In the show “Signs of a Psychopath: Wolves” on Investigation Discovery, the producers go to Ontario, Canada, to see how Victoria “Tori” Stafford, who was only 8 years old, was brutally killed.
Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic took Tori from outside her school, killed her, and dumped her body in a remote area.
But the details that the police found shocked the whole town and were the subject of a lot of talk in the media at the time.
So, if you want to know what happened to Michael and Terri, you can count on us.
Who Are Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic?
On April 8, 2009, Tori went to school in Woodstock, Ontario, just like she did every other day.
She never got back home, though. Tori’s family started looking for her around 6 p.m., and when they couldn’t find her, they reported her missing.
The police looked at surveillance camera footage from around the school and found a possible clue right away.
On the day she went missing, around 3:30 PM, Tori was seen walking outside the school with a woman no one knew.
In the same area, a dark-colored car was also caught on camera.
About two weeks later, the police released a sketch of the woman based on the video.
This led to the arrests of Terri, who was 18, and Michael, who was 28, in May 2009. But Tori’s body hadn’t been found after a lot of searching.
Even after being questioned for hours, Michael said he had nothing to do with Tori going missing. But Terri decided to tell the police what she knew.
Terri said that she and Michael had talked about kidnapping kids before and that on the morning of April 8, he teased her into doing it.
Michael wanted a younger girl because he thought they would be “easier to control.” So, they drove past Tori’s school, where Terri saw Tori.
She got the little girl to come to the car by telling her she would show her a puppy. Michael started to drive away after she put Tori in the backseat.
Then, Terri went to a nearby hardware store and bought a claw hammer and some trash bags. They then drove to a remote area near Mount Forest, Ontario.
There, Terri said that she got out of the car while Michael sexually assaulted Tori. He then put a trash bag over her head and used the hammer to hit her.
They put the body in more trash bags and hid it under a pile of rocks.
Then they got in their car and drove away. After that, they had the car cleaned and got rid of the hammer and their clothes.
Their DNA of Tori was later found in Michael’s car by investigators. Terri agreed to make a deal and testify against Michael at his trial.
Tori was killed more than three months after her body was found in a field near Mount Forest.
She was killed by several blows to the head. In 2012, when Michael went to court, Terri was the most important witness.
But she said that she killed Tori with the hammer, which was a big surprise.
Terri said in court that Michael planned the whole thing and sexually assaulted her, but she was the one who did the most damage.
She said that seeing Michael rape Tori made her think of when she was a child.
She said, “When I turned back to the car and saw what was happening, all I could see was myself at that age… I let out all the anger, hate, and rage I had built up against myself.”
Where Are Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic Now?
Terri pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April 2010, and she was given a sentence of life in prison without parole for 25 years.
Then she gave a statement at Michael’s trial. In May 2012, a court found him guilty of murder in the first degree, kidnapping, and sexual assault.
At Michael’s trial, extra evidence like finding child pornography and torture videos on his computer and the fact that he liked to choke women while they were having sex was not shown.
For the first-degree murder, Michael was given the same sentence as Terri. He got an extra 10 years for each of the charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, to be served at the same time.
When Terri was moved from prison to a healing lodge in October 2018, it was a bit of a big deal.
But when Tori’s family and supporters put pressure on the government, she was sent back to the Edmonton Institute for Women in Alberta, Canada.
Michael was moved to La Macaza Institution in December 2018. This is a prison in Quebec, Canada, with medium security. He was also said to have forced his mother to give him money.
