One year later, Destiny's family coping

Trenaty Norton smiles as her daddy gives her a kiss on the forehead.

"My baby girl," Rickey Norton says quietly, hugging her.

The little girl, almost 2, looks around Liberty Park and eyes a sea gull suspiciously. Her mother remarks how much she looks like her big sister, Destiny.

"It's scary how much they look alike," Rachael Norton said, holding their smiling baby daughter, Faith, born one month after Destiny's murder.

It's been a year of ups and downs for Rickey and Rachael Norton. On the one-year anniversary of Destiny's kidnapping and death, those feelings continue to churn.

"We have our moments where we just kind of lock ourselves in our bedroom and tell everyone to leave us alone," Rachael Norton said.

In an interview with the Deseret Morning News, the couple said they are "coping."

"I try not to think about it," Rickey Norton said. "It's the best thing I can do right now, I guess."

The Nortons plan to celebrate the life of Destiny by going with a group of family and friends camping and then to Lagoon today.

"I know she wouldn't want us being all depressed," Rachael Norton said. "She always liked the 24th."

"Destiny loved the 24th," her husband said. "We'll try to have fun."

'My baby'

Destiny was a cheerful little girl known for her love of animals. She didn't just smile, she beamed, revealing a row of silver-capped teeth.

"She was an outgoing child," Rachael Norton said. "A very lovable child. She made friends of all kinds of people."

Rickey Norton smiles softly.

"She was my baby," he said.

Last year, Destiny was playing in her back yard near 700 South and 500 East in Salt Lake City.

Craig Roger Gregerson, 20, admitted to luring the 5-year-old girl to his apartment on July 16, 2006. Destiny then decided she wanted to leave.

"Gregerson put his hand over D.N.'s mouth and squeezed," Salt Lake City police detective Catherine Schoney wrote in a search warrant affidavit. "D.N. went limp and Gregerson laid her body on the floor."

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