“We Are Left With Hundreds Of Questions:” Police Reveal Little About Two Arrests In The Murder Of Victoria Stafford
Posted May 20, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions, but the first degree murder charges police laid against a 28-year-old man on Wednesday in the Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford case makes the fate of the little girl all too apparent.
The grim news comes six weeks to the day the eight-year-old was kidnapped. A woman has also been charged as an accomplice.
“Late yesterday we arrested two persons for the abduction and murder of Victoria Stafford,” confirmed Oxford Police Chief Ron Fraser.
“We are left with hundreds of questions that hopefully one day will be answered in the courts of law,” he added.
Fraser also defended how the case was handled by police.
“The criteria of Tori’s disappearance did not meet the criteria of the Amber Alert,” he noted when pressed by media. “The Amber Alert would not have made any difference because it did not meet the criteria.”
The accused killer has been identified through court documents as Michael Thomas Rafferty (pictured above). The woman is Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18 (pictured below). Both appeared in a Woodstock court on Wednesday to be arraigned on the following charges:
Rafferty:
- First Degree Murder
- Abduction Of A Person Under Sixteen
McClintic:
- Accessory After The Fact To Murder
- Abduction Of A Person Under Sixteen
In the meantime, the search for the little girl’s remains continues near Guelph.
“The most important mission we have yet to accomplish is to reunite Victoria with her loved ones,” a sometimes emotional Fraser concludes.
“There’s several investigators working diligently around the area to follow all leads,” said a guarded O.P.P. Det. Insp. Bill Renton.
Renton revealed few details about the case during a 3pm presser, but did say that police were confident they had the right people in custody.
“We are satisfied at this point that we have the persons responsible and we do not expect any more arrests at this time.”
When asked about possible motives, he would only say, ” The matter is before the court and I cannot speak to that,” an answer he repeated several times as reporters tried to learn more about the sinister case.
Police told reporters that Tori’s mother, Tara McDonald, was familiar with McClintic, but the extent of their relationship has not been revealed.McDonald later told CityNews she recognized the woman, allegedly from the grainy video of her daughter being led away.
Among the other questions left unanswered: how they can lay murder charges without the child’s body; where they’re searching for her remains; whether either suspect has made any admission of guilt; if there was any sexual component to the crime; if they’d spoken to either of them as they scoured Woodstock; the role the videotape of the woman in white played in the case and exactly what led them to the pair and when their names first surfaced in the investigation.
Full Police Press Conference
Renton did finally agree that the charges against McClintic could be upgraded as the probe into the crime continues.
Emotional Stafford family members gathered outside the courthouse to catch a glimpse of the duo Wednesday. When Rafferty was led out with a shirt over his head, Victoria’s uncle, Rob Stafford, began screaming at him and had to be restrained by police.
“No one can ever explain the pain and the upset, you just have to believe she’s in a safe place now,” said Tori’s grandmother, Linda Winters.
Stafford’s father, Rodney, said one of the toughest moments was explaining what happened to Tori’s older brother, Daryn.
“His first reaction was, ‘Does this mean I don’t get to hang out with my sister anymore, I don’t get to see her anymore?'”
“I still love her with all my heart and until I see her I will not lay this to rest,” he adds.
A neighbour of the accused couple on Wilson St. in Woodstock admitted to CityNews that he had suspicions about them for quite some time, and even called police at one point to express his concern.
“We got close to them to get information from them,” said Craig Mancini. “We were always back and forth talking to them, she was nice and wanted to do our laundry and stuff. I would actually go into the basement, and my girlfriend would say ‘look in the basement and see if there’s anything in there.'”
A woman who identified herself as the grandmother of McClintic told reporters 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.
Stafford did not come home after school on April 8. She was last seen on surveillance video walking beside an unknown woman (below.)
Police now believe the murder took place not long after she was abducted, possibly on the same day.
CityNews exclusive: Tori’s mom recognized one of the suspects
