Posted on 07/24/2006 11:54:44 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
Salt Lake City police officers have found the body of missing 5-year-old Destiny Norton in the basement of a home in her neighborhood and have arrested the man living there, police Chief Chris Burbank announced.
The body was found at 8:30 p.m. Monday, Burbank said
The man being held for investigation of homicide was identified as Craig Roger Gregerson.
Earlier Monday, police had issued a sketch of a man seen driving a black Dodge pickup with a girl who looked like 5-year-old Destiny Norton.
Burbank told a news conference Monday night that the leads on Gregerson and on the man in the pickup had developed at the same time, and police officials decided to go ahead with the release of the sketch.
Burbank made a statement and declined to answer any questions.
Authorities also had said earlier that they were looking for a man who went by the name "Bubble Man" at the drum circles that are a weekly Sunday event at Liberty Park.
Destiny and her parents had attended the drum circle July 16 just hours before Destiny disappeared from outside her house. She was barefoot and wearing only an adult-size black T-shirt with gray stripes.
Volunteers turned out in smaller than usual numbers Monday, a state holiday in Utah, to help search for Destiny. They handed out leaflets at the Days of '47 Parade marking the arrival of Mormon pioneers to Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
A $30,000 reward was offered for information leading to a resolution of the case.
Police find body of Destiny Norton
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Eight days after 5-year-old Destiny Norton disappeared from her front yard, police discovered her body in the basement of the man who lives next door.
Craig Roger Gregerson, 20, was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Monday night on suspicion of homicide.
After Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank made the announcement, a crowd of about 100 gathered outside Destiny's home near 700 South and 500 East, where police were still present and yellow tape sealed off the yard and driveway. Some in the crowd appeared to stop at the home as they were returning from a fireworks show, but some residents questioned how the search for the girl could have gone so wrong, and how investigators could have missed something so close.
Some in the crowd shouted profanity at police and reporters. They also wept and hugged each other.
"They told us they searched these buildings four f------ times," Norton family spokeswoman Jeannie Hill said of police. "They did not do their jobs." "The police told me if I didn't stop going into buildings, I was going to be arrested," shouted Peter Brooks, who called himself Destiny's uncle. At one point, Brooks, who was in the parking lot of an LDS church across the street from the Nortons' home, fell to his knees weeping.
Around midnight, Burbank arrived to try and calm the crowd.
The discovery, made about 8:30 p.m. capped a day of hope for Rickey and Rachael Norton, Destiny's parents. Early in the day, volunteer and law enforcement officials marched along the route of the Pioneer Day parade, passing out fliers with the girl's picture. Later, police and the FBI said they were investigating a possible sighting of Destiny at a Smith's Conoco in Farmington. Investigators also released a composite sketch of a man reported as driving a black Dodge pickup with a girl matching Destiny's description inside.
"I think most of us feel quite strongly that we're very close," Hill said Monday night, about two hours before Burbank's announcement.
Burbank did not answer questions at a hastily called 10:30 p.m. press conference. It was unknown Monday night
Explain please
an "Advertisement in a response posted"
Explain what? "Oops." That's my explanation.
The text was copied from the original news story with the link. There's probably an advertisement in the middle of the story.
Sheesh.
Let the relatives form a circle with 9 irons and let the drumming begin.
This is a thread about a girl missing for 8 days that was tragically found dead in a neighbor's basement.
Will you please quit hijacking it to discuss your petty grievances?
Do you have anything to say about the subject at hand?
Seems to be lots of pedophiles in Utah lately.
Is it the water?
Take a chill pill!
My Heart goes out to this family
I hope and pray for this childs soul
Yet when I see commercialism I shedder to see what is to come. Please do not attack me. I attacked you not. The "advertisment placed here" was what offended me and I shall state you said "Oops" so it may have been an accident.
May this child sit at the base of the throne of G-d as one of his children. And may this conversation end, although I doubt it will
I hope and pray for this childs soul...
May this child sit at the base of the throne of G-d as one of his children.
Amen, amen and amen.
Why did you leave out the o in the word "God?"
After Jessica - it would seem like neighbors are the first place you'd look.
I wasn't sure what a drum circle was - http://www.rhythmweb.com/circle/faq.htm
is this kind of a new hippie thing, I'm assuming that in Utah it wouldn't necessarily be an ethnic event?
If PETA wants animals and humans to be equal then the bastard who did this needs to be "put down" just as an animal would. Tragic story.
it's a big thing among the wicca freaks
Not new. The only ethnicity I ever associated with the kind of drumming and drum circles I've seen was Native American. I never thought about it being an African "thing," but I suppose it can be.
It's mostly just "New Age," so to speak. Some people in one of my meditation classes went to these and they were definitely hippie-ish, although upscale hippie-ish, or "up-market" as they sometimes say now.
So sorry to hear this. In the clothing description, did they mean what she was found wearing or what she was wearing when she disappeared? Only an over-sized T-shirt? Nothing else? Out in her yard? I hope that's wrong.
The link has been taken down.
This is pitifully sad! I can't imagine the depth of the grief!
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