with a woman, shown in a composite sketch released by police.

Apr 29, 2009 04:30 AM
THE CANADIAN PRESS
STAR STAFF

WOODSTOCK, Ont. – The Oxford Community Police Service is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the abduction of Victoria Stafford.
Anyone with information regarding the 8-year-old girl's abduction should contact Oxford Community Police, the force said in a release last night.
The announcement follows an offer to Victoria's parents from a mystery benefactor who is willing to pay any amount of money for the missing girl's release.
"If ransom is a motive, then this will surely help," Tara McDonald, Victoria's mother, said yesterday. "I would imagine whoever has her watches TV and knows there is some money out there and will let go of Tori."
McDonald said an anonymous donor approached her last Thursday and offered to help with any ransom demands. This person – McDonald refused to say if it's a man or a woman – reportedly also was the parent of a child who was abducted. "They were told by police not to pay the ransom and they lost their child. They didn't want that to happen to me," McDonald said.
Victoria, known as Tori, vanished on April 8 after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School, where she is a Grade 3 student. She was seen on surveillance video walking with an unidentified woman.
A composite sketch of the mystery woman in a white puffy coat was released last week.
Police have received over 2,000 tips but there's no new information about the schoolgirl's disappearance.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/626101

sarahhod

04-29-2009, 07:59 AM

Bizarre Twist in Tori Stafford Case

ctv.ca staff
Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Police are now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the disappearance of Victoria Stafford.
The Oxford Community Police Service made the announcement on Tuesday night as officers continued to investigate the suspected abduction of the eight-year-old girl, missing since April 8 from her home in Woodstock, Ont.
Earlier on Tuesday, Victoria's mother, Tara McDonald, told a bizarre story about a mysterious limo ride to a Toronto hotel.
McDonald thought she was heading to Toronto to meet with renowned psychic Sylvia Browne about her daughter's disappearance.
Instead, the mystery guest turned out to be an anonymous person offering to pay Victoria's captors a reward for a safe return.
McDonald told reporters she didn't know what to believe when a limo driver knocked at her door and told her that his wealthy boss wanted to speak with her.
The driver had apparently walked through the woman's backyard, far away from the prying eyes of reporters who were camped out front.
''(It all sounds) crazy? I know," she said. "I thought that we were going to see Sylvia Browne.''
But it wasn't Browne. Rather, it was an anonymous traveller who had a stopover in Toronto who wanted to help after seeing the case on TV.
This person, who McDonald has refused to describe because of her promise to keep them anonymous, has reportedly also lost a child to a kidnapping.

http://www.cfra.com/?cat=3&nid=64835

Claycat

04-30-2009, 03:58 AM

Tori's mother turns to psychics for help.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/missing+girl+turns+psychics/1547120/story.html

Faith

04-30-2009, 12:46 PM

Police officer says she 'firmly believes' Tori Stafford still alive (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNG9s4QjBwBTcej59CO461uT5mH0qg&sig2=TuFpOccv97uLmOoNrZMHIQ&cid=1342724667&ei=rtX5SbjqDoK4MaOP-JkD&rt=SEARCH&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthechronicleherald.ca%2FCanada%2F 9011653.html)

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The police officer who's the face of the 22-day hunt for Tori Stafford says she firmly believes the missing eight-year-old girl is still alive.
Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of Oxford Community Police says some, but not all other officers, agree with that point of view.
Maitland also says police have investigated a mysterious offer to pay a ransom for the return of Tori and concluded it is not a cause of concern.
On Wednesday, Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, said police had confirmed to her that her story of the mysterious offer was ``legitimate.''
The offer was made to McDonald after she took a limo ride to Toronto last Thursday to meet with an unidentified person in a hotel room.
Maitland also dismissed suggestions the offer may have part of a police sting operation to elicit information from McDonald and her family, saying she didn't think police ``would go to such trouble.''
Tori was last seen on April 8 leaving school with a still-unidentified woman wearing black jeans and a white coat. A composite sketch of the 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.

Faith

04-30-2009, 12:53 PM

Psychic Sterling Sinclair 2nd Tori Stafford Auracature and Message, April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

Psychic Sterling Sinclair 2nd Tori Stafford Auracature and Message, April 29, 2009

April 29, 2009

This Auracature was drawn after I requested that the Spirit of Tori Stafford draw the picture.

The message that was written around the edge of the paper is cryptic.

Value Village

White Coat.

[Bought There?]

Why can’t people see me?

I am right there.

My purple blanket

Not in my closet.

Why is it not there?

Daddy,

You drink too much

Why are you drinking again?

It makes me sad to watch you hurt yourself.

Mom won’t find me

Please,

Daddy come get me.

The water

Shore is pretty from here.

You would like it too.

It is co/chilly out here this morning.

I can’t find my blankie.

Think

Daddy

Think.

Remember where we used to go?

Remember?

Think back—-

This ends the message.

Only those who this message before may know the real meaning of the words.

One thing is pronounced in this psychic message, Tori is calling out to her dad.

Blessings,

Sterling

http://propheticwisdom.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/auracature-tori-3.jpg?w=455&h=589

Psychic Sterling Sinclair auracature-tori-3

Blessings,

Sterling

Together, we bring her home.

Together, we march over the horizon.

_______________
Vonnie
How do you channel a spirit that is still alive…

Sterling Sinclair
Dear Vonnie,
The same way is as if a person was to come to someone in their dreams.
I have the odd person write me wondering why they keep hearing little Tori saying certain things to them.
If someone is alive, they send out psychic messages hoping for someone to hear them.
I erased all of the previous posts and I kept being haunted by this little girl wanting me to do something.
It is a strange thing to happen.
I read the other day that Tori’s father has been having dreams with Tori in them. If other people are being communicated with and if they would write down the information maybe Tori’s voice can be heard from where ever she is.
If I do not receive anymore information from her or a spirit identifying herself os her then no more writings or drawing will surface.
Thanks for your question.
Sterling
________

http://propheticwisdom.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/psychic-sterling-sinclair-2nd-tori-stafford-auracature-and-message-april-29-2009/

Claycat

04-30-2009, 10:22 PM

Wow, that's really interesting, Faith! Thanks for posting that!

annalyzer

05-01-2009, 12:13 AM

Ex-homicide cops troubled by Tori's case

Updated: Thu Apr. 30 2009 8:27:43 PM
ctvtoronto.ca

Two former Toronto homicide detectives say they find many troubling aspects to the disappearance of Woodstock girl Tori Stafford more than three weeks ago.

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090430/160_detective2_090430.jpg

"What's the reason for this? What would be the motive behind taking this girl away from her family?" asked Chris Wilson as he spoke with CTV Toronto on Thursday.

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090430/160_detective_090430.jpg

"The whole case has got 'mystery' written all around it," added Dave Perry of Investigative Solutions Network as he prepared to launch his boat for the season.

There is no violent crime scene, and no trace of the victim has turned up despite an intensive search by the Oxford Community Police and the Ontario Provincial Police.

The only evidence is the now-famous videotape of a woman leading Tori away from a school on the afternoon of April 9.

"This one has the earmarks of someone who is known to the family," Perry said, adding the video clearly shows that the person leading the eight-year-old away knows Tori.

The Zhang kidnapping

Perry was the lead investigator for a high-profile Toronto kidnapping and murder -- Cecilia Zhang.

In October 2003, Chinese foreign exchange student Min Chen grabbed Cecilia from her family home as her parents slept, intending to hold her for ransom to raise $25,000. The money was intended for a marriage of convenience that would keep him in Canada.

He ended up strangling the nine-year-old girl -- by accident, Chen claimed.

Chen had befriended the Zhangs through a woman who had lived in that home.

It would be five months before a passerby found Cecilia's remains in a ravine near Mississauga. Chen was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 15 years after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

In Tori's case, there has been no ransom demand made.

There has been a bizarre story from Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, about being taken by limousine to an airport hotel in Toronto to meet with a mystery person who has offered to pay whatever it takes to bring Tori home.

This person reportedly carries around a baggie full of his or her own dead child's hair, McDonald told reporters earlier this weekend.

"I've been in the policing business a long time and I've never heard of that happening," Perry said.

"You know my concern is that someone maybe trying to take advantage of the situation, they may not be even connected to the case and see an opportunity to maybe scam for some money," Wilson said.

He chalks it up more to Hollywood-style fantasy than anything.

McDonald said police have confirmed the mystery person is "totally legit," but Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland would only tell reporters Wednesday the information "does not cause us concern."

Slogging through

Police investigating Tori's case haven't made it sound like they are on the verge of a breakthrough.

"I've worked cases like this and you've just got to throw the net out and look at every other avenue," Perry said.

"Sooner or later, you're going to do something or hear something that will put you on the right track."

The two now-private detectives say that the investigators in Tori's case will be going through mountains of time-consuming leads.

They suggest the $50,000 reward could pay dividends by helping shake loose a key piece of information.

Meanwhile, in Woodstock, McDonald complained that attention is being taken away from finding Tori.

"I'd like everybody to bring their attention back to the reason we're standing out here," she said from outside her home.

Rodney Stafford, the girl's father, said the speculation had to stop and the focus be put on finding his daughter.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090430/excops_tori_090430/20090430/?hub=TorontoNewHome

sarahhod

05-01-2009, 04:24 AM

Tori's mom finds self in a tricky Catch-22

MISSING GIRL

By IAN GILLESPIE (ian.gillespie@sunmedia.ca), FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

WOODSTOCK -- No matter what you think about the Victoria (Tori) Stafford case -- and there's no shortage of rumours, implications and suppositions swirling round the disappearance of the little girl -- one thing seems clear.
Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, finds herself gored on the horns of a dilemma that's impossible to shake.
McDonald holds regular news conferences in front of her Woodstock house; the grass in the tiny yard has been flattened by the dozens of reporters and technicians who gather there almost every day for updates.
And in a bizarre case that's notable for its lack of public developments -- the police briefings are dominated by dissembling "not to my knowledge" statements and precious little else -- McDonald has single-handedly kept the story of her daughter's disappearance in the public eye.
That's a good thing. Because if no one's talking or thinking about Tori and she slips off our radar and fades into nothing but a forgotten Facebook page, then the chances of finding her grow even slimmer.
So far, McDonald has ensured that doesn't happen.
But those high-profile appearances have also led to a barrage of questions, criticisms and judgments about McDonald, who pointedly addressed the topic at yesterday's news conference.
"It's all been, you know, the fact that everybody thinks I'm crazy and everybody is focusing on other things," she said. "And I'd like everybody to bring the attention back to the reason why we're standing out here."
Frankly, I think it's a battle McDonald can't win.
On the one hand, her regular media briefings inevitably lead to accusations she's revelling in the attention. And all the details of her appearance -- What's she wearing? How'd she afford that fancy iPhone? What's she done to her hair? -- get scrutinized with a cynical fine comb of suspicion.
How does McDonald dodge that? If she pads out in front of the cameras and microphones in bare feet and bathrobe, she'll be attacked for being slovenly. And if she decides to fix her hair and don makeup and sunglasses, critics charge she's basking in the limelight.
But if McDonald doesn't meet the media, then the story will likely fade -- particularly with the lack of any real news from police. And no doubt many would interpret her absence as proof she has something to hide.
Many have remarked about McDonald's stoic, rather emotionless manner during her briefings, implying that any "normal" parent couldn't function in such circumstances.
But isn't the opposite equally plausible? Isn't it possible McDonald's emotions have been deadened by despair and that she only displays her raw vulnerability in private?
And finally, would any of these questions even be aired if McDonald lived in upscale suburbia, and not a modest, working-class neighbourhood?
"If you've got an opinion about us, that's fine, have it," McDonald said yesterday. "But don't take the attention off our child."

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Columnists/Gillespie_Ian/2009/05/01/9310441-sun.html

sarahhod

05-01-2009, 07:32 AM

Parents want media attention back on Tori

Posted By Bruce Urquhart, CRIME REPORTER

The parents of Victoria "Tori" Stafford called on the media and the public to stop paying attention to the more bizarre stories surrounding their daughter's disappearance and return the focus to bringing the little girl home.
Rodney Stafford, Tori's father, begged for an end to the rampant speculation that has pervaded the public dialogue since Tori's mysterious abduction on April 8. Asking the public to let investigators "figure (the abduction) out," Stafford said the sole focus of the media and public attention should be locating his daughter.
"It's about finding our little girl," a worn out Stafford said. "I'm shaking. I'm getting sick of this. I just want it to end. I want her home."
Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, echoed her ex-husband's plea, saying too much of the recent focus had been on her. Instead of rumour and online criticism, McDonald said local naysayers should go out into the community and "hand out some posters."
"Right now, nobody is even focused on Tori," McDonald said. "(The media focus) has all been -- the fact that everybody thinks I'm crazy.
"I want everyone to bring the attention back to ... Tori."
When asked to look at the television cameras and address Tori directly, McDonald told reporters she had penned a three-page letter to her daughter that she didn't want to share with the public. McDonald said she shouldn't have to "say anything or read anything" to turn the media's attention solely to her missing daughter.
McDonald, though, told reporters she would continue with her regular media conferences, saying these afternoon sessions were necessary for "Tori's face to remain out there." The young mother said she didn't know any other way to maintain the media's interest in her daughter's disappearance.
"You're able to broadcast as far as you can," she said. "That's why we keep coming out here."
As for other "directions" for finding her daughter, McDonald reiterated her intent to contact famed clairvoyant Sylvia Browne, as well as her interest in discussing Tori's disappearance with an independent "psychic detective."
Stafford said the anguish of his daughter's disappearance was only "getting worse" with each passing day. Stafford described his first night alone since Tori's disappearance as agonizing, describing those recent sleepless hours as "the longest" of his life.

Tori was last seen walking with an unidentified woman north on Fyfe Avenue shortly after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School at roughly 3:30 p.m. A composite sketch of the mystery woman -- prepared using an independent witness and security camera footage from College Avenue Secondary School -- was later released to the public.
Stafford, who has recently been in touch with Child Find Canada, said the safe return of his daughter eclipsed any other considerations, including the arrest of Tori's abductor.
"I'd rather have Victoria here with me and then find out why," he said.
Stafford and McDonald talked briefly about the painful impact of Tori's abduction on Daryn, their 11-year-old son. While acknowledging his sorrow at his sister's disappearance, they said they've been answering his questions about the ordeal "as honestly as we can."
"We have to keep him positive and ourselves positive at the same time," Stafford said.
In recent days, a number of developments have made the case of Tori's abduction into something far more convoluted. In addition to the recent announcement by the Oxford Community Police Service of a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the abductor, there was increasing media attention being paid to the alleged offer from a mysterious benefactor to pay whatever ransom money was needed for Tori's safe return.
Since McDonald shared this offer with reporters earlier this week, the account of the surreptitious Toronto meeting has somewhat eclipsed other aspects of the case.
---
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.
She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz shoulder bag.

http://woodstocksentinelreview.com/A...aspx?e=1549230 (http://woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1549230)

Roamer

05-01-2009, 07:38 AM

One thing about the psychic message stands out to me: Daddy, remember where we used to go?

And the parents are right. Get the focus back on this baby who needs to be brought home!

And bless the man who donated the $50,000!

sarahhod

05-01-2009, 07:54 AM

ITA Roamer.

The Focus needs to be on finding Tori and nothing else.

Children don't JUST disappear. Someone knows....

Pandabear

05-01-2009, 08:22 AM

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Col...10441-sun.html

<respectfully snipped>

Many have remarked about McDonald's stoic, rather emotionless manner during her briefings, implying that any "normal" parent couldn't function in such circumstances.
But isn't the opposite equally plausible? Isn't it possible McDonald's emotions have been deadened by despair and that she only displays her raw vulnerability in private?
And finally, would any of these questions even be aired if McDonald lived in upscale suburbia, and not a modest, working-class neighbourhood?
"If you've got an opinion about us, that's fine, have it," McDonald said yesterday. "But don't take the attention off our child."

That just about says it all for me. Stop focusing on what the mother is wearing and how she looks and get the attention back on this child. Tori is out there somewhere and she needs to be found. Has TES or any other organization been there to help search?

Claycat

05-01-2009, 10:25 AM

One thing about the psychic message stands out to me: Daddy, remember where we used to go?

That stands out to me, too, Roamer!

AmyE

05-02-2009, 12:24 AM

Farmers asked to watch for missing Ontario girl

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.canada.com/news/farmers+asked+watch+missing+ontario+girl/1554984/1507475.bin?SSImageQuality=Full

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The search is continuing for a missing Woodstock eight-year-old with police asking farmers to be "vigilant" while planting crops.

Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police said the request doesn't represent a widening of the search for Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

Tori disappeared more than three weeks ago while walking home from school.

A surveillance video showed her walking with an unidentified woman in a white jacket.

Maitland also appealed for the girl's abductor to do the right thing and bring her home.

On Saturday, a charity motorcycle ride, dubbed "Tori's Ride Home" will be held in Woodstock.

The event will be followed by a community barbecue and concert.

http://www.canada.com/news/Farmers+asked+watch+missing+Ontario+girl/1554984/story.html

AmyE

05-02-2009, 12:26 AM

Stafford case - Farmers told to look for items

Woodstock - The latest appeal for help in the Victoria Stafford investigation is going out to farmers.

They're being asked to pay extra attention as they tend their fields this spring, looking for signs of anything unusual.

Oxford Community Police and the OPP continue to canvass door-to-door in Woodstock, and a landfill site in Salford is also still the subject of an intense search.

The eight-year old girl went missing more than three weeks ago.

http://www.570news.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090501_172653_7148

sarahhod

05-02-2009, 05:54 AM

Let's bring the focus back to what counts: little Tori Stafford

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
May 2, 2009
cblatchford@globeandmail.com

When Woodstock mother Tara McDonald made a plea to the media late this week to remember "the reason why we're standing out here," as she put it, she had a point.
Three weeks plus and counting since Victoria (Tori) Stafford vanished as if plucked from the Earth, and, of late, the horror of that central fact has been forgotten in the unfolding melodrama of the bizarre Ontario case - in the mysterious alleged benefactor who whisked Ms. McDonald away in a limousine, the talk of psychics and psychic detectives, the whirlwind of rumours surrounding the young mother.
Ms. McDonald may have been a party to all these distractions and sometimes even the driving force, but her little girl is just eight years old and no matter how benignly she is being treated by her captors - this in the most gloriously optimistic interpretation of events possible - she must be worried and bewildered.

Tori Stafford turns nine in July. She's a funny, sassy little blonde, still so tiny that her maternal grandmother, Linda Winters, can wrap her up in a purple blanket on her lap to read together in Ms. Winters's favourite living room chair.
Shortly before Tori disappeared - she was last seen walking with an unidentified dark-haired woman just blocks from her house, the pair caught on a surveillance camera at a nearby high school - the little girl had started calling Ms. Winters "GRAND-ma," emphasis on the first syllable, as opposed to Nanna.
"It was so cute," Ms. Winters remembered this week. "Everything Tori does is cute ... even the little hissy fits, we call them."
Ms. Winters sees a lot of both Tori and her big brother Daryn, who turned 11 last month. They often overnight with her, and over the course of their young lives appear to have stayed with her for longer periods; in an interview this week with The Globe and Mail, Ms. Winters spoke of how, when the children lived with her, they had to abide "by Nanna's rules, which were different" than their mother's.
She and Tori had their special rituals. "Out of the blue one day I just asked her if she wanted to go to Sunday school," Ms. Winters said, "and ever since, it was every Sunday ... she'd be dressed before I even got up some days." She even had a special, going-to-church dress and shoes.
Daryn was at a more awkward age - too old for Sunday school, not keen on staying upstairs with the adults for the service - but on Palm Sunday this year, he came along with his little sister.
With other children in the congregation, they took part in the palm-waving - the youngsters marching around the church behind the minister, each carrying palm fronds. Daryn waved his like a maniac, in a big arc; Tori, her grandmother said, hardly moved hers. "She was looking around, kinda shy, scared, whatever. Too many people looking at her bugs her." The palms now sit on Ms. Winters's dining room table.
There was a routine when the youngsters were with her. Daryn and Tori would take turns on the laptop, one hopping in the bathtub while the other was on the computer. "There were times you almost had to, well you dragged her off the computer," Ms. Winters said. "I'm telling you, her fingers were attached."
She recently bought a second laptop, a smaller one, which is now at the trailer where the family summers, waiting for Tori.
She is a girly-girl, by all accounts, although sometimes a boisterous handful and never a delicate flower. Street-proofed in the way of modern children, she once told her grandfather Robert, who died of cancer about 18 months ago, if anyone tried to hurt her " 'I'd kick him right in the. ...' She would, if she could," Ms. Winters said, wincing.
She remembered the time that Tori and a cousin emerged from the walk-in closet in her old apartment, Tori in one of her good outfits, the cousin in the other. "Do you mind if we have a fashion show?" Tori asked. The two little girls often had tea parties too, and used Ms. Winters's bone china. "I taught them to put their little fingers out" when they drank from the cups, she said. "We had fun."
She spoils the kids a little, as grandparents are meant to do. Buying them new bicycles was something she and her late husband did, and this year, when she took the kids to the local Wal-Mart to get Daryn a new BMX for his birthday, she couldn't bring herself to make Tori wait for two months for hers. She got a Hannah Montana model, replacing last year's Bratz bike, which now goes to the trailer. She's also hoping to buy Tori a mate's bed, the kind with the drawers underneath, for her room.
But Ms. Winters was quick to add, "I could entertain her without spending a dime. One year, for Christmas, something came in a big box, and she gets in this box, played in it for a long time, Daryn too." And when Ms. Winters got Mr. Bob, the little white dog named after her husband, and a crate for the pup, Tori would crawl into the crate with the little dog.
"She's simple," her grandmother said.
She was there, coaching her daughter, when Tori was born. "She's a tiger," she said. "When she was born, she didn't cry right away ... she came in two pushes, and well, they had to hold her back to get help and she was in distress. You got a baby held back, three nurses suctioning her, my daughter's having a bird - she knew something was going on in the background. I'm trying to say to her, 'It's okay,' but I'm looking over and thinking, 'If you don't breathe soon I'll go over and suction you."
Then she let out her first cry, and she was fine. "So I believe she's a fighter," Ms. Winters said. "There's not enough words for either one of them, Tori or Daryn."
Tori Stafford is 4-foot-5, 62 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair cut below her ears. This is this 24th day of her disappearance. Her grandmother said she's afraid of the dark and likes to drift off to the light of the television set.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090502.BLATCH02ART2154/TPStory/TPComment/Ontario/

Claycat

05-02-2009, 10:56 AM

That account from her grandmother is heart-wrenching!

Faith

05-03-2009, 10:24 PM

Bikers' search for Tori comes up empty

5/2/09

WOODSTOCK, Ont.—Minutes before some 300 bikers zoomed out of a downtown parking lot, Rodney Stafford quietly wished for a miracle - that his daughter would return home. "I wish this could really be Tori's ride home," said Stafford.

But the family's hopes that Victoria "Tori" Stafford, somehow, would be released by her abductors were dashed on Saturday when the bikers returned after a two-hour ride and there was still no sign of the girl.

Tori's Ride Home was planned a few days after the girl went missing on April 8, in the hope it could be a celebration of her return. Tara McDonald, her mother, said she hopes the ride spread word about her disappearance.

"We are still hopeful," said McDonald, whose entire family was present for the event. "That is not going to fade at all. We're not going to stop." But she said there would not be any more events planned.

She, her boyfriend James Goris and son Daryn also rode.

It was a free ride for the 300-plus bikers from Woodstock and around but donations were being accepted by the organizers, members of Tori's maternal family.

The missing girl's paternal family has distanced itself from any kind of fundraising. "I appreciate them (bikers) doing this but I would rather have them look for Tori," said Stafford. "We don't need money, we need Tori back."

McDonald specified she had not organized the ride and was not in charge of collecting funds but whatever money was being donated would go into a trust fund for Tori and her older brother Daryn, 11.

Tori has not been seen since leaving Oliver Stephens School with an unidentified woman on the afternoon of April 8. Police have released a composite sketch of the woman and announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the schoolgirl. There have been more than 2,000 tips but no leads to locating her.

Police appealed directly to Tori's abductors, asking them to let go of her. Investigators also asked farmers clearing their land to be on the lookout for anything unusual.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/628179

Faith

05-03-2009, 10:26 PM

Tori's Ride Home draws 350 bikers (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_0_0_t&usg=AFQjCNEbaxLnWliKJUzY9QXDqKwiW0IDgA&sig2=NzTqyWa4z8aIlh7cP6jeew&cid=1345171850&ei=y1H-SYjTG5m4MdzuEg&rt=SEARCH&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oxfordreview.com%2FArticleDis play.aspx%3Fe%3D1551370)

http://woodstock.gallery.siteseer.ca/cache/derivative/2/1/21364.dat

WOODSTOCK —It was a heartwrenching day for Tara McDonald, mother of abducted child Victoria Stafford.

McDonald said she broke down halfway through the motorcycle ride that wound 100 kilometres through the rural countryside surrounding Oxford County.

“Victoria would have loved this,” McDonald said of the motorcycle trip. “She would have absolutely loved this.”

Over 350 motorcycle riders from across the province, and the U.S., took part in Tori’s Ride Home organized by the missing child’s aunt, Linda Jacklin.
It was designed to raise awareness about Tori Stafford, who disappeared April 8.

Jacklin said she had hoped during the event that someone might drop off the child, who has now been missing for more than three weeks.

Still, she was grateful for the support shown by the motorcycle community.
“I’m really proud of the motorcycle community and of Woodstock,” she said. “It’s amazing what the motorcycle community will do for one of its own.”

Money raised at the event will go towards a trust fund for the Tori and her brother Daryn Stafford, Jacklin said.

Allison Karl, a local tax manager, will act as a third person on the account.
Karl said she met Tori’s parents for the first time on Saturday. As part of the arrangement McDonald, Karl and Tori’s father Rodney Stafford will have to be in agreement before a cheque can be cut from the account.

Karl said she hopes the ride would bring the issue of Tori’s disappearance back to the front page of the papers.

“The only thing that hits the news is when people perceive the parents are doing something wrong,” she said. “I don’t know where people are getting the right to judge (McDonald).”

“(Tori) is still missing and until she is found she is the one everyone should be talking and thinking about, and in all of our prayers.”

Rodney Stafford also responded to questions about rumour and innuendo surrounding the case.

“There is always going to be negativity out there,” he said. “The only thing I listen to is what I hear from the police — as far as I know they are looking into every lead.”

The family said they are not giving up hope in the abduction case.
“We trust God that she is safe and coming home,” said Tori’s grandmother Linda Winters.

Winters described the event as 100 per cent positive.
“It’s the bikes, the love, the spirit — she is coming home,” she said.

sarahhod

05-04-2009, 06:33 AM

Tori's dad lashes out at captors

'Drop her and run,' online message says

By PATRICK MALONEY, SUN MEDIA

LONDON, Ont. -- The father of abducted Victoria (Tori) Stafford of Woodstock unleashed a blistering online message on the weekend to those responsible for her disappearance.
Hours after a huge motorcycle ride Saturday that several family members - Rodney Stafford included - hoped might tempt the eight-year-old's captors to drop her off, the 33-year-old father of two, who has maintained remarkable public composure throughout the search for his daughter, let loose on the Internet.
"I hope you are scared, nervous or whatever your sick minds are feeling right now," he wrote. "But know this ... Daddy, and the world, are coming for Victoria.
"Drop her and run, I don't care, just have a heart and let my baby be happy again."
Stafford, who is divorced from Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, didn't participate in the motorcycle ride, organized by his ex-wife's family and which drew about 350 bikers.
Hope he and others had that the spectacle might entice the girl's abductors to drop her off was doused in the light afternoon rain that fell as the two-hour ride ended.
The bikes pulled into a dreary Woodstock at about 3 p.m. Saturday with no sign of the little girl, missing for nearly a month.
"Hopefully this will turn into a celebration of her coming home," posters advertising the ride trumpeted.
That was not to be.
But Tori's mother said she remains positive.
"We're still hopeful," said McDonald, who rode on the back of a motorcycle belonging to a London firefighter in her family. "That's not going to fade at all. We're not going to stop."

Registration for the motorcycle ride was free, though donations were encouraged by organizers, Tori's maternal relatives.
One family member who derisively described it as a "non-fundraiser fundraiser" said about $3,500 was raised.
The paternal family has cautioned the public against making donations during the search for Tori.
McDonald stressed she's not in charge of collecting money and said anything raised will go into a trust fund for Tori and her 10-year-old brother, Daryn. When asked, she didn't specify how the money would be spent.
But it was clear some participants had no problem digging into their pockets before the motorcycle ride.
"(I'm here to give) just support but if I put in $20, so what?" said Bill Mushing, who doesn't know the family and travelled from Hamilton to participate.
"If 400 or 500 people put in a $20 donation, that's got to help. I really don't care (how it's spent) as long as it goes to the parents - to hire private detectives or whatever."
McDonald was to participate in a community-organized search yesterday.
When asked to describe the state of the case, the lead investigator, Ontario Provincial Police Det.-Insp. Bill Renton, declined comment.
Tori, a blond third-grader, was last seen after school in Woodstock on Wednesday, April 8, in security footage that captured her walking with a mystery woman.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2009/05/04/9337396-sun.html

Faith

05-05-2009, 12:38 AM

Police seek `vehicle of interest' in Tori Stafford case

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/69/b5/68e3a9704892b886bc971c5f317c.jpeg

May 04, 2009 05:03 PM
Comments on this story (12)
THE CANADIAN PRESS

WOODSTOCK– Surveillance video that captured the moment eight-year-old Victoria Stafford was abducted also caught a glimpse of a "vehicle of interest" that investigators are trying to identify, police said today.

Police are eager to speak to the driver of the vehicle, who passed by the abduction scene moments after the little girl vanished on April 8 after leaving school.

"We're not looking at it as a suspect vehicle... Out of the many vehicles that were seen in the surveillance tape, this was one which we had been unable to identify," said Oxford police Const. Laurie-Ann Maitland.

The vehicle was described as dark-coloured and small to mid-sized.

"The make and the model of the vehicle have not been identified at this time, further efforts are being made in this regard," Maitland added.

"In the interim, investigators are hopeful that someone may recognize this vehicle."

Victoria, known as Tori to her family and friends, was filmed by a surveillance camera walking away with a woman in a puffy white coat, who police have still not identified.

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

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

A composite sketch of the woman seen on the video suggests the abductor may be 19 to 25 years old, about 5 foot 1 weighing around 125 pounds, with long dark hair tightly pulled back in a ponytail.

A brief segment on Tori's disappearance was also featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/628791

Claycat

05-05-2009, 07:52 AM

I hope they find out about the car!

LiveLaughLuv

05-05-2009, 09:15 AM

What Happened To Tori Stafford?

Surveillance footage shows missing 8-year-old Tori Stafford with a woman that Canadian authorities are trying to identify.

View Larger For the last week, many Canadians have been hoping that the disappearance of 8-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford would resolve itself with a happy conclusion.

So far, that hasn't happened.

On the evening of April 8, 2009, police in Woodstock, Ont. were notified that Tori had gone missing after she didn't come home from school.

Typically, the school has a policy of coordinating with parents as to where kindergartners go after school, but unfortunately no such policy is in place for older children.

According to authorities, Tori was last seen leaving Oliver Stephens Public School after classes ended at around 3:30 p.m., and was seen on surveillance video walking with an unidentified woman.

The surveillance camera was positioned at the high school adjacent to Tori's school. Police say that after classes let out, it would have taken Tori only a matter of minutes to walk from her school to where she was seen on video.

The case has left the community shaken, with many parents nervous about their children encountering strangers.

Currently, police have received well over 500 tips and are going through all of them.

Caught On Tape?

Victoria "Tori" Stafford went missing on April 8, 2009 and now police in Canada are trying to locate the 8-year-old from Woodstock, Ontario.
View Larger
Police have obtained video surveillance footage of a child matching Tori's appearance walking with an unidentified person on Fyfe Ave. in the area of Walter Street.

Police have confirmed the child in the video footage is Tori Stafford, and are currently looking for the woman seen walking with her.

The woman in the surveillance video is described by police as 19 to 25 years old,120 to 125 pounds, with long, straight black hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a baggy white coat and dark pants.

Tori was last seen wearing black and white plaid running shoes, a black leotard, and velvet pleated skirt, with an army green "Hanna Montana" t-shirt with pink stitching. She was wearing a black "Hanna Montana" winter coat with a white fur hood, and carrying a purple "Bratz" brand bag.

Police confirmed that the child in the surveillance video matches Tori's description.

Police have released an enhanced version of the surveillance video, but so far no one in the community has been able to identify the woman seen with Tori.

The Search Continues

Missing 8-year-old, Tori Stafford, was last seen wearing a green shirt, purple velvet skirt, and carrying a purple "Bratz" brand bag.

View Larger Oxford Police say that the search for Tori continues and their search teams remain vigilant. In the 24 hours after she was reported missing, local authorities had dozens of officers out searching and canvassing multiple areas of the city.

In the days since, members of the community as well as nearby police departments have joined the search for Tori. K-9 units, a helicopter, and dozens of trained search and rescue officers were utilized in the hours after Tori's disappearance.

Currently, police have received well over 500 tips and are going through all of them in the hopes that Tori will soon be home safe and sound.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Tori Stafford, please call our hotline at 1-800-CRIME-TV.
http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=64826

grainy photo at top left of woman who is seen leaving with Tori...

AmyE

05-05-2009, 09:00 PM

Tori's mom a no-show at briefing

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 in order 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, balloon releases 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.

"Give yourself the chance to flee. Let her go and run."

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.

Nor would she say how much videotape police have but have not released.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/05/9362446.html

Faith

05-05-2009, 10:41 PM

Cops Await Tips On Car Clue In Stafford Abduction As New Milestone Approaches
Tuesday May 5, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff

There are two major milestones approaching in the hunt for missing Tori Stafford. It's been more than 24 hours since Oxford Community Police released their latest clue in the hunt for the eight-year-old Woodstock girl - a car that was seen passing by the area where she was taken by the mysterious woman in white back on April 8th.

And it will be exactly four weeks on Wednesday since she failed to come home from school. The mystery and the worry both grow with each passing day, and cops hope the new car clue will yield the kind of help that finally cracks this agonizing case.

See the brief video below.

For the first time since the drama began, Victoria's mother failed to come outside her home for an update to the press, with the child's dad insisting she had a bad night.

But Rodney Stafford was more than willing to talk, addressing his daughter's abductor, as an occasional tremor in his voice belied the emotion behind his words.

"To the persons responsible for Victoria's disappearance: Victoria's just a little girl, a little girl with hopes, hopes and dreams of being a child. I am begging you not to take that away from her. Please let her go!"

Video here

Stafford still hasn't commented on the new car video, but police are sure whoever was in that vehicle saw something that day. The pictures show a brief glimpse of what looks like a dark coloured station wagon passing by the area at the time Tori was seen being led into the parking lot of a nearby nursing home.

Police were out canvassing Victoria's neighbourhood again on Tuesday, with officers showing residents photos of the mystery car, hoping someone might know who owns it.

For now, Rodney Stafford has put his own life on hold to concentrate on bringing his little girl home safely. "To Victoria: you and your brother Darren are two of the most amazing things that ever happened in my life. I love you baby girl and I've told you before that daddy will never give up."

But for the distraught dad and the child's mother, four weeks of silence have been deafening.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34323.aspx

sarahhod

05-06-2009, 05:31 AM

Police step up door-to-door canvassing in area

Wed, May 6, 2009

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

By RANDY RICHMOND (randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca)

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://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/06/9364876-sun.html

sarahhod

05-06-2009, 07:15 AM

Dad pleads for daughter's return

Posted By Bruce Urquhart, SENTINEL-REVIEW

Posted 54 mins ago

The father of Victoria "Tori" Stafford made another plea Tuesday to his daughter's abductors, begging those responsible for the eight-year-old's disappearance to simply drop her off at an open store or shopping mall.
Near tears, an exhausted Rodney Stafford pleaded with the abductors to do whatever was needed to safely return the little girl to her anguished family.
"Just let her go ... and give yourself the chance to flee and run," he said, reading to reporters from a prepared statement.
Stafford, who has been taking adult classes at the Blossom Park Education Centre since March, told reporters he was postponing the remainder of his schooling to focus his full attention on finding his missing daughter. The distraught father then petitioned the public to keep organizing awareness events and handing out flyers, ribbons and information cards -- anything to publicize Tori's plight.
"Together, we will bring Victoria home," he said.
While Stafford read his prepared statement, his ex-wife, Tara McDonald was absent for the first time since she established these regular afternoon media conferences in mid-April. Stafford indicated his ex-wife had suffered a near sleepless night because of "bad dreams." In a later interview with the Sentinel-Review, Stafford said McDonald would be at today's media conference.
In his statement, Stafford again referred to his "broken promise" to protect Tori and, recounting a camping trip in which he held his frightened daughter, made another vow.
"No matter what it takes. No matter how far I have to go. I will bring you home," he said.
Stafford begged his daughter's abductors to remember that Tori is an "innocent little girl" and, saying no child deserves to suffer this kind of torment, implored them to let her go "before things get any worse."
Tori was last seen on April 8 walking north along Fyfe Avenue with an unidentified woman shortly after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School at roughly 3:30 p.m. On Monday, the joint OPP-Oxford Community Police Service investigation indicated that Tori and the unidentified woman had crossed to the east side of the street and walked through the north parking lot of the Caressant Care Nursing and Retirement Home.
In the same media release, investigators asked for the public's help in identifying a dark-coloured station wagon that was captured by security camera footage a few moments after Tori and the mystery woman passed through the frame. The police hope the driver of the station wagon could be a potential witness to the abduction.
"This was (the only vehicle from the video) that was not identified," said Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland, spokesperson for the investigation.
Maitland confirmed that investigators had received a number of tips since the video clip and stills of the station wagon were released Monday but didn't know what percentage related to the car. She also indicated that investigators still weren't sure of the exact make and model of the station wagon.
Maitland did suggest that officers canvassing Tuesday in the neighbourhoods close to the site of Tori's abduction could be interviewing residents about the unidentified vehicle.
"I suspect that would make sense, especially in the area of the abduction itself," she said.
In addition to the canvassing, the OPP's emergency response team continued to rake through the 1,700 tonnes of Woodstock garbage at the Oxford County Landfill for possible evidence. The police also repeated their request to area farmers to remain watchful when tending to their fields and report anything unusual to investigators.
"The investigation," Maitland said, "is in full force."
Saying that investigators were still hopeful of finding the eight-year-old safe, she repeated the investigation's focus to "find Tori and reunite her with her loved ones."
The video footage of Tori and her alleged abductor indicates the unidentified woman, who was wearing a puffy white winter coat and tight black pants, is between 19 and 25 years old. The mystery woman is estimated to be roughly five-foot-two inches tall (157 centimetres) and 125 pounds (56 kilograms), and has long, straight black hair tied in a ponytail. The OCPS has offered a $50,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Tori's abduction.
Anyone with information about Tori's abduction is asked to contact the OCPS at (519) 537-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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.
She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz shoulder bag.

http://www.oxfordreview.com/ArticleD...aspx?e=1555633 (http://www.oxfordreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1555633)

sarahhod

05-06-2009, 02:42 PM

Tori's mom says she believes daughter still alive

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/69/ad/02bf9827476ea68545fbec203355.jpeg DAVE CHIDLEY/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Victoria "Tori" Stafford, 8, shown in this photo copied from a poster, has been missing since April 8, 2009.

May 06, 2009 02:08 PM
THE CANADIAN PRESS

WOODSTOCK, Ont. – Four weeks after Victoria Stafford went missing in Woodstock, Ont., her mother says she still believes her eight-year-old daughter is alive.
Tara McDonald says she's not giving up hope even though no trace of her daughter, known as Tori, has been found since she disappeared April 8 while walking home after school.
But McDonald admits she's frustrated the police investigation has yielded little in the way of leads.
Police 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."
Investigators are eager to speak to the driver of the vehicle, who passed by the abduction scene moments after Tori vanished.
The girl was seen on a surveillance video walking with a woman wearing a puffy white coat, who police have still not identified.
Police say they've determined the girl and her abductor were walking away from her school and toward the parking lot of a nearby nursing home.
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-foot-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://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/630007

SavannahStar

05-06-2009, 02:47 PM

She sure is a beautiful little girl!

Claycat

05-06-2009, 08:14 PM

Come home, Tori! :sad0119:

Faith

05-06-2009, 09:12 PM

Missing girl: Computers seized from home (http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/06/9374311.html)

The mother of missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford confirmed today police seized and are keeping her computer, but her ex-husband’s family seems to have kept their machines.

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 in the beginning. My mom’s computer has been seized, any computer the kids have had access to has been seized,” McDonald told reporters on her front lawn.

Police explained to her they took the computers to see if anyone had sent strange messages to Tori or her brother Daryn, 10, either through email 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.”

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 public school on Fyfe Avenue, 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 bewilderment today 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 wander home until about 3:45 or 3:50 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 so many 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.

Today, 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 reached the stage of frustration.

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.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/06/9374311.html

sarahhod

05-07-2009, 05:42 AM

Fear turns to anger in Tori's hometown
http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/66/72/fa2019ff4d379c5edd13d1e811f4.jpeg
CRAIG GLOVER FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Tara McDonald (left) and Rodney Stafford, parents of missing 8-year-old Tori Stafford, hold news conference at McDonald's Woodstock home April 27, 2009. McDonald said she feels a donor's offer to put up however much money is needed to bring Tori home safely is "genuine." No ransom demand has been made.

http://www.thestar.com/App_Themes/TheStar/images/icons/Link_icon.gif
YouTube: Police seek driver (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryYisYGew3s)

Month after she vanished, sympathy for family fades as gossip grips Woodstock

May 07, 2009 04:30 AM

Raveena Aulakh
Staff reporter

WOODSTOCK, ONT.–This is a town without pity.
It wasn't always like this.
When Victoria Stafford, known as Tori, disappeared from Woodstock on April 8, the town of 35,000 people did what towns typically do – rallied together and scoured streets, parks, ponds and surrounding areas looking for her. Terrified of what might have happened, people posted thousands of posters showing Tori's smiling face.
Four weeks later, the posters are still there – some frayed, others fading – but anger has replaced fear and gossip has taken over from populist efforts to find Tori.
Marcel Fitzmaurice, a former neighbour of Tori's family, was distraught with worry the day it happened.
"I have three kids of my own – I can't imagine losing them," said Fitzmaurice, who lives at the Trillium Place Co-Op on Fyfe Ave., where Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, lived until the end of March.
He and his wife, Brenda, searched and put up posters.
They still hope to find Tori alive but say the negativity is overwhelming. "I think everyone's first reaction was: Oh my God, somebody has come into town and abducted a little girl," said Fitzmaurice. But when police stressed Tori went with someone she knew, that changed how people felt, he added.
"The longer it goes on, it starts to become a part of life and we accept it," he said. "But there are too many questions."
Cruel speculative stories about McDonald being blackmailed for a drug debt began flying within days after Tori disappeared.
McDonald had heard the rumours, too, and she publicly challenged them, saying she was not in any trouble and is not a drug user. But sympathy for the family, especially for McDonald, has eroded.
Christine Ebel, who runs Daisy Fresh Dry Cleaners in downtown Woodstock, says McDonald's attitude hasn't helped. "She's turned this into a media circus for herself," said Ebel. "Few people are talking about Tori and everyone about Tara (McDonald). The focus has been totally lost now," she said.
McDonald holds a press conference every day, except weekends, at 1 p.m., on her front lawn. While that has helped keep the little girl's story in the news, it has also triggered ugly chatter about her choice of clothes, the immaculate makeup and lack of emotion.
Everything she does, or says, is intensely scrutinized.
"I've tried to understand her, but I can't. Her behaviour just doesn't match up," said Ebel. "I have three kids and if one went missing, I would be a wreck. I guess every one deals with grief differently."
In the early stages of the disappearance, talk in coffee shops and grocery stores was peppered with discussion about Tori and the mysterious woman leading her away.
Now talk is only about McDonald.
When Tori disappeared, dozens of journalists camped outside the police station and McDonald's home, eager for any word about the investigation. The numbers have since dwindled and less than half a dozen journalists now show up.
Woodstock, the town where people had faith in each other, left their doors unlocked and let kids play on the streets, has changed – and some say it may never be the same.
"Right now, everyone is in a cruise mode, waiting to see what happens," said Deb Murray, who works at a local doctor's office. "If this ends badly, it will devastate the town."
But if there's no resolution in the case, the community will be on edge for a long time, said Debbie Solta, who has lived in Woodstock for years.
"I see signs of it already," she said. More parents are now dropping off and picking up kids from school and keeping a close watch on them, she pointed out.
"I think the small-town charm and trust has taken a hit."
Yesterday at the daily press conference, Rodney Stafford, Tori's father, said unanswered questions about his daughter's whereabouts stream through his head "all day, every day." McDonald said she was frustrated the police investigation has yielded little in the way of leads.
Meanwhile, Stafford knows small towns can be big-hearted, and alternately pitiless. "I'm very grateful to everyone who has helped look for Tori. I have no complaints."

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

sarahhod

05-07-2009, 06:52 AM

Stress taking toll on Tori's mom

Posted By BRUCE URQUHART, SUN MEDIA

On the four-week anniversary of her daughter's abduction, the mother of Victoria "Tori" Stafford admitted to having an increasingly difficult time coping with her daughter's disappearance.
After missing Tuesday's regular media conference, Tara McDonald said the "stress" of the past weeks -- and the uncertainty surrounding Tori's disappearance -- was taking a physical and emotional toll.
"It doesn't get better," she said. "Up until 10 minutes ago, I wasn't planning on coming out here. I'm drained."
The OCPS has offered a $50,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Tori's abduction. Contact the OCPS at (519) 537-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/A...aspx?e=1557412 (http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1557412)

Roamer

05-07-2009, 07:06 AM

People need to put the focus back where it belongs. On finding Tori!!!

Claycat

05-07-2009, 09:45 AM

People need to put the focus back where it belongs. On finding Tori!!!

You are so right, Roamer! People are like sharks! When no fast answers are found, they start circling!

sarahhod

05-08-2009, 06:33 AM

Tori investigation extends to Calgary

Mother of missing Woodstock girl says police inspected homes of two family members in Alberta

May 08, 2009 04:30 AM
Raveena Aulakh
Staff reporter

WOODSTOCK, ONT.–A month after Victoria Stafford was abducted, police searched two Calgary houses, suggesting investigators are casting a wider net in the hunt for the missing girl.
Officers investigating the disappearance of the 8-year-old schoolgirl, also known as Tori, did not confirm the search but Tara McDonald, Tori's mother, said the Calgary residence of her brother, John McDonald, was searched Wednesday by police. His mother's Calgary house was also searched.
"I don't know if I should even be mentioning this but they searched his and his mum's houses yesterday," she said at the daily press conference on the front lawn yesterday.
"They are being as thorough as they absolutely can be. He's out in the middle of nowhere but they searched his home."
Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland, spokesperson for the investigation, said she didn't know if anything was seized from either of the homes.
On Wednesday, McDonald confirmed police seized her computer after Tori went missing.
John McDonald, who has been very protective of his sister, had been with her ever since Tori went missing on April 8; he flew back to Calgary Monday evening.
Tara McDonald, who brought Daryn, Tori's older brother, to the press conference for the first time yesterday, said she wasn't fazed by the intense scrutiny of the people of Woodstock or the constant surveillance of her house by the police.
The police have not named her or anyone else as a suspect, but yesterday McDonald indicated she felt like one.
"Not blatantly, no. Not flat out. Like I mean, they have said they have to rule from inside out first. That's all they have said. But if something was wrong, I wouldn't be standing out here right now," she said, adding there is no evidence against her or her family suggesting any involvement in Tori's abduction.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/631018

sarahhod

05-08-2009, 06:36 AM

Is Tori's mother a victim or a suspect?

May 8, 2009
WOODSTOCK, ONT. -- cblatchford@globeandmail.com

Tara McDonald hinted yesterday 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.
"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 yesterday 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 yesterday, 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 yesterday, 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 Mr. Jacklin was happy about the search. "He said you know that means they're being thorough. He wasn't offended whatsoever."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...PStory/Comment (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090508.BLATCH08ART2238/TPStory/Comment)

sarahhod

05-08-2009, 09:22 AM

Friend of Tori's mom resembles abductor

By RANDY RICHMOND (randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca), SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 8th May 2009, 9:06am

http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/?src=http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/05/08/toricase.jpg&size=248x186
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?"
Randy Richmond is a Free Press reporter. randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca
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://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/05/08/9393961-sun.html

sarahhod

05-08-2009, 09:27 AM

Two Calgary homes searched in case of missing Ontario girl Tori Stafford

The Canadian Press Woodstock, Ont.
Friday, May 8th, 2009 8:30 am

Woodstock, Ont. - Police have searched two homes in Calgary as the search continues for Tori Stafford, an 8-year-old girl abducted in Woodstock, Ont., on April 8.

Officers looking for her did not confirm the search but her mother, Tara McDonald, says the Calgary homes of her brother and mother were searched.
John McDonald, who had stood by his sister ever since Tori went missing, had flown back home to Calgary on Monday evening.
Oxford Community Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland says she didn't know if anything was seized from either of the homes.
On Wednesday, McDonald said police had seized computers Tori had access to see if she had received any suspicious emails prior to her disappearance.
The Grade 3 student has not been seen since leaving her school with a mystery woman wearing a puffy white coat. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever abducted Tori.

http://www.680news.com/news/headline...08_082819_7232 (http://www.680news.com/news/headlines/more.jsp?content=20090508_082819_7232)

Faith

05-09-2009, 10:56 AM

This is so very sad, where is Tori???

sarahhod

05-09-2009, 06:03 PM

Missing child's mother insists she's not behind abduction.

By Jordana Huber, Canwest News ServiceMay 8, 2009

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - The mother of a missing eight-year-old Ontario girl lashed out at ``ignorant'' people Friday as she expressed her sadness and frustration at the speculation surrounding her missing daughter.
Victoria Stafford's mother, Tara McDonald, said she is tired of gossip and rumours that she is somehow involved in the disappearance of her child and urged people to focus on Tori.
She said she tells her son Daryn, 10, to be strong in the face of online chatter.
``Daryn bawled his eyes out the other day,'' McDonald said. ``He said `I don't understand why people are doing this to you mom.'''
The pair plan to spend a quiet Mother's Day together.
They don't have concrete plans but the hope is Tori, missing now for one month, will be home, McDonald said.
``I've never ever in all of their lives ever spent a Mother's Day without both of them together,'' she said.
As police continued their investigation, McDonald said her brother's house and his mother's house outside of Calgary were searched by officers.
Oxford Community Police said Friday they could not confirm the searches took place.
McDonald said police also took her computer and her mother's computer.
She also said she feels ``awful'' that her best friend is also now the target of town talk. McDonald said it was ``ridiculous'' to think a composite sketch - released by police of a woman last seen walking with Tori - looked anything like her friend who has been by her side since her daughter went missing.
``There is nobody to point a finger at,'' McDonald said. ``So when they are done pointing a finger at me they have to find somebody else and they continue to point a finger at me and at my friends.''
She said she has an appointment with a lawyer next week to look into ``all the slander'' that has been written about her.
Flanked by her ex-husband, Rodney Stafford during her daily briefing with media outside her Woodstock house Friday, McDonald was in mid sentence talking about the ``unfair'' spotlight on her friend when Stafford interrupted.
``If you think about it, it's not fair to us. Somebody stole our child. It is not fair to us that we have to go through this everyday. Cameras in our face. Police in our face. We have to go through this every day. Unfortunately she has to too, because she does have a similarity to that sketch.''
Good or bad, as long as people continue to talk about his daughter, Stafford said it will keep her story out in the public eye.
``If it's got to be negative stuff out on the Internet, whatever. It's keeping it out there,'' he said.
Tori has not been seen since April 8 when she went missing while walking home after school. Video surveillance cameras caught her on school property with a woman in her 20s, with a ponytail and wearing a white jacket.
On Friday, Rodney Stafford recounted how he went to an event for his daughter just outside Woodstock Thursday night and was approached by a 10-year- old boy who handed him a four-leaf clover he had found in the grass.
``(He) gave it to me,'' Stafford said. ``It instantly brought a tear to my eye.''
Woodstock is approximately 150 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

http://www.canada.com/Missing+child+mother+insists+behind+abduction/1580667/story.html

sarahhod

05-09-2009, 06:05 PM

Family of missing girl fed up with ugly rumours

Tori Stafford's mother says she's seeking legal help, wants 'ignorant people' to 'walk a mile in our shoes'

May 09, 2009 04:30 AM

Raveena Aulakh
STAFF REPORTER

WOODSTOCK – A beleaguered Tara McDonald said yesterday she has had enough of slanderous stories connecting her with her daughter's disappearance and is seeking legal help to end it.
"I don't care if police are parked outside my house or listen to my phone calls. I have nothing to hide," an angry McDonald said outside her home. "What bothers me are the ignorant people who are out there and are pointing fingers at me. I would like them to walk a mile in our shoes because I guarantee you, I would not be accusing them or pointing fingers at them."
She pointed to ugly rumours on Facebook, which started surfacing within days after Victoria "Tori" Stafford went missing April 8.
"We are looking into all the slander and all the things that have been printed that are completely incorrect and people have no way to back it up." She did not say who her lawyer was but said she had an appointment next week.
Speculative stories about the motive behind the schoolgirl's abduction have swirled around Woodstock for a month, and they have mostly targeted McDonald, her family and friends.
McDonald denied any association with biker gangs yesterday. "There have been strange rumours that my boyfriend is associated with the Bandidos and that is absolute garbage. The only person that I know who rides the motorcycle is my little itty-bitty aunt Pepper who planned the ride (last weekend) and that is it."
About 300 bikers gathered in Woodstock last Saturday and drove 200 kilometres to spread awareness about Tori's abduction. "We have family members who ride motorcycles but it does not make them Bandidos or Hells Angels. ..."
Yesterday, McDonald, flanked by Tori's father Rodney Stafford, said police were investigating Stafford's family too. "They are looking at many other alleys. People just concentrate on my family," she said, accusing them of looking for "dirty, nitty-gritty stories where there are none."

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/631690

sarahhod

05-09-2009, 06:07 PM

Dragnet for missing girl extends to Alberta

By NADIA MOHARIB (nadia.moharib@sunmedia.ca), SUN MEDIA

CALGARY -- The search for a missing Ontario girl has led to Alberta, with police travelling to Calgary to look for leads.
FIND
This week Ontario Provincial Police detectives went to one home in northwest Calgary and one east of the city to try to find information that might help them find Tori Stafford, an eight-year-old abducted in Woodstock, Ont. on April 8.
Calgary police and local RCMP confirmed they assisted the OPP during their searches but could not comment further.
It is unclear whether anything was seized from the homes, Oxford Community Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said.
A relative of the girl living in Cluny, some 70 km southeast of Calgary, said they are impressed to see police efforts go so far and wide and said many people in the community are praying for her safe return.
"It's the most wonderful thing," said the woman who didn't want to be named.
"Just find her."
Tori's mother, Tara McDonald, said the Calgary homes of her brother and his mother were searched.
She said John Jacklin, who stood by his sister ever since Tori went missing, had flown back home to Calgary on Monday.
On Wednesday, McDonald said police seized computers Tori had access to, to see whether she had received any suspicious e-mails prior to her disappearance.
REWARD
A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever abducted Tori.
The Grade 3 student has not been seen since leaving her school with a mystery woman wearing a puffy white coat.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2009/05/09/9404191-sun.html

sarahhod

05-09-2009, 06:11 PM

For Tori's schoolmates, the tension only rises

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
May 9, 2009
cblatchford@globeandmail.com

It was the first time I was in Woodstock, early on in the disappearance of Victoria (Tori) Stafford, when the woman checking me out of the Quality Inn asked if I was covering the story of the little girl.
I said I was, and she told me about her son, who at 7 is a year younger than Tori. His household chore was to take out the recycling garbage and although he'd not said a word to her when he'd done his job the night before, she saw he'd taken a baseball bat along with him: He was scared.
Weeks later, the little girl is gone more than a month, and for the children of this small town about 130 kilometres southwest of Toronto, particularly for those who attend Oliver Stephens Public School, where Tori is in Grade 3, the tension only rises. Sally Christensen, the psychologist who leads the local Thames Valley School Board TERT (traumatic events response team), is now such a fixture at Oliver Stephens that as she walks the halls, the children cry out, "Hello, Dr. Sally!" When she was away in nearby London, Ont., one day this week for a department meeting, it's hard to know who was the more fretful, Dr. Sally or the children.
The reaction is stress fatigue: The children, who range from 4 to 14, have been enduring "this high level of stress for a whole month," she said one recent morning. "They're not sleeping well, they're having nightmares, they're having troubling thoughts as many of them try to make sense of a situation where we have no more information, or a negligible amount, than we had in the beginning."
Dr. Sally and her six-member team of psychologists and social workers are at Oliver Stephens every day, and what they're seeing now is "that even kids who you would rate as very high in their psychosocial coping capacity are having difficulties as well."
The older students are more disruptive in class, and although the younger ones are easier to manage, "we're still hearing about very similar problems - nightmares, fears, not concentrating so well."
In the beginning in Tori's class, she said, "the shock and despair was higher because her closest friends are in that group. It took a couple of weeks to get those kids to really function reasonably on a day-to-day basis, they were just so distraught."
And at first, "many children, and adults, had a hopeful sense that this was just a mistake, that she would just turn up somewhere, that this really didn't happen, it wasn't a bad thing.
"And as a few days passed, they couldn't hold that story together.
"And they started to feel much more disturbed," she said, "that something bad has happened to her. So that initial hope of - nothing bad's happened to her, it's just a little misplacement of a child - it couldn't hold together."
The youngest children tend to think "in survival terms," Dr. Sally said. "...They tend to think, someone has her but if she doesn't have food and water she'll be okay for a few days, and when that time goes by, they starting worrying if she doesn't have food and water then she can't be alive any more."
The older children, more aware of the perils in the world, "start thinking someone's done something nasty to her, and then they have trouble with those nasty thoughts. Kids don't tend to tell their parents these things" either, because children are naturally so protective of their folks.
Tori disappeared after school on April 8, a Wednesday, with the Easter weekend just ahead. The TERT team scrambled to get half the school staff in on the holiday Monday, and by the end of the formal debriefing, "we had half the staff on their feet, calm, ready to tackle the day."
Over the next two weeks, everyone, staff and students, at Oliver Stephens had a similar debriefing - with one TERT member asking questions, another recording answers, followed by the note-taker answering every single question from the staff member or student, even if, as Dr. Sally said, the only answer was "that isn't a question I can answer right now, we don't have any information .... that is a very difficult thing for us to live with."
The team, and the school staff, have been innovative and smart. The children were taught the benefits of "over and over," which is any repetitive physical motion from colouring to skateboarding to just bouncing a ball.
"It helps release the anxiety, it helps build up the stress-combatting hormones in your system."
One morning, Dr. Sally got on the school PA system and taught the youngsters how to "belly-breathe," put a hand on their tummies, breathe deeply and in between breaths spell out their names letter by letter.
Afterwards, Dr. Sally did a walk-around, and caught one little guy ("he struggles in many ways," she said, and the children with ordinarily difficult lives are particularly stressed out) still at his desk, belly-breathing, at least a minute after she put down her microphone.
They've had a children's yoga teacher come in for a day; another day, "everybody in the whole school went out to the track and they put the speakers on and they had music and they just did laps," Dr. Sally said. "And some of the really distressed kids ran the whole time." Another day, there was a beach party.
Across the school board and beyond, people have gone the extra mile, as exemplified by a local church group that is providing, unsolicited, lunch for the staff every Thursday this month.
"School staff are all taking on extra duties where they would normally have off time, so that the kids see extra staff around outside," Dr. Sally said. "Without a word of complaint."
The reason, of course, is that the unifying, sanctifying, power of children cannot be overstated.
Exactly a week ago, I attended a motorcycle rally for Tori Stafford, organized by her maternal aunt, Linda Jacklin. It wasn't a fundraiser, but rather held to honour the little girl. At least 350 riders showed up, tied fat purple ribbons to their bikes, and headed out for a two-hour ride in the gorgeous rolling countryside that surrounds Woodstock.
This was a rough-and-ready looking crowd if ever there was one. But on those long, low hills, there was something stirring about two lines of motorcycles as far as the eye could see, most of them ridden by people who have never met Tori Stafford. The children at Oliver Stephens have something to cling to still: There is kindness in the world, and goodness, and almost everyone cares about children.
Mea culpa: Shame on me for describing the Toronto 18 in a recent story as the first case of homegrown terrorism in Canada. How I forgot about the bombing of Air India 182 I don't know, but I am embarrassed I did - June 23, 1985, the largest mass murder in Canadian history.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...PStory/Comment (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090509.BLATCH09ART2115/TPStory/Comment)

Claycat

05-09-2009, 08:47 PM

Poor kids! I remember what it was like when everyone was worried about polio when I was a child. Now they have to worry about being kidnapped and murdered!

Faith

05-11-2009, 10:50 AM

Ontario abduction still unsolved after a month of searching

A month after her alleged abduction, 8-year-old Victoria Stafford is still no closer to being found than she was on the day she went missing. Surveillance video and a lot of criticism for delaying notification as well rumors plague the case.
Nearly a month after 8-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford went missing on her way home from school, combined police efforts have yet to come up with any significant leads pointing to her whereabouts or explanations as to how she simply disappeared.

On Wednesday, April 8, the young girl was seen on surveillance video leaving Oliver Stephens Public School. Also in the video was an unknown woman who is believed to be in her late teens-early twenties, weighing approximately 120-125 lbs and has long straight black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a white coat and jeans.

Local authorities have been unable to locate the person of interest, although one report says they have a "substantial direction" in connection to the her identity (see home video of Tori in the link).

On Canada's own Missing and Exploited website, the abduction of Tori is explained as being "strange" due to the level of comfort the young girl had with the unidentified woman:

“Even the police and Victoria’s parents have said it’s strange because Victoria is not leaving against her will. It almost seems as if she knows who this woman is.”

Police issued an Amber type alert three days after the young girl failed to come home from her school day and ground searches as well as door to door searches were initially called off less than a week after the Grade 3 student went missing. Police say there is no evidence of foul play and were initially treating the case as a missing persons scenario.

Tori's parents are said to not have lived together for many years, although the birth father, Rodney Stafford, was called a "devoted father" by friends, saying he was involved in the little girl's life. The mother, Tara McDonald, and her partner, James Gorris, made a pledge of $10,000 Canadian dollars in her safe return. Since then, neither have spoken up until yesterday when McDonald lashed out at police and the community for pointing a finger in her direction.

Rumors on Facebook and in the town of Woodstock have circled around Tara McDonald, her family and possible associations with biker gangs. Rumors she denies and that have sent her to counsel for legal advise on slander. Tori's mom also canceled at the very last minute a press conference that was scheduled recently, leaving the father to step in and address the issue.

Last Saturday, over 300 bikers gathered in Woodstock, Ontario to help spread awareness of Tori's abduction.

Police have not ruled out anyone as a suspect and are looking into all possible scenarios, as the young girl did appear to go willingly with the woman in the video.

After a week and a half of what is being viewed by some as mismanagement, Ontario Provincial Police assumed the lead on Tori's case, leaving Oxford Community Police as secondary and rekindling the intense search for the young girl. They scoured an area pond using sonar devices but came up with nothing. There were also reports of over 2,500 tips, one of which was a possible witness driving a station wagon.

A news article concerning a delay in the reporting of the young girl's alleged abduction at the time has brought about questions in reporting procedures. In the United States, missing children cases must be reported to the FBI within two hours. The case involving Tori caused US Officials to question what they saw as 12-hour delay in reporting a missing child.

Bruce Smollet, the former head of the investigative unit who was responsible for the Holly Jones case called to question the delay in issuing the Code Amber, where in the Jones case, his believes his prompt issuance of an alert brought police to the abductor. He explained the process in simple terms:

You can always cancel the Amber Alert but you can never go back in time and start over again.

Holly Jones was abducted and murdered in May of 2003 by a neighbour. Her remains were found in two locations the day after police were notified she had gone missing. More than 200 convicted sex offenders lived within 3 Kilometers of Holly Jones' home. Smollet also expressed new hope with the Ontario police taking the lead but did stop short of criticism.

The local community continues with rallies in support of the Stafford family, as well as an effort to keep the 8-year-old girl fresh on people's minds. Tori's case was also featured on America's Most Wanted website in an effort to help in the search.

Victoria Stafford went missing on April 8, 2009 and was last seen walking with the unidentified woman in the surveillance video. Also known as Tori, the 8-year-old was reported as:

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

If you have any information, you are asked to contact police at (519) 537-2323 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272454

Faith

05-11-2009, 10:51 AM

Stafford Search Moves Out Of Woodstock

Mon, 11 May 2009 8:29:16 EDT

The search for missing eight year-old Victoria Stafford has moved out of Woodstock and out of the province for that matter. OPP have been searching in a small Alberta town on the recommendation by Oxford police. Last week police searched two homes linked to Tori's family in Cluny Alberta, about an hour northeast of Calgary. Police say they searched her uncles home John Jacqlin and grandmothers home both who live in the small town. Sightings of the girl have been reported in the town according to police. Tori has been missing for a month now.

http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/news/00008_Stafford_Search_Moves_Out_Of_Woodstock_08261 5.php

Faith

05-11-2009, 10:53 AM

Mother's Day worsens the pain
Mon, May 11, 2009
MISSING GIRL: Strangers rally again to keep alive the hunt for little Tory Stafford, 8, missing a month now

TILLSONBURG -- Rodney Stafford enjoyed a moment of normality Saturday as he watched a live webcast of his sister Rebecca's university graduation.

Wearing a purple ribbon over her blue gown, Rebecca Stafford graduated with the rest of her human resources class at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

"For the 10 seconds it took her to walk across the screen, everything was peaceful," Rodney Stafford said yesterday afternoon.

"Then, bam, back to reality. Tori is missing."

For Rodney Stafford, yesterday brought another day without his eight-year-old daughter Victoria, missing since April 8.

He and his mother, Doreen Graichen, spent another day with strangers who showed up to lend their support yesterday at a rally at the Tillsonburg fairgrounds.

The rally, promoted on Facebook as a free day of games, activities, music and food, was hampered by high winds and cold, but organizers said it still did what it was meant to do.

"The idea is to keep Victoria on people's minds," said rally organizer Jeremy Oakes.

The abduction of Victoria Stafford has made people in Tillsonburg more aware of their children and their friends' children, Oakes said.

"I see on Facebook all the moms wishing everybody a happy Mother's Day. Tori's mom isn't having the best Mother's Day," Oakes said.

Watching her five-year-old daughter, Hailey, play hopscotch, Amanda McCarey, of Norwich, said the rally was important to show support for Victoria Stafford's mother, Tara McDonald.

"It's kind of upsetting to think a mother is without her child on Mother's Day," McCarey said.

"It's hard. I don't know what I'd do if I had to go through it," said Oakes' wife, Shelley Hughes.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/11/9417921-sun.html

annalyzer

05-13-2009, 09:33 AM

Mom writes love letter to Tori

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/13/300_enimese.jpg
Tara McDonald holds a heart drawing made by her missing daughter Victoria Stafford as she talks to reporters outside her home, Tuesday, May 13, 2009.

Tara McDonald said Mother's Day was emotionally devastating for her

By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS
The 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 cancelled 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."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/13/9442016-sun.html

Claycat

05-13-2009, 08:00 PM

i,keep,hoping,for,good,news.
:frown:

Faith

05-14-2009, 02:44 PM

Mom's no-show at press conference irks father
Thu, May 14, 2009
Tara McDonald had promised to keep meeting with reporters until her daughter is found

The day after reading an emotionally charged three-page letter written to her missing daughter, Tara McDonald missed her second news conference of the week.

With ex-husband Rodney Stafford at an afternoon funeral, the handful of local reporters who arrived at McDonald's Frances Street residence for yesterday's question and answer left shortly after its usual 1 p.m. start time.

Given the recent promises to keep attending these afternoon news conferences until Victoria (Tori) Stafford is found, her father was frustrated that McDonald didn't make an appearance.

"I told her this morning (I was going to a funeral)," Stafford said in a brief interview. "I asked her to please make sure she did the press conference."

While a reporter did knock on the door to the Frances Street home, the only response was a barking dog.

On Tuesday, McDonald had renewed her pleas to Tori's abductors, asking them to simply drop off her daughter in a parking lot or shopping mall. She told reporters her absence from Monday's media conference was simply a symptom of an agonizing Mother's Day without her eight-year-old daughter.

"I just didn't have the strength to come out here," she said Tuesday. "Mother's Day was really, really tough."

Tori was 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.

Anyone with information about Tori is asked to contact the Oxford Community Police Service at 519-537-2323 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/14/9452961-sun.html

sarahhod

05-15-2009, 05:11 AM

Mom fights drug demon

Fri, May 15, 2009
TORI STAFFORD CASE

By RANDY RICHMOND (randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca), LONDON FREE PRESS

Tara McDonald talks about battling addiction
Tara McDonald, mother of missing 8-year-old Tori Stafford, dispels rumours connecting her past drug...

WOODSTOCK -- The mother of a missing eight-year-old girl revealed yesterday 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 mom without a high school diploma, trying to feed and clothe and raise two children.
McDonald said she had to do it 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 such as 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.
Yesterday, 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 some kind of a 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."

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/15/9464181-sun.html

Lilly

05-18-2009, 01:03 PM

Missing girl’s parents showing strain
Estranged couple clash in public over mother’s OxyContin use
By The Canadian Press
Sat. May 16 - 9:42 AM

Victoria Stafford’s mother Tara McDonald and father Rodney Stafford speak to reporters outside Tara’s home in Woodstock, Ont., on May 6, four weeks after Victoria was abducted. Victoria, known as Tori, disappeared on April 8 while walking home after school. (DAVE CHIDLEY / CP)

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Their nerves frayed by almost six weeks of uncertainty, the parents of missing eight-year-old Tori Stafford lashed out at each other Friday as they aired out their personal problems publicly.

An afternoon media conference quickly deteriorated into a shouting match between Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford.

The public spat came the day after McDonald admitted to struggling with an addiction to OxyContin and taking part in methadone treatment.

McDonald says she’s trying to regain control of her life while remaining strong for her children.

Stafford criticized his ex-wife for not being honest with the public about her drug problem since Tori’s disappearance April 8.

Stafford also says he has a number of suspicions about his daughter’s suspected abduction, and he hasn’t discounted the possibility that drugs were somehow involved.

"I knew about the methadone (treatment) and stuff like that," Stafford said. "I knew there was (OxyContin) there. Of course I was worried about the children."

As far as Stafford is concerned, everyone is a suspect in the abduction, including his ex-wife.

"My daughter’s not here. Everyone out there is a suspect to me until my daughter is back here," he said. "I’ve got a lot of concerns out there. It could be any reason."

Following Stafford’s comments, McDonald apologized for the public clash.

She said her frustration stemmed from what she said was the public’s opinion of Stafford as a "superdad" despite him being largely absent from his children’s lives.

"A person can only take so much," McDonald said. "I knew it was going to blow sooner or later."

In spite of the public spat, both parents separately urged the media and the public to continue to focus on the plight of their missing daughter.

Stafford asked the public to keep "an eye out" for Tori on the Victoria Day weekend, while McDonald said she would continue to work to keep the story in the news.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1122182.html

Lilly

05-20-2009, 08:54 AM

Police in Woodstock, Ont., have arrested two people in connection with the disappearance of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford.

The child's father, Rodney Stafford, told CBC News on Wednesday morning that police have told him two arrests have been made, but he was not able to 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]."

There is no information on the fate of the little girl.

"That's everything. Everybody's asking me. I can't tell you that 'cause I don't know the details. I will not find them out until later this morning," he said in a telephone interview from his home in the southwestern Ontario community.

"They [OPP] did make us aware that two arrests have been made and they're doing their job to keep us up to date," he said.

Victoria, known as Tori to her friends and family, has been missing since April 8 when she failed to return home after school.

The Grade 3 student was last seen in a grainy surveillance video which showed her walking from school with an unknown woman with long black hair wearing a white jacket.

Extensive searches of the Woodstock area have failed to find the child.

Police and family made exhaustive appeals for information that might lead them to the child.

Neither the OPP nor Oxford Community Police would confirm that any arrests have been made, but a police spokesman said authorities will release more information later in the day.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/05/20/tori-stafford.html

Lilly

05-20-2009, 08:57 AM

WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- 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.

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."

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.

Police would not comment on the report nor the well-being of Tori, last seen on April 8 walking with an unidentified woman along Woodstock's Fyfe Avenue shortly after leaving Oliver Stephens Public School at approximately 3:30 p.m.

It's the first 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.

Stafford and McDonald presented a unified front for several weeks by speaking together at the joint news conferences.

However, as the weeks went by tension between the two grew as the media focus shifted from the search to rumours about McDonald's drug addiction, especially on the social networking website, Facebook, a mysterious limousine ride to meet a man in Toronto who promised to pay a ransom, questions about fund-raising efforts and a desire for media attention.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/20/9510591-sun.html

I hope the report that they are looking for Tori's body isn't true. :1187603408.CR.Mothe God Bless Tori.:1222423:

Lilly

05-20-2009, 09:28 AM

Two arrested in Tori Stafford case
Two people have been arrested in connection with the abduction of missing 8-year-old Woodstock girl Victoria Stafford.

CFRB commentator Christie Blatchford says the two people, a man and a woman are acquaintances of the girl's family. However, police aren't saying what has happened to the girl.

CFRB News has been in contact with the family, but they refuse to comment at the request of the police.

Victoria disappeared on April 8 on her way home from school. She was last seen on surveillance tape walking with an unidentified woman wearing a puffy white coat.

Police are expected to hold a news conference later Wednesday, with investigators now reported to be combing an area about an hour from Woodstock.

There's still no word on where Victoria might be or what her condition might be.

http://www.cfrb.com/node/931088

Roamer

05-20-2009, 09:30 AM

I pray that she is found safe!

Someone please let us know right after the press conference!

Lilly

05-20-2009, 09:30 AM

Reporters are saying that LE will release details of the arrest at 3 PM today.

Lilly

05-20-2009, 09:32 AM

Police make arrests in Tori Stafford case
Updated: Wed May. 20 2009 9:20:00 AM

ctvtoronto.ca

Two people have been arrested in connection with the case of missing 8-year-old Victoria "Tori" Stafford, according to Ontario Provincial Police.

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 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Sources say the suspects in custody are a man and woman but they 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," Sgambati told CTV's Canada AM in an interview from Woodstock.

Investigators are now looking for the child's body near Guelph, Ont., with the help of the female suspect, she said.

"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

SavannahStar

05-20-2009, 09:41 AM

Omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 09:41 AM

:1187603408.CR.Mothe

Faith

05-20-2009, 09:47 AM

This is just terrible. How could anyone do this? :1187603408.CR.Mothe

I'm sure there will be a leak before 3pm.

Harmony

05-20-2009, 09:47 AM

The Tori Stafford Case: Twists, Turns, Tears And An Arrest

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_34707.aspx

Faith

05-20-2009, 09:50 AM

Sources tell CTV News that the suspects may have known Victoria's mother by coincidence, through the drug OxyContin but that drugs did not play a role in this case.

:1187603408.CR.Mothe

Harmony

05-20-2009, 09:52 AM

Two arrests made in the abduction of 8-year-old Victoria Stafford

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/090520_stafford_hm/20090520/?hub=CP24Home

Police have arrested two people Tuesday night in connection with the abduction of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford, who has been missing for over a month.

Police have released no information on the girl's whereabouts and condition.

CP24's Sue Sgambati in Woodstock says a man and a woman have been arrested. They are known to the parents but they are not the parents.

Police sources also tell CP24 that the girl's abduction has been allegedly viewed as an "opportunistic crime" and was not a random act. They also say the child may have allegedly been sought for "nefarious" purposes.

Police have not formally identified the suspects, and they have not said what they've been charged with.

Tori was last seen April 8 on surveillance video as she was leaving her school with an unidentified woman

The search for the missing Woodstock, Ont. Girl has taken several twists since her disappearance was first reported.

It took police more than a week to classify Tori's disappearance as an abduction, and the girl's community was questioning why an Amber Alert had not been issued right away.

Police sources tell CP24 that they're still searching for Tori's body.

Grande

05-20-2009, 10:01 AM

:sad0119:

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:05 AM

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

update now!

Roamer

05-20-2009, 10:08 AM

Oh, no! :1187603408.CR.Mothe

Faith

05-20-2009, 10:11 AM

snip from a post

t was just reported on CTV Canada AM that the two arrested ARE NOT the Parents.
FURTHER, it is reported that Police released information that it was a Paul Bernardo/Karla Homolka type Abduction.

It did not say whether or not there is a chance the Baby Girl could still be alive,

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/05/20/tori-stafford.html

Faith

05-20-2009, 10:13 AM

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

update now!

A heavy police presence just one block from the home of Tori Stafford is centred on a house where officers made two arrests Tuesday night.

Roamer

05-20-2009, 10:22 AM

If these are Tori's abductors, it shows how much good it does to canvass the neighborhood and knock on doors. :frown:

packy

05-20-2009, 10:29 AM

Faith

05-20-2009, 10:33 AM

GUELPH -- Media reports suggest investigators in the Tori Stafford case are in the Guelph area gathering evidence.

CTV reports police are in the area, using a helicopter, searching for the body of the missing Woodstock girl with a female suspect in the case.

Stafford's parents revealed today that two arrests were made in the case. The suspects have not been named. No charges have been made public. A police press conference is set for 3 p.m. in Woodstock.

Guelph Police spokesman Doug Pflug said city police are not aware of a local search related to the case.

“We’re not involved in the search. According to the news they’re searching around Guelph, but that’s all I know.”

Pflug said typically when police officers enter another service’s jurisdiction, they call ahead “but we haven’t heard from them.”

Other media reports suggest a Guelph home is being searched in connection with the matter. The Mercury has not confirmed that.

Stafford was abducted from her school six weeks ago.
http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/483804

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:34 AM

the man charged with murder....

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:36 AM

suspects are Michael Thomas Rafferty and Terry Lynn McClintock (sp)

Faith

05-20-2009, 10:37 AM

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090520/450_female_suspect_090520.jpg

A suspect in handcuffs is escorted by police officers into a bail hearing in Woodstock, Ont., on Wednesday, May 20, 2009.

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090520/450_male_suspect3_090520.jpg
A suspect in handcuffs hides his face with his shirt as a police officer escorts him into a bail hearing in Woodstock, Ont., on Wednesday, May 20, 2009.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/stafford_arrest_090520/20090520?hub=Toronto

Heather

05-20-2009, 10:37 AM

I am so sick of this crap!!!! If these people hurt that baby...what? Violence for violence? No. We need an island to dump them on. I'm sick to death of it! We should just dump them all off on a deserted island and be done with it. Used to be that the inmates in jail would take care of people like this but it seems to me the jails are getting pretty full of these sick creatures.

Harmony

05-20-2009, 10:38 AM

Roamer

05-20-2009, 10:39 AM

That's because most of them live in Protected Custody the rest of their lives. :mad:

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:40 AM

This says no charges have been made public yet.

Anna where did you read or hear that he had been charged with murder?

the link i posted is giving updates every half hour. there are other charges too against both of them

Harmony

05-20-2009, 10:41 AM

the link i posted is giving updates every half hour. there are other charges too against both of them

Thank you!! I will go check it out...

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:44 AM

Thank you!! I will go check it out...

It won't be until 11am til the next update. They are live on camera.

SavannahStar

05-20-2009, 10:46 AM

I am just so totally freaked.

Such a beautiful little girl!!!!!

Claycat

05-20-2009, 10:47 AM

"Worst case scenario" Oh, no! :sad0119:

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:48 AM

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 10:57 AM

video

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/stafford_arrest_090520/20090520?hub=Toronto

sarahhod

05-20-2009, 10:58 AM

Oh My!! I am so sickened and sad to hear the latest news.

Poor little Tori.:1187603408.CR.Mothe

Faith

05-20-2009, 11:00 AM

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 11:02 AM

chat allowed now at link

Lilly

05-20-2009, 11:05 AM

This is so sad. God be with Tori's family. I will never, ever understand the evil that leads to abuse and murder of innocent children :(

LiveLaughLuv

05-20-2009, 11:13 AM

Police lay murder charge in Tori Stafford case
Updated: Wed May. 20 2009 10:50:02 AM

ctvtoronto.ca

A man has been charged with murder and a woman has been charged with being an accessory to murder in connection with the case of missing Woodstock, Ont. girl Victoria "Tori" Stafford.

Police spent Wednesday morning in Guelph, Ont. looking for the child's body after arresting the two suspects late last night.

Authorities are expected to release details of the arrest at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The Woodstock, Ont., girl went missing on April 8 and was last seen walking away from her school with an unidentified woman.

A surveillance camera in the area caught the woman and child walking together. 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.

Sources say the suspects in custody are a man and woman but they 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," Sgambati told CTV's Canada AM in an interview from Woodstock.

Investigators are now looking for the child's body near Guelph, Ont., with the help of the female suspect, she said.

"This was an opportunistic crime, described to me by sources as a worst-case scenario," Sgambati 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.

Craig Racini, whose girlfriend lives next door to the female suspect in Woodstock, said he suspected his neighbour had something to do with the girl's disappearance after he saw the surveillance video.

He said two women moved next door about two months ago and that one of the women recently cut her hair short. Racini said that when he asked her why, she said it was because she got bubblegum stuck in her hair.

Racini said "no comment" when he was asked if he called in the tip to police.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/stafford_arrest_090520/20090520?hub=Toronto

I hope this woman who was arrested as an accessory to murder will lead the authorities to Tori's remains...Poor child taken for "sexual purposes"! I do hope they get what's coming and if LWOP is what it is, then justice can be served for Tori and her family. :cray:

sarahhod

05-20-2009, 11:15 AM

Suspects Arrested In Stafford Case

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:02:21 EDT
http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/files/00006_victoria_stafford3.jpg
Two arrests have been made in relation to missing eight year-old Victoria Stafford. Few details are known but there are media reports stating that police are searching for a body in the Guelph area. At the same time police have told the parents that they're "not necessarily looking for a body." A man and women who are apparently known to the parents have been arrested in connection with the disappearance. A press conference will be held in Woodstock for 3:00 this afternoon. The two suspects were lead into a Woodstock courtroom around 9:15 this morning.

http://www.myfmradio.ca/1057/wire/news/5280068_Suspects_Arrested_In_Stafford_Case_100118. php

It is possible that Tori is still alive.

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 11:19 AM

The male suspect has been charged with murder Sarah.

sarahhod

05-20-2009, 11:24 AM

Ahh..Doh!! Thanks anna, I am a little slow today!!

Faith

05-20-2009, 11:29 AM

>snip<

A man has been charged with murder and a woman has been charged with being an accessory after the fact in connection with the case of missing Woodstock, Ont. girl Victoria "Tori" Stafford.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/stafford_arrest_090520/20090520/?hub=TorontoNewHome

sarahhod

05-20-2009, 11:31 AM

The Mercury is pursuing reports of a search north of Woodlawn Road off Highway 6.http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/483819

Does anyone know how far this is from where Tori lived? TIA

ETA. I have found the answer to my question. It is a hour east of Woodstock.

Faith

05-20-2009, 11:32 AM

From the video in the beginning it was a woman walking with Tori. If she is charged with accessory after the fact that doesn't sound right b/c she lead her away from her school.

I know we don;t have all the facts.

sarahhod

05-20-2009, 11:32 AM

Mystery of Tori Stafford's abduction ends in tragedy with murder charge

THE CANADIAN PRESS
http://www.am770chqr.com/_Shared/CPContent/n052031A.jpg
A 28-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Victoria Stafford, the Grade 3 student who went missing six weeks ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley"

WOODSTOCK, Ont. - The six-week mystery surrounding the disappearance of Victoria Stafford ended in tragedy today with a man charged with the Grade 3 student's murder and a woman charged with being an accessory.
Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, were arraigned on the charges in a Woodstock, Ont., court. Documents suggest the murder took place on, or around, the day Victoria, known as Tori, went missing from outside her school, April 8.
McClintic, a stocky brunette with her hair tied in corn rows, also faces charges of helping the accused escape authorities.
Rafferty pulled his shirt over his head to cover his face as he was led into the courthouse and cried in court.
A search for Tori's remains was reportedly underway in a rural area of Guelph, about an hour east of Woodstock and police were to hold a media briefing at 3 p.m. with more details.

http://www.am770chqr.com/News/National/Article.aspx?id=111361

:1187603408.CR.Mothe

Faith

05-20-2009, 11:33 AM

chat allowed now at link

what link?

Faith

05-20-2009, 11:34 AM

Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, :madranting94dp:

Hell is hot and eternity.

Harmony

05-20-2009, 11:39 AM

what link?

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Faith

05-20-2009, 11:42 AM

Thank you, Harmony.

Harmony

05-20-2009, 11:43 AM

YVW, Faith!!

http://www.macleans.ca/canada/wire/article.jsp?content=n201864819

Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, were arraigned on the charges in a Woodstock, Ont., court. Documents suggest the murder took place on, or around, the day Victoria, known as Tori, went missing from outside her school, April 8.

Faith

05-20-2009, 12:35 PM

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/stafford_female_suspect.jpg
Terri-Lynn McClintic, 18

Charges have been laid in the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Victoria “Tori” Stafford.

Two accused 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.

Terri-Lynn McClintic, 18, 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, 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.

Security at the Oxford County Court House was high for the accused’s first appearance, as all members of the public entering the courtroom were searched with a metal detector. 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, where a couple of Oxford Community Police Service cruisers were standing guard Wednesday. Rafferty is listed as a resident of Tennyson Street.

Both have been remanded in custody for a video appearance in Woodstock court on Thursday May 28. While McClintic was escorted out of the Oxford County Court House almost immediately, Rafferty was held in the building for several more hours as media continued to gather outside the prisoner-transfer area.

Neither has counsel and their application for legal aid is one of the reasons why the case has been held over.

A stunned Rodney Stafford, Tori's father, had no comment on the murder charges but said he's "Devastated. I don't know where to go from here."

The fate of the eight-year-old Woodstock girl is still not confirmed by police, although there are media reports police are searching for a body in the Guelph area.

A police press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. today. Police would not comment on the well-being of Tori, but say they will discuss the arrests.

Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford, confirmed last night's 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.”

A heavy police presence just one block from the home of Tori Stafford is centred on a house where officers made two arrests Tuesday night.

Neighbours living on Wilson Street told The Free Press they were alarmed by “suspicious activity” at the home and contacted police. They say the arrests were made Tuesday night.

They also said a person resembling the mystery woman in a surveillance video that recorded Tori’s abduction was seen at the home.

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.

Two suspects, a man and a woman, were led into the Woodstock courthouse before 9:15 a.m.

CP24, a Toronto all-news television channel reported the arrest of a man and woman known to the girl’s parents.

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."

"It's heart wrenching and sickening," the source said. "It conjures up memories of Cecilia Zhang and Holly Jones."

Zhang, 9, was kidnapped from her Toronto home and killed in October 2003 by a former visa student in a failed attempt to extort enough money to remain in Canada. Ten-year-old

Jones was abducted, raped and killed in May 2003 by a Toronto neighbour.

The family of the teen accused in the Tori Stafford slaying is "shaken" by her arrest.

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.

Nancy, though, was quick to note she remembered Terri-Lynne as a "sweet" little girl. She hasn't seen her granddaughter in a decade and was stunned by media reports of her arrest.

"I'm really shaken right now," she said.

Tori was 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.

Some of Tori’s maternal relatives, who have been unable to reach Tara McDonald this morning, are sounding a positive note as the clock ticks down to the press conference.

“We’re just trying to stay positive and hoping we hear something about Tori,” said Barb Derbowka, Tara’s cousin.

“That’s all that matters to us, that she’s safe.”

Derbowka and her husband are relying on media reports as the case breaks open.

“I’m just leaving (Tara) alone,” said Derbowka, who says the mom’s answering machine picks up any calls. “She’s probably been flooded with calls.”

The best friend of Tori's mother — who faced uncomfortable scrutiny as the search for the abducted girl ground on — is preaching a positive outlook this morning.

Sara Leeper, who bore a striking resemblance to the mystery woman seen abducting little Tori in surveillance footage, defended herself in an exclusive Free Press interview earlier this month — and on Wednesday offered support to her friend Tara McDnald.

“You’ve got to be positive. Stay positive,” Leeper said she told Tori's mom.

In her recent Free Press interview, Leeper lamented the toll the case was taking on her life.

“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?”

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said he was impressed in the way detectives from both OPP and Oxford worked together to zero in on the Woodstock suspects.

"We're all elated in one sense but rather distraught and devastated in another way," Fantino said this morning.

It’s the first 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.

Stafford and McDonald presented a unified front for several weeks by speaking together at the joint news conferences.

However, as the weeks went by tension between the two grew as the media focus shifted from the search to rumours about McDonald’s drug addiction, especially on the social networking website, Facebook, a mysterious limousine ride to meet a man in Toronto who promised to pay a ransom, questions about fund-raising efforts and a desire for media attention.

For more on this breaking story, please return to lfpress.com throughout the day.

For the latest local coverage, read The London Free Press on the web or in print.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

Roamer

05-20-2009, 12:38 PM

May she spend the rest of her life in jail.

Faith

05-20-2009, 12:45 PM

May she spend the rest of her life in jail.

Jail is too good. :mad:

Roamer

05-20-2009, 12:50 PM

Canada doesn't have the DP, does it?

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 12:52 PM

May she spend the rest of her life in jail.

Female inmates don't like child killers :0devil:

Pauli

05-20-2009, 01:04 PM

This just breaks my heart, another innocent child gone..

I saw so many places where the mother was tore apart and accused by so many of having done something to her daughter.. It's hard enough going through something like this and then the added accusations on top of it.. This family has my deepest sympathy..

Faith

05-20-2009, 01:06 PM

Canada doesn't have the DP, does it?

I just looked it up, no they do not.

Canada does not have a death penalty. In most cases, the most serious sentence for murder is life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years. However, if a person has a long history of violent crime, then they can be declared a "dangerous offender." With this classification they are given an indefinite sentence with little chance of ever being released from prison.

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 01:10 PM

Updates every half hour (for those that missed the link)

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

finiishing up an update now

Pauli

05-20-2009, 01:10 PM

Murder Charges Laid in Tori Stafford Abduction; Body Reportedly Found North

Two people have been charged in connection with what Police are now calling the murder of 8-year old Tori Stafford.

Reports suggest 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.

Charged are 28-year old Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, who faces counts of murder and abduction, and 18-year old Terri Lynn McClintic, who is facing counts of abduction, accessory to murder after the fact.

McClintic, a stocky brunette with her hair tied in corn rows, also faces charges of helping the accused escape authorities. Rafferty pulled his shirt over his head to cover his face as he was led into the courthouse and cried in court.

Documents suggest the murder took place on, or around, the day Victoria, known as Tori, went missing from outside her school, April 8th.

No other details about the suspects have been released.

The arrests were made last night at a home on Wilson Street not far from the home on Frances Street where Tori had been living with her mother. The suspects are reportedly known to at least one of Tori's parents, but there's no word at this point on the nature of that relationship.

Police sources tell CP24 that the girl's abduction has been allegedly viewed as an "opportunistic crime" and was not a random act. They also say the child may have allegedly been sought for "sexual" purposes.

Police have called a newsconference for 3pm this afternoon to discuss the case. AM980 will carry that newsconference live.

http://www.am980.ca/home/News/GeneralNewsDetail/tabid/967/Default.aspx?id=7975

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 01:11 PM

terri is 18 , the man is 28? missed that part

SavannahStar

05-20-2009, 01:11 PM

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 01:13 PM

I wonder what the break in the case was.....what led them to these two people?

Also, it seems strange to hear some of the relatives say they hope for the best and they hope Tori is "safe"....when those people have been charged with murder......:frown: Do they really believe there is a chance she is okay?

From what I understand a neighbor reported suspicious activity. We'll here more at the press conference.

They are saying they believe Tori was killed on or about the day she was abducted. Not confirmed yet?

SavannahStar

05-20-2009, 01:13 PM

OMG body found.....

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 01:17 PM

OMG body found.....

Where are you hearing this savannah?

foxfarmboxers

05-20-2009, 01:17 PM

Such sad news. Another innocent child. My sincere condolences to Tori's family and friends.

SavannahStar

05-20-2009, 01:18 PM

From what I understand a neighbor reported suspicious activity. We'll here more at the press conference.

They are saying they believe Tori was killed on or about the day she was abducted. Not confirmed yet?

I did read about the suspicious activity, I just didn't really connect it up....sorry.

SavannahStar

05-20-2009, 01:19 PM

Where are you hearing this savannah?

Pauli's post above.

This thread is moving fast!

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 01:19 PM

Moderator having a hard time controlling what people are saying on the chat and has to keep shutting it down. Afraid of liability since they are a news source.

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 01:25 PM

http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/?src=http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/05/20/stafford1.jpg&size=640x389&quality=60
Police restrain Victoria Stafford’s uncle Rob Stafford as suspect Michael Thomas Rafferty is escorted out from the Oxford County Courthouse after making an appearance for the alleged murder of the girl.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/05/20/9513686.html

Faith

05-20-2009, 01:32 PM

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/grab3.jpg
Michael Thomas C. S. Rafferty

Faith

05-20-2009, 01:44 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYzab8Uw5A&feature=player_embedded

Heather

05-20-2009, 01:50 PM

Crap, she is a kid herself! 18yrs old. Not that it excusses her actions, just makes it all the more sad. Two childrens lives ruined. Just the site of that creep with his shirt pulled over his head makes me sick!!! :madranting94dp:

My heart and my prayers go out to that poor family.

annalyzer

05-20-2009, 02:02 PM

update on now

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/05/20/9510571.html

delayed for about five minutes

Faith

05-20-2009, 02:02 PM

Woodstock, Ontario is in EST- we have an hour until the presser.

Harmony

05-20-2009, 02:04 PM

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090520/090520_stafford_hm/20090520/?hub=CP24Home

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20090520/320_cp24_stafford_suspects.jpg

A police car sits parked outside the house believed to belong to a suspect arrested in connection with Tori Stafford's abduction. (CP24/Aaron Adetuyi)

*snipped for content*

McClintic, a stocky brunette whose hair was tied in cornrows, also faces charges of helping Rafferty elude authorities.
Rafferty pulled his shirt over his head to cover his face as he was led into the courthouse. He cried during the proceeding, while McClintic was more stoic.
As Rafferty was led by police from the courthouse after his appearance, Tori's uncle Rob Stafford approached him and spat out an expletive.
The relationship between the two accused was unclear, but there are reports the pair is known to one or both of Tori's parents.
A search for the girl's remains was reportedly underway in a rural area of Guelph, about an hour east of Woodstock. A police helicopter was on standby in the region marked with farmers' fields, ponds and wooded areas.
Police were to hold a media briefing at 3 p.m. with more details.
Reached at a home in Woodstock, a woman who identified herself as McClintic's grandmother sobbed as she said she was estranged from the woman's mother Carol and her grandchildren.
"(Carol) was a stripper and she knew the wrong people and she wasn't treating Terri-Lynne right."
She said she felt "just horrible" about the arrests.
"It's breaking my heart."