SALT LAKE CITY – The mother of Lori Hacking (search), the reportedly five-weeks pregnant 27-year-old Utah woman who allegedly went missing during a jog last week, fought back tears Sunday morning at a press conference as she announced her continued support for her son-in-law.
Thelma Soares (search) said her family is exhausted and wants to focus on trying to find Lori, reported missing by her husband a week ago tomorrow. She also said her family loves Lori's husband Mark Hacking (search), 28, "as if he were our own son." Mark Hacking has been named a person of interest in the case.
Also at the press conference, the families of Mark and Lori Hacking announced that they have designated a spokesman to address the local and national media.
Meanwhile, FOX News has learned that police have found bloodstains in the Hacking home, and a local newspaper reported that a blade was found with blood and hair on it.
Investigators were also checking on a clump of hair found in a dumpster at a gas station less than a block from the store where Mark Hacking bought a mattress before reporting his wife's disappearance.
Other police efforts have included cadaver dogs and a search of a municipal landfill.
Almost a thousand people were helping in the search for Lori on Sunday, and a candlelight vigil was to take place Sunday night in the park where her husband says she went running. Police say there's no evidence she ever made it there.
Earlier, Salt Lake City police Detective Dwayne Baird (search) said he doesn't believe investigators have met with Mark Hacking since Wednesday. He has been in a psychiatric hospital since police found him Tuesday running naked around a motel not far from his home.
Speculation about his credibility was fueled by news that he never graduated from college or applied for medical school. He had told friends and family he was headed to medical school in North Carolina; Lori Hacking vanished days before the couple was to move.
Mark Hacking also had initially said his wife did not wake him up after coming home from an early morning jog, as usual, and never showed up to work. But police confirmed Friday that Mark Hacking was at a furniture store buying a new mattress just before reporting to police that Lori was missing.
Baird said police were still checking out a timeline provided by Mark Hacking on the day his wife disappeared, one he said police consider puzzling.
"Because of the deception, we have to look at all aspects of what he has done," Baird said.
Mark Hacking still has the support of many of his and his wife's relatives, but Lori Hacking's father expressed doubts about his son-in-law after speaking with him at the hospital.
Eraldo Soares told Fox News his son-in-law told him he never would hurt Lori Hacking "with the same face he used to tell me about school."
"Now I don't believe him," Soares said.
Douglas Hacking said Friday his son told him he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance.
Thelma Soares said she visited briefly Friday with Mark Hacking at the hospital.
"As I walked in, he was standing, and he put his arms out, and enfolded me in his arms. I just whispered into his ear, 'Mark, didn't you know that my love for you was not conditional upon you becoming a doctor?"' she said.
She said he wept but did not answer.
Friends and family say the Hackings were a happily married couple.
Fox News' Claudia Cowan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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