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

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real most bank accounts are doing absolutely nothing for you but with sofi bank your money could actually grow you could earn eight times the national average savings rate with a sofi high yield checking and savings account sofi bank na member fdic got credit card debt you're not alone and those high interest rates can feel impossible to escape a sofi personal loan could help you consolidate debt into one simple payment with a low fixed rate so you can actually make profit from it and you don't have to pay for it and if investing feels intimidating sofi makes it simple you don't need to be a pro and you don't need a lot of money to start you can begin in minutes and get up to a thousand dollars in stock when you open and fund a self-directed account with sofi securities terms apply investing involves risk this is everything saving spending borrowing investing all in one app achieve all your ambitions all in one app sofi.com slash 10 to life victoria stafford was a larger than life bubbly eight-year-old girl tori was abducted while walking home from school in woodstock on april 8th 2009 like everything once the it passes the justice system is a joke now we're working for the last nine years then everything from the beginning yeah walk away like usual 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 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 i just need you to be strong baby and have faith that we are coming for you 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 don't 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 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 april 8 2009 was turning out to be a very exciting day for eight-year-old tori safford 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 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 you 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 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 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 going to be a quick little walk 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 by 3 45 p.m 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 p.m 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 bell rang and she said i'm going to go to the 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 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 p.m 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 what we do know is that at 6 0 4 p.m linda reported tori's absence from school and after this the reports are a little bit conflicting 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 p.m why wait until a little after 6 p.m 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 time and as i said this report was a little bit different from the missing person investigation where was tori how does an eight-year-old go missing just two blocks away from her house from safety 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 code through and through yet despite all 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 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 But by the following day on April 9th, there was already a huge update in Twitter. 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. 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, 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 the other, and they're walking with one hand on the other. 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. We've obtained a video surveillance tape that may possibly show Victoria Stafford on the tape. So as I had said, Tara received a lot of hate from the minute that 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 her. But I don't think so. 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. 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 in 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's death, he was in a hospital. And he was in a hospital for a long time. And he was in a hospital months before Tori went missing, he decided that he wanted to turn things around. 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. Obviously not. Not by any stretch. 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. 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, look behind every counter. It's just one of those things. You just can't give up. You see a person who has a child, you just can't give up. You see a person who has a child, who has blonde hair, and you're running up to them and looking to see and make sure that it's not your child. Neither one of us have stopped looking everywhere. Every single day at 1 p.m., 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. 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 and just imagine how you feel. It doesn't matter how long. We're still going to 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 going to 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. Like, she would normally have been skipping or hopping or had friends around her. She never, ever walked home without either her brother or friends or something. So that person has obviously taken her from her circle. I honestly, I've been thinking about it and I said, like, every child, every mother, every parent thinks that their child is the most beautiful child on the planet. 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 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 have no idea, but I am, I'm, I have faith and I know that we will find out who did this. I have no idea. I think this person's crazy. Whoever it is, is 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. 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. 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 Tory, drawing attention away from the investigation and the search parties that people could sign up for. 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. 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 Tory's dad, Rodney, weren't the most united friend. Which makes sense. I mean, he had just come back into Tory'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. 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. 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. There's nothing stopping her, though. Well, there is. There's cameras, and there's, you know, like. Well, what's. 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 place. All over the papers, so I understand where she's coming from. Do you feel like the focus on your family and on your friends will help bring Tori home at all? No. 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. How can you guarantee that, though? You can't say that. I guess I can't guarantee it, but you don't want to think for a second that anybody in your friends or family. Because 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. Yeah, you do have trust issues with everybody. Extreme trust issues. Like, not so much. Not at all for me with Sarah 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. In another interview, they straight up got into an argument in front of the press, and an argument that got pretty heated. Every one of these media, every one of those police officers. You've been at them now, but where were you for them? I have told them everything from the beginning. Yeah, walk away like usual, Tara. 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. Insurance isn't one size fits all, and shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's "Name Your Price" tool for years. With the "Name Your Price" tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they show you options that fit your budget. Enough hunting for discounts, trying to calculate rates, and tinkering with coverages. Maybe you're picking out your very first policy, or maybe you're just looking for something that works better for you and your family. 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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 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, "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. 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 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, "I just want to be on the road and take the first person I see, grab them, bring them with me, mutilate 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 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 until a lot more time had passed that she actually began to worry. "Maybe she's just at a friend's house and forgot to call home, you know? Like, sometimes kids do that." 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 17th, then, the Ontario Provincial Police took over as the lead investigators, and Tori's case was upgraded 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 21st, 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 interesting about this sketch is that it was edited. And I think that's a really good thing. 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. 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 safety. Tara said that a limo had shown up at her house and had taken her and James to Toronto, and that they were even willing to pay a ransom that they said had been demanded for her safety. 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, 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 Tara. And they did. And they did. And they did. And they took 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. 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. And 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 done their job. As far as that limo goes, it happened and this story. 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. That's it. Can you tell us 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. 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 it's been a long time since they've been in contact with each other. This is the first time 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. 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. But this is where everything takes a turn. 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. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's Name Your Price tool for years. With the Name Your Price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they show you options that fit your budget. Ready to see how easy and fun shopping can be? 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LoneStarCasino.com is an absolutely free to play social casino with thousands of games, daily bonuses, free spins, and jackpots that pop like fireworks. LoneStar Casino is a free to play social casino. Void were prohibited. Play bold, win big. 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 p.m. 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. 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 0 3 p.m. 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. 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. Two days later, on April 10th, from 1 53 p.m. to 11 18 p.m., 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. 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 Terry Lynn had been in a relationship with a man named David. 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? 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, and he was like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know 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 investigator's 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. 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 p.m. from his Blackberry to Terry Lynn at the detention center. 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. 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. 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. So first, Terry 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 day, but she didn't remember the day that Tori went missing. She knew that she had lured Tori away from school, 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, Terry Lynn and Tori had never met before. Second, Terry Lynn says that there was no premeditated plan, with, you know, Terry Lynn and Michael watching Tori beforehand, waiting for the perfect moment 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 Terry 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 Terry 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 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, Terry 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 talking about some really serious and disgusting allegations against him. Not to mention, remember, he's 28, and he's dating Terry Lynn, who's 18. So obviously, he's a predator, right? But more specifically, Michael was a pedo. There is no sugarcoating it. 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 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 his 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 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. 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. 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 gonna make him a good man. He's also a bad guy. 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, 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, about 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. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Let's be real. You could earn eight times the national average, savings rate with a SoFi High Yield Checking and Savings Account. SoFi Bank N/A member FDIC. You're not alone. A SoFi personal loan could help you consolidate debt into one simple payment with a low fixed rate. So you can actually make progress. You can begin in minutes and get up to a thousand dollars in stock when you open and fund a self-directed account. With SoFi securities terms apply. This is everything saving, spending, borrowing, investing all in one app. Achieve all your ambitions all in one app. SoFi.com/10 to life. 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, 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, 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. So Tori's on the ground. Tori on the ground. I could hear her. I could see her on the ground. I turned and ran away again. I could hear her. I saw the sound of her voice. I could hear her moaning. And I see the garbage bag over us, there was some afterwards, like this, pretty much what made it easiest, like he knew what he was doing, like, like, there was the whole, like, blood splatter, like. So, because you're in the head with a hammer, right, and then what happens? He had the garbage bags, like, he had garbage bags, he had access to garbage bags, like, I'm not, I can't, I'm not 100% on whether he went to the trunk and grabbed the ball, or whether he already has it in the backseat with him. And I see him start to, like, put garbage bags over her, over her feet, like, from the bottom, and then, like, over the top of her, like, the patient, like, maybe two, three garbage bags he used. And again, that's, at that point in time, like, he was, like. 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. 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 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. 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. 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 had nothing to do with it. 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'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, Terry 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, I couldn't have said it any better myself. And I truly do hope that those feelings were genuine. 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 Terry 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. Terry 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. But the investigators were determined to find Tori's remains. So they took the sketches that Terry 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, written across the front. And she was also found with her butterfly earrings, the ones that she had run back 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 16 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 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 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. 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, 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. 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, Terry 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. But her news 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 she might as well make it seem like Michael was innocent in all of this. And then, finally, Terry 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 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, Terry 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. 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. 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. - Well, yeah, but at the same time, 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 it's ridiculous What's going through your mind as grandmother, how do you feel on day one today? I don't know my head my head's just in a big whirl right now I'm glad this is finally here and hopefully we can put it aside and get through it step by step day by day get it over with and maybe we can finally start to heal 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 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 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 yourselves 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 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 there will never be another child quite like Tori with her spunkiness her zest for 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 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 easy treatment Kush 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 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 easier 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 of it the planning of it 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 to Tuesday with an all-new case but until then please do a random act of kindness today and think of Tori to stay safe bye winning never sounded so good what would you do if you want big at Crown coins Casino real people win real prices every single day hi this is Michael from Georgia I won 40k and finally renovated my home visit crowncoins.com sign up in seconds enter code crown and get a free lucky wheel bonus you may win up to 10 000 sweeps coins crowncoins.com that's c-r-o-w-n coins this is Jana Kramer from wind down with Jana Kramer I had this moment the other day where I thought why am I waiting for my next vacation to enjoy life I don't need a week off just a day to rest and recharge would be amazing and so I went to resortpass.com there are hundreds of hotel resort pools spas and private beaches that you can be enjoying today without 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