An Amber Alert was issued and a neighborhood search began. The Amber Alert was canceled a short time later after a 51-year-old man was located, questioned about her disappearance and released.

Destiny's parents, family and friends endured hours of interrogations by police investigators. Rachael Norton said the family took polygraph tests and passed them. Throughout the week, police and crime scene technicians visited the family's home to seize items of potential evidence, including a two foot section of wall containing Destiny's palm print.

During the week, hundreds of people turned out in the hot summer temperatures to search for Destiny. They scoured alleys and backyards, searched in garbage cans and Dumpsters and poked around bushes. The searches centered in Destiny's neighborhood, where police and FBI agents were seen repeatedly.

"I would want someone out looking if it were my daughter," said Kathleen Haney, who put up fliers of Destiny from North Ogden to Spanish Fork.

On Sunday night, police thought they had caught a break when they issued an Amber Alert in Farmington. A man showed up at a Conoco station near U.S. 89 and Shepard Lane with a girl that a clerk believed was Destiny Norton.

The Amber Alert was canceled early Monday until police realized that another vehicle may have been involved. That afternoon, police released a sketch of the man the clerk saw with the girl believed to be Destiny. It was not.

Monday night, more than a hundred people gathered outside the Norton home to chant, light candles and pray. They dubbed themselves "The Downtown Street Family." The Nortons and others in the home had spent time on the streets in the past and were bringing themselves up in the world, getting jobs and sharing rent to make a new start.

"This is the day a beautiful child went back to heaven and a sick man will go down," Brooks told the crowd. "They thought this would tear us apart. It's only made us stronger."

About midnight, Chief Burbank showed up to address the angry crowd.

"Until this moment, there was no crime scene. No specific evidence. Police had nothing," he said. "This is not the proper way to honor Destiny. All we can do is keep this from happening again."

---

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com; wleonard@desnews.com