Two Arrested in Case of Kidnapped Ontario Girl

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 12:15 PM

The Chief of Oxford Community Police in Ontario, Ron Fraser, says two people have been arrested and charged in connection with the abduction and murder of 8 year old Tori Stafford. She is the little girl who was caught on video skipping along with her abductor in April. She has not been seen since April 8th when she failed to return to her Woodstock Ontario home after school.

In speaking to the media, Chief Fraser said the whole case has left everyone with hundreds of questions which he hopes will be answered during the court proceedings. Although the little girl's body has not been found, a 28 year old man, Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty of Woodstock Ontario is charged with murder, and an 18 year old woman, Terri-Lynne McClintic (also of Woodstock) is charged with abducting Tori, helping Rafferty escape the area and being an accessory to murder after the fact.

The disappearance of Tori sparked a national search for the 8 year old with pleas going out across the country for news on the little girl's whereabouts.

The accused have been remanded in custody until May 28.

Chief Fraser says police believe Tori was murdered the same day she disappeared.

The search for Tori's body is underway and is focused in the Guelph area. Police are said to be acting on information from the accused female.

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Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 12:15 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: downnotout on May 20 2009 12:36 PM

better be sure that these are the people because if they arn't their lives have being ruined. But if they are quilty either jail for life [not 25 years ] or bring back the death penelty.

Posted by: trudy on May 20 2009 2:27 PM

This is so very tragic and touches the heart of every parent in the country. My condolences to the parents, although I cannot begin to imagine their pain I do hope they know we are so sorry for their loss.

Posted by: Rainbow on May 20 2009 4:03 PM

This tragedy only reinforces the need for an amber alert system. We recently had an attempted abduction up in College Heights. Kidnappings of children happen everywhere and there are thousands of children who go missing across Canada every year.

Posted by: He spoke on May 20 2009 4:13 PM

Jesse, bring me the rope.

Posted by: realitysetsin on May 20 2009 7:37 PM

There is an Amber alert system isn't there?

Crimes against children are perhaps the sickest, saddest of all crimes.

Posted by: Rainbow on May 20 2009 7:58 PM

Currently, amber alert is not active in BC. I'm sure our RCMP colleagues on this site will confirm this.

Posted by: realitysetsin on May 20 2009 10:33 PM

Not that it matters, but according to the RCMP website BC does have Amber Alert. Unsure if dropping links is kosher here but a quick search resulted in the find.

Posted by: Rainbow on May 20 2009 10:59 PM

You're right Realitysetsin Amber Alert in theory exists in BC. There is a set criteria and requires coordination between RCMP,municipal police and media to issue the Amber Alert in a timely fashion. One of the criteria is that there needs to be sufficient evidence that an abduction has taken place. That the case is serious enough. An Amber Alert was not issued for little Tori Stafford because it wasn't considered an abduction but a "criminal investigation". Does this make any sense? I question our overburdened system to effectively manage the Amber Alert program. It looks good to the public to say we have it in place. A different story in how it's carried out. With all of the children who have gone missing in BC since Amber Alert was implemented in 2004, most times the system appears inactive.

Posted by: realitysetsin on May 21 2009 5:37 PM

Ya it seems odd. You'd think if a child was missing for any reason they would be all over the amber alert. Even if they thought it was a parent...whatever. In this case I'd rather seem them over use it than under use it.

Especially in light of the stats that if the child isn't found in the first 24 hours.

Posted by: Lamb on May 21 2009 8:45 PM

So sad. We need to keep our children safe. As the story unfolds we get insights into the McClintoch girl (who abducted Tori). There is an interview with her mother as we view the scene we see abject poverty and one tough woman. The root cause of so much that goes wrong comes from our inequality in society. That is not an excuse for the McClintoch woman but we don't want any more murdered children so we need to look for the root causes. I suggest poverty produces crime. Time to get rid of it.