The Victoria Stafford file: Time Line
April 8: Victoria Stafford is last seen in the afternoon walking home from school, but she never arrives. An Amber Alert is not issued.
April 9: Surveillance camera footage from a local high school surfaces, capturing what police say was the child and an unidentified woman. Victoria does not appear to be struggling in the video. The woman is described as between 19 and 25, white, five-foot-two and about 125 pounds with a black ponytail. Stafford's grandparents offer a $10,000 reward for her return.
April 10: Police appeal for woman in video to come forward.
April 11: Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police says that there have been many questions about why an Amber alert was not issued. "At the time of the call coming in, we didn't have what was required for an Amber alert — not even close." A Facebook group — Find Victoria Stafford — already has 10,000 members.
April 12: Hundreds gather in Woodstock at 8 p.m. to hold a vigil for Stafford. Tori's mother makes a tearful appeal for her daughter to contact her family. "Anywhere, anyway that she can get back to us, if she can call or get away, find a way to come home," said Tara McDonald.
April 13: Police call off the ground search after finding no clues. Const. Maitland says: "I think the feeling among police is, yes, she is (alive), and I am happy to report that feeling."
April 14: Stafford's classmates return to school for the first time since her disappearance.
April 15: Parents reveal they took lie detector tests on the weekend. America's Most Wanted features Stafford's case as its top story.
April 17: It is announced that Ontario Provincial Police take over the search. Det. Insp. William Renton says the case is now officially classified as an abduction, not just a missing person. Tara McDonald speaks to a throng of media outside her home and says she believes her daughter is still alive. "I'm her mother, I know her better than anyone else on the planet," she said.
April 21: Police release a composite sketch of the woman in the video.
April 22: Rodney Stafford says he believes he recognizes the woman in the sketch, but Tara McDonald says she is not familiar with her.
May 3: Rodney Stafford lashes out on Facebook. "If by chance the persons responsible for the disappearance of Victoria are reading this I hope you are scared, nervous or whatever your sick minds are feeling right now. But know this . . . Daddy and the world are coming for Victoria."
May 4: Police release video footage of a dark coloured station wagon being driven on the same street where Victoria Stafford was last seen walking with a woman.
May 8: Tara McDonald says she is tired of gossip and rumours that she is somehow involved in the disappearance of her child and urges people to focus on Tori.
May 12: McDonald reads an open letter to her missing daughter, and urges her to stay strong.
May 15: Stafford's parents fight publicly in a daily media conference. Stafford lashed out at his ex-wife for displaying a lack of emotion, while she countered he was able to cry for the cameras because he feels guilty for being an absentee father. McDonald later spoke in more detail about her past addiction to drugs, saying she used OxyContin two to three times a week but started going to a methadone clinic two years ago because she wanted to gain control of her life. Suspicions that her daughter's disappearance is related to a drug debt are unfounded, McDonald said.
May 20: Two arrests are made. Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, appear in court. Both are charged with abduction. Rafferty is charged with murdering Stafford on April 8. McClintic is charged with knowingly aiding and enabling Rafferty. Rafferty and McClintic are scheduled to appear in court on May 28 in Woodstock, Ont.
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