Remembering Tori Stafford

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Taliyah Marsman has been on the minds of a local family who know all too well what her family is going through.

In April of 2009, a nightmare clouded over Southern Ontario. An eight year old girl from Woodstock had been plucked from the street on her way home from grade three. In the months and years that followed, our worst fears about Victoria Stafford were confirmed. She had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered within hours of her abduction.

Terri-Lynne McClintic and Michael Rafferty were found guilty. They are behind bars, although last month Rafferty launched an appeal of his conviction
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Meanwhile, Victoria Stafford’s family still copes with her loss. Today, had she lived, this would have been her 16th birthday.

Rodney Stafford imagines what his daughter would have been like, had she made it to sixteen.

“With her being a little girly girl and times and a tomboy at times, the cross between the two. She would have been a handful. But I still think she would have been an amazing friend, niece, daughter, she’d be an amazing person.”

In 2012, when Michael Rafferty was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing his little girl, Stafford read a victim impact statement about missing all Victoria’s milestones in life.

“Sweet sixteen. All the firsts, the onlys in life. All that’s been taken away.”

“What’s been going on in my mind a lot is, she’s been gone almost the length of time she was alive. It hurts. Time flies.”

Rafferty is appealing his conviction October 24th. He says the trial relied too much on an unsavoury witness; his accomplice Terri-Lynne McClintic. The one who lured Tori to Rafferty’s car. She pleaded guilty to murder in 2010 but said Rafferty was the killer. Two years later, on the witness stand at Rafferty’s trial, she admitted she was the one wielding the deadly hammer.

Stafford’s father and stepmother plan to attend the court of appeal hearing, despite having to rip scabs off their wounds.

“It opens everything up again. You sit there and think and wonder and remember and worry. It’s sad.”

“I still have my sad times. I miss my little girl.”

Victoria Stafford’s memory is still very much alive here in her hometown of Woodstock. Every year her family organizes a ride in her honour and a week Saturday will be the fifth one. The family hope to paint the town purple, Victoria’s favourite colour, and they’ll also be raising money for programs that support children’s mental health.

“It is really, for everybody’s children.”

Parents can take home a child identification package with their kid’s DNA, fingerprints, dental impressions, video and voice recordings.

“We would have been able to hand over a package to police and say here, this is Victoria.”

“I still want people to realize, this is real. It’s not fake. This happened. Because it does happen. It happens rather quickly.”

Rodney says he still gets amazing support from his community. He realizes his daughter’s death has had a huge impact that goes far beyond the borders of Woodstock. The event next weekend is open to everyone whether or not you have a motorcycle.