Historically, landfill searches have not been very successful, said Dinse, who noted that the needle-in-a-haystack analogy may not even accurately describe what searchers in Salt Lake City were up against.

"This has been an exceptional case, to say the least," Dinse said.

Landfill operations manager Bud Stanford concurred with Dinse's assessment that landfill searches are most often unsuccessful and that the chances of a find were low. But, given that police quickly determined it was a possibility, landfill administrators believed it was only a "matter of time" until the body was found, he said.

Still, the task was daunting.

An estimated 4,300 tons of refuse was deposited at the Salt Lake Valley Solid Waste Facility, 3060 W. California Ave. (1400 South), on July 19, the day Lori Hacking disappeared, Stanford said. By midday July 20, police asked landfill managers to redirect incoming refuse to another area of the facility.

Cadaver dogs and handlers spent 21 unsuccessful nights searching the huge pile of garbage for the woman's remains.

Police then altered their approach, beginning a visual, day-time search for the woman on Sept. 14. Salt Lake police asked for the help of other valley police departments for assistance, with dozens of police officers and firefighters from the area volunteering for the job.

Over the past three weeks, a search team of 20 to 25 people, dressed in overalls and steel-shanked boots, have combed through one-ton sections of garbage with pitchfork-like rakes and sometimes by hand.

Working 10-hour shifts and four-day weeks, searchers have cleared between 300 and 400 tons of garbage daily, said Eslinger, who himself was among the volunteers.

It is believed that the body was located in a portion of the garbage that had not been examined by cadaver dogs, Eslinger said.

The discovery

When the remains were found, investigators placed a 15 foot-by-15-foot, white, tent top over the area and spread out sheetlike cloths to begin processing their findings. The area was processed as any other crime scene would be, with homicide detective and crime lab technicians combing carefully through everything, Eslinger said.

Dinse said the discovered remains, which appeared to be from a "petite person," did not form a full skeleton, but investigators believed they had "most of the portions of a body."

Friday morning, the discovery filled searchers with hope that they had found what they had been so carefully looking for, Eslinger said.

"We got a good sense that these (remains) would be Lori's, but we were not certain," he said, adding that the efforts of volunteers were largely fueled by their desire to help the Soares family.

"To be able to give them closure is excellent," Dinse said.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com; jdobner@desnews.com