WOODSTOCK, Ont. - When the extended Stafford family sits down for Easter dinner Sunday night they will be short one little girl whose absence has left a huge hole in their lives.
  
Victoria Stafford, just eight years old, has been missing since Wednesday after school, around the time she was captured on a surveillance video walking with an unidentified woman.

Her father, Rodney Stafford, has been barely functioning for four days, ever since his "baby girl" vanished. He said the holiday has made her disappearance that much more unbearable.

"I can't just walk up and grab both of my kids and hug them both and say, `Look, the Easter bunny came,"' Stafford said Sunday about Victoria and his 10-year-old son, Daryn, who he calls "two peas in a pod."

"But I do have a bunch of stuff from the Easter bunny that I do plan on giving to Victoria. I'm really looking forward to giving it to her."

Stafford and his family, who have taken to wearing purple shirts and ribbons because it is Victoria's favourite colour, were to gather for Easter on Sunday night, he said. Later they will join people from the community for a candlelight vigil.

For Stafford each day that passes is harder than the last because he doesn't have his precious daughter to hold, he said.

"It's becoming more of a reality," Stafford said. "It's getting to be far more traumatizing...Even walking past flyers on poles or windows and stuff like that, it's really hitting home. I'll walk past a flyer and instantly break out crying."

Hundreds of flyers adorned with Victoria's smiling face hang all over this southwestern Ontario city, but despite more than 230 tips called into police, there has been absolutely no sign of the little girl since she vanished after school four days ago.

A large-scale search effort involving neighbouring police forces and hundreds of volunteers has scoured numerous lakes, ponds, wooded areas, brushes and properties -- to no avail.

Police say they don't have enough evidence to even declare her disappearance a result of foul play.

The Grade 3 student was last seen leaving her school in Woodstock, east of London, and fuzzy surveillance video shows her walking without a struggle with an unidentified woman, whom police call a "person of interest."

It appears to be the main clue to Victoria's disappearance and police have not publicly revealed any other leads in the case since she vanished.

Stafford said he has watched the video more than 200 times in hopes of spotting something that could lead to his daughter's return.

"That video gives me a little bit of relief, in a sense," Stafford added. "Seeing her in the video walking away happy with somebody she (apparently) knows kind of makes me feel she's safe. She didn't go away struggling, she wasn't scared."

Oxford Community Police have not said they believe Victoria was abducted by the woman on the surveillance video. Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland said there are many possible scenarios of what happened to Victoria and police are looking at them all.

Victoria's mother, Tara McDonald, has stayed out of the public eye. She was not answering her home phone and in her voicemail message she thanked people for their support, but said she was keeping the line open for any "emergency calls."

Stafford and McDonald separated in December and he called the relationship "an ongoing struggle."

He said his estranged wife is handling the situation the way any mother would -- not well.

"We haven't always gotten along, but it's really tough for me to see her cry, especially when it's over one of our children," Stafford said.

He insisted that he doesn't believe any of Victoria's relatives are behind her disappearance.

But police said they aren't ruling out that possibility based on the limited evidence they have so far.
  
"I think everyone ... who knows this child and has contact with this child will be part of the investigation," Maitland said Sunday.

"I don't know that anyone's been ruled out."

The search is being confined to the city of Woodstock and nearby parks for the time being.

The community is planning a candlelight vigil for 8 p.m. Sunday but family friend Catherine Leary said she hopes Victoria is found before then.

"We're hoping ... everyone will come and show their support for the family," she said.

"We're really hoping it will end up as a celebration. We're just trying to do the best we can right now."

Woodstock Mayor Michael Harding said the vigil will help the community collectively express its hopes and wishes "at this time of crisis."

"Our community has a great big heart and it wants to share those feelings and send that kind of message out to the family and particularly to this little girl," he said.

Victoria is described as four-feet-five, weighing about 62 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair cut just below her ears.

She was last seen wearing a denim skirt, a green shirt, and a black Hannah Montana jacket with a fur-lined hood.

She may also be carrying a purple and pink Bratz backpack.

The family has pledged a $10,000 reward for information leading to her recovery and an independent Quebec businessman has come forward with a second reward offering $5,000 for information about Victoria's disappearance.