Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, is shown in this undated photo taken from Facebook.

WOODSTOCK -- What had been a forgettable online comment is now sending chills through friends of Michael Thomas Rafferty, the man charged with killing Victoria (Tori) Stafford.

It was just after 10 a.m. on April 8 -- five hours before an abductor lured Tori, 8, to her eventual death -- when Rafferty offered up a typically brief Facebook update that's taking on an ominous new tone.

Good things are coming my way, he wrote.

"It makes me sick to think what that could mean," said Melanie, a friend who spoke on condition her last name not be published.

"Just to read this, what could you have possibly meant?"

That was one of many questions being asked yesterday as a picture emerged of Rafferty, a 28-year-old whom neighbours say lived with his mother in a duplex on Tennyson St. in Woodstock.

Melanie recalled a charming, good-looking guy who used party drugs and seemed to rely on friends for shelter. She first met him at a Toronto club several years ago and became re-acquainted through Facebook last year.

"I was obsessed with (the Tori) case. This just blows my mind," she said of media reports of Rafferty's arrest.

"When I heard his name, I said 'That can't be right.' I was floored. I've actually hugged this guy."

Another former girlfriend described Rafferty as having aggressive sexual interests and a secretive personality.

"He never had any money and I would always pay for things," said Jennifer Etsell, a single mom in Hanover who met Rafferty through an online dating service in 2006. "He started lying about things (and) he was always very secretive.

"I didn't meet any of his friends. He wouldn't talk about any of his past relationships."

His interest in what she called "rough sex" and bondage -- he became angry when rebuffed -- strained the relationship. She ended it after $2,000 disappeared from her bank account.

While they dated, Rafferty lived in Guelph -- where police were searching for Tori's body yesterday.

He moved into his mother's Tennyson St. home about a year ago and neighbours in that Woodstock neighbourhood say he rarely came outside.

"He didn't do anything," one said.

Last month, police were called to the home after a violent confrontation between Rafferty and his mother's boyfriend, who neighbours say also lives there.

That kind of outburst doesn't fit with the man Melanie says she knew, who was friendly and not the least bit threatening.

"I found him attractive. I've never known him to be mean to anybody."