July 25, 2004

strange.

Police seeking missing woman investigate trash bin
Hair found near store where husband bought mattress

Sunday, July 25, 2004 Posted: 7:05 AM EDT (1105 GMT)

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Police are investigating a clump of brown hair found Saturday in a trash bin near the store where the husband of a missing woman bought a mattress before reporting her disappearance.

Lori Hacking's car was found near the area where she went to jog Monday morning, and a witness there reported seeing a woman fitting Lori's description stretching that morning. Mark Hacking reported his wife missing later Monday.

Police said they had learned by Thursday that Mark Hacking telephoned friends about 10 a.m. Monday to say Lori was missing and telephoned police about 50 minutes later. In between, he bought a queen-size mattress -- without a box spring -- at a furniture store, police said.

A detective told CNN on Saturday that someone called police and reported finding the hair in the trash bin at a car wash less than a block from the furniture store. Lori Hacking has brown hair.

On Thursday, police confiscated a box spring from the Hackings' apartment. Authorities also impounded Mark Hacking's car, and the couple's apartment was searched.

Police have said that Mark Hacking is not a suspect in the case.

He remains in a hospital, where he was taken Tuesday after police were called to a hotel in Salt Lake City. His family said he "psychologically crashed."

"Obviously he's still very sad about Lori," Mark's brother, Lance, said.

Earlier Saturday, Lori Hacking's mother, Thelma Soares, pleaded for more volunteers to help search for her daughter.

"We need to expand the search to include any groups or any clubs such as mountaineering clubs or hiking clubs or biking clubs that go into the mountains," Soares said, fighting back tears.

"She's my only daughter, please help us find her one way or another."

Mark Hacking's family revealed Wednesday that he had lied about graduating from the University of Utah, and about being accepted at three medical schools in other states.

Members of both families continue to support him.

Soares told CNN on Friday that when she visited her son-in-law at the hospital, "I said, 'Mark, didn't you know that my love for you was not conditional upon your becoming a doctor? That I loved you because you're Mark, and because of how you have treated Lori?'"

She described her son-in-law as a romantic and tender-hearted young man and cried recounting special things he did for her daughter.

Mark Hacking has said he and his wife recently found out that Lori was pregnant, but Soares said her daughter hadn't told her the news.

CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.
gid posted at 19:17