WOODSTOCK, Ont. — The mother of Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford made a surprise
appearance at a court hearing Friday for one of the two people accused in
the little girl’s abduction and killing.
Tara McDonald had not spoken to the media since the body of her daughter was
found in July and has avoided all court proceedings.
“We want to get used to the courtroom setting,” she said outside the
courtroom with her former husband, and Tori's father, Rodney Stafford. “It
is trying to prepare ourselves for what we have ahead of us.”
McDonald had expected to see accused Terri-Lynn McClintic appear via video
from jail.
Instead, London lawyer Jeanine LeRoy appeared on behalf of her client. The
proceedings were adjourned until April 16.
McDonald said she wanted to see McClintic by video as a first step to seeing
the woman charged with killing her daughter in person.
“So we can have our chance to look at them and not have them looking at us,”
she explained.
But Stafford, who has been to several of the court hearings, said he’s tired
of seeing the accused only by video.
“I kind of wish they were there so they can get a sense of us sitting in the
courtroom so they know just exactly what happened and how we feel about it.”
Their eight-year-old daughter was abducted after school April 8 in
Woodstock.
Police and volunteers searched for the Grade 3 pupil for weeks but the
arrests in May of McClintic and co-accused Michael Thomas Rafferty for
abduction and murder dashed the hopes of finding the girl alive.
Her remains were discovered July 20.
