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Police believe accused child killer Craig Roger Gregerson had been plotting to kidnap 5-year-old Destiny Norton.
Court documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News said he admitted to writing about it.
"Craig Roger Gregerson has been planning to abduct D.N. (Destiny Norton) for some time. Suspect Gregerson has made written plans to abduct D.N.," a search warrant affidavit filed in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court said. The court papers were made public on Monday.
Documents related to "planning an abduction, murder or other crime" were among the things police were looking for when they went into Gregerson's apartment on July 24 to retrieve Destiny's body. Police found the little girl's body "well concealed" inside a plastic storage container in Gregerson's basement.
Members of Destiny Norton's family were stunned to hear of the revelations in the search warrant.
"He'd been planning it for a while and just got his opportunity and took it," Destiny's uncle, Peter Brooks, told the Deseret Morning News. "It just shows you how sick he is."
Prosecutors said that Gregerson confessed to kidnapping and killing Destiny.
After being questioned and undergoing a polygraph test, Gregerson told an FBI agent that on July 16, he heard his dog barking and looked out his window to see Destiny.
"Suspect Gregerson went into his back yard and opened the gate to his yard," Salt Lake City police detective Catherine Schoney wrote in the affidavit. "Suspect Gregerson lured D.N. through the back door of his residence. D.N. panicked and began to scream. Craig Roger Gregerson put his hand over her mouth and began to squeeze to silence her screams."
An autopsy said Destiny died of smothering. The court papers said that after laying Destiny's body on the floor, he received a phone call from his mother.
"His mother had called to ask him to pick up his child from his estranged wife's apartment. After ending the phone call, Craig Roger Gregerson took the juvenile child's body into the basement of his residence," Schoney wrote.
Criminal charges state that Gregerson sexually assaulted Destiny's body after killing her.
When police officers and FBI agents went into Gregerson's home to retrieve Destiny's body, they took a number of things. They include: Gregerson's black Bible, handwritten and typed letters, VHS cassettes, pillows and pillowcases, sheets, a tan shirt on his washer, cameras, a cell phone and his checkbook.
Of note was a white Tyvek suit that an FBI agent saw hanging on a curtain rod inside Gregerson's apartment. Authorities did not say if it belonged to Gregerson, but crime lab technicians were seen wearing such suits when they searched through Dumpsters around the Norton home.
Police also seized a 50-pound bag of dog food containing a black and gray striped T-shirt inside a box. Destiny was last seen wearing a similar shirt when she vanished.
A massive volunteer search was launched for the missing girl. Eight days later, her body was discovered two doors away from her home inside Gregerson's basement.
The night before her body was found, Schoney wrote that Gregerson "attempted to mask the odor coming from the body with cleaning products."
The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office refused to comment on the search warrant.
Gregerson, 20, is charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, and first-degree felony child kidnapping. Prosecutors have not decided if they will seek the death penalty. Gregerson is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 7.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com