Michael Thomas Rafferty
Two weeks before young Tori Stafford went missing, Dave Riddell was fed up.
After spending six years with his girlfriend Deborah Murray in Tori's hometown of Woodstock, Mr. Riddell packed up his belongings and left. He told neighbours that Ms. Murray's son, Michael Rafferty, had a temper, and had been "freeloading" off his mother since moving in with the couple a year ago.
Mr. Rafferty, 28, had moved in after being laid off from his job at a meatpacking plant in Guelph. The youngest of Ms. Murray's three sons, he returned home to get on his feet, but was never able to. He had trouble holding a job, Mr. Riddell said.
During the year that the three lived in the small, semi-detached house, the fights at the home escalated to the point that the police once had to be called, a neighbour said. Ms. Murray was in financial trouble, and Mr. Riddell was frustrated that her son wouldn't help her out. Neighbours said Mr. Rafferty would sit in his beaten-up Honda hatchback, blasting heavy-metal music in the driveway.
Mr. Riddell said Mr. Rafferty worked rarely, spending what money he did earn on groceries, electronics and designer clothes. But he said his ex-girlfriend's son liked children, and that while something of a schemer, didn't appear like he would do what he's now accused of - kill Tori.
"This is totally out of character. I figured he was going to end up in jail, but not for something like this," Mr. Riddell told The Globe and Mail, adding Mr. Rafferty "loved kids. He was great with them."
Yesterday, Mr. Rafferty became the subject of a community's outcry, charged in Tori's death. Led by police out of court with a polo shirt pulled over his head, one of Tori's relatives shoved Mr. Rafferty, shouting obscenities at him. Mr. Rafferty did not react to the provocation, but was said to have wept in court.
He's alleged to have abducted Tori with the help of Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, before fleeing the area with Ms. McClintic's help and killing Tori on his own.
"He had to have been on drugs," Mr. Riddell said.
The home of Ms. Murray and her son sat empty yesterday. A marmalade cat stared back at TV cameras over the yard's green hedges. Neighbours were shocked.
"When I was told, I just felt so sick," said neighbour Aaron Mabey, 20, who saw several police officers outside the house Tuesday around 11 p.m.
"[I'm]shocked that it could happen so close to home," added Jen Burchat, a mother of four who runs a daycare out of her house down the street.
Mr. Rafferty's MySpace profile said he had trained as a chef, aspired to be a paramedic, and that he had studied martial arts since he was a young boy.
"I'm full of romance and love and I wear my heart on my sleeve. I am a hopeless romantic... But can also stand my ground," he wrote.
On another online profile of Mr. Rafferty's, found on a dating website, he described himself as "one of the good guys."
"I want someone to spend the rest of my life with and someone who I can make happier then they have ever been," he wrote.
With a report from Josh Wingrove in Toronto and The Canadian Press