Salt Lake City appears in the account as both a setting for Brenda Lafferty’s family milestones and a destination from which events turn sharply away. Her marriage to Allen Lafferty was sealed at the Salt Lake Temple; later, a birthday dinner there became the last outing she shared with Allen before her sister Betty Wright McEntire saw her for the final time. On Pioneer Day, the city was the men’s intended destination for a parade and celebrations, until Ron Lafferty’s revelation changed their plans.

A Marriage Sealed in the City

On April 22, 1982, Brenda and Allen were sealed as husband and wife for time and eternity in the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City. Brenda was twenty-one. The city’s place in her story is therefore not only that of a travel destination: it is where the couple’s marriage received its solemn religious form.

The Birthday Dinner

On July 19, Brenda’s twenty-fourth birthday, Betty drove to American Fork to care for Brenda and Allen’s daughter, Erica, while the couple went to Salt Lake City for dinner. Betty had hoped to show Brenda pictures of her wedding dress and talk about her upcoming marriage. When Brenda and Allen returned, however, Betty could tell they had fought and that Brenda had been crying. Betty left after a brief visit, remembering the birthday music box she had given Brenda and saying goodbye to Erica. It was the last time she saw her sister.

The Journey That Did Not Happen

Salt Lake City was also the destination Dan Lafferty, Ricky Knapp, and Chip Carnes had discussed for July 24, Pioneer Day: they planned to drive up the freeway to watch the parade and join the celebrations. On the evening before, Ron Lafferty said that God had told him they needed to go somewhere else and that the next day was the Day. The planned public celebration thus gave way to the brothers’ preparations around the removal revelation. In the account, Salt Lake City marks the road not taken—a civic holiday outing displaced by a command that turned the following day toward violence.