Disappearance draws national media

Utah is again on the news map, with national media crowding city streets.

They won't be going anywhere anytime soon, as new developments in the Lori Hacking disappearance emerge nearly every hour.

Hacking, who was reported by her husband Mark to be five weeks pregnant, disappeared Monday morning in Memory Grove. She was reportedly last seen stretching outside the park at 5:50 a.m. The family pleaded for her safe return on all the major networks' morning shows Wednesday.

Rhea Gavry of "Good Morning America" said the show will stay in town until Hacking is found, even after a suspect in her disappearance is found.

"We're here to help find Lori," Gavry said. "We're going to stay here until she is found."

It seemed media interest started to die down early Wednesday, as no new leads developed and the number of volunteers dwindled. That all changed at an afternoon press conference when Douglas Hacking, Mark's father, confirmed his son was never accepted into medical school in North Carolina.

To many members of the media, the Hacking case is a combination of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart and disappearance of Laci Peterson.

On Christmas Eve 2002, a pregnant Peterson, 27 — the same age as Hacking — disappeared from her California home. Police later found her body washed ashore in San Francisco Bay area. Her husband, Scott Peterson, was charged with two counts of first degree murder and is currently on trial.

Reporter Carol McKinley from Fox News Channel said both stories were on the minds of her producers when they sent her from Denver to cover the story. McKinley was also in Utah for the Elizabeth Smart story.

"It feels a lot like Elizabeth Smart did," she said of the community's reaction to Hacking's disappearance and the news coverage.

The Smart story came to such an unbelievable conclusion that some members of the media were now wondering if that could happen again, she said.

Salt Lake City police detective Dwayne Baird said he wasn't sure why some cases gain more media attention than others.

The comparisons with Elizabeth Smart seem to be from how the community reacted to both cases, Baird said. From an investigation standpoint, Baird said the two cases are "quite different."