Lori's body may never be found

Searchers may never find the body of Lori Hacking at the Salt Lake County Landfill, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

"There's always that possibility" of not finding a body, Salt Lake police detective Dwayne Baird said. "We would not stop going through the trash. We would not stop looking."

Thus far, cadaver dogs and investigators have sifted through two-thirds of a pile of 4,600 tons of garbage. They have not found the body or any evidence of a crime.

Mark Hacking reported his 27-year-old wife missing on July 19, telling police she failed to return from a morning jog in Memory Grove. Two weeks later, he was charged with first-degree felony murder. He remained at the Salt Lake County Jail on Tuesday night. Bail is set at $1 million.

Mark Hacking allegedly confessed to his two older brothers that he shot and killed his wife as she slept and then abandoned her body in a Dumpster near the University of Utah. Police have been searching a portion of the landfill where the contents of the Dumpster were disposed.

"We don't even know for certain she's there," Baird said. "We believe she's there based on the information we've gotten from Mark through family members. How accurate is that? It's hard to tell."

Searchers could have missed her body if it was badly decomposed.

"I would hope that wouldn't happen. We're just trying to do our best to search," Baird said.

The search has been suspended through Thursday night. There is no target date to finish the landfill search because some days are slower than others, Baird said.

"Weather has a lot to do with it. Climate conditions. How the dogs are moving. How dense the (garbage) is," Baird said. "It's not an exact science."

Police began searching the landfill two days after Lori was reported missing. They've searched mostly at night when the temperatures are lower. They have taken occasional breaks to allow the dogs to rest.

A day after Lori was reported missing, news surfaced that Mark Hacking had not been accepted into medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as he had told the Deseret Morning News. Also, Hacking apparently did not finish his undergraduate degree at the University of Utah.

The couple planned to move to North Carolina, and Lori was quitting her job. It is unknown how much Lori knew about her husband's alleged lies.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has indicated Lori confronted her husband about his schooling, which may have led to her death. The office has said it is prepared to prosecute the case without a body.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com