8 Year Old Victoria “Tori” Stafford Missing Since April 8, 2009 in Woodstock, Ontario Canada
8 year old Victoria Stafford has been missing since Wednesday, April 8, 2009 in Ontario, Canada. Victoria Stafford was last seen Wednesday afternoon leaving Oliver Stephens Public School, where she was a Grade 3 student.
- four-feet, five inches (134 centimeters) tall
- weighing 62 pounds (28 kilograms).
- blue eyes
- blonde hair cut just below her ears
- She was last seen after she left Oliver Stephens public school about 3:30 p.m.
- Reportedly wearing a green shirt, a denim skirt, black and white shoes, and a black Hannah Montana jacket with white fur-lined hood.
- She may have been carrying a purple and pink Bratz purse
Facebook that has been set up to help find missing Victoria “Tori” Stafford. Family makes Facebook plea for missing 8 year old.
The 3rd grade student, known as Tori, was last seem on a surveillance video walking with an unidentified woman as she left school Wednesday afternoon in the city of 35,000 east of London
VIDEO (woman walking with Tori at the 1:40 minute mark)
VIDEO can also be viewed here.
Investigators, who call the woman a “person of interest,” are checking dozens of tips from the public about her identity, and are now working with a profiler to try to find out more about her.
“All police have to go on is that grainy surveillance video,” the CBC’s Christine Birak reported.
“Even the police and Victoria’s parents have said it’s strange because Victoria is not leaving against her will. It almost seems as if she knows who this woman is.”
Description of woman in the video:
- Woman between 19 and 25 years old
- between 120 and 125 pounds
- straight long black hair in a ponytail
- She was wearing a white coat and black jeans
There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to her daughter’s safe return.
Anyone with information can call police at (519) 537-2323 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS.
UPDATE I: Where’s little Tori? The Oxford Community Police are requesting the assistance of the public (pdf)
“I want my daughter home,” birth father Rodney Stafford said in Southside Park Saturday afternoon. “I want her home.”
Code Amber News Service (CANS) issued a missing endangered person alert on Saturday.
Dozens of police from Oxford, Waterloo Region and London, including dog search teams and trained London search and rescue volunteers, joined the search today. A large-scale search effort involving neighbouring police forces and hundreds of volunteers has scoured numerous lakes, ponds, wooded areas, brushes and properties .
Police say they don’t have enough evidence to even declare her disappearance a result of foul play. They’ve had hundreds of tips from the public.
“Everybody in Canada has Victoria in their hearts right now,” said Woodstock Community Police Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland.
UPDATE II: Hundreds attend vigil for missing Ont. girl
UPDATE III: Ground Search Ends for Missing Tori Stafford
Authorities said Monday they had ended their ground search for a missing 8-year-old Canadian girl a video shows walking off with an unknown woman.
Police keep insisting that Tori walked off willingly with the unknown female from the video; however, how do we know that the person did not lie to the young girl in order to gain her trust? What, like an abductor has never told a victim a lie to get them to go with them?
UPDATE IV: ‘America’s Most Wanted’ reaching out to help in Victoria Stafford case
UPDATE V: Missing Tori Stafford Case Now Considered an Abduction
The case of missing eight-year-old schoolgirl Victoria “Tori” Stafford has now been declared an abduction by the OPP veteran investigator taking over the case.
As was reported in Friday’s edition of The London Free Press, Det.-Insp Bill Renton made that announcement at a morning press during which Oxford police Chief Ron Fraser said Renton was taking over as “case manager” from a local officer.
UPDATE VI: New Searches for Missing Tori Stafford and Family Realeases Video
On Friday, the Ontario Provincial Police took the lead on the investigation from the Oxford Community Police, a move that made Tara McDonald “very, very happy.”
Her daughter Victoria Stafford did not come home after school on April 8. The third-grade student was last seen on surveillance video walking with an unknown woman.
Though the Oxford Community Police canvassed the neighbourhood and performed an extensive ground search, the OPP was knocking on doors once again over the weekend.
The Under Water Search and Recovery Unit (USRU) scoured waterways in Woodstock, using a sonar device on a pond close to Victoria’s school and other small bodies of water. So far, they haven’t found anything.
“I feel confident. Not that I didn’t before, you know, but I feel better that there’s fresh eyes,” McDonald added
