36: 8-Year-Old Abducted From School | The Kidnapping of Tori Stafford

April 8th, 2009 started out like any other school day for 8 year old Tori Stafford. She left class excited for a movie night with friends, wearing butterfly earrings she had secretly borrowed from her mom, and began the short two block walk home. But Tori never made it back. Within hours, a quiet town in Ontario was thrown into panic. Then came the surveillance footage. Grainy video showing Tori calmly walking beside an unidentified figure in a white jacket. No screaming. No struggle. Just a little girl disappearing in broad daylight. As the search intensified, suspicion turned toward Tori’s own mother, rumors exploded across the media, and investigators uncovered a world filled with addiction, manipulation, disturbing fantasies, and two predators hiding behind lies…. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise. .🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks..🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms.📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife.👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon.🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: [email protected].📚 Episode Sources BlackburnNews London | CBC | CityNews | CTV News | Global News | Guelph Mercury | LondonAM980 | London Free Press | Maclean’s | Medium | National Post | SentinelReview | The Globe and Mail | The Star | Vancouver Sun | Yahoo News••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me. 2️⃣ Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. 3️⃣ The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Annie Elise?

  Whoever says saving money is hard doesn't know that new customers who bundle and save with Progressive save hundreds. Because switching your home and auto insurance is way better than cutting down on the things you love, like those iced lattes that help you get ready to face the day. So switch your home and auto to Progressive and see if you could save and keep sipping away. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  Your information may be for sale online.

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'll take four social security numbers and a maiden name.

• 0:33Speaker 01

  LifeLock finds and removes exposed info from data brokers that could put your identity and finances at risk.

• 0:39Speaker 02

  Nine email addresses, please.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  And if those sites put your information back online...

• 0:44Speaker 02

  And a dozen phone numbers.

• 0:47Speaker 01

  LifeLock will remove that, too. Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com/specialoffer. Terms apply.

• 0:55Speaker 03

  Looking for your lucky side? You'll find it at Lucky Land Casino. It's your ultimate spot for fun. No app needed. Just jump right into your browser. Spin for free gold coins or collect free sweeps coins for a chance to win prizes. Plus, score daily login rewards every single day. Ready to meet your lucky side? Head to luckylandcasino.com right now. Your first surprise is waiting. Lucky Land Casino, where the magic happens. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. CTNCs 21+

• 1:26Speaker 04

  Victoria Stafford was a larger-than-life, bubbly, eight-year-old girl. Tori was abducted while walking home from school in Woodstock on April 8, 2009. Justice for Tori!

• 1:48Speaker 05

  Everything once it passes the justice system is a joke.

• 1:52Speaker 06

  Now, where were you for the last nine whole years? I have told them everything from the beginning. Yeah, walk away like usual.

• 1:59Speaker 07

  Imagine, I don't know if you have kids or if anybody here has kids, but imagine having to sit back and watch your child be missing on America's most wanted. We've obtained a video surveillance tape that may possibly...

• 2:12Speaker 06

  Show Victoria Stafford on the tape. An OPP officer, an investigator, assigned to the Stafford investigation, discovered human remains here just east of Mount Forest.

• 2:25Speaker 07

  I just need you to be strong, baby, and have faith that we are coming for you.

• 2:29Annie Elise?

  Hello and welcome back to an all new episode of 10 to Life with me, Annie Elise. I hope you are having a good day today, whatever time it is that you're watching this. Although I'm going to be honest with you, I'm probably about to ruin it with this case because this case is incredibly difficult to hear, but it also is one that is very important to share, but want to just give you that warning. But it's one that, I don't know, there's a lot of elements to it that still don't sit right with me and that I don't agree with in terms of how things unfolded. But I think it's easy to say that too, from an outsider and in hindsight and all of those things. But anyway, I just want to warn you, it's not the easiest one.

• 3:12Annie Elise?

  You have to definitely be in the right frame of mind to hear this case. But we are going to get right into it. But before we do, you know the drill, hit the subscribe button, hit the like button, and let's get into it.

• 3:36Annie Elise?

  April 8th, 2009 was turning out to be a very exciting day for eight-year-old Tori Stafford. It was a Wednesday, so Tori still had school, but there were a lot of fun things going on in her life. The night before, she and her 10-year-old brother Darren had stayed at their mom's new house for the very first time. They had been living with their grandma for a while up until this point, so Tori was really excited about the change. And for Tori, it felt like she finally had gotten to sleep over at this like new and exciting place. And her mother, Tara McDonald, had even promised her that she could have a few friends over to watch a movie that night after school, which was so exciting. I mean, you remember those days, right? Like not only being able to do sleepovers, but have friends over on a school night.

• 4:19Annie Elise?

  I mean, it's so exciting, especially for an eight-year-old. Anything that's not in the normal, traditional routine, right? So when Tori left for school that Wednesday, she was just buzzing with excitement. Tori was a third grader at Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock, Ontario. Now, the best part about her mom's new house is that it was only two blocks away from school, which apparently Tori and her older brother Darren always walked home from school together. But now, because their house was so close, it was even better. It was an easier walk. So that April 8th, special arrangements ended up being made for Tori to walk home by herself. And I couldn't find the exact reason why, but Darren usually got home later.

• 5:01Annie Elise?

  I don't know if it has something to do with after-school programs, sports, tutoring, something that would have him coming home later. So before, when they used to walk home together, she would wait for him. But now, because it was only two blocks away, she was able to go home on her own when she was done. Not really sure, but in any event, she was going to be walking home alone that day. She knew, and she wasn't worried. Like I said, it was only a couple of blocks, and she was eight years old, which obviously is incredibly young, but also that age where they start to feel like they're not a kid anymore, start to go into their independence. I remember when I was in third grade, I definitely felt like I could walk home alone. I think I did walk to school, actually, at that age with, like, a group. But anyway, she was prepared, and, you know, it was gonna be a quick little walk.

• 5:46Annie Elise?

  So at 3:25, the final bell for school rang. Tori and some other students lined up on the southeast door of the school to formally be dismissed. And then she ended up running back into her classroom to grab these butterfly earrings that she was wearing that day, earrings that were actually her mother Tara's, but she had taken for herself. And Tara expected that Tori would be home pretty quickly. Maybe it would be five minutes if she walked straight home as soon as the bell rang, possibly 10 to 15 minutes if she stopped and talked with her friends before heading home, or if she did have to run back inside to the classroom to grab something, like she did with those earrings. But either way, the point being, it shouldn't have taken very long at all. And yet, it did.

• 6:28Annie Elise?

  By 3:45 PM, Tori still wasn't home. That gave her 20 minutes since the last bell rang and going back to the classroom to talk to her friends and walk home. I mean, 20 minutes to make it two blocks that she needed to walk. Then at 3:55 PM, one of Tori's friends tried calling her house, excited to talk about the movie night that they were about to have. But Tori still wasn't home, so the friend just left a message. Now, at some point after that, the exact time has not been specified, her older brother Darren came home. And he was surprised because Tara, their mother, had told him that Tori still wasn't home, which, of course, was weird. She should have easily beat him there.

• 7:11Annie Elise?

  And over the next few hours, Tara noticed Tori's absence, I mean, obviously. But what she did or didn't do about it in those early hours would later be highly scrutinized. At 5:20 PM, so a couple of hours later, Tara called her mother Linda, telling her that Tori still wasn't home from school. And after this, the reports are a little bit conflicting. Some reports say that both Tara and Linda hopped in the car together, driving around the neighborhood, looking for Tori, and heading to the homes of friends and family members nearby to find her. But other sources say that Tara sat at home while Linda and Darren went searching for Tori.

• 7:52Annie Elise?

  What we do know is that at 6:04 PM, Linda reported Tori missing to the police department. Linda, the grandmother, not the mother. But that was also close to three whole hours after Tori was last seen. So understandably, this did not sit well with the officers. School was over at 3:25 PM. Why wait until a little after 6 PM to report an eight-year-old as missing? And like I said, we'll get into all of that. But rest assured, Tara definitely faced a lot of backlash during Tori's missing person investigation. Where was Tori? How does an eight-year-old go missing just two blocks away from her house? From safety?

• 8:36Annie Elise?

  Her disappearance was one that immediately shocked the Woodstock area. Tori was a spunky little girl too. She loved playing dress up, always wanted her blonde hair to be done, loved Hannah Montana. She was a girly girl through and through, and even at just eight years old, she was adamant about always having earrings to match her outfit, just fully, you know, girl-coated through and through. Yet, despite all of that, she also liked to get her hands dirty. She played with her brother Darren in the dirt, she'd pick up worms, she'd do, you know, the tomboy stuff, and her family described her as being bubbly and energetic, but also full of love and happiness. Now unfortunately, that first night that Tori disappeared, no new information came out.

• 9:18Annie Elise?

  The investigators were still in the very early stages, trying to piece together things like when she was last seen, where she was last seen, who was she with? But by the following day on April 9th, there was already a huge update in Tori's case. It turns out that one of the businesses near her elementary school had cameras. And what those cameras caught was pretty jaw-dropping. Granted, this was 2009, and the footage was not the cleanest or the clearest, but Tori was spotted on camera, walking away from the direction of her school. She wasn't walking alone, though. Next to her was an unidentified female.

• 9:59Annie Elise?

  The person walking with Tori can only be seen from the back and their face never turned toward the camera. But what's really important about this clip is that Tori seems to be going with this woman freely. It's not like this woman was dragging her by the arm, or even holding her hand or leading her a certain way. The two of them were just walking, side by side. Now, you don't have to carry a kid off kicking and screaming for it to be a kidnapping, obviously not. That being said, though, this detail is important to note, because it did show that Tori wasn't scared of whoever this woman was that was with her. She seemed to trust her enough that she was willing to go with her. And you might be wondering, if they couldn't see the person's face,

• 10:44Annie Elise?

  how do they know that it was even a woman? Which I guess technically, they couldn't be 100% sure. But, the person in the footage does appear to have longer hair, and is wearing a puffy white coat. Something that looked like it could belong to a woman. So this person is walking with one hand on their hip, while the other hand and arm is just swinging at their side. So I mean, the investigators could have been wrong, but by the body language, the appearance, all of that, they felt like it was a woman. And they were also so sure that they alerted the media of this, that it was an unidentified woman. Now if you're watching this over on YouTube, the clip that I'm showing, it zooms in as much as possible. So take a look and let me know your initial thoughts down below in the comment section.

• 11:26Speaker 07

  We've obtained a video surveillance tape that may possibly, uh, show, um, Victoria Stafford on the tape.

• 11:34Annie Elise?

  So, as I had said, Tara received a lot of hate from the minute the Tori's case was made public, simply due to her not reporting her missing right away. And this surveillance clip going public, did not help. Right away, people out in the public began to speculate. Could the person on this surveillance video have been Tara herself? I mean, it would have made sense why Tori was so willing to go with this person, right? Well Tara spoke out about the video. And she didn't think that the person on the clip was a woman at all. She thought that it was a man dressed as a woman, and intentionally done so to throw the investigators off. Now both Tori's mom and dad were in her life at the time of her disappearance.

• 12:19Annie Elise?

  Her family life had been a little bit rocky, but in the months leading up to her disappearance, it was actually starting to become somewhat normal again. Her father Rodney was a high school dropout who never really settled down in one place or another. Or settled down with one person, as a matter of fact. He just drifted around, he wasn't present in the kids' lives other than an occasional visit here and there. His kids did know him, and they knew that he was their dad. But from what I can tell, it's not like he was a consistent presence. their life or around for every event or holiday. But in 2009, something changed in his life. In February, just a couple of months before Tori went missing, he decided that he wanted to turn things around.

• 13:02Annie Elise?

  He moved back to Ingersoll, Ontario, where he was from, and he decided to go back to school. He also started to integrate himself back into his kids' lives, hoping to make up for lost time. And I mention all of that because Rodney wasn't talked about negatively in the press. And I'm not saying that he should have been. Obviously not, not by any stretch. But the interviews that Rodney gave were all about how much he missed his daughter, how much he wanted her back home. Almost like he was parent of the year, while all of the public scrutiny was falling on Tara, who wasn't perfect either, but she had at least been in Tori's life.

• 13:37Speaker 06

  That's just the thing. It's not just the bike ride. It's like, no matter where you walk or anything, every bush you come by, every corner you turn. I went to a mall in London yesterday and I couldn't help but look in every store, looked behind every calendar.

• 13:51Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah, you're looking everywhere.

• 13:52Speaker 06

  You, you just can't give up.

• 13:55Speaker 07

  You see a person who has a child with them, who, you know, has blonde hair and you're running up to them and looking to see and make sure that it's not your child. Like, neither one of us have stopped looking everywhere.

• 14:08Annie Elise?

  Every single day at 1:00 PM, Tara would host a press conference of sorts in her front yard just to give an update on Tori's case. And I honestly have a lot of admiration for her because she didn't go into hiding when she definitely could have, given how hard the media was on her. She spoke out. She used the attention to try to gain attention on her daughter.

• 14:30Speaker 07

  How difficult has it been this past week? Imagine if your child went missing. You know, that's all I can say. Just try. You can't even imagine, but just try to put it into your own shoes for a minute. Just imagine how you'd feel. It doesn't matter how long. We're still gonna maintain hope. She's going to come home. It doesn't matter if it's a week or a month. We're going to find her, no matter where she is. We're gonna find her and bring her home. She wasn't herself in that video. Like, Victoria is a very physically active child. She's always, like, I'm always telling her in the house, you know, quit stomping and jumping, because she's a stomper, jumper, hopper, skipper. Like, she's always, always on the move. And she wasn't herself when she was walking.

• 15:14Speaker 07

  Like, she would normally have been skipping or hopping, or had friends around her. She never, ever walks home without either her brother, or friends, or something. So, that person has obviously taken her from her circle and...

• 15:28Speaker 04

  Why would somebody take Tori?

• 15:32Speaker 07

  I honestly, I've been thinking about it, and I said, like, every child, every, every mother, every parent thinks that their child is the most beautiful child on the planet. I, I said, "Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with us." Maybe, you know, because that's where they were looking at first. I said, "Maybe it has nothing to do with us. Maybe they looked at her and said, 'She is an exceptionally beautiful child. She has beautiful blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, beautiful skin, and she's just a gorgeous, gorgeous little girl.'" You know? I, I said, you know, "If I was crazy, if I was nuts, if I was out searching a schoolyard, I would look at her and say, 'That is a beautiful child.'" You know? Like, I, I have no idea, but I am, I'm, I have faith,

• 16:16Speaker 07

  and I know that we will find out who did this.

• 16:19Annie Elise?

  Instead, she continued to show up for Tori, hoping that her press conferences would keep her face and name in the media.

• 16:27Speaker 07

  What would the motive be?

• 16:30Speaker 07

  I have no idea. I think this person's crazy. Whoever it is has obviously got to have some kind of screw loose, because a normal human being walking down the road, or planning, or plotting, or whatever the reason may be, would just take a child. You've obviously got something wrong with you.

• 16:46Annie Elise?

  And yet, the hate continued. People broke down every single thing about her. And not just Tara, but other people in Tori's family. And really, this case reminded me how hard the public can go at people who are already going through the worst times in their lives. I know at the end of the day, we all come from a good place, just wanting justice for the victims, but sometimes, even for myself, a little self-reflection moment here, sometimes it does go too far. A perfect example would be the roommates in the Idaho Four case. I've seen some of the worst things possibly speculated and written about them. Just all that hate, just because they survived that night.

• 17:28Annie Elise?

  Now, if any of them had been victims as well, nobody would be digging into their past, dissecting their photos, trying to convince people online that they were actually psychopaths themselves who worked with Brian Koberger to kill their best friends. It just got so out of hand so quickly. Which, anyway, that's just kind of a little side tangent that I will feel was important to remember as avid viewers of true crime, to just say, sometimes, people can get a bit carried away. So Tara was disheartened, yes, not by the fact that she was being blamed, though I'm sure she didn't love that, but more so because every article that focused on her and her family's background was an article that was drawing attention away from Tori, drawing attention away from the investigation and the search parties that people could sign

• 18:13Annie Elise?

  up for.

• 18:14Speaker 07

  Like I said last Thursday, like, I want the focus to be brought back to Victoria. I'm tired of Sarah being harassed, I'm tired of all the speculations are making it back into the paper and creeping it back into the paper. It needs to be focused on Victoria, not anything else. That's the bottom line, you know, and it's getting frustrating because we just think that it's coming back to Victoria and everybody starts writing stories about strictly Victoria, and then all of a sudden, it's back to speculations and Facebook and accusations, and it's just ridiculous. It gets very frustrating.

• 18:47Annie Elise?

  But instead of listening to Tara, people went even harder, especially when they saw that in many of these front yard press conferences, it seemed like she and Tori's dad Rodney weren't the most united front. Which makes sense. I mean, he had just come back into Tori's life a few months before. It didn't mean that he and Tara had rekindled things. Tara even had a boyfriend at the time. So it seems like she and Rodney were just two people with a history together. People who were now co-parenting together. But for people watching, watching these interviews at home, it seemed like Tara would say one thing and then Rodney would either steal the show or would make a sly comment about what Tara had just said. And take that last interview clip that I played.

• 19:32Annie Elise?

  One of the people being heavily scrutinized was a woman named Sarah, someone that Tara was very close to. Earlier in that clip, Tara takes up for her friend Sarah. Then Rodney makes a weird comment that definitely made the interview feel a little bit tense.

• 19:47Speaker 07

  And I said I would continue to do these press conferences as long as it's keeping my daughter's name out there. But I don't want to be coming out and doing them when I'm putting my friends

• 19:57Speaker 07

  in, you know, in the face, not in the face of danger, but I mean, like, she can't, Sarah can't even come over to visit me. You know, and she's been my strength through all of this and I think it's just disgusting. You know, like she should be able to come over here as freely and whenever she wants to.

• 20:13Speaker 06

  There's nothing stopping her though.

• 20:15Speaker 07

  Well, there is. There's cameras and there's, you know, like...

• 20:21Speaker 07

  It's just the negativity that she's felt, you know, and she said, like, I had nothing to do with this. All I've tried to do is to be a good friend to you and I've been slandered all over the papers. So I understand where she's coming.

• 20:35Speaker 04

  Do you feel like the focus on your family and on your friends, it will help bring Tori home at all?

• 20:40Speaker 07

  No.

• 20:42Speaker 07

  Because I know that my friends would not do anything like this. I know that anybody in my family would not do something like this.

• 20:47Speaker 06

  How can you guarantee that though? You can't say that.

• 20:50Speaker 07

  I guess I can't guarantee it, but you don't want to think for a second that anybody in your friends or family...

• 20:54Speaker 06

  Just to me, any one of these people standing right here could have our daughter and they're filming us just for the fun of it.

• 20:59Speaker 07

  Yeah, you do have trust issues with everybody. Extreme trust issues, like not so much... Not at all for me with Tara whatsoever. But I mean, like, I have trust issues with certain family members and with certain people who I don't know I can trust all the way. And it's sad because you think you know your friends and you think you know who you're surrounded by, but obviously, we don't.

• 21:21Annie Elise?

  In another interview, they straight up got into an argument in front of the press, and an argument that got pretty heated.

• 21:28Speaker 06

  Every one of these media, every one of those police officers- You've been at them now, but where were you for the last nine years? I have told them everything from the beginning. Yeah, walk away like usual, Tara.

• 21:37Annie Elise?

  Needless to say, it was a lot. Even though the investigation was super public, there was also a lot going on behind the scenes. And it turns out that by April 12th, just four days after Tori first went missing, there was already a potential person of interest in the case. Though, this wasn't something that the public knew. Because on that day, Tara went to the police and she claimed she might actually know who the woman was on this surveillance video.

• 22:10Annie Elise?

  Whoever says saving money is hard doesn't know that new customers who bundle and save with Progressive save hundreds. Because switching your home and auto insurance is way better than cutting down on the things you love, like those iced lattes that help you get ready to face the day. So switch your home and auto to Progressive and see if you could save and keep sipping away. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.

• 22:40Annie Elise?

  Tara gave the authorities the name of 18-year-old Terry McClintock. She explained that the reason that she thought that it was Terry Lynn in this footage was because she recognized the jacket that she was wearing. And she said that the person in the clip walked the same way. So who was Terry Lynn? And how did Tara know her? She's an 18-year-old after all. Well, in giving the police the information, Tara revealed some things about herself as well. You see, Tara was someone who had been battling with addiction. And it wasn't something that she was proud of, but it was her reality. And she claimed that there were two occasions in the months leading up to Tori's disappearance

• 23:22Annie Elise?

  when she had gone with her boyfriend, James, to get some OxyContin at a woman named Carol McClintock's house. Terry Lynn was Carol's daughter. So Tara claimed that the first time that they went to Carol's, Terry Lynn was leaving when they were arriving. So they passed each other on the front lawn. The second time that Tara and James went over to pick up the pills, Tara said that they had a more personal interaction with Terry Lynn. Apparently Carol had two Shih Tzu dogs and Tara had one as well. So somehow the topic of breeding them got brought up. Tara claimed that during this conversation, Terry Lynn came over to the room to talk with her mom. And Tara is quoted as saying,

• 24:05Annie Elise?

  "She gave her mom a message, then sat down. She was very, very under the influence and I'm not sure if she had even noticed that we were there that day." So from the way that Tara describes it, it seems like she and Terry Lynn knew of each other, but had never actually spoken. It also seems like perhaps they were both addicts. And it's hard to say whether this story hurt or helped Tara when it came to suspicion. On one hand, she was admitting to being a drug addict, but on the other hand, Terry Lynn had an even darker history when it came to getting into trouble. Terry Lynn had smoked marijuana for the first time when she was just eight years old. She dropped out of middle school and then she overdosed

• 24:49Annie Elise?

  on drugs around that same time. When she was 15 years old, she got her first criminal charge, assault, for punching her mother Carol in the face and for fracturing her cheekbone with that punch. The following year, she got another assault charge, this time for attacking someone at a youth home. In 2007, she mugged two men at knife point and actually ended up stabbing one of them in the back. When the police arrested her, she hit one of the officers in the back of the head. Then in March of 2008, while in a youth detention center, she wrote in a letter, quote, "I just want to be on the road and take the first person I see, grab them, bring them with me, mutilate

• 25:30Annie Elise?

  the F out of them, smash their skull apart, and then piece it together like a puzzle. That way, they stay conscious of the pain that I'm inflicting on them." Which obviously is very

• 25:43Annie Elise?

  disturbing. She was a teenager who had so much hate and danger within them and why she was a free person in 2009 is beyond me. It's clear that she had a history of violence. Now, did any of that make her the person who took Tori? Not necessarily, but it certainly raises some red flags. And the bigger issue that people had with Tara still remained. Why had she waited so long to raise the alarm after Tori didn't come home? But Tara addressed that too. She admitted that on the day that Tori went missing, she had taken some of that oxy. But according to her, that wasn't why she didn't go to the police sooner. She just truly believed that Tori was outside playing or over at a friend's house. And it wasn't

• 26:28Annie Elise?

  until a lot more time had passed that she actually began to worry.

• 26:32Speaker 07

  Maybe she's just at a friend's house and forgot to call home, you know, like sometimes kids do that.

• 26:37Annie Elise?

  Now luckily, Terry Lynn had an outstanding warrant against her. So the investigators already had an excuse to bring her in and talk with her about Tori's case. During her first interview with the police, Terry Lynn claimed that she was not the woman in that video. And she said that she had nothing to do with Tori's disappearance. They didn't have enough evidence to say that she was lying. I mean, the idea that she was the woman in the video had come straight from Tara. But regardless, she was arrested on that outstanding warrant and she was sent to a detention center in London, Ontario. On April 17, then the Ontario Provincial Police took over as the lead investigators. And Tori's case was upgraded

• 27:18Annie Elise?

  from a missing person to an abduction. Tara commented on the change during one of her daily press conferences and she said, it's about time. And really, after the surveillance clip had been made public, I think that most people already believed that this was an abduction case. A few days later, on April 21, a sketch of the woman wearing the white coat in that surveillance camera footage was released to the public. And I'll be honest, I'm not really sure how they came up with this sketch because the video that the public saw didn't show a good angle of a face at any point, unless they were going off potential witness accounts or other cameras that I'm not aware of, I'm not really sure. But what's

• 27:58Annie Elise?

  interesting about this sketch is that it was eerily similar to Terry Lynn. It showed the same face, eyes, nose, and lip shape. But even though the police were looking into Terry Lynn, the public still hadn't given up the idea that Tara might be involved somehow. Tara and James's drug issues had been brought to light, obviously, so rumors started spreading that they owed a drug dealer around $20,000 and that Tori had been taken as a result of that debt. Tara openly talked about the allegations during one of her press conferences, saying it absolutely was not true.

• 28:38Annie Elise?

  But then, she went public with something pretty huge in all of this. Tara said that a limo had showed up at her house and had taken her and James to Toronto, and that once they got there, they met with people who claimed that they were in contact with whoever had Tori, and that they were even willing to pay a ransom that they said had been demanded for her safe return. And this whole story, it sounded so fake and so made up that the public felt even more sure of Tara's guilt. And to be fair, the story was made up, but not by Tara. It was made up by undercover cops. You see, investigators had been hoping that they could somehow catch Tara in a lie,

• 29:23Annie Elise?

  or even better, a confession. So they set up this entire plot pretending to be a wealthy benefactor, someone who was willing to take care of a ransom that was demanded. But none of it was actually real. But the thought was that maybe Tara would be like, "Yeah, we actually do owe drug dealers some money, so holding Tori for ransom would make sense. Let's get this all squared away." So the undercover agents had done all of this work, but Tara didn't end up saying or doing anything incriminating. And then, she went to the press about it, and that did not go over well.

• 29:57Speaker 02

  The limo driver got out, snuck through these backyards, knocked on her door... The limo driver said there's someone who wants to meet you.

• 30:04Speaker 07

  They explained that they had been under similar circumstances and there was a ransom that was asked for.

• 30:11Annie Elise?

  Now, keep in mind, the police never told Tara that they did any of this. Of course not. They wanted to catch her in a lie. So now Tara was doing her press conferences, saying that she thought that it was genuine, all while the police were doing their own press conferences, saying that it wasn't them. And that they wouldn't confirm if this person was legitimate or not. And that it, quote, "didn't cause them concern." I mean, it was just a mess.

• 30:36Speaker 07

  Honestly, I believe that these people were 100% genuine. And I don't think it was the police trying to do anything. It was a person who was trying to help. I called yesterday and the police checked out the anonymous person and they were legitimate. So that was discussed with... I called the police station yesterday and they confirmed that it was a legitimate offer.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  As far as the limo ride goes, I was there. I talked to the security individual that was involved. This guy was not a joke. This is a totally legit, real thing. It happened. This person, through how their experiences were, where they were going through this, all they want to do is help. So for whatever the reason was, they came forward, it's just to help. It happened. That's the way it is. You can't change what happened. The cops have confirmed it happened. They've confirmed this person is totally legitimate. So as far as that limo goes, it happened. End of story.

• 31:35Speaker 04

  We've been provided information around the benefactor that Tara was speaking of. We've looked into it. It does not cause us concern. Our focus remains on locating and finding Tori and bringing her home.

• 31:50Speaker 04

  That's it.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  If it's legitimate, if that's exactly what happened, what she's saying? I know those were Tara's words. Our words are that it does not cause us concern.

• 32:02Annie Elise?

  Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the police were still looking into Terry Lynn. But they were beginning to believe that if she was responsible, she may not have acted alone. They were doing a lot of backtracking as well because there was someone in Terry Lynn's life who continued communicating with her after her arrest. This person was 28-year-old Michael Rafferty. Michael and Terry Lynn met in February of 2009 at a pizza place in Woodstock. So, just two months before Tori went missing. Michael called her, you know, a cute little number and offered her a ride home. Which, what a freak, right? He had a creep, I should say. He's 28, she's 18.

• 32:43Annie Elise?

  So Terry Lynn said that they sat in his car and they talked in her driveway for what felt like hours before then deciding to go on a drive together. They drove around Woodstock talking about how they were both dependent on oxy. Then the two of them had sex in his car. I mean, really romantic stuff going on. And from then on, they say that they were inseparable. Terry Lynn said that she cared deeply for Michael as much as she could possibly care for someone after only knowing him for, you know, a few months. But she described his feelings as harder to read. Saying that there was this balance with him between putting her down and making her feel like crap and then building her back up and making her feel like she was important, like she was his only girl.

• 33:28Annie Elise?

  But this is where everything takes a turn. Because what really matters here isn't just who they were together, but it's who Michael was before he even met Terry Lynn. And the very disturbing, almost unthinkable things that the investigators later discovered the two of them were doing after Tori went missing.

• 33:53Speaker 03

  Welcome to Lucky Land Casino. Your daily escape is just a click away. No downloads, just pure playtime in your browser. Spin free with gold coins or collect sweeps coins for magical prizes. Sign up now, your first surprise is waiting. Lucky Land Casino, where the magic happens. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law. CTN C's 21+

• 34:23Annie Elise?

  There were some massive red flags when it came to Michael and Terry Lynn. So, let's go over them. Starting with the day that Tori went missing, April 8th. When Terry Lynn was first arrested, she had told the investigators that she went to an employment center downtown at 2:19 PM that day. And I just got to take a second to talk about a form that she had filled out while she was there. She had turned in her resume, which noted that she had some previous experience in babysitting and that she was preparing to start the journey of getting her GED. But in a form that the center gave her, she also wrote, quote, "I tend to become angry easily."

• 35:03Annie Elise?

  Although she followed it up by saying that she has been able to maintain control over situations. That's a direct quote, whatever that means. I don't even know what that means. Like, you write down, "I get angry very easily, but I'm able to maintain control over situations." I mean, what kind of psycho would write that down on like a job application or an unemployment form? Right? But I get it, she was 18, not well-educated, young and on drugs. Anyway, later that day, at around, gosh, what was it? Around 5:03 PM, Michael is seen at an ATM withdrawing $80. And then, his car is seen pulling up to a Home Depot, where Terry Lynn gets out of the car.

• 35:44Annie Elise?

  She goes inside and she purchases a hammer and some garbage bags. Now, this was less than two hours after Tori was last seen on that surveillance camera walking away with the mysterious woman.

• 35:58Annie Elise?

  Two days later, on April 10th, from 1:53 PM to 11:18 PM, Michael and Terry Lynn exchanged 44 text messages and two phone calls. Then, two days after that, Terry Lynn was arrested on that outstanding warrant. From April 19th to May 15th, 30 phone calls were exchanged between Michael's BlackBerry and the detention center where Terry Lynn was being held. On May 8th and May 12th, Michael actually went to the detention center to visit Terry Lynn in person. They're seen hugging, talking in the far corner of the room away from everyone else. They're laughing, holding hands, play fighting.

• 36:41Annie Elise?

  And so far, you might be thinking, okay, well, yeah, they exchanged some calls. He visited her. Big deal. They were hooking up, whatever. They were dating even, after all. Wouldn't someone's partner do that in that kind of situation? But there was more. One of Michael's neighbors, a man named David, noted that the week after Easter of that year, which was around April 12th, he noticed that the entire backseat of a car was lying out on the front lawn of Michael's property. And sure, people take out seats out of their vehicles to give them a deep clean, to vacuum them, to soap them, shampoo them, whatever. But could there have been something more to it than just some spring cleaning?

• 37:22Annie Elise?

  Was it weird that Michael and Terry Lynn went to Home Depot for a hammer and trash bags coincidentally the same day that Tori went missing? Then Michael had the backseat of his car sitting out for a few days later, almost like it was being aired out, or dried out, or maybe even cleaned? Whether it was all coincidental or circumstantial, it was enough to get the investigators' attention. So on May 15th, they brought Michael into the station for questioning. And while this interview doesn't seem to be public, the information that's out there is pretty straightforward. He said that he didn't know what they were even talking about, that he didn't have anything to do with Tori's disappearance or any sort of crime.

• 38:06Annie Elise?

  But think about it, he didn't know what they were talking about? Obviously, that right there in and of itself is a huge red flag. I find it hard to believe that during their conversations, the many phone calls exchanged and the visits, that Terry Lynn would have conveniently forgotten to tell him that the police had questioned her. I mean, if I was arrested for an outstanding unrelated warrant and detectives were trying to implicate me in a child abduction, I'd be pretty taken aback. And I would be shocked enough to tell everyone I knew just how crazy it was, especially the boyfriend who kept visiting me in jail. After Michael left the station that day, there was one final call made at 7:41 PM from his BlackBerry to Terry Lynn at the detention center.

• 38:51Annie Elise?

  And after that, no other calls were made. So it almost seemed like in that moment, after he was questioned, like he was distancing himself from the situation. A few days later, on May 19th, Terry Lynn was brought back in for questioning in regards to Tori's abduction. And at first, she played it cool. She acted like she truly didn't know anything, didn't have any information, and didn't even know why they thought that she was involved. However, that calm, cool, collected energy, it didn't last long, because as soon as some pressure was applied, Terry Lynn began folding. She began by explaining that her and Michael's relationship was not a good one. And then she confessed that she and Michael were the ones who took Tori.

• 39:37Annie Elise?

  But they weren't keeping her somewhere because of a drug debt or waiting for some sort of ransom payout. They weren't hiding her, hoping to make her their daughter or something weird like that. It was something far different. Now, the exact details of what happened the day that Tori was taken, how it happened, and who did what, are all things that Terry Lynn would later change. Her story changed multiple times, so just keep that in mind as we move forward. However, at the time of this interview, here's how it all went down. And I need to give a major trigger warning here, because we are dealing with really awful, awful, disgusting stuff here. And if you can't handle hearing these details, I completely understand, fast forward.

• 40:22Annie Elise?

  So first, Terri Lynn claimed that she couldn't remember much of the day at all that Tori went missing. She knew that she had lured Tori away from school and brought her to Michael. She remembered that much, but not much more. She says it was the why she did that that was more of a blur, but we'll get to that. And remember the discussion about how the person who kidnapped Tori must have been someone she knew because she went willingly with them? Well, it's important to note a few things regarding that. First, Terri Lynn and Tori had never met before. Second, Terri Lynn says that there was no premeditated plan with, you know, Terri Lynn and Michael watching Tori beforehand, waiting for the perfect moment

• 41:04Annie Elise?

  to strike. Nothing like that, which whether or not you believe that, that's another thing, but that's what she claimed. Unfortunately, from the way that Terri Lynn describes it, it seems like it was just this really awful case of wrong place, wrong time. Tori had left her other classmates to go back inside to the school to get her earrings. So then, by the time she came out, her friends were already gone and she was walking home alone that day, if you remember. So Terri Lynn claimed that she approached Tori and promised her that there was a puppy in the car. And Tori, being an innocent eight-year-old little girl, wanted to see the puppy. And she probably felt that a woman who, keep in mind, was only

• 41:46Annie Elise?

  10 years older than her, probably wouldn't do her any harm, wouldn't try to abduct her. So after luring Tori away from school, as seen in the surveillance clip, Terri Lynn brought her to Michael and his car. And she claimed that she was delivering Tori to Michael for sexual reasons. Which, yes, this case only gets worse from here. So again, major warning. Now, if you didn't guess this already, Michael was a slimy person and he had a slimy reputation as well. And when I say slimy, I don't mean that he just cheated friends out of money or stole from people or, you know, did casual things here and there. We're

• 42:27Annie Elise?

  talking about some really serious and disgusting allegations against him. Not to mention, remember, he's 28 and he's dating Terri Lynn, who's 18. So obviously, he's a predator, right? But more specifically, Michael was a pedo. There is no sugarcoating it.

• 42:45Annie Elise?

  For years, Michael was involved in a lot of really disgusting things. For example, CSAM was a huge thing in Michael's life. And if you're not familiar with CSAM, it is horrific material involving children, some of the worst material that you can even imagine existing. And Michael had folder after folder saved with these images and these videos of children being taken advantage of. He also had searched very specific content like real underage R A P E, nude preteen, incestuous relationships, necrophilia. These were all huge hits for him, which we don't even need to get into all of that, but it just gives you a little glimpse into what

• 43:29Annie Elise?

  a perverted predator he was. And Terry Lynn says that after the two of them started dating, Michael began to drop little hints to her here and there about his vile sexual fantasies. She claimed that they would walk or drive past a school and he would laugh and tell her how easy it would be to kidnap a kid. Other times, he would drive her to random houses claiming that he knew the entire interior floor plan and he'd even go into great detail describing the floor plan. He'd tell her that a single mom lived there, which was another thing he was hyper fixated on, and he would explain to her how easy it would be to kidnap one of the single moms and tie them up. Another time, Terry Lynn said that Michael just straight up

• 44:14Annie Elise?

  asked her if she thought that it would be weird if he ever asked her to kidnap someone for him, which weird is definitely not the word that I would have used to describe that. I'm thinking more along the lines of psychopathic, demented, terrifying, you know, perverted, something more sinister and depraved, not just like, hey, do you think it'd be weird if I ever asked you to help me kidnap someone? And look, in my opinion, he targeted Terry Lynn. He saw she was young, that she liked him. He was using her. I think she was older than what he wanted, but she was going to be the good weapon that he could use to get what he really wanted. That's my opinion of why he built this relationship with her, but... Before I get into all of that, let me just continue.

• 44:57Annie Elise?

  He also wasn't a great guy to the adult women that he was interested in, not at all. In January of 2009, literally right before he met Terry Lynn, a woman that he was dating reported to the police that he had drugged her and sexually assaulted her. Now sadly, nothing ever came from this report, so I guess, I don't know. I have to say that all of that is alleged, though I definitely wouldn't put it past him. So in her interview, Terry Lynn admitted that she knew that Michael was a creep, whether it was from past girlfriends with young daughters, or from the things that he actually openly said and admitted to. Because he definitely didn't hide any of it. Either way, though, she knew about the allegations against him when she was dating him.

• 45:38Annie Elise?

  She knew how gross he was, yet she chose to ignore them. She claimed that she ignored these red flags, if you can even just call them red flags, when it comes to something so obvious and serious. But she says she ignored them because she wanted to have finally found a good man. Which, what a massive contradiction. You haven't found a good man, so maybe bury your head in the sand, but it's not going to make him a good man. He's also a pedo, and you know that, and you're trying to pretend that he's not? I don't know, which tip for anyone out there listening right now? Pretending you have found a good man will not make him a good man. And so all of that being said, when Terry Lynn led Tori to Michael that day,

• 46:23Annie Elise?

  she knew what was going to happen. She knew that Michael was at the very least going to sexually assault her. And unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. Michael and Terry Lynn drove out to a secluded spot in the countryside. They were on land that belonged to a farmer, which think very wide open, big fields. The closest neighbor wasn't even within eyesight. So unfortunately, as soon as they parked the car, Tori didn't stand a chance.

• 46:56Annie Elise?

  Lucky Land Casino. Imagine signing up and finding your welcome surprise already waiting. Spin free with gold coins or collect sweep coins, plus daily login delights.

• 47:08Annie Elise?

  Sign up now. Let the magic talk. Lucky Land Casino, where the magic happens. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. CT and C's. 21+..

• 47:23Annie Elise?

  Unfortunately, Terry Lynn confessed that Tori was no longer alive, and that she hadn't been since shortly after she was kidnapped. And when I say shortly, I mean that Tori only had an hour or two before they took her life. In other words, even if Tara had reported her missing right at 3:45 PM, when she first noticed that Tori wasn't home, there's a pretty good chance that her fate would have still been the same, which is awful to think about. Terry Lynn claimed that after they parked in that secluded spot on that farm, Michael sexually assaulted Tori. Soon after that, he then began beating her savagely. He hit her over and over again, kicking her, hurting her,

• 48:07Annie Elise?

  and then he put a plastic garbage bag over her head, and he beat her head in with a hammer. These final moments of Tori's life were horrifying, violent, filled with unimaginable cruelty. What ultimately took her life were the continuous blows to her head with that claw hammer. And remember, Terry Lynn is saying that Michael did all of this. She claimed that she was just the person to help facilitate the abduction of Tori, which doesn't make her a better of a person, obviously not. Regardless, though, she said that Michael was the one to assault Tori and end her life, acting as though she didn't have a big participating role in this and that she shouldn't be responsible. In this interview and subsequent interviews,

• 48:51Annie Elise?

  Terry Lynn was crying and acting as if she was so blindsided by what happened, which, it's honestly infuriating, because nobody can seriously watch the clips or hear the clips and think that she was somehow the poor helpless victim in all of this. Tori's on the ground.

• 49:08Speaker 07

  Tori, on the ground.

• 49:12Speaker 07

  I could hear, I could hear her. I just see her on the ground. I turned, I had a way again. I could hear her, like, the sound of her voice, like, just grow fainter. I could hear, like, moaning, like...

• 49:35Speaker 06

  Okay, Terry, Terry, let's talk about what you saw, okay? You can't have your back turned like that, alright? You saw this, okay? This isn't a matter of what you heard, alright? Let's talk about what you saw, alright? You're concerned about this little girl, alright? You're not gonna turn your back on her, alright? Okay, we need to talk about the things you saw.

• 49:58Speaker 07

  It seemed like he kicked her up with the hands, like...

• 50:06Speaker 07

  A garbage bag over her head.

• 50:15Speaker 07

  I didn't have a clear, like, sight of Tori, like, I could see Mike before I could see anything of Tori, like, I would...

• 50:26Speaker 07

  Just a hammer.

• 50:33Speaker 06

  Where did he get it with the hammer?

• 50:37Speaker 07

  And... I just see the garbage bag over us, there was some afterwards, like, it was pretty much what made it, he's just, like, he didn't do what he was doing, like...

• 50:53Speaker 07

  There was the whole, like, blood splatter, like...

• 51:04Speaker 06

  So he hits her in the head with a hammer, alright? And then what happens?

• 51:16Speaker 07

  He had the garbage bags, like, he had garbage bags, he had access to garbage bags, like, I'm not getting a bro... 100% on whether, like, he went to the trunk and grabbed the, well, whether he already has it in the backseat with him.

• 51:37Speaker 07

  He's a surgeon.

• 51:40Speaker 06

  Put garbage bags over her, over her feet, like, the bottom.

• 51:46Speaker 06

  Then, like, over the top of her, like, like, maybe two, three garbage bags he used.

• 51:56Speaker 06

  And again, that's, that point in time, like, like...

• 52:01Annie Elise?

  So like I said, she paints herself as the victim. She acts like she was worried about Tori and that she didn't know that Michael was going to kill her. Now, she claimed that she didn't know that she was luring Tori to her death, which, I mean, if you're kidnapping a little girl and dropping her off with your scumbag pedo boyfriend, what do you mean you didn't know that you were luring her to her death? Nothing good can come from that. And you think, what, it makes it better that you're luring her to be assaulted, but not her death? I mean, come on. And remember, Terry Lynn started by saying she didn't remember much of the day. She said she didn't even remember buying a hammer or garbage bags from Home Depot either. Which really, she blames most of it on her drug usage, describing her mental state as kind of more like her whole mind was a fog.

• 52:47Annie Elise?

  And based on everything that we know about both Michael and Terry Lynn, I find it very difficult to believe that they had not set out that day to kidnap a child. Maybe not Tori specifically, but someone. In which case, it would be a complete coincidence that Tori's mother had been buying drugs from Terry Lynn's mother. But as for not anticipating the murder, I'm not buying what Terry Lynn is saying. She was the one who was seen going into Home Depot that day to buy the hammer and the garbage bags. She's the one who lured Tori from the school. I refuse to believe that she was just clueless in all of this. Even if she was under the influence, I mean, come on. Tori was already in their car when they stopped at Home Depot. She knew what she was doing.

• 53:31Annie Elise?

  So after Terry Lynn's confession, she was charged with kidnapping and accessory to murder. As for Michael, he was arrested and charged with kidnapping and first degree murder. And a lot of people wondered why Terry Lynn decided to confess at all. Because there really was no solid evidence against either one of them. Sure, the investigators were interviewing them, but at the time, authorities were still focusing in on Tara and James. So did Terry Lynn confess because she actually felt bad and remorseful? Maybe. A lot of people think that the real answer was a lot pettier than that, though. I mentioned how Michael's reputation earlier was not a great one, but he also apparently had a reputation of being like a serial dater and a serial cheater.

• 54:17Annie Elise?

  So rumor has it that Terry Lynn got word that Michael wasn't being faithful to her while she was locked up and on that outstanding warrant and that he was, you know, being with a bunch of girls on the outside while she was stuck in jail. Granted, being stuck in jail was due to her own actions and it had nothing to do with Tori's case, but still, she wasn't happy about him stepping out on her. Which, if that was the motivation for why she confessed, I mean, Michael really blew it. Because Terry Lynn also told investigators that during one of Michael's visits, she told him that if it came down to it, she would take responsibility for the murder. Saying, quote, "I said that I would take the fall for everything. That I would say that it was all me, that he had more to lose than I did.

• 55:01Annie Elise?

  So I said, 'Don't worry about it. It's okay. It's okay. I'm just an 18-year-old junkie anyways. I'll cover for you.'" But now, apparently because she heard that he was cheating on her and not loyal to her, she's basically like, "Fuck you. I'm throwing your ass under the bus." So anyway, after her tearful confession, Terry Lynn pleaded guilty to first degree murder. She didn't even want to bother with going to trial. When it comes to her guilty plea, Terri Lynn said, quote, "Most of the people supporting me have said that I'm insane for pleading guilty to murder when I didn't inflict death on anyone." But according to her, she says, "My actions are what put that child into the hands of death." I couldn't have said it any better myself, and I truly do hope that those feelings were genuine.

• 55:46Annie Elise?

  But whether they were or weren't, that's something that you can decide for yourself once you hear what comes next, because this case is far from over. The month after Terri Lynn confessed, in June of 2009, Tori's family held a memorial service for her. All this time, they had hope, hope that they would find her alive. But now they had confirmation that they weren't doing any more searches for a missing or abducted child. They were now searching for a body. Terri Lynn had given a rough sketch of the area where she claimed Tori's body would be, saying it would be buried under a big pile of rocks. And as for Michael, he wasn't interested in helping.

• 56:28Annie Elise?

  But the investigators were determined to find Tori's remains. So they took the sketches that Terri Lynn had given them and they compared them to Michael's phone records, seeing if they could figure out the pings and the match and the geography of it all. Then investigators drove around in what seemed like circles, until they finally came to an area that looked similar to the sketches that they had been given. And finally, on July 19th, 2009, Tori's remains were found. She was naked from the waist down. On her upper half was her sparkly Hannah Montana t-shirt with the words "A Girl Can Dream" written across the front. And she was also found with her butterfly earrings, the ones that she had run back

• 57:12Annie Elise?

  inside the school that day to get and that she was last seen wearing. Unfortunately, because of how long her body had been out in the elements, it was very badly decomposed. But the autopsy report, it went into detail showing just how brutal Tori's death really was. Now Terry Lynn's confession was bad, yes, but hearing the brutality of it in medical terms was even worse. Tori had sixteen rib fractures, which went with Terry Lynn's story of Michael kicking Tori repeatedly. There was also damage to her liver that happened while she was still alive. The autopsy concluded that the liver damage and the internal bleeding

• 57:56Annie Elise?

  contributed to her death, but the multiple different blows to her head, at least four of which, from what they could tell, were quote "not survivable." Due to how badly her body was decomposed, they weren't able to say whether she had been sexually assaulted prior to her death or after death. Which, remember, he had searches and folders of CSAM material on his phone about necrophilia, meaning that it's very possible she was not assaulted until after they killed her, which I would hope would be the case, just so she wouldn't have had to experience that. Now, due to how badly her body was decomposed, they weren't able to say whether she had been sexually assaulted prior to her death.

• 58:39Annie Elise?

  Now, those are the facts from the autopsy report. But you know what else are facts? Terry Lynn confessing that Michael assaulted Tori. We also know of Michael's disgusting fantasies involving minors. It's backed up by the loads of CSAM material found on his devices. Plus, Tori's body being found with no underwear or pants on. I mean, it's fairly clear what happened to her here, at least in my opinion, and I think a lot of you will agree. But I will say this, and I can only hope, I do think that there was some sort of sexual element, 100%, given his motivation, given what's on his hard drives, given the fact that she was naked from the waist down. But what I do hope, we know that he had CSAM material that involved necrophilia.

• 59:22Annie Elise?

  My only hope would be that Tori was killed before any assault took place. And that because he was into all of that, any assault happened after she was already dead, so that she wouldn't have to experience that. It doesn't make it any less disgusting and gross and vile and unexcusable, but it makes it a little bit more bearable, hopefully, for what she went through, that she wouldn't have to experience that as an eight-year-old. Now, like I said, Terri Lynn's story would change. Even after Michael's arrest and after her own guilty plea, she switched gears, trying to then take the fall for everything. But there's not much that you can do as far as damage control goes when you've already laid everything out on the table.

• 1:00:04Annie Elise?

  But her new story was that Tori was kidnapped over a drug debt, like the rumor that had been going around from the very beginning, which seems to me like an obvious cop-out, since she already knew that those rumors were out there. She said that she kidnapped Tori, then asked Michael if he wanted to assault her, and that he said no. Which, just to be clear, I don't believe that at all. I think that that was another easy cop-out, since I'm sure she already had been made aware by this point that Tori's autopsy wasn't able to show any type of assault. So she, you know, might as well make it seem like Michael was innocent in all of this. And then, finally, Terri Lynn claimed that she was the one who delivered those final blows with the hammer, ultimately killing Tori. She said that she blamed it on Michael before

• 1:00:49Annie Elise?

  because she couldn't come to terms with the fact that she had killed a child. Now, I want to be clear, I don't believe any of this story, for a lot of different reasons. According to one source, Terri Lynn pretty much admitted it herself while she was in prison, speaking to her godmother. Allegedly, she said that she was sad about Tori's death, but only because she was a child. But even despite that sadness, she said that she could do it again, which is absolutely despicable. Michael's trial was in 2012, where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm, and kidnapping.

• 1:01:25Annie Elise?

  And the trial was brutal. For Tori's loved ones, every day was a new form of hell. Because get this, this scumbag piece of garbage had the audacity to wear a purple button up shirt and purple tie. Purple being Tori's favorite color and the color that her family had chosen to honor her memory in. Very early on in the investigation too, they chose this color. And he is just there, you know, wearing it, flaunting it. It's disgusting. All while everybody's going into the dark, dirty details of her murder. Even seeing photos of her remains. Tori's dad Rodney couldn't stomach it. It was too much for him.

• 1:02:07Annie Elise?

  There were some days when slides of the different photos were shown and he just had to leave the courtroom because he couldn't watch. As for Tara, she stayed in the courtroom, sobbing into tissues, looking at photos that no mother should ever have to see. Even the jury was warned that some of the slides were enough to make their stomach turn and people who work in law enforcement incredibly uncomfortable. These were very brutal images. Then, at the end of each day, the press was lined up outside, waiting to interview different members of Tori's family. Which we know isn't uncommon at all, but some of the questions that they asked were pretty intense.

• 1:02:47Speaker 04

  Rodney, what's it like to be in the same room? What's it like to be in the same room? What's it like to be in the same room as a manicure, uh, taking your daughter away?

• 1:02:59Speaker 06

  Well, self-explanatory, really, if you think about it, like.

• 1:03:02Speaker 04

  Most of us don't have to deal with something like that.

• 1:03:05Speaker 06

  Why? Yeah, but same, I don't know how to answer that. I don't, because it's heartbreaking, because there's nothing you can do or say without ruining the potential, like, what's gonna happen? What's gonna come of this? You can't say anything. You're put under so many different gag orders, it's ridiculous. What's going through your mind as grandmother will. Maybe further up. What's going through your mind? How do you feel on day like today?

• 1:03:30Speaker 04

  I don't know, my head, my head's just in a big whirl right now. Um, I'm glad this is finally here and hopefully we can put it aside, get through it step by step, day by day, get it over with and maybe we can finally start to heal.

• 1:03:52Annie Elise?

  I can't imagine seeing and hearing those kinds of things every day in court and then being expected to walk outside and give any kind of articulate answer to the questions that these people were asking. The same people who had been blaming the family in the early days of the investigation. As awful as that evidence was though, it helped build the case against Michael and he was found guilty of all three counts against him. He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. And I mean, I think it's safe to say that he won't get parole. At least I hope he will never get parole. But the fact that anyone could possibly get out on parole after being found guilty of first degree murder of a child? That will never not be insane to me.

• 1:04:36Annie Elise?

  Tori's family was happy with the sentence though, or I mean, you know, as happy as they could possibly be in that kind of situation. But they finally could put the legal process behind them, get out of the harsh press spotlight and try to heal and grow while keeping Tori's memory at the forefront.

• 1:04:52Speaker 07

  These last three years have felt like a lifetime and Friday night was the greatest surge of emotion that I have ever felt. Happiness, sadness, relief, all at once, knowing that the people that are responsible for our suffering will be in jail for at least the next 25 years, has allowed us to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Now we can try to pick up the pieces and move forward, knowing that Tori is resting. To all of the negative people out there with your rude and hurtful comments, remember that there is another child in this family. And think to yourself, how would Victoria feel if she saw all of the derogatory comments? It's those negative people that push me to strive for the positive. Darren and I, my mom and James, and Tori's friends, we're the lucky ones. We have all of the wonderful memories, the fun times, the laughter,

• 1:05:37Speaker 07

  and no one will ever be able to take those from us. Every time I see a butterfly or a purple ribbon or Hannah Montana, we will forever be reminded of our little princess. She has touched the hearts of millions and I'm proud to say that I'm Victoria Stafford's mom.

• 1:05:53Speaker 07

  There will never be another child quite like Tori. With her spunkiness, her zester life, and love of animals, her beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous smile is going to be in the minds and hearts of every person who has heard about this tragedy. I urge people to not dwell on the horrific details of her final hours, but instead think of the loving, happy, gorgeous little girl that she was and forever will be.

• 1:06:14Annie Elise?

  In 2018, so a few years later, there was some controversy when it was revealed that Terry Lynn had been moved to something called an Indigenous Healing Lodge to serve out the remainder of her sentence. Because those are minimum to medium security prisons in Canada for Indigenous people. And apparently Terry Lynn had self-identified as Indigenous, although it's been disputed. These centers emphasize rehabilitation and cultural healing, and they are seen as less restrictive. So because of this, it caused a lot of public outrage and some political backlash until it ended up ultimately being reversed a couple of months later. Which, good. I mean, I, nobody who is involved in something like this should ever get

• 1:06:59Annie Elise?

  easy treatment, cush treatment, or preferential treatment. Absolutely not. So I'm glad to hear that it was reversed. July 15th, 2025 would have been Tori's 25th birthday. And 25 years is the amount of time that her two killers would have to be in prison before being eligible for parole, which none of that makes sense to me. On what would have and should have been her 25th birthday, Tori's family and friends asked the public to do a random act of kindness in memory of the kind and sweet little girl that she was. So, as we wrap up today's episode, I just want to encourage all of you to do the same. Do something today in memory of her. Prove to her killers that even in death and tragedy,

• 1:07:42Annie Elise?

  Tori's love and kindness shines through the darkness, even all of these years later. Doesn't need to be anything big, just some kind gesture to a stranger, an act of kindness to someone. I'm certainly going to be doing it. I know that this case was incredibly difficult to hear. They all are, but especially involving children, and they never get any. But it's important that Tori's voice carries on, that people know about these monsters who did this to her, especially as they become eligible in the years to come for parole, and that we keep her story alive to advocate for her, to get justice for her. Because I'm sorry, but parole after 25 years, that is not justice for what was done to her. The brutality

• 1:08:25Annie Elise?

  of it, the planning of it, it doesn't even come close. So as difficult as these cases are to talk about with you and to hear, I appreciate you. There's a bigger purpose as to why we do this, obviously, so I just really want to thank you for sticking through it. I'll be back with you next Tuesday with an all new case, but until then, please do a random act of kindness today, and think of Tori, and stay safe. Bye.

• 1:08:56Speaker 03

  Fall never arrives all at once. A jacket meets a dress. An old cap finds a new scarf. You create it, layer by layer. Find fall your way at Ross.

• 1:09:10Speaker 07

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app at participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.