04-17-2012, 09:38 AM
London Free Press - The day after eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford disappeared, a sympathetic-sounding Michael Rafferty told one woman he was searching for the little girl near his Woodstock home.
Two days after, he comforted that woman by joking he’d tackle “the girl in the white coat” seen in a surveillance video with Tori, adding, “I’m sure she’ll return safe.”
That day he posted on his MSN site in bold letters “Bring Tori home” and commented to a different woman on MSN, “We’re all praying for her.”
Three days after, he told yet another woman they couldn’t go out that weekend because he was looking for a missing little girl.
Eleven days after, Rafferty met that woman and repeated he was still looking for the girl and worried about her.
About three weeks after Tori disappeared, he comforted yet another woman about the “traumatic” incident.
Several women who communicated with Rafferty by Internet, phone and in person in the spring of 2009 described for a jury Friday all the ways he seemed worried about the disappearance of Tori.
Those jurors have heard testimony from “the girl in the white coat,” Terri-Lynne McClintic, that her boyfriend Rafferty knew where Tori was, knew Tori wasn’t returning safe, knew prayers for Tori were too late, and knew Tori was never coming home alive.
On Day 22 of his first-degree murder trial, it became clear Rafferty cast a wide net on the dating website Plenty of Fish in early 2009.
It became equally clear the Crown has cast a wide net as well, bringing six of Rafferty’s online catches into court to wrap up testimony about his behaviour after Tori’s disappearance.
The Crown also began calling witnesses Friday to support its case Rafferty directed Tori’s abduction and knew what he was doing when he drove her to the Mount Forest area.
Former employer John Cruickshank testified Rafferty did landscaping work for him in 2006 at the Riverstown landfill site. That landfill is about three kilometres southwest of the spot where Tori’s body was found.
Tori disappeared while walking home from her Woodstock school on April 8, 2009. Six weeks later, McClintic confessed to being the woman in the white coat seen walking with Tori. McClintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April 2010.
Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm.
McClintic, 21, earlier testified Rafferty drove her and Tori to the Mount Forest area and raped Tori before the girl was killed. Then she and Rafferty hid the body, McClintic testified.
To Amanda Chambers of Woodstock, Rafferty seemed “to have a big heart” about Tori’s disappearance, jurors heard Friday.
A single mother of two, she started communicating with Rafferty, “a friendly-type person,” on Plenty of Fish in late March 2009. They met for the first date April 3, had sex that night and continued seeing, texting and calling each other for a month.
“One of the things that drew my heartstrings was that he told me he had a stepson . . . that had passed away just a few weeks prior to us talking,” Chambers testified. “Being a mother, that’s one of the worst things you can deal with, is losing a child.”
They had conversations about her children, a daughter, 13, and son, 10, at the time.
“I loved being a mom and he seemed very supportive of that.”
Chambers said her children played with Tori, and she knew Tori’s mother, Tara McDonald. She learned of Tori’s disappearance the day after it happened and texted Rafferty the news.
“He seemed surprised. He seemed like everyone else that day . . . sympathetic,” Chambers testified.
Chambers searched for Tori that evening and Rafferty texted her to say he was searching ,too, around the tracks at his end of the city.
The next evening, an upset Chambers met a “very supportive” Rafferty at a coffee shop. “We were talking about how she may have went missing, how this could happen.”
Rafferty made some jokes to lighten the mood, saying he’d seen a woman in a white jacket and if that was her, “he would tackle her to the ground.”
Their relationship ended May 2.
Rafferty told Ashley Reid, 25, a Fanshawe College student in April 2009, he was working with a young woman at a London detention centre.
He told her “how good it would feel if he knew that she got out of this and she was able to go with her life and that he had some part of it,” Reid testified. McClintic was in custody at London’s Genest detention centre on an unrelated matter at the time.
Some of the women kept their relationship to texting or ended things after a date or two. Rafferty didn’t take rejection well, pleading with some to explain why they didn’t want to see him again.
Rafferty refused to look at one woman, Stephanie Cooney, 29, of Kitchener, as she described an April 19 date that she soon “just wanted to be over.”
Today we will hear more about Rafferty's connection to Mt Forest.
Two days after, he comforted that woman by joking he’d tackle “the girl in the white coat” seen in a surveillance video with Tori, adding, “I’m sure she’ll return safe.”
That day he posted on his MSN site in bold letters “Bring Tori home” and commented to a different woman on MSN, “We’re all praying for her.”
Three days after, he told yet another woman they couldn’t go out that weekend because he was looking for a missing little girl.
Eleven days after, Rafferty met that woman and repeated he was still looking for the girl and worried about her.
About three weeks after Tori disappeared, he comforted yet another woman about the “traumatic” incident.
Several women who communicated with Rafferty by Internet, phone and in person in the spring of 2009 described for a jury Friday all the ways he seemed worried about the disappearance of Tori.
Those jurors have heard testimony from “the girl in the white coat,” Terri-Lynne McClintic, that her boyfriend Rafferty knew where Tori was, knew Tori wasn’t returning safe, knew prayers for Tori were too late, and knew Tori was never coming home alive.
On Day 22 of his first-degree murder trial, it became clear Rafferty cast a wide net on the dating website Plenty of Fish in early 2009.
It became equally clear the Crown has cast a wide net as well, bringing six of Rafferty’s online catches into court to wrap up testimony about his behaviour after Tori’s disappearance.
The Crown also began calling witnesses Friday to support its case Rafferty directed Tori’s abduction and knew what he was doing when he drove her to the Mount Forest area.
Former employer John Cruickshank testified Rafferty did landscaping work for him in 2006 at the Riverstown landfill site. That landfill is about three kilometres southwest of the spot where Tori’s body was found.
Tori disappeared while walking home from her Woodstock school on April 8, 2009. Six weeks later, McClintic confessed to being the woman in the white coat seen walking with Tori. McClintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April 2010.
Rafferty, 31, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault causing bodily harm.
McClintic, 21, earlier testified Rafferty drove her and Tori to the Mount Forest area and raped Tori before the girl was killed. Then she and Rafferty hid the body, McClintic testified.
To Amanda Chambers of Woodstock, Rafferty seemed “to have a big heart” about Tori’s disappearance, jurors heard Friday.
A single mother of two, she started communicating with Rafferty, “a friendly-type person,” on Plenty of Fish in late March 2009. They met for the first date April 3, had sex that night and continued seeing, texting and calling each other for a month.
“One of the things that drew my heartstrings was that he told me he had a stepson . . . that had passed away just a few weeks prior to us talking,” Chambers testified. “Being a mother, that’s one of the worst things you can deal with, is losing a child.”
They had conversations about her children, a daughter, 13, and son, 10, at the time.
“I loved being a mom and he seemed very supportive of that.”
Chambers said her children played with Tori, and she knew Tori’s mother, Tara McDonald. She learned of Tori’s disappearance the day after it happened and texted Rafferty the news.
“He seemed surprised. He seemed like everyone else that day . . . sympathetic,” Chambers testified.
Chambers searched for Tori that evening and Rafferty texted her to say he was searching ,too, around the tracks at his end of the city.
The next evening, an upset Chambers met a “very supportive” Rafferty at a coffee shop. “We were talking about how she may have went missing, how this could happen.”
Rafferty made some jokes to lighten the mood, saying he’d seen a woman in a white jacket and if that was her, “he would tackle her to the ground.”
Their relationship ended May 2.
Rafferty told Ashley Reid, 25, a Fanshawe College student in April 2009, he was working with a young woman at a London detention centre.
He told her “how good it would feel if he knew that she got out of this and she was able to go with her life and that he had some part of it,” Reid testified. McClintic was in custody at London’s Genest detention centre on an unrelated matter at the time.
Some of the women kept their relationship to texting or ended things after a date or two. Rafferty didn’t take rejection well, pleading with some to explain why they didn’t want to see him again.
Rafferty refused to look at one woman, Stephanie Cooney, 29, of Kitchener, as she described an April 19 date that she soon “just wanted to be over.”
Today we will hear more about Rafferty's connection to Mt Forest.
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