Surveillance Seized in Hacking Probe

A few more details included towards the bottom of this story--

Documents Reveal Police Search of Phone Records, Computers and Surveillance Video in Hacking Case

Aug 13, 2004 5:17 pm US/Mountain

Police learned that ``an object was dumped'' in a trash bin at the psychiatric hospital where Mark Hacking, who is accused of killing his wife, worked as an orderly, according to court files unsealed Friday.

Police seized a digital recorder for surveillance cameras at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute, where they believe Hacking disposed of his wife's body.

They are reviewing the hospital's digital video recorder for a specific period _ from midnight to noon on the day Lori Hacking vanished July 19, according to police affidavits used to obtain search warrants.

One affidavit released Friday says the hospital trash bin was under video surveillance, but it didn't reveal what object was dumped there, or who was seen dumping it. But court files released earlier this week say police received a tip from an unidentified witness that led them to a county landfill in the search for Lori Hacking's body.

The latest search warrants were unsealed Friday on a motion from prosecutors, who said the didn't have to be kept secret any longer because Hacking has been charged with murder.

The court filings show detectives used a warrant to glean information about Hacking's use of the hospital's computer network.

Investigators poured over the couple's finances and credit reports, according to other warrants, and also seized television footage of Hacking giving interviews July 19 to four Salt Lake stations at the park where he said his wife went jogging.

They took images from surveillance cameras in a convenience store where Hacking was seen twice the night his wife presumably died _ first with her, then returning to the store alone after 1 a.m. for a pack of cigarettes and driving off in his wife's car.

Other surveillance recordings were taken from cameras around Salt Lake's Mormon Temple Square that point in the direction of the jogging park.

Detectives learned Hacking was using two cell phones _ the second may have been his wife's _ on morning she disappeared, according to police affidavits.

A discarded mattress that figures in the case was bloodstained, the affidavits revealed for the first time. Police believe Hacking threw away the old mattress at a nearby church, then went shopping for a new mattress after reporting his wife missing and before going to the park to look for her.

Earlier in the week court files showed police found a letter at the Hacking household suggesting marital trouble. In an unsigned letter addressed to ``Mark'' and left in a spare bedroom, the writer said, ``I can't imagine life with you if things don't change. I got someone I don't know I want to spend the rest of my life with unless changes are made.''

The court file does not make clear who wrote the letter or whether it was typed or handwritten.

Police have taken dozens of items from the couple's apartment, their vehicles and Mark Hacking's workplace locker, earlier court files showed. They include a hunting knife, a piece of bloodstained carpet, a personal computer, and a stained pillow retrieved from a trash bin outside the apartment.

Hacking, accused of killing his sleeping wife and dumping her body in a trash bin, has been grieving and praying, according to family members who visited him at jail Friday and Thursday.

His mother, Janet Hacking, told reporters she was praying for Lori Hacking and hoped her parents and siblings could ``forgive us and pray for us.''

Police and cadaver dogs were to return to the county landfill Friday night to resume the search for Lori Hacking's body.

Source

Lori Hacking pinglist--if you want on or off, let me know via Freepmail!

The court filings show detectives used a warrant to glean information about Hacking's use of the hospital's computer network.

More stuff to make ya go "hmmm...."

Brother Visits Mark Hacking in Jail
Aug. 13, 2004

Sandra Yi Reporting

Police unsealed more than 300 pages of new documents in the Mark Hacking case. It happened as family members began visiting Mark in jail for the first time since his arrest.

This document reveals more about the police investigation. There are subpoenas for phone records, credit card bills and surveillance video.

As the judicial process continues, Mark Hacking's family is showing him unconditional love.

Lance Hacking: "Our main goal is to let him know that our family is still here and that we absolutely love him, and we're doing everything we can to stand by him in that way."

As Mark Hacking sits in the Salt Lake County Jail, his family's love remains unwavering.

Stephanie Hacking, Mark's Sister-In-Law: "In fact, I feel more endeared and more love toward him now more than ever."

Mark's brother Lance, his wife and their nine-month old son saw Mark for the first time since his arrest nearly two weeks ago. Their visit today lasted 30 minutes.

Lance Hacking: "Obviously it's rough. Jail's a rough place and everything that's happened of course is very tough."

Lance says their brotherly bond remains strong. It was Lance and his brother Scott who heard Mark's confession about killing Lori, then went to police. Lance says Mark is understanding.

Lance Hacking: "He understood that we acted out of choosing what we felt was the right thing to do. He understands that we felt that our actions were also guided towards helping him heal."

The family is also coping with a double loss. Lance says he not only lost his sister-in-law, but part of his brother.

Lance Hacking: "We feel a loss because we understand the suffering he's going through, and that weighs heavy on our hearts as well."

A memorial service for Lori Hacking is going on tomorrow morning, at the LDS Windsor Center at 60 East 1600 North, in Orem. The doors will be open at 9:00.

Source

I just gotta say, some of these quotes are just disturbing...Mark's sister in law feels more endeared to him now than ever? It takes a double murder to make someone endearing these days? And Lance's brother thinks what Mark is going through is very tough? What about what LORI went through??

(shaking head...)

Well, some of us wondered if this would go to trial--Athay seems to think so, as quoted in this article:

Mark Hacking's Defense Beginning to Form Strategy
Aug. 10, 2004

Samantha Hayes Reporting

Mark Hacking's appearance in court this morning is the beginning of what will probably be a long judicial process. His attorney says he talks to Mark Hacking everyday. Mark Hacking is accused of murdering his wife. And the District Attorney says he can prove it.

David Yocom, Salt Lake County District Attorney: "I think we have a very excellent case."

Now his defense begins looking through the state's evidence and evaluating its case.

Gil Athay, Defense Attorney: "At this stage we are looking toward a trial."

Much of the strong evidence presented by the DA is based on an alleged confession from Mark Hacking to his brothers.

Gil Athay: "Certainly that will be a concern, we are looking at the circumstances under which that statement was made."

Athay is also looking into circumstances of Mark Hacking's life long before the night of July 18th.

Gil Athay: "We are exploring all aspects of mental illness and or mental disability."

In particular, an event in his early 20's when Mark's parents said he suffered head and back injuries after falling off a roof.

Gil Athay: "Certainly the potential for organic brain damage is being looked at in this case and that can result from a fall such as has been described and we are exploring those possibilities."

Another consideration is the possibility of an aggravated murder charge. If Lori's body is found, and a pregnancy is confirmed, prosecutors could push for the death penalty.

Gil Athay: "I don't suspect it will under the circumstances. I think this is where we are going to be. That is the way we are proceeding through as though these will be the final charges we ultimately will be facing."

Athay also says a plea bargain is a possibility, but it is not something he is working on at this point.

Source

Please remember that this guy is a #1 con artist like Scot Petersen. Remember how his in-laws spoke about him in the beginning? Totally on his side. That's the tragedy of pathological liars. I've known one and his wife was totally bamboozled, even when the truth started to come out. She just could't accept the truth. God help people who remain in denial. They're ready and willing victims for the next Hacking.

I'm just sitting, lurking and waiting as I watch this unfold.

Thanks for pinging me on the articles, MizSterious!

Hacking sends words to his wife's parents

Funeral today: Accused killer's message is not made public, but the investigation's subpoenas have been
By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune

2004-08-14 01:00:55.865

Mark Hacking has asked his parents to relay a few words to the grieving family of his wife, Lori Hacking, whom he allegedly killed in her sleep.

   But that message, which the Hackings expect to pass along at Lori's memorial service today, is intended for family alone.

   "I can't really say what it was," Douglas Hacking said Friday, a day after he and his wife, Janet, visited their son for about a half-hour in the Salt Lake County Jail. They had not seen Mark since Aug. 1, the day before he was arrested in connection with Lori's death.

   Also on Friday, a series of investigative subpoenas was unsealed by a 3rd District judge that show detectives cast a broad net early in their investigation of Lori's disappearance, which her husband reported on July 19.

   The subpoenas, which range in date from July 21 to Monday, also seek credit card, financial, home phone and cell phone records. The Hackings had cell phones from Utah and North Carolina, where they were in the process of moving.

   Detectives sought access to the University of Utah Health Sciences computer network, where Mark Hacking had a personal login.

   One subpoena asked for video surveillance footage taken from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints security cameras that might have focused on State Street, North Temple and Memory Grove, where Lori's car was found.

   Another, requested on July 27, asked for security camera footage from the University Neuropsychiatric Institute, where Hacking is believed to have thrown Lori's body in a Dumpster.

    Detectives also subpoenaed television footage taken of Mark Hacking around the time of Lori's disappearance.

    Though the subpoenas describe what detectives sought access to, they do not detail what they actually received.

    Also on Friday, Mark Hacking's defense attorney, D. Gil Athay, obtained from prosecutors all police reports, witness interviews and evidence reports gathered to date.

    Mark Hacking was charged Aug. 9 with first-degree felony murder and three counts of obstructing justice, a second-degree offense. He is set to appear Monday morning for a scheduling conference before Judge William Barrett.

   According to court documents, he shot his wife in the head with a .22-caliber rifle as she slept during the early hours of July 19.

    He remains in the jail's maximum security wing, and Thursday his parents were allowed to visit him.

   "He looked pretty good to me," Douglas Hacking said. "It was a good visit."

   The Hackings plan to attend services for Lori today, accepting an invitation extended to them by her relatives, the Soares family.

   "All of our family will be there," Douglas Hacking said. "They were very kind to make sure we were invited."

   Mark's brother, Lance, flew in from Texas with his wife on Friday to attend the funeral. Lance, his wife Stephanie and his fifth child, Wyatt, visited Mark on Friday.

   Lance Hacking said he feels "extreme loss on two accounts."

   He told his brother that he would remain supportive, while at the same time he wants the attention to shift to Lori and the life that has been lost.

   Lori's memorial service today is expected to start at 9:30 a.m., when friends can view a display of her life in the Relief Society Room of the Windsor Stake Center in Orem. The funeral will begin at 11 a.m. The family asks that instead of flowers, mourners donate money to the Lori Hacking Memorial Fund at any Wells Fargo bank. They hope to raise enough cash to create a scholarship or some other memorial honoring her.

   Lori Hacking was born in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve 1976, and adopted by Herald and Thelma Soares, who are now divorced. The family moved to Orem in 1988.

   She married Mark Hacking, her high-school sweetheart, on Aug. 7, 1999, at the Bountiful LDS Temple.

   Their marriage, which family and friends described as ideal, had deteriorated recently, most likely after Lori apparently discovered Mark Hacking's elaborate lies about his educational ventures.

   Contrary to his claims, he never graduated from the U. and he never applied to medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the couple was preparing to move.

   In a spare bedroom of the couple's Salt Lake City apartment, police found a typed letter they believe was written by Lori. The letter included such statements as: "I want to grow old with you, but I can't do it under these conditions. . . . I can't imagine life with you if things don't change."

   Lori and Mark Hacking argued late July 18 about his medical school lies, according to the charges. When Lori went to bed, Mark played video games then "came across" his .22-caliber rifle.

   After shooting her once in the head while she slept, Mark Hacking allegedly cut the pillow-top off of the mattress and wrapped her in it. Prosecutors believe he placed her body in a Dumpster near his workplace, and that he threw the gun and the rest of the mattress in other Dumpsters.

   Police later recovered the mattress, but have not yet found the gun or Lori's body.

   Officers, aided by cadaver dogs, searched the Salt Lake County landfill late Friday for the 11th night. So far, police have found nothing connected to the crime.

   A major portion of the criminal case is based on Mark Hacking's confession to his brothers, Scott and Lance, who talked to him while he was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of University Hospital on July 24.

   The Hackings have assisted in the investigation and have remained close to the Soares family. At the same time, they have supported Mark Hacking.

   Lance talked to his brother Friday about the confession wanting to "make sure he knew we acted out of love."

   The Hacking and Soares families have maintained such a solid relationship through their faith and the understanding that they are all grieving, Lance Hacking said. He and his wife complimented Lori's mother, Thelma, for her understanding, forgiveness and unconditional love.

    Scott Hacking plans to see his brother Thursday or Friday, the next time he can have visitors. His parents plan to visit him once a week, Douglas Hacking said.

   The family has "flooded" Mark with letters, his father said, and have also communicated with him through a series of short phone calls.

   Douglas and Lance Hacking would not discuss much of their conversations with Mark because of the criminal proceedings now under way.

   Mark Hacking has no contact with other inmates and is only allowed one hour out of his cell each day.

    He has spent a good deal of his time reading a Gideon's Bible, provided by the jail. His father said his son has finished all of the New Testament and on Thursday asked for a "triple combination," the three main books of LDS scripture in one volume.

   Said Douglas Hacking, "He's praying a lot."
    mcanham@sltrib.com

Source

...he feels "extreme loss on two accounts."

Oh, really? Is part of his defense now going to be, "Take pity on me, I'm a poor widower?" Today's stories just boggle the mind...

Not much in this article that hasn't been stated in others, so just an excerpt:

'We love him no matter what'

Family visits Hacking in jail; more court documents released

By Jennifer Dobner and Pat Reavy
Deseret Morning News SOUTH SALT LAKE — It's been nearly two weeks since Lance Hacking last saw his brother Mark. It was Aug. 2, the day Mark Hacking was arrested for allegedly killing his wife — a crime his family says Mark confessed to his brothers, who then took that information to police.

Lance Hacking leaves the Salt Lake County Jail with his wife, Stephanie, and Wyatt, their baby.

Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News

Friday night, Lance Hacking went to the Salt Lake County Jail for a visit with Mark, one day after their parents, Janet and Douglas Hacking, had visited.
He wanted, Lance Hacking said, to let Mark know that he is still loved and that the shared decision he and brother Scott Hacking had made to reveal Mark's confession was intended as an act of love.
"He understood that we acted out of choosing what we felt was the right thing to do and he understands that we felt that our actions were also guided toward helping him heal," Lance Hacking said after a 30-minute visit with Mark. "Scott and I still believe that and our family still believes that, and I think that Mark also believes that we acted out of love."

Source

More media covering media...

The ugly appeal of beauty's beast

By LYNN CROSBIE
Saturday, August 14, 2004 - Page R4

In The Miracle of the Rose, Jean Genet reflects on a murderer in Fountrevault prison and observes: "Faults sometimes -- they are deeds -- produce poetry. Though beautiful, these deeds are none less a danger . . . I am a poet confronted with his crimes, and there is only one thing I can say: that those crimes gave off such a fragrance of roses that he will be scented with them, as will his memory and the memory of his stay here, until our waning days."

Genet could have been a staff writer for the tabloids, as these magazines are similarly obsessed with beauty and murder, and are all the more excitable when the two are joined.

This week, the Star and the Enquirer, confronted with two instances of violence against women, made radically different choices. The former headlined the bitch-slap heard around the world -- Paris Hilton's split lip and bruised arm; and the latter chose to feature, on the cover and in a five-page spread, the recent arrest, in Salt Lake City, of Mark Hacking in the stabbing death of his pregnant 28-year-old wife Lori.

Lori, or "the new Laci," as one colleague calls her, was a demure, attractive hospital orderly who may have made the fatal error of marrying a pathological liar. Much of the Enquirer story (and the new People magazine exposé) is particularly excitable on the subject of Hacking having been a con man. People provides a brief and vexing analysis, courtesy of Dr. Robert Galatzer-Levy, of compulsive lying, including a "range of motives," such as a desire to stand out, to be interesting and noticed." In other words, some liars pretend they are close friends with actor Scott Bakula; others carve up their partners and dump them in a 450-acre landfill.

The tabloid's coverage is far more poignant: Hacking, who claimed to have received a bachelor's degree, also maintained that he was accepted at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Prior to this, his wife helped him fill out 11 application forms. It is this little detail that humanizes the victim -- these forms are horribly detailed, exasperatingly self-aggrandizing, and it is almost too terrible to imagine this innocent woman labouring for days over her husband's pointless mendacity.

What is confounding is the mass coverage of this case. Buried elsewhere in the Enquirer is the genuinely shocking story of the mother of abducted and slain 11-year-old Carlie Brucia selling a locket filled with her daughter's ashes to buy drugs. The trashy, baggy-faced mother, Susan Schorpen, is pictured in what appears to be mid-grunt over an image of Carlie and her abductor. Both images are roughly the same size as American Idol's Ruben Studdard, who is reported to be "making sweet music" with a 22-year-old Memphis DJ.

Hacking, like Scott Peterson, was a middle-class striver. He was, by all accounts, a devout Mormon, an assiduous student and a loving husband. It's plausible that his sudden infamy, like Peterson's, is a result of our inability to comprehend the collision between beauty and violence.

Hacking's apparent double life is startling, yet not uncommon. Innumerable men have raised entire second families and, in the extreme, convicted murderer John List, whose crimes were revamped in 1987's The Stepfather, killed his entire family and mother, left a breezy note to a colleague about some hot prospects, and moved on to marry another woman, entering his new life as if slipping on a new suit.

Men and women lie to each other constantly, for reasons too banal to analyze and, on occasion, these lies tangle and fray, igniting in their exposure. Hacking's story may be a cautionary tale about the hardly surprising fact that seemingly good people lie, but true moralists must be aware that genuine evil is oblivious to appearances. Like the mobile gods of Shinto, it manifests itself in a wide variety of guises.

It is entirely plausible that as we inhabit an increasingly entertainment-oriented world, we demand that the stars of even our most sordid dramas be at least as good looking as B-actors. Former Superman Dean Cain is the star of the first Scott Peterson biopic, the latest in a string of similar films, including Mark Harmon's turn as Ted Bundy, meant to assuage us somehow that vicious homicide is more enticing when perpetrated by a hot guy.

I can no more imagine myself stabbing someone for exposing my lies than trading a heart filled with cremains for a rock of crack, yet I like to imagine that both instances would be treated as equally awful in the popular media, however ugly or pretty the criminal.

When Genet laboured over the beauty of his felon's murder, he was alluding to the way in which crime distinguishes its perpetrators as unknowably erotic others. His candour illuminates our own pathology, as prurient devotees of danger and beauty's rough, enthralling wreck.

Source

I once knew a guy who was a lot like these two, and throw Clinton and Kerry in for good measure. Like all of these, he seemed like a fun, happy go lucky kind of guy, very charming and almmost charismatic. Some might have been taken in by him, but I always sensed....something. I don't know if he ever killed anyone, but I never felt comfortable around him, although he appeared at a lot of gatherings I attended. But yes, these people are out there, perhaps more of them than we might think.

"...some of these quotes are just disturbing..."

This type of attitude comes directly from the modern idea of never being "judgemental". It is very disturbing.

John Kerry's inability to comprehend why his fellow soliders would hate him for his slander of them fits right into this mind set. He probably thinks they should feel closer and more endeared to him after he called them war criminals.

The world will not be cured of the poison of the 1960s until every member of my, my, my generation passes from this earth, unfortunately.

Well, the comments his family are making are making it sound less and less likely there will be a plea deal; what a shame.

So Mark fell off garage in his 20s, but so far no family member is claiming that his demeanor changed at that point. How will they explain the episode when he went on that sabbatical and was smokin', drinkin' and messin' with a girl? He surely wasn't 'in his 20s'when that happened, was he?

From Article:"Court files released earlier this week say police received a tip from an unidentified witness that led them to a county landfill....

I wonder if Mark had a twinge of guilt and called in the tip.

The quotes are disturbing because we feel nothing but anger and hatred toward Mark Hacking. But I can understand how his family can say them. They love him

I especially sympathized with his mother. The other day she was quoted as saying how she was constantly thinking about Mark as a sweet little boy, with so much potential and promise.

When one of my kids did something that really disappointed me, I had the same thoughts. (Not nearly as serious as murder).

They are careful to say that they are "supporting him in that way," meaning they are expressing love to him, in the hope that something will touch his soul and he will be truly repentant, and not just con people.

Nobody ever wants to believe their child or brother is evil to the core.

But they are also cooperating in the investigation.

My cousin's son was murdered in a terrible way about 15 years ago. I went to some of the trial. I felt so sorry for his parents (not Mormon). They approached my cousin and her husband weeping, after the conviction, and apologized for what had happened, and said, "Please forgive us. We still love our son." Just like Janet Hacking said a couple of days ago.

Maybe all the sister in law meant by saying what she did is that she understood that Mark needed their love more than he ever had, and she was willing to give it.

I notice how vague they are about just when it happened. Note, the lies about attending pre-med, etc., have been going on for at least five years, and then there's that unfortunate incident you mention. I suspect this is Athay's trial balloon, and I hope it falls to earth with a loud thud.

Nothing Mark does should be trusted...including his "sorrow, grief and regret". This guy has proven to be a HUGE liar and is really good at acting out anything. The fact that his parents believe his grief so easily is disturbing.

"Maybe all the sister in law meant by saying what she did is that she understood that Mark needed their love more than he ever had, and she was willing to give it."

No doubt there is some element of that to it. And it certainly cannot be easy to have your relative or friend in jail, derservedly or not.

We are taught that one of the cardinal virtues is to confort the imprisioned. And I venture that it is not an easy job.

Mark probably really is grieving. But it's probably more for himself than for Lori.

I was interested that his brother said they wanted to keep the focus on Lori.

The Hackings are very good people, but they are not stupid.

We Mormons are taught never to give up on our chidren, and to keep trying to bring them back. We are not relativists. We are not going to say that whatever they do is alright. (That is a huge temptation. I know of a couple of families that have become "gay rights" people when one of their kids has decided to be homosexual. That's not how most of us operate.)

I really see the Hackings trying to do what is right, and being torn apart with grief over what one of their beloved children has done. You have to read between the lines though and understand the context, when all you see are quotes selected by the media.

I think a person can be supported by the family, while at the same time being made to take responsibility for what that person has done--in this case, murdering a lovely, pregnant wife as she slept (what a coward--couldn't even face her to do it). Having a lawyer try to get him off through insanity or challenging a valid confession is not taking responsibility. It's just carrying on with more of the same, being conned by Mark, enabling him to continue with his games.

"Buried elsewhere in the Enquirer is the genuinely shocking story of the mother of abducted and slain 11-year-old Carlie Brucia selling a locket filled with her daughter's ashes to buy drugs."

That is genuinely shocking. Interesting article. Maybe if you're on drugs, and your daughter gets killed by another druggie, maybe, just maybe, at that point you should look for another lifestyle.