Ontario police scour countryside for missing girl
Last Updated: Sunday, April 12, 2009 | 10:41 PM ET
CBC News
The family of Victoria Stafford and local residents of Woodstock, Ont., attend a candlelight vigil Sunday evening for the girl, 8, who disappeared Wednesday. (CBC)About 1,000 people, including relatives of Victoria Stafford, attended a candlelight vigil in Woodstock, Ont., on Sunday and prayed for the safe return of the eight-year-old girl, who went missing Wednesday.
The extended Stafford family gathered earlier Sunday night for Easter dinner before attending the vigil, which was held in the parking lot of a local department store at 8 p.m. ET.
Surveillance video showed the Grade 3 student, also known as Tori, walking with an unidentified woman as she left school Wednesday afternoon in the city of 35,000 east of London.
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."
The woman in the video is described by police as between 19 and 25 years old, between 120 and 125 pounds, with straight long black hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a white coat and black jeans.
Police said they have no reason at this time to suspect foul play, but the search for Victoria has continued around the clock with more than 200 volunteers from the community helping police.
Birak said police are searching everywhere, including lakes and ponds and forests. "They've found nothing that will point to what has happened to Victoria," she said.
An organizer of the vigil, which began 8 p.m. ET in a department store parking lot, has asked for donations of candles and plastic cups.
"I think what's happening with members of the public is an expression of their emotions, their concern for this child. And I think that's good, in terms of the willingness of this community to step up," Mayor Michael Harding told CBC News on Saturday.
"As time goes on, we begin to worry more and more about the whereabouts and the condition of this little girl."
Stafford's parents, Tara McDonald and Rodney Stafford, separated last December. The father, who described the relationship as "an ongoing struggle," insisted that he doesn't believe any of Victoria's relatives are behind her disappearance.
"Nobody can even begin to imagine what our family is going through," Tara McDonald, the missing girl's mother, said at the vigil.
Surrounded by his family at the vigil, Victoria's father thanked the hundreds of people who have helped search for his daughter.
Victoria's mother made a tearful televised appeal Friday and offered 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.
With files from The Canadian Press
