Michael Rafferty and his girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic lured eight-year-old Tori Stafford from her school in Woodstock, Ont., and drove her to a secluded field, where she was sexually assaulted and brutally beaten to death in April 2009. It was a sickening and nightmarish crime and covering it still haunts me. On May 19 to 20, 2009, he was arrested and Ontario Provincial Police detectives interviewed him for four hours.
Interviewers included Detective Sergeant Jim Smyth, who drew wide acclaim for prying a full confession from Col. Russell Williams, a former commander of a Canadian Forces air base, for brutal sexual assaults and murders of two women. Playing the “good cop” in the marathon interrogation of Rafferty was Detective Staff Sergeant Chris Loam of the OPP’s Behavioural Sciences Unit. Also working on Rafferty was Constable Gordon Johnson, who had interviewed him before, who spoke ot him like a priest or kindly guidance teacher.
