Teacher recalls Tori Stafford’s last day at school during Rafferty trial

On the last day of Victoria Stafford’s life, the “lovely little girl” used a computer to research plants, got her tights wet by jumping in puddles, and had a time-out for goofing around, her teacher testified Tuesday.

The Grade 3 student also asked for permission to run back to her classroom at the end of the day to retrieve a pair of earrings she had forgotten, Jennifer Griffin Murrell told court.

Tori went to get them and left about one minute after the bell, behind her classmates.

Because the girl wasn’t wearing the butterfly earrings, Griffin Murrell asked her if she had found them, and Tori said she had.

“I said, ‘OK, hun, we’ll see you tomorrow’,” Griffin Murrell told court.

She never saw Tori again.

The eight-year-old vanished shortly after leaving school that day — April 8, 2009.

Three months later, her partially clothed remains were found in garbage bags and under a pile of rocks in a field more than 100 kilometres from her home in Woodstock, Ont.

The Crown alleges Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic, who has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, snatched Tori outside her school and, within hours, sexually assaulted and killed her.

Rafferty is now on trial, having pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping.

Tori was killed by multiple blows to the head with a hammer and had blunt injuries to her torso that lacerated her liver and fractured her ribs, court has heard.

Griffin Murrell wept as she described the “happy-go-lucky, energetic” student.

“She was a caring little girl, very sensitive,” Griffin Murrell said, her voice breaking.

“She was kind of like a mother hen to a lot of the younger kids in the (the split Grade 2/3) class. She always wanted to help.”

Wearing a grey suit, blue collared shirt and a diamond checkered tie, Rafferty took off his glasses and wiped his reddened eyes as the teacher talked about the “bubbly and enthusiastic” Tori.

“She had a little spunk,” Griffin Murrell said. “She was very dramatic in a way that she liked music and drama, and always liked to do little role plays or air bands.

“She was just a lovely little girl.”

The last day Tori would spend at school was routine, Griffin Murrell said. Her 21 students did language lessons, writing, sharing time, math and research on computers about plants.

After the second recess Tori asked if she could call home to get a change of clothes because she got wet by falling in a puddle, Griffin Murrell said. Tori later admitted she and her friends had actually been jumping in the puddles.

“She wasn’t that wet, so I just told her she was going to have to wait for her tights or her leotards to dry … and that’s what happens when you play in the puddles,” the teacher said.

During art time, Tori was “being funny,” pretending to cut decals off a friend’s shirt, and Griffin Murrell explained she shouldn’t do that, the teacher testified.

“She had a little sit at her desk for a minute until she thought she could use the materials correctly,” she said. “She knew what she was doing and we had a little chuckle about that.”

Griffin Murrell said Tori was inquisitive, well-liked and was “obsessed” with the TV show “Hannah Montana.”

Tori was wearing a “Hannah Montana” T-Shirt the day she died. When her remains were found 103 days later near Mount Forest, Ont., she was wearing nothing else.

Earlier, Ontario Superior Court Judge Thomas Heeney explained that an in-camera session Monday from which the public and reporters were excluded was held to protect the privacy of the jurors.

The court had learned that someone posted a message on Facebook claiming to be related to a member of the jury, who had made “disparaging comments” about Rafferty.

Jurors had been asked whether they recognized the poster’s name or image and none of them did, Heeney said. It was later discovered the person was actually referring to someone who was called for jury duty but excused.

Parents who were around the school when Tori disappeared, OPP Det. Const. Robin Brocanier and Tori’s mother, Tara McDonald, are expected to take the stand as the next witnesses.

After that the court is expected to hear several days of testimony from Terri-Lynne McClintic, 21, who has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Tori’s death and is serving a life sentence.

McClintic was arrested on April 12 on an unrelated manner after several tips came in suggesting she was a mystery woman wearing a white puffy jacket walking with Tori on surveillance footage from near Tori’s school.

At first she denied involvement in Tori’s death, then gradually told more and more of the story, Gowdey said. He cautioned the jury to listen to her evidence carefully.

“When you have heard her evidence you will unquestionably be disturbed by the choices that she made with Michael Rafferty to bring this all about,” he said. “I expect that her credibility will be a major issue in this case. It is because she had such a significant role in what happened that she’s able to give us so much detail.”

Listen to the rest of the evidence for pieces that confirm or conflict with McClintic’s account, he told the jury. She is expected to be on the stand for at least several days.

A police officer will testify about how McClintic tried to assist in the search for Tori’s remains after her arrest, and areas she described north of Guelph, Ont.

Rafferty and McClintic made a few stops after abducting Tori, the Crown alleges. He stopped to buy a “large number” of Percocets from a friend in Guelph and left McClintic and Tori alone in the car, Gowdey said. That woman will testify, and the jury will also hear about how they stopped to get cash then buy garbage bags and a hammer from a Home Depot, he said.

The jury will see the crime scene themselves on a scene visit, then will hear from the chief forensic pathologist for Ontario. He conducted the autopsy on Tori and will describe the trauma to her skull, and the blunt impacts that lacerated her liver and fractured her ribs, Gowdey said. The pathologist will need to show the jury pictures, Gowdey said, which he warned they may find “particularly graphic,” but it’s necessary to fully understand his evidence.

After McClintic and Rafferty were arrested police searched their homes and his car, and police officers will testify about the evidence found, including Tori’s DNA in blood on Rafferty’s car door, on his gym bag and an apparent script in McClintic’s house of what she should say if police suspected she was the woman in surveillance video with Tori, Gowdey said.

With files from CityNews

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