By Heather Bowser
SALT LAKE CITY – Police found the disfigured body of 27-year-old Lori Hacking in the Salt Lake City Landfill Friday morning.
Two police volunteers discovered Hacking”s body around 9 a.m. Several hours later, medical examiners used dental records to identify her body.
“It means everything to us to find Lori”s mortal remains so that we might lay them to rest with the dignity befitting the valiant daughter of God she was,” said Lori”s parents, Thelma and Eraldo Soares, in a news release. “We know her body will rise whole, perfect, and beautiful again in the resurrection.”
Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said Friday was the end of a two-phase search. Lori was missing on July 19 after her husband, Mark Hacking, told police that she didn”t retrun from a morning jog. A few days later, Mark allegedly admitted to his brothers that he shot Lori after she learned he lied about going to medical school. Mark told his brothers he dumped her body in a Dumpster at the University of Utah.
For the past month, police have sifted though the landfill using cadaver dogs and later rummaged through garbage by hand. The combined effort resulted in 300 tons of garbage sifted each working day for over a month.
“We”re especially grateful to the men who have searched so long and so hard under such difficult and unpleasant circumstances to bring closure to our nightmare,” the Soares stated in a news release.
Landfill searches are historically unsuccessful especially when body parts themselves are not intact, Dinse said.
“A needle in a haystack does not even describe it,” Dinse said.
