WOODSTOCK, Ont. -- The mother of Victoria (Tori) Stafford has told a local newspaper that she wants the accused suspects in the killing of her eight-year-old daughter dead.
“My daughter’s not coming home.I want the killers dead,” Tara McDonald told the London Free Press Friday, the first time she has spoken to the media following the arrests of a man and woman earlier this week.
Michael Rafferty, 28, of Woodstock, faces one count of first-degree murder and one count of abduction.
His girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18 also of Woodstock, has also been charged with abduction and accessory after the fact to murder.
Tori went missing on April 8. Her body has yet to be found but police resumed their search on Friday.
According to court documents, it is believed the young girl was killed the same day she went missing.
Ms. McDonald said that she has not been able to think about what her Grade 3 daughter must’ve suffered following her death.
“To think someone took my daughter and then ... I can’t even think about it,” she said. “I know there are sick and twisted people in the world but I had no idea. I don’t want to sound selfish and I wish this on no one, but I sometimes think, why did it have to be my daughter?”
Ms. McDonald told the Free Press that she was also very angry with how police dealt with her daughter’s abduction, and outright accused investigators of pinning the blame on her.
“One officer came into my house and said, ‘You are my prime suspect.’ He said, ‘I have been doing this job as long as you have been alive and I have never seen a mother behave like you.’ I said, ‘You should have dropped off the mother’s handbook to me so I would know how I’m supposed to behave’.”
She said the police also made threats to her son, Tori’s older brother, Daryn, who is 10.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do about it, but I’m going to do something about it,” she said. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this.”
Meanwhile, the search for Tori’s remains continued in an area near Fergus, Ont., about 90 kilometres northeast of Woodstock.
Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford said that he hopes his daughter will be returned to the family.
“(I’m) a little less optimistic I guess of where it (the search) is,” he said Thursday. “(My) hopes are still there but they’re fading. Only now that they have Terri-Lynne helping with the search -- that kind of puts a damper on things.”
Three canine units were seen descending on the rural Ontario town early Friday.
On Thursday, the Ontario Provincial Police had taken Ms. McClintic out of jail to be their guide in the search for the little girl’s remains.
A short distance away, another group of investigators hauled away a large garbage bin that sat near the end of a property. Ontario Provincial Police Const. Steven Starr would not comment on what led police to the large green Dumpster.
With files from National Post
