Destiny's family trying to cope

One day, Rachael Norton will sit down and tell her daughters Trinity and Faith about their big sister, Destiny.

"I got everything. I saved all the newspaper articles. When they get old enough I'm going to bring it out of storage. Explain to them about their sister," Norton said. "I'm going to tell them about her and how much she loved them very much and explain to them what happened to her. Not all the details, just enough."

In an interview with the Deseret Morning News, Rachael Norton spoke about her family's life since Destiny's death, the recent conviction and sentencing of Craig Roger Gregerson, the man who killed her, and the void caused by her death.

Destiny was known for a beaming smile that revealed a signature row of silver-capped teeth. She wanted to become a veterinarian. Her family says she wanted to buy her mom a house and her dad a motorcycle. She loved her sister Trinity and was excited for the birth of her new sister.

Rachael Norton says she wants her two daughters to know that.

"Let them know that they had a big sister that loved them very much," she said.

Gregerson's crime

Gregerson, 20, admitted luring Destiny from her back yard near 700 South and 500 East last July. He told an FBI agent that he talked the 5-year-old girl into coming into his apartment.

"Once inside Gregerson's home, D.N. wanted to leave and became vocal," Salt Lake City Police detective Catherine Schoney wrote in an affidavit filed with a search warrant. "Gregerson put his hand over D.N.'s mouth and squeezed. D.N. went limp and Gregerson laid her body on the floor."

Police said that Gregerson took Destiny's body into the basement of his apartment and sexually assaulted it.

Eight days after a massive volunteer search was launched, Destiny's body was found wrapped in garbage bags, plastic packing tape and stuffed in a plastic storage bin in Gregerson's basement.

She was about 50 feet from where she vanished.

On Dec. 4, Gregerson pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and child kidnapping in a deal that spared him the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.