EON

The news for Tori Stafford’s family is that police tell the family they may not find Tori’s remains, even while there’s a potential “deal with the devil” for the accused murderers. Tori, an eight year old girl missing since April 8, was seen last in a video from the surveillance camera with an unidentified woman at a nearby high school. Tori Stafford’s father is opposed to a deal, but he asserts that “any deal should only stand if it brings Victoria home.”

Both Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, and Michael Thomas Rafferty, 28, are now charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder of Tori Stafford. They will now have separate trials, whereas previously, they were to be tried together and McClintic had the lesser charge of accessory to murder.

After the court’s separation of the trials, Rafferty’s defense lawyer stated that the prosecutor is likely to offer a deal to McClintic in exchange for testimony against his client. A law professor at University of Toronto states, however, that a deal could be made by the prosecution with either Rafferty or McClintic.

The potential deal has raised the issue of the prosecution’s “deal with the devil” in the 1993 murder of two teenage girls. In exchange for testimony against her husband Paul, Homolka Bernardo was given a plea bargain and a 12 year sentence for manslaughter. Later it was discovered that she was more involved in the killings than originally thought, which caused a public outcry.