Lori Is Home

She stretched her trembling arms around his broad shoulders, shaking and crying as she whispered into his ear.

"Thank you," she said, her statement punctuated with sobs. "Thank you. We really do appreciate this."

Believing the search for her daughter's body would likely end without success - and that a proper burial would therefore be impossible - Thelma Soares purchased a headstone last month and had it laid at the Orem City Cemetery.

The peaceful site, on a gently rolling knoll in the middle of the cemetery, would give Soares a place to grieve and give Lori Kay Soares Hacking's spirit - if not her body - a place to rest.

It may have remained empty if it were not for the large man Soares embraced Saturday morning - Salt Lake City police Sgt. J.R. Nelson, who broke into a plastic bag at the Salt Lake County Landfill and discovered Lori's remains.

On Saturday morning, Soares and her family were able to witness the proper burial for which they had prayed.