Tara McDonald complains about police who accused her of the crime and says she wants daughter's 'killers dead'
As officers searched for the body of Tori Stafford with the help of her accused abductor, Tori's mother lashed out at police and the people charged in the homicide.In Woodstock, Tara McDonald said police targeted her and her boyfriend for 42 days.
"The three times I was interviewed by police, they said, 'We know it's you,'" McDonald told the London Free Press yesterday.
She said she could barely bring herself to think about the final hours of her "beautiful little princess."
"To think someone took my daughter and then ... I can't even think about it," she said.
"My daughter's not coming home. I want the killers dead."
Meanwhile, in a barren field south of Fergus, Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, of Woodstock, huddled on the floor behind a back seat to hide from photographers' cameras. The accused woman was there hoping to lead police to the 8-year-old's remains.
"My understanding is that she is fully cooperating and did so (Wednesday) and (yesterday) with a view toward bringing Tori home as soon as possible," said McClintic's lawyer, Jeanine Leroy.
McDonald said that when police met her Tuesday night to tell her of the arrests, she thought they had good news about Tori. "All I kept thinking, all along, was that she's somewhere; she's fine; someone is taking care of her. They just wanted a beautiful little girl for themselves and they took my beautiful girl."
She has refused to make funeral arrangements until she sees Tori's body.
McDonald said she'd hold police accountable for how they treated her, her son, Daryn, 11, her boyfriend, James Goris, and friends.
"One officer came into my house and said, `You are my prime suspect.' He said, `I have been doing this job as long as you have been alive and I have never seen a mother behave like you.'"
Daryn was questioned without a family member present and subjected to horrible suggestions, McDonald said. "He cried all night when he come home," she said.
Told of McDonald's complaints about police behaviour, Ontario Provincial Police Det. Insp. Bill Renton – heading the investigation – said he could not comment.
Police yesterday searched the same spot officers in the company of a cadaver-sniffing dog went over on Wednesday. This time, they concentrated on the second of two collapsed buildings, now little more than a pile of rubble.
Police idled beside the pile underneath the low-hanging boughs of a tree. After about 15 minutes, the police and McClintic left the scene.
Leroy said her client has not been offered any concessions by authorities for her cooperation.
"I can tell you that's not in her mind right now," said Leroy. "And there have been no conversations between myself and the Crown. It's way too early in the process."
It's not clear if McClintic will be personally involved in the search today. The judge's order that allowed her to accompany OPP officers expired at 10 last night.
After McClintic and her escorts left, a forensics truck arrived at the site. In the early evening, one investigator could be seen gingerly digging at the pile. Another took pictures. But there was no urgency to their work, now two days old and still fruitless.
Alex Gilchrist, a local farmer who lives a few doors away, owns the field.
He and his family were aghast that their property might have become a killer's dumping ground.
"We hope they find that little girl," said Gilchrist.
"Just not here," added his wife.
That captured the attitude throughout Fergus, a picturesque town about 20 kilometres north of Guelph.
"Say if she's here – and I hope she's not – people will say this is the town where they found that poor little girl," said resident Rany O'Halloran.
"It'll just devastate this town," said Denise Seabrook.
Throughout the day, many residents sidled up to the media gathered outside the downtown OPP detachment, anxious for news. Police have said little about the search. That's forced locals to rely on gossip about the accused killers and their relationship with the area.
For now, the ground search has taken centre stage, directly in the middle of the Gilchrist field.
Police also tagged and later removed a dumpster at the side of the road about a kilometre east of the field.
However, if McClintic is wrong or unable to provide the precise location, the focus will once again return to the aerial search. The OPP helicopter was still out yesterday. McClintic was on board for a while.
From the day Tori went missing, volunteers lined up to join the search, plastering storefronts, street lamps and car windshields with flyers describing the petite young girl with golden hair and big blue eyes.
McDonald began holding daily news conferences to keep the story in the media spotlight and, on a number of occasions, vigorously denied rumours swirling in the community, including one that her daughter was kidnapped over a drug debt.
At one point McDonald was confronted with the allegation that she looked like the woman in a composite sketch released by police – a suggestion she called laughable.
Police remained tight-lipped about the investigation, but McDonald's daily briefings revealed a number of strange twists in the case. McDonald accepted a ride in a limousine to meet a mysterious benefactor in a Toronto hotel who offered to pay any ransom demand. The family also sought the help of a psychic.
Family members also spoke openly about having taken lie-detector tests.
The media spotlight also put McDonald's personal struggles on display, including her addiction to the narcotic OxyContin, which she said she's receiving treatment for.
McDonald also denied reports that she and Goris bought the OxyContin painkillers from McClintic's mother, Carol.
She said she met McClintic's mother at most three times and McClintic was in the apartment once, but she didn't talk to her.
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