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 An OPP officer searches along with a police dog a pile of rocks in a farmers field off Wellington Rd 22 north of Guelph. The OPP is searching on ground and by chopper for the remains of Tory Stafford. (Toronto Sun/Craig Robertson) |
Police resumed their search Sunday morning for the body of Victoria (Tori) Stafford and continued their silence about a case that has left grieving family waiting for answers and the return of their little girl.
While search teams aided by one of two people accused of the abduction continue to comb through parts of Wellington County, investigators have said nothing about their work for several days.
Friday they asked for witnesses to a Honda Civic they believe contained eight-year-old Tori and her abductors on a ride from Woodstock to Guelph on April 8, the day she was taken as she left her elementary school in Woodstock.
"If (police) have even one piece of information that Victoria has passed, please let me know so I can put this to rest," father Rodney Stafford said this weekend.
Tips have come in since but investigators haven't shared their subject matter with Oxford Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland, who has been assigned to speak on behalf of an investigation but only with what essentially amounts to a script provided to her.
"I'm frustrated, too," Oxford Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland told The London Free Press this weekend. "I'm sure (investigators) have a wealth of information beyond what I have to release."
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Investigators believe Tori and her abductors traveled in a blue Honda Civic that has been sloppily painted black, with some of the original colour still visible.
Police think the vehicle, which they obtained shortly after making two arrests last week, was in or near a Home Depot plaza in Guelph the evening Tori was snatched by a woman seen walking with her in a surveillance tape.
Sources say the vehicle police have seized it belongs to Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, charged with abduction and first-degree murder in little Torišs disappearance April 8 after school in Woodstock.
A co-accused, 18-year-old Terri-Lynne McClintic, also of Woodstock, is reportedly co-operating with police and was seen with them late last week as they scoured a rural area north of Guelph, looking for remains of the Grade 3 girl.
If police are correct that Tori was taken by her abductors that same day to Guelph, that would mean she would have been gone from Woodstock hours before police notified the media the girl was missing.
Lack of disclosure by police has been a source of public criticism almost since the day Tori vanished. Five days later police abandoned a massive ground search in Woodstock, calling the investigation a 'missing persons case.'