Husband Of Missing Utah Jogger In Hospital- Family Misled

Husband Of Missing Utah Jogger In Hospital Family Of Lori Hacking Says Husband Misled Them

SALT LAKE CITY -- The husband of a missing pregnant woman has been hospitalized, and police discovered that he had lied to his wife and family about graduating from college and getting into medical school, authorities said Thursday.

AP Image Lori Kay Hacking, who disappeared Monday, is pictured with husband Mark Hacking.

Mark Hacking, 28, has not appeared publicly since Monday, when he said his 27-year-old wife, Lori, never returned from a morning jog. The disappearance came days before the couple were to move to North Carolina, supposedly so that he could attend medical school.

Hacking entered the hospital Monday night or early Tuesday because of stress, according to his brother, Lance. He would not say what kind of hospital it was. Detective Dwayne Baird confirmed that Hacking was hospitalized but would not give details.

Hacking's family and in-laws said they were stunned to learn on Wednesday that he had not graduated from college or been accepted at a medical school, as he had claimed.

Thelma Soares, Lori Hacking's mother, said that she was certain her daughter had not known about the discrepancies. "Up to the time when I spoke with her last, she was deceived also," she told KUTV-TV.

Soares, addressing herself to her son-in-law, said: "We feel badly that you felt that it was necessary to perpetuate this deception. We love you, no matter what."

Police Chief Rick Dinse said "there is no question (Mark Hacking) is a person of interest" in the disappearance of his wife, but said he would have been regardless of the lies he told about his education.

"He has two older brothers who are high achievers, a physician and the other is an electrical engineer," the elder Hacking said. "He felt under some pressure to excel as well. It has finally come to an end, and he's relieved."

The University of North Carolina said Wednesday that Hacking had never applied to the medical school. Also, the University of Utah said he was enrolled from 1999 to 2002, majoring in psychology, but never graduated.

More than 1,200 volunteers scoured the steep terrain surrounding a park and canyon in a search for Lori Hacking on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, volunteers took fliers door-to-door in downtown Salt Lake City neighborhoods.

Friends said the couple learned last Thursday that Lori was five weeks pregnant, although The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday quoted police as saying that had not been confirmed. Lance Hacking said Thursday that Lori showed the positive at-home pregnancy to her sister-in-law.

Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City), Friday, July 23, 2004

Mark Hacking breakdown?

By Jennifer Dobner, Leigh Dethman and Laura Hancock
Deseret Morning News

Mark Hacking's health may have taken a downward turn Monday, just hours after his wife, Lori, reportedly went missing while jogging in Memory Grove.

Police officers and dogs leave the Salt Lake apartment of Mark and Lori Hacking after searching it for clues.

Scott G. Winterton, Deseret Morning News

Officers responded to a "disturbance call" late that night involving the 28-year-old man and quickly determined Hacking was suffering a medical problem, Salt Lake police detective Dwayne Baird said.

The disturbance was not at the Hacking residence near 100 South and 945 East, Baird said, although he would not say where it occurred.

Hacking was reportedly found by police sometime in the middle of the night at the Chase Suite Hotel, 765 E. 400 South, about a half mile from the Hacking apartment, said a hotel staff member who did not want to be identified.

Sources told the Deseret Morning News that Hacking was naked except for a pair of sandals and acting strangely. Citing medical privacy laws, Baird would not confirm whether Hacking was clothed, nor would he discuss Hacking's physical or mental condition.

Hacking was later checked into a psychiatric unit at the University of Utah Medical Center, where his parents, Douglas and Janet Hacking, spent the night with him Wednesday.

Family said Thursday they knew of no previous mental health problems suffered by Mark Hacking or of marital problems between him and Lori. The couple's bishop from a student ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the University of Utah said Mark has never sought counseling of any kind from him. Bishop Barry Packer said he was surprised by developments in the case, but he refused to pass judgment on Mark Hacking.

"My role is to support and love him and just wait to see what unfolds," Packer said.

The couple regularly attended church services, and last Sunday, when Lori was last seen by family members, nothing about them or their life seemed suspicious, Packer said.

Police have said that Lori Hacking, 27, is believed to have last been seen Monday at 5:50 a.m., stretching before a jog in Memory Grove. By 10:49 a.m., her husband of five years called police to report she was missing, she had not reported to work and he had found her car parked outside the grove.

So far, search efforts for the woman by volunteers, police dogs and officers on mounted patrol have been unsuccessful. On Thursday, officers with dogs also conducted searches of Dumpsters in more than a dozen locations along 100 South, according to a report from KSL-TV.

KSL-TV also reported that Mark Hacking bought a new mattress from a local dealer sometime Monday morning. Among items taken from the couple's apartment was a box springs but no mattress.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has also taken keen interest in the Hacking case, City Hall staffers told KSL Radio. The mayor, who has criticized how police handled the Elizabeth Smart case and two unsolved homicides from the late 1970s, is following the investigation closely. Last year after Smart was found, Anderson empaneled an independent commission to review all three cases. That review is on hold until after the cases of Smart's alleged kidnappers have been adjudicated.

"The reason I raised a lot of those issues is to improve performance, and I think from everything I've seen so far (the police) have been very diligent," Anderson said. "I expect that we are not going to see any of those same kind of problems."

Like others, Anderson said the main focus of the current investigation should be to bring Lori Hacking home.

Police hadn't identified a clear suspect in the case Thursday but continue to call Mark Hacking a person of interest. Much of what police first knew about Mark Hacking is now being re-evaluated, after police learned Wednesday that Hacking had told numerous lies.

"Because of what we learned yesterday, we have had to kind of research everything that he's told us," Baird said.

Among the stories Hacking concocted were his recent graduation from the University of Utah and plans for medical school in North Carolina. The stories were so elaborate that Hacking even sent out fictitious graduation announcements to friends and family, several sources said.

Hacking did not, however, lie about his wife being newly pregnant. One of Mark's sisters had actually seen the results of the home pregnancy kit used by Lori, family members said Thursday.

During an all-night conversation with his parents at the hospital Wednesday, Mark Hacking said he had felt pressure to measure up and so wove stories about his present and future life, his father, Douglas Hacking, said.

"He talked a bit about his deception to us and how it kind of got started two years ago," Douglas Hacking said, apologizing for not having slept, showered or changed clothes since appearing at a news conference the day before. "He has two older brothers who are high achievers; one is a physician, one's an electrical engineer. (Mark) felt he was under some pressure to excel as well."

With those deceptions revealed, Mark Hacking is feeling relieved, his father said, but he is also incapacitated with grief.

"He feels like a heavy load is lifted and (has) come to an end," Douglas Hacking said. "He is still grieving about Lori. He wishes he could be out there."

Mark's brother, Lance Hacking, 34, of Austin, Texas, said the family understands police must look closely at his brother, other family members or people close to them in order to follow every lead. At a Thursday afternoon press conference at the church where the search is being coordinated, he said they still believe Mark is not involved in Lori's disappearance.

That belief is based on several puzzle pieces in the case, including Lori's abandoned car and a witness who said she saw a woman matching Lori's description outside the park Monday, Lance Hacking said.

"I have to base my personal feelings on those facts. In my mind that leaves an abduction as a strong candidate," he said.

"The thing that makes me not concerned as far as Lori goes is . . . Mark's mannerisms to Lori have been ideal from the very start. He's a loving, gentle husband. That's the Mark we know. That is the Mark that we see every day."

And Lori Hacking's father shook his head "no" when asked Thursday if his faith in his son-in-law had wavered.

"Mark is a wonderful person. I love him, and I'll stand by him," Herald Soares said. "I think that once you start to lie, you have to keep lying, and that sucker will double and double on you. I think he did what he did because he didn't want to disappoint his father."

Mark's lies have not caused any discord between the Hacking and Soares families, he added.

"The two families have met together every day," he said. "If you were to look into the room, you would see hugs, prayers."

But Lance Hacking also acknowledged that his brother's lies could keep people away from search efforts, and he may be right.

About 170 people volunteered to search for Lori Hacking on Thursday. That's down from Wednesday, when slightly fewer than 300 volunteers helped and from Tuesday's high of 1,200 volunteers.

Kin trying to keep the focus on Lori

Missing woman: Mark Hacking's academics deception may not be linked to Lori's disappearance, and family urges the search to go on
By Ashley Broughton and Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

2004-07-23 01:49:33.268

As the search goes on for Lori Hacking, in what Salt Lake City police continue to label a missing persons case, more questions arose Thursday about her husband, Mark Hacking, and statements he has made about his wife's disappearance.
   On Monday morning, Mark Hacking called police to report that his wife had disappeared while jogging in or near City Creek Canyon.
   At about the same time Monday morning, Mark Hacking reportedly was seen buying a new mattress at a store in South Salt Lake.
   Detective Dwayne Baird said Thursday that Hacking's actions before and after Lori Hacking vanished - combined with an elaborate deception in which he apparently falsely told his family he had graduated from college and been accepted into medical school - have contributed to a heightened investigative interest in him.
   "He is a person of interest because of the fact that there are discrepancies," Baird said. He called the medical school deception - first revealed on Wednesday - "the tip of the pyramid."
   Baird stressed police were not convinced of foul play on Mark Hacking's part and were not calling him a suspect.
   "We're not convinced one way or another," he said. "This is still a missing persons case."
   Family members Thursday also urged everybody to focus on searching for Lori Hacking and not get distracted.
   And Detective Phil Eslinger said, "We've got a couple of promising leads that we're working on right now, on the criminal aspect of it."
   Police spent Thursday afternoon searching Dumpsters near the apartment complex where the Hackings lived. A similar search took place earlier this week behind a nearby ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint near the Hackings' apartment.
   A church member said police on Monday asked permission to take the contents of a Dumpster behind the church that held a mattress and some door frames. On Tuesday, the door frames remained but the mattress was gone.
   The owners of Bradley's Furniture, Etc. told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday that Mark Hacking came into their South Salt Lake store at about 9:45 Monday morning shopping for a mattress.
   "He just came in like any normal customer, just like his wife sent him to buy a mattress - nothing out of the ordinary," said Lisa Downs, who is the wife of store owner Chad Downs.
   Lisa Downs said Mark Hacking's credit card purchase of a queen-sized mattress went through at 10:23 a.m. on Monday. Baird confirmed that purchase on Thursday evening.
   Friends said on Wednesday that Mark Hacking contacted them about Lori Hacking's disappearance at about 10 a.m. Monday. They also said Hacking had told them he had run his wife's usual jogging route twice, 3 miles each way, looking for her before he called them.
   Mark Hacking called police to report his wife missing at 10:49 a.m., according to police records. Lisa Downs said she figures he was still in her store's parking lot at 10:35. Because store staffers were unable to fully secure the mattress to Mark Hacking's car, he was asked to drive home slowly.
   Under normal speed limits, the trip from the mattress store to the Hackings' apartment in the University area of Salt Lake City takes about 12 minutes, according to the online map database Mapquest.
   Meanwhile, fewer volunteer searchers were scouring the rugged terrain of City Creek Canyon, where Lori Hacking may have disappeared, and canvasing surrounding neighborhoods. Many said they were surprised and confused to learn about Mark Hacking's deceptions about his schooling, but were not swayed from their efforts to find his wife.
   For the third day, Mark Hacking, who worked as a psychiatric ward orderly, did not join the search. Police confirmed that officers had been called late Monday to the Chase Suites near 700 East 400 South in Salt Lake City on a disturbance call, and that the disturbance involved Mark Hacking. They also said he received medical attention at the scene.
   Relatives said Thursday that Hacking was hospitalized on Tuesday morning.
   Baird said Hacking was interviewed Wednesday, but was not under police guard.
   Mark Hacking's relatives said Thursday he apparently felt pressured to lie about his educational plans, as he has two older brothers who are "high-achieving," as a doctor and an electrical engineer.
   Douglas Hacking said Thursday he had spent all night with his son and talked with him about the deception. "He feels relieved that it's come to an end," he said. "It's like lifting a heavy load off his back."
   Mark's brother, Scott Hacking, said, however, that he never felt that kind of pressure.
   "My parents are amazing parents," he said. "I've always found, growing up, that they supported me in my personal goals."
   On Monday, Mark Hacking had said his wife was five weeks pregnant. Family members Thursday said one of his sisters, Sarah, had seen the pregnancy test and was able to confirm the pregnancy.
   Although few others apparently knew about the pregnancy, one of Lori Hacking's college roommates said Thursday she knew the couple was trying to conceive.
   Erin Galbraith, who lived with Lori Hacking for three years while the two were attending the U., said she could not imagine two people more devoted to one another.
   "Mark has just been fantastic," she said Thursday. "He has just treated her as you would want anyone to treat one of your best friends. He was the softie."
   Other friends who saw Lori Hacking the night before she disappeared said they also had that impression. The Hackings attended an open house hosted by Angie Hawkes, another of Lori Hacking's former college roommates. She said the couple seemed happy.
   "We talked about the move, we talked about med school, everything," added Galbraith. "That's what had been planned on for so long. I didn't know any different, and I still don't know what to think."
   Lori Hacking's father, Herald Soares, said he was concerned, but not suspicious, about the academic deceptions. A former high school teacher in Fullerton, Calif., Soares said he initially did not graduate from the eighth grade.
   "Now I have a master's degree," Soares said. "Personally, if he didn't want to go to school, that's OK. When you're young, sometimes you don't want those pressures."
   Mark Hacking's family and his wife's family remain "very united," brother Lance Hacking said. "We know Lori's out there. We're committed to getting her."
   Relatives said they had no idea what Mark Hacking's true plans were once the couple moved to North Carolina within the next few days, allegedly for Mark to go to school. They said they did not believe Lori Hacking was aware of her husband's fabrications.
   Ross Williams, a lifelong friend of Mark Hacking's, described him as "a man of God, a man of service and a man of love." He said he was shocked to hear about the deception. "Mark hasn't lied to me in 27 years. If that's the case now, it's not like Mark."
   Members of Mark Hacking's family appeared at two news conferences Thursday accompanied by Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart, a Salt Lake City teenager kidnapped from her home in June 2002 and found nine months later in the company of two street preachers.
   "They are a great family," Smart said of the Hackings. "They have a lot of faith."
   Asked about Mark Hacking's deceptions, Smart said, "families go through and have issues. That doesn't mean it has anything to do with Lori."
   He pleaded for volunteers' continuing support. "Don't jump to conclusions. Please don't. That can make a difference . . . Remember, Elizabeth was in our back yard, literally, for two months. These people came so close to finding her."
   Both Hawkes and Galbraith said they had volunteered in the search. "It's hard to stay focused, especially with this business with Mark," Galbraith said. "That's not the important thing right now . . . it's disheartening to see so few people show up, and the numbers dropping every day."
   Hawkes said that as the Hackings were leaving Sunday night, "I gave her a hug goodbye," she said. "It dawned on me they were going to be moving, and I asked her if this would be the last time I would see her."
   Lori Hacking told her it might be the last time she would see Mark, but not her. Mark Hacking was planning to drive to North Carolina before his wife, who was planning to fly there the first week in August. Lori Hacking promised her she was still planning to attend a girlfriend's birthday party Aug. 1.
   "It just freaks me out that she was at my house, and less than 12 hours later, this whole thing goes down," Hawkes said. "It's just a shock."

From KSL... (Salt Lake City)

Hacking Bought New Mattress Day of Wife's Disappearance
Jul. 22, 2004

If you wish to volunteer for the search, you are asked to go to the LDS Stake Center located at 142 W. 200 North in downtown Salt Lake. Volunteers will be taken starting at 8 am. Volunteers need to be at least 18 years old. Please bring a Photo ID with you.

Sam Penrod reporting

New details emerge about how Mark Hacking spent the hours immediately following his wife's disappearance.

But despite a growing cloud of suspicion... family members remain staunchly supportive of Mark, as the search continues for his wife Lori.

"I love him and I don't have any doubts about him. I know that once that Lori is found, that everything will be solved."

Eyewitness News just learned that Mark Hacking bought a brand new mattress, at about the same time he was reporting his wife's disappearance to police.

Lori Hacking's car was found parked at Memory Grove where she reportedly went for a jog early Monday morning.

The owner of a mattress store told KSL that Mark Hacking was there Monday morning at 10:20 a.m., and bought a new mattress, but no box spring. Store officials say police came there with the receipt Monday afternoon.

It's a curious development, because the Hackings were preparing to move across the country and police confirm a box spring was one of several items they confiscated from the Hacking's apartment as part of their investigation.

Overall however, police remain very quiet about this case, but their investigation appears to be focusing more at the Hacking apartment now, instead of Memory Grove, where Lori disappeared.

Trained police dogs sniff a garbage dumpster outside of the Hacking's apartment building tonight. It was the final stop for the dogs, after detectives led them on a systematic search of at least ten other trash dumpsters along 100 South, in the Hacking's neighborhood.

While the dogs may only be a routine part of the investigation, the police are saying virturally nothing about where their case stands.

Det. Dwayne Baird, Salt Lake City Police Dept.: "Based on the fact it may be evidence, I wouldn't be at liberty to discuss the details or nature of that at this point."

Now that Mark Hacking's fabricated plans for medical school have been exposed, the timing of Lori's disappearance just days before they were to move to North Carolina appears to be more than a coincidence.

Police say he is NOT a suspect, only one of many 'persons of interest.'

Family members today confirmed Mark is hospitalized, but say he is anxiously waiting for any news of Lori.

Lance Hacking, Lori's Brother: "Mark immediately wanted to know what and if there was something he could do."

Mark's family also says he is relieved they know he lied about medical school, ending years of trying to live up to a high standard of success.

Douglas Hacking, Mark's Father: "He has two older brothers who are high achievers... Physician and electrical engineer... And he felt he had some pressure to excel as well.”

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