Police Chief Rick Dinse said the body was found against odds that presented "the monumental potential for failure." Landfill searches almost never are successful, he said.

Searchers at the 550-acre landfill had concentrated their search on a football-sized stretch, going through compacted garbage 20 feet deep. They were about two-thirds through the search when they found the body.

Authorities believe Lori Hacking was killed after she learned her husband wasn't enrolled in medical school in North Carolina, even though they were packing to move there. It was the latest in a series of deceptions perpetuated by the husband over several years, police say.

Hacking, who had been a hospital orderly at the university, also has been charged with obstructing justice, accused of throwing Lori's body, the gun and a bloody mattress in separate trash bins.

Because his alleged confession came in the psychiatric ward where Hacking was treated for 13 days after his wife disappeared, Athay has suggested he might try an insanity defense.