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Families: Search for missing woman 'unnecessary'

Lori Hacking's husband offered new information, they say


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Police called off their search at the city's landfill late Thursday.
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Volunteer searches are called off by the missing woman's family.
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Lori Hacking

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- The family of Lori Hacking, a Utah woman missing for nearly two weeks, said her husband has provided information that makes the search for her unnecessary.

Police said Sunday that Mark Hacking, who has been in the University of Utah Hospital's psychiatric ward since shortly after reporting his wife missing the morning of July 19, gave that information to his family.

Hacking has not been named as a suspect, but police have called him "the primary person of interest" in the case -- and said they have no others.

A spokesman for the Salt Lake City Police Department said a Hacking family member had provided police with "additional, substantive information," which he did not characterize.

During a news conference Sunday afternoon, Detective Dwayne Baird said Mark Hacking had not been taken into custody.

Baird said police would resume their search of the city's landfill Friday, when dogs trained to search for bodies once again become available.

Police called off their search of the landfill Thursday night after three days of sifting through about 7,500 tons of garbage.

The parents of Lori Hacking and Mark Hacking issued a joint statement Saturday evening asking "all efforts from volunteers cease" in the search.

"The families understand that Mark Hacking has provided information that makes it unnecessary for individuals or groups to continue the volunteer search," the statement said.

The statement did not specify to whom Hacking had given new information.

Thousands of volunteers searched the park where Lori Hacking's car was found and the neighborhood where the couple lived. Those searches were called off several days ago.

The community had similarly mobilized in June 2002, when teenager Elizabeth Smart disappeared from her family's home, also on the northern edge of the city.

Mark Hacking told police his wife never returned from an early morning jog at the park.

He also told police the couple recently discovered she was pregnant, but her mother, Thelma Soares, said her daughter had not told her that news.

The couple had been planning to move to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Hacking had said he had been accepted to medical school at the University of North Carolina.

Hacking's family revealed last week that he had lied about medical school and about graduating from the University of Utah.

Police have said an arrest warrant could be issued in the case if forensic test results confirm investigators' suspicions.

Police said last week that Mark Hacking telephoned friends around 10 a.m. July 19 to say his wife was missing. About 50 minutes later, he telephoned police.

During the interim, he bought a queen-size mattress, without a box spring, police said. Last week, authorities removed a box spring from the couple's apartment.

Police also investigated the discovery of a clump of brown hair in a garbage bin near the store where Hacking bought the mattress.

Lori Hacking has brown hair, and police were running forensic tests on the discovery.

Both families are described as devout Mormons.

A member of Mark Hacking's family said the couple often went to hospitals to read Mormon scriptures to the sick.

CNN's Miguel Marquez contributed to this report.


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