The defence opened and closed its case with just one witness Tuesday, putting to rest the question of whether or not the man accused of abducting, assaulting and killing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford would testify in his own defence.
Tuesday's legal proceedings mark the end of another chapter in the case, as the jury prepares to weigh the closing arguments from the defence and the Crown.
Once those closing statements are delivered, Judge Thomas Heeney will then task the jury to rule on the case, which could occur as early as next week.
Earlier in the day, after opting not to make an opening statement Tuesday morning, defence lawyer Dirk Derstine called just one witness to the stand.
The witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was not the 31-year-old accused Michael Rafferty.
Instead, defence lawyer Dirk Derstine called a 60-year-old woman to testify about her regular weekday routine picking up her grandchildren from the Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock, Ont. where Victoria Stafford was last seen alive.
Recounting events on the April 2009 day when Stafford went missing, the witness told the court she saw a woman with a puffy white coat entering the school and later walking away with what appeared to be a happy young girl.
The woman stood out in her memory, she said, because she was wearing a winter coat on a day everyone else seemed to be wearing spring jackets.
Although the girl was skipping and chatting, the witness said twice that the woman in the white coat had a stern look on her face and appeared to be "on a mission."
In her testimony, the woman said she had no reason to believe anything was wrong at the time.
"I assumed the person that she was talking to might have been her mother," she said.
Under cross-examination, Crown attorney Michael Carnegie noted that the witness only caught a "fleeting glance" of the woman and Tori as she drove past.
Surveillance footage made public by investigators in the weeks after Stafford's disappearance showed a woman in a white coat who was later identified as Terri-Lynne McClintic.
Reflecting on the testimony, Victoria Stafford's father Rodney told reporters the witness' account surprised him.
While the description of a young girl talking "a mile a minute" matches his daughter's personality, Stafford wondered why no one else had ever corroborated the defence witness' testimony before.
"Why wasn't that noticed by any of the Crown witnesses, the school teachers out front of the school, parents, bus drivers?" Stafford wondered.
"It's all new," he said.
McClintic is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in Tori's death two years ago.
Before wrapping its case last week, the Crown called 61 witnesses and presented nearly 200 pieces of evidence in its case against the 31-year-old accused.
Prosecutors allege Rafferty and McClintic both kidnapped the girl outside her school on April 8, 2009, before taking her to a remote location where she was sexually assaulted, beaten to death and buried under a pile of rocks.
Rafferty has pleaded not guilty to all three offences -- kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and first-degree murder -- of which he is charged.
The trial, which will be decided by a jury of nine women and three men, got underway March 5.
Asked if he's relieved the case may soon be in the jury's hands, Stafford said no.
"It's nearing an end for the majority of the people out in the world," but not for Victoria's close friends and family he said.
"Our lives have been altered forever and the only way you can do anything about it is continue moving forward in a positive fashion to keep her name out there and that's what I'll do."
