This article discusses the abduction, abuse, and murder of a child, and reader discretion is advised.
Victoria Elizabeth Marie (Tori) Stafford was born on 15 July 2000 in Ontario, Canada. She attended Oliver Stephens Public School. Tori resided in Woodstock with her mother, Tara McDonald, and 11-year-old brother Daryn.
In the months leading up to her abduction, Tori and Daryn had been living with their maternal grandmother, Linda Winters. Linda would usually drop the two kids off at a town hall complex near the school where they resided with their mother.
Daryn and Tori would then walk to school with a number of kids. At the end of each school day, he would walk back home with the same party.
Tori Stafford: Missing
On April 7th 2009, Tori spent the night at her family’s new home with her mother. April 8th was going to be Tori’s special day because she was going to walk back home from school on her own for the very first time.
The walk home from school was only a few blocks. It was specifically arranged that she would not be accompanied by her brother Daryn. She had invited a number of friends to come over to her house after school and watch a video together.
The school dismissal time for students walking home is 3:25 pm. Tori Stafford lined up with other kids at the southeast gate of her school. As she was leaving, she realised she had left her butterfly earrings in the classroom.
She was given permission to retrieve her earrings from the classroom. The child returned to the line as the bell rang and left the school premises along with other students. The walk back home was roughly 20 minutes, and she was expected to arrive home by 3:45 pm.
In the meantime, Daryn had walked to the nearby townhouse complex with one of the kids he usually accompanied. After dropping off the younger child, he went to his cousin’s home and borrowed a bicycle.
Then he rode home to 647 Frances Street. His mother told him Tori had not arrived home. Daryn went out and rode his bicycle around, looking for his sister.
Around 5:00 pm, he reached his cousin’s house to return the bicycle. His mother, Tara, had called there at the same time and said Tori was still not home. At approximately 5:20 pm, Tara called her mother, Linda, and informed her that Tori was missing.
Linda immediately drove to Tara’s house. The two then drove around the area looking for Tori. At 5:40 pm, they approached an Oxford Community Police Services (OCPS) officer and asked for help.
At that time, the officer was involved in another investigation and directed them to the Police headquarters. At 6:04 pm, Linda Winters reported Tori Stafford missing to the OCPS.
Law Enforcement immediately launched an investigation and began searching for Tori. Time is of the essence when a child goes missing. The first 3 to 24 hours are the most critical for finding a missing child alive. A thorough ground search of the area was conducted.
OCPS searched the area around the school and the surrounding neighbourhood. This included Tara’s present and previous residences. On April 9, one day after Tori was reported missing, OCPS expanded the search area with the help of the Woodstock Fire Department.
The abduction of Tori Stafford
On April 9th, 2009, police retrieved CCTV surveillance footage from College Avenue Secondary School. In the footage, Tori was seen being led down Fyfe Avenue at 3:32 pm, accompanied by an unidentified woman.
The nature of this investigation quickly changed from a search operation to a criminal investigation concerning the abduction of a minor. Law enforcement released the footage to media outlets and broadcast channels in hopes of identifying the woman holding Tori’s hand.
The police department quickly began receiving tips from the general public about the woman’s possible identity, who was seen walking with Tori Stafford. Early tips suggested the woman in the video was 18-year-old Terri Lynne McClintic.
Law enforcement checked McClintic’s name in the criminal database and found an outstanding warrant for a minor offence. McClintic was listed as a person of interest and was immediately arrested on 12th April.
During the initial questioning, McClintic denied being the person in the video or having any involvement in Tori’s abduction. She was now the subject of further investigation.
By April 15th, the scope of the investigation had expanded exponentially as local law enforcement received over a thousand tips. OCPS requested the assistance of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to thoroughly investigate the case.
On May 12th, McClintic was questioned for a second time. She was asked to recount her activities on April 8th. She told the investigators that she went to the Employment Centre and then went for a pick up of OxyContin.
She recalled walking down Fyfe Avenue across from College Avenue Secondary School, but claimed she did not stop anywhere. McClintic described her clothing and admitted to being under the influence of some illegal drugs.
McClintic’s confession
On 19 May, 2009, investigators obtained an order from the Superior Court of Justice to remove McClintic from the Detention Centre where she was being held, for the purpose of providing a statement in relation to the abduction of Tori.
McClintic was advised of her rights in accordance with the procedure. She declined to have a lawyer present, indicating that she voluntarily participated in the interview. She provided a “polygraph” statement to the OPP.
What followed was a heart-wrenching account of the abduction, rape and subsequent murder of 8-year-old Tori Stafford. On April 8, McClintic came across Tori Stafford, who was walking down the street.
McClintic had been waiting outside Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock earlier that day. Her boyfriend, Michael Rafferty, who she had met only a few months ago, urged her to prove that she wasn’t all talk and kidnap a little girl. Rafferty told her, “They’ll be getting out of school now. Just talk about dogs or candy.”
She told Tori that she had a Shih Tzu. Stafford had the same type of dog. McClintic asked Tori if she would like to see her dog and lured her to a nearby parking lot where Rafferty’s car was parked.
The couple forced Tori into Rafferty’s car and began driving. She was placed on the floor behind the driver’s seat and covered with a black pea coat. Tori repeatedly asked the two where they were headed. McClintic responded that they were “going for a drive.” She later testified that she, too, did not know where they were going.
The couple drove outside Woodstock towards Guelph, making a series of stops before heading out of the city into a rural area. McClintic and Rafferty first stopped at a Tim Hortons.
McClintic told the court that she mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to Tori when Rafferty asked her to keep the girl covered when he returned from the coffee shop. She claimed Rafferty told her, “We just can’t keep her, and we can’t take her back.”
Then the couple drove to a friend’s house before stopping at a Home Depot at the north end of the city. McClintic went into the store to buy garbage bags and a hammer. After buying the murder weapon, they drove outside the city into a rural area.
As they drove down the empty streets, Raffetry began masturbating while driving. When he stopped the car, McClintic quickly stepped out and walked away from it.
“I believed he was going to rape Tori. I knew it was going to happen. And I did not want to be there when it would happen.”
– Terri-Lynne McClintic
At some point, McClintic heard the child screaming and turned to look. She saw Tori sitting in Rafferty’s lap. He was trying to molest her. After Rafferty had sexually assaulted Tori Stafford, she was bleeding heavily, crying and wanted to urinate.
McClintic took her a few meters down the road. Tori repeatedly asked McClintic for help, but she coldly replied, “Just don’t let him do it again.” Despite her pleas, McClintic took Tori back to the car and surrendered her to Rafferty.
Tori wouldn’t let go of her hand, but McClintic forcefully removed it. Leaving the terrified girl with a sexual predator. She told the court, “I couldn’t be there for that. I left.”
Rafferty began sexually assaulting the kid for a second time. A few minutes later, when McClintic went back to the car, she saw Tori Stafford lying on the ground with blood on her crotch. She was crying and begging for help.
McClintic then put a garbage bag on Tori’s head and began kicking her in the ribs. Then, she began repeatedly hitting her head with the hammer. Rafferty had asked McClintic to put the garbage bag on the child’s head so the blood wouldn’t splatter all over.
McClintic later changed her testimony and said she hit Tori when Rafferty was putting her into a garbage bag. The little girl’s body was dumped under a tree and covered with rocks so it couldn’t be found.
McClintic later recounted that after dumping the body, Rafferty tried to wash the blood off his genitals using a couple of bottles of water. He wiped himself with the white jacket Tori Stafford was wearing that day because he did not want to ruin his shirt.
When they entered the car, Rafferty asked McClintic if she was okay. She replied affirmatively. In response, Rafferty said, “he too was alright, considering”
The search for Tori Stafford’s body
The search operation for finding Tori’s remains was still ongoing. Law enforcement went to great lengths, logging more than 18,000 kilometres in search of the girl. OPP took over the case from the Woodstock Police Department. An unprecedented amount of resources was deployed in order to find Tori Stafford’s remains.
“Literally, we went 1 1/2 times around the moon, to this date it’s the largest search in the OPP’s history, and I would say probably our nation. (Canada)”
– Sgt. John Stirling
The officers searched on land, in the air, and underwater. Cruisers, helicopters, ATVs and cadaver dogs were deployed during the search operation. They sifted through 830 tonnes of garbage at a landfill outside Woodstock for 20 days.
Immediately following her arrest, McClintic was taken to the Guelph area to assist the investigators in finding Tori Stafford’s body. In Guelph, McClintic identified a Home Depot on Woodlawn Road where she purchased garbage bags and the hammer.
The location was confirmed by law enforcement using CCTV footage. McClintic was seen purchasing the items on 8 April at 5:12 pm. She also identified the residence along the dirt road near which Tori’s body was hidden.
McClintic fully cooperated with law enforcement and helped in the search for Tori Stafford’s remains. She spent most of her time in the air during the search in an effort to identify the site where they had hidden Tori’s body.
They flew around 1000 kilometres, but McClintic was unable to identify the area. Officers also walked 51 kilometres along Highway 401. McClintic and Rafferty had traversed the road while returning home after killing Tori Stafford.
On the way back, Rafferty urged McClintic to cut a piece of the stained backseat cover and throw it out of the window. The landfill search, highway search and helicopter search failed. The officers did not find any items of clothing, the murder weapon or any other clues they were looking for.
Tori Stafford’s body was finally found using Rafferty’s cell phone records from the day Tori Stafford disappeared. On July 17, law enforcement learned that Rafferty’s BlackBerry was used to send a series of text messages and make a phone call near Mount Forest and Guelph at 7:47 pm on the day Tori Stafford disappeared.
Mount Forest was further north of the search area that law enforcement was working in. On July 19, OPP’s Detective Staff Sergeant Jim Smyth decided to take a drive around the area. During the drive, he identified the house near which Tori Stafford’s remains were hidden using a sketch of the building.
This sketch was prepared based on McClintic’s testimony, in which she described the crime scene. He drove across the road and found Tori Stafford’s remains wrapped in garbage bags, under a pile of rocks, beneath an evergreen tree in a secluded field.
He was just 6.8 kilometres away from the northernmost edge of the massive search grid. Tori’s remains were found three months after her disappearance. The body had entered a late stage of decomposition. It was confirmed to be Tori Stafford’s using past dental records.
The autopsy revealed that the cause of death was at least four blows to the head with a hammer. Tori suffered multiple head fractures, and two-thirds of her ribs were broken. She also had a six-inch laceration in her liver. Autopsy confirmed she received the laceration while she was still alive.
Tori Stafford’s body had undergone significant decomposition. This made it impossible to confirm if she was sexually assaulted. However, when law enforcement found her, she was wearing only a Hannah Montana t-shirt.
Arrests, Trial and Sentencing
On 30 April, 2010, McClintic pleaded guilty and was convicted of first-degree murder of Tori Stafford. McClintic was sentenced to life in prison without a possibility of parole for 25 years.
Rafferty was arrested on May 20, 2010. He pleaded not guilty to the charges of first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm, and kidnapping in the death of Tori Stafford. Law enforcement searched his car and home and found numerous pieces of evidence linking him to the crime.
Michael Rafferty used a similar vehicle to kidnap Tori Stafford.
Police found a missing girl poster of the child he was alleged to have raped and killed. A black pea coat was also found in his closet, identical to the one McClintic had described in her testimony.
A mixture of Tori and Rafferty’s blood was found in his car, on the floor behind the driver’s seat. Rafferty was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without a possibility of parole for 25 years.