Ontario police seek help in finding missing 8-year-old

A Canadian AMBER Alert wasn’t issued nor is she listed at the NCMEC as missing from Canada. She has been positively identified in a school surveillance video walking with an unidentified woman.

Police say the “person of interest,” appears to be between 19 and 25 years old with long black hair, and in the video is seen wearing a white winter parka and tight blue jeans.

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — Two days after Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford went missing, police in southern Ontario are appealing for a woman seen in a surveillance video with the girl to come forward.

The eight year old has been missing since Wednesday afternoon, when she was supposed to have walked home from school in Woodstock, 45 kilometres east of London, Ont. The Oxford Community Police Service, along with officers from neighbouring police departments, have canvassed the area for clues into Stafford’s disappearance.

Update 04-13-09: Tara McDonald a mothers plea

“I know in my heart she is OK and that it’s just a matter of time before we find her.”

“Wherever she is, if she can find a phone, a window, any way she can get back to us. If she can call, if she can get away, just to fight to come home.”

“Nobody can even begin to imagine what our family is going through.”

“I just want everybody to continue your prayers and keep looking and don’t give up because we’re not going to give up for a second until she is home safely.”

Update 04-15-09: Tori Stafford’s parents take lie detector tests

WOODSTOCK, ONT. – Victoria Stafford’s estranged parents have taken lie detector tests and their previous relationships are under intense scrutiny even as a small army of friends, family and strangers continues to search for their missing 8-year-old daughter.

While Oxford Community Police refused to comment last night on the polygraph tests, friends of Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford, Victoria’s parents, said the two underwent the tests over the Easter long weekend.

 

Update 04-17-09: OPP takes over case of missing Woodstock girl.

WOODSTOCK, ONT. – The Ontario Provincial Police are taking over the lead in the investigation for missing eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford, Oxford Community Police Chief Ron Fraser said Friday.

Fraser introduced Det. Insp. Bill Renton of the OPP, who will spearhead the provincial force’s efforts in tracking down Tori, at a news conference in the southwestern Ontario city.

“It is now our belief that is an abduction,” said Renton.

Update 04-22-09: Witness helps Canadian missing girl case

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.

 

View America’s Most Wanted (AMW) case overview.

Authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who abducted Tori.

Update 05-05-09:  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.

Update 05-20-09: Father of Tori Stafford says arrests made in girl’s disappearance

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.

Stafford said he expects to receive more information later in the day.

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

Update 05-21-09: The alleged suspects in the murder of Victoria have been identified

May 20 (Bloomberg) — Canadian police have arrested two people in connection with the abduction and murder of an 8-year- old girl in southern Ontario.

Victoria “Tori” Stafford disappeared April 8 after she left her school in Woodstock, Ontario, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Toronto. Video surveillance tapes near the school showed a girl matching Tori’s description walking with a woman. Tori’s body has not been recovered.

Police in Oxford County today said Michael Rafferty, 28, was charged with first-degree murder and abduction and Terri- Lynn McClintic, 18, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder and abduction. They appeared in court today in Woodstock, and their first hearing has been put off to May 28, Oxford Police Chief Ron Fraser said at a news conference.

Note: Michael Rafferty is also being identified as Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty

Update 05-25-09: Search for missing girl’s remains continues

Investigators trying to find the remains of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford appealed to the public Sunday to be on the lookout for a grey, cloth- covered seat from a suspect vehicle seized Friday.

“Police are seeking help from the public in locating the entire rear seat of this vehicle that has been removed,” a news release from the Oxford Community Police Service said.

“Police are asking everyone to check their properties for the grey cloth coloured seat and report it to police immediately. If located, police investigators ask that it not be touched, simply report it to police immediately and without physically touching it, try to protect it from the elements until investigators can attend the scene.”

Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland would not say where the car was found.

Late Friday, Oxford police released an image of the vehicle believed to be “significant” to helping them find Victoria’s remains.

Maitland said they were appealing to anyone who may have seen a blue 2003 four-door Honda with black spray-paint over portions of it at the Home Depot store in Guelph, Ont. on April 8 – the day Victoria was abducted.

Update 05-26-09: New video in Tori Stafford case was seized weeks ago

What may become a key piece of evidence in the Victoria (Tori) Stafford investigation has been in police hands since the night the little girl disappeared.

Investigators, though, say there was no way to know what they were looking at on that date.

A video still of the blue car now believed connected to the April 8 abduction — released last week by Oxford Community Police — was taken from Woodstock gas-station footage investigators seized within hours.

Jigar Patel, the owner/operator of the Norwich Avenue gas station, saw the video clip and recognized the backdrop as being his parking lot, which is about a five-minute drive from Tori’s school

Update 05-30-09: Police tell Tori Stafford’s dad they may never find her remains

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The father of Victoria Stafford says police have told him to prepare for the possibility they may never find his daughter’s remains.

Tori went missing on April 8 and six weeks later police arrested 28-year-old Michael Rafferty and charged him with first-degree murder.

Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, who was originally charged with being an accessory, has since had her charges upgraded to first-degree murder.

Update 07-22-09: Police confirm the remains found Sunday near Mount Forest are those of the missing Woodstock girl

WOODSTOCK — It may be several weeks before the body of Victoria (Tori) Stafford is returned to her loved ones.

Investigators confirmed yesterday that remains found Sunday near Mount Forest are those of the Woodstock girl who disappeared April 8, but further forensic tests could delay a formal funeral by as much as a month, the Stafford family says.

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