Douglas Hacking said he didn't have additional information and needed to talk to Mark before he said anything more.

"We need time to digest this information," he said.

Before the news conference, Herald Soares, Lori's father, said he had no reason not to trust what Mark told him.

"All I know is he passed the test" to enter medical school, he said.

But Soares also added he didn't have time to worry about whether Mark lied about medical school.

"Picture yourself in my place. Are you going to worry about someone else or your daughter?" he asked.

'Person of interest'

Investigators knew of Hacking's school record Tuesday but did not inform the family, Baird said. He said at the time it was just a "small piece of information" in the overall puzzle.

Earlier in the day, Lance Hacking, Mark's older brother, said police were keeping the family up to date and "in the loop." But he said he realized detectives couldn't tell them everything, and they didn't want to pry.

"We don't want to compromise the investigation to satisfy our curiosity," he said.

Despite Hacking's apparent lie, police Wednesday were still classifying Lori Hacking as a "missing person" under suspicious circumstances.

"There is no question at this point that he (Mark Hacking) is a person of interest; he would be regardless" of the misinformation about his schooling, Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said during an impromptu press conference behind the police station Wednesday evening. Lori Hacking, he said, "is still a missing person at this point. We don't know where she's at. We believe, certainly, the circumstances of her disappearance (are) suspicious."

Dinse said he was "not calling anybody" a suspect yet. Nor would he say how many times police had spoken with Mark Hacking, if Hacking was cooperating with police or if conversations with Hacking had led police to any theories about what had happened to his wife.

'Lori is still missing'

While the Hacking family was digesting the news about the apparent deception, Thelma Soares, Lori's mother, made a tearful plea to continue the search for her daughter.

"Lori is still missing. There is nothing more important at this time than my Lori," she said.