Officer explains how he found Tori
Detective testifies about putting clues together on Mount Forest drive
LONDON, ONT.— It was a bungalow, particularly the angle at which itwas placed, that led to Tori Stafford.
July 19, 2009, was a sunny Sunday, and Det. Staff Sgt. Jim Smyth was driving through tiny Mount Forest, north of Guelph. He was on his way back to Woodstock from OPP headquarters in Orillia and, though not familiar with the area, decided to take a back-roads route because he’d just learned that a call made from Michael Rafferty’s cellphone April 8 had been routed through a tower near Mount Forest.
That’s when he saw the bungalow, eerily like the one Terri-lynne Mcclintic had described. Within hours, he had found the remains of the Woodstock girl whose body police had been searching for for three months, in the province’s biggest ever investigation.
Tori, 8, blue-eyed and blond, was abducted April 8, 2009, while walking home from school in Woodstock. Mcclintic and Rafferty, then her boyfriend, were arrested a month later and charged with abduction and murder.
Mcclintic pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in April 2010. Rafferty’s trial, on charges of first-degree murder, sexual assault and abduction, began March 5.
On Friday, Smyth, the OPP’S bestknown interviewer and criminal profiler, testified how he found Tori. Standing ramrod-straight, Smyth answered questions looking straight at the jurors.
Since May 19, 2009, the day Mcclintic confessed to her role in Tori’s abduction and murder, she had been cooperating. She drew the area where she believed Tori was killed and buried under rocks in rural Guelph, and went out with officers to seek the spot. Though confused at times, Smyth said, Mcclintic was always emphatic about the landmarks: a well-kept bungalow, a laneway across from it, a culvert running under, big evergreens and a pile of rocks close by. Tori was in a green garbage bag near the rocks, she had told Smyth. Dozens of officers searched large rural swaths and found nothing. Then investigators got Rafferty’s cellphone records and Smyth took his detour through Mount Forest. Smyth said he wanted to assess the area before search teams came out. He was driving along 6th Concession Rd. in Arthur Township when he saw the bungalow. It was single-storey, well-kept and at a particular angle from the road — just as Mcclintic had described. “I took a good look at the house and was frankly quite struck by the similarities,” he said. He turned back and this time also noticed a gravel lane. Driving up the path, Smyth came upon a culvert running underneath. He got out of his car and spotted a cluster of evergreen trees and a large pile of rocks. Exactly as Mcclintic had described.
As he walked over to the rocks, Smyth noted an odour of decomposition. He approached a big tree next to the rocks and, pulling some low branches back, saw a green garbage bag. He wasn’t sure if it was just “scrap,” so he touched it.
“It was soft,” Smyth said. “I knew, I believed, we had finally found Tori Stafford.” The soft-spoken detective paused for a few seconds. When he composed himself, he said it took a moment for it to sink in that Tori had been found.
Soon, forensic officers were on the scene, securing it, taking hundreds of photographs and video. Smyth stayed until late at night and returned first thing in the morning.
He was there when Tori’s battered body was taken away. He was there when the autopsy was done, the cause of death blunt force trauma to the head. And he was there for the funeral on July 31, when Tori was finally laid to rest.