Thelma Soares acknowledged on a Tuesday broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that the odds are small police will ever recover her daughter's body.

But Soares said she helped select a headstone for her daughter's grave — if the family can bury her. Lori Hacking has been missing for eight weeks.

"That's the most difficult part, Oprah," Soares said. "Because this is why we got a headstone, so that we and her friends would have somewhere to go to remember her. And we know the chances of recovering her body are very slim."

In her first extensive television interview, Soares — who wore Lori's earrings and ring ("Mark sold his car to buy this ring, and I have her perfume on," she said) — reiterated thoughts and beliefs that she shared with the Deseret Morning News in a sit-down interview in August.

Winfrey said she donated $50,000 to a University of Utah scholarship Soares established to honor her daughter.

Hacking was reported missing July 19 after her husband, Mark, said she failed to return from a run. At the beginning of the investigation, Mark checked into a hospital for mental health treatment and his apparent lies about his education were revealed. He allegedly told his brothers he shot his wife while she slept and disposed of her body in a Dumpster. The contents of the Dumpster were compacted at the Salt Lake Valley Solid Waste Facility.

Police have searched the refuse with cadaver dogs. On Tuesday, they resumed searching by hand.

Soares appreciates the police work.

"They have been wonderful," she told Winfrey. "They had to go through 5,000 tons of compacted garbage. This has been very, very difficult."

A brief interview with Lori Hacking's father, Eraldo Soares, aired during the show. He described the experience as "the worst thing that could happen in my life."

He would easily trade places with his daughter, he said, and she'll be in his heart forever.

Dr. Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist, opined that shortly before she went missing, Lori Hacking found out her husband was not accepted into medical school in North Carolina.

People who lie frequently lose control when confronted, she said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com