Sally Norton was an expectant mother in the bed next to Deirdre Langton when she was in labour with Tracy in January 1977. She was an unmarried mother and social worker Dorothy Millington was trying to persuade her to give the child up for adoption. Sally ultimately gave her baby daughter away and then, when her boyfriend Stuart left her, she started to undergo psychiatric treatment at Weatherfield General and was seen on many occasions by Emily Bishop in her capacity of volunteer of the hospital friends association.
In March 1979, Deirdre bumped into Sally again who started to take Tracy to the park, despite Deirdre's discomfort with the arrangement. Sally didn't have a job and Deirdre felt bad when she spent her dole money on a doll for Tracy. Events took an unexpected turn though when Deirdre left Tracy in her baby buggy outside the Rovers while she went inside to speak to Annie Walker. A lorry went out of control while travelling down Rosamund Street, crashing into the pub and shedding its load of timber over where Tracy had been left. A hysterical Deirdre clawed at the timber and had to be led away. The emergency services on the scene cleared the wood and found that the buggy and its occupant was missing. Emily remembered Sally's interest in the child and the two were found in a park. Sally was charged with child abduction.