Posted on 07/23/2004 4:26:06 AM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
Husband Of Missing Utah Jogger In Hospital Family Of Lori Hacking Says Husband Misled Them
POSTED: 6:38 am EDT July 22, 2004 UPDATED: 4:18 pm EDT July 22, 2004
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.
Douglas Hacking said he spoke to his son at the hospital about the deception.
"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.
So sad. Why do I get this feeling of Deja vu all over again?
I agree - the timing is suspicious - the media is doing everything to avoid the stunning Berger case
Since Mark managed the apartment complex, I assume they have checked all vacant units or the ones where residents might be on vacation to search for her body.
I can't imagine how much adrenalin must have been flowing thru Mark's body to have carried to old queen sized mattress to the dumpster and unload and bring the new one into the house ALL BY HIMSELF.
Just my 2 cents this morning.
sw
This is almost certainly related to his wife's disappearence, or his reaction once she disappeared.
Either this guy is guilty as sin of killing his wife, or he's a poor chump who just saw the lie that was his life unravel in front of him. Either way, the breakdown is significant.
If he killed the wife, my best guess is that he did so because his lies were exposed.
This should be interesting to watch.
Well, when you go out shopping for a mattress on the morning your wife supposedly disappears, you certainly open yourself up for suspicion.
I haven't kept up on this. Can you tell me if police have found the old mattress? If so, have forensics tested it? Did he just tell his family and wife what his supposed grades were instead of actually having a hard copy of them?
Move along Sheeples! Nothing to see here.........! Can't you see that President Bush forced Hacking to develop his mental illness which ultimately led him to murder his wife, buy a new matress, and end up naked at a hotel. Damn Bush!
Fortunately, John Kerry, showing his soft, softer, and softiest side has now arranged for Hacking to not only be admitted to medical school, but actually graduated without attending a single class. Hacking will then become the Surgeon General under Kerry's administration. Thank God for Kerry!
But there is another report that said they still can't find the mattress.
Keep in mind this guy managed the apartment complex, so the mattress could be anywhere.
It is vague how he deceived his family about the "degree".
I would imagine he had a final moment of truth before he possibly smothered Lori to death.
sw
sw
Not looking good for the woman and her baby, I'm afraid.
Calls his buddy at 10am says his wife is missing, buys a mattress at 10:20am, calls police at 10:49am. Makes sense to me...not to mention being found naked and loony the next day.
AND he ran a total of 12 miles!
"Either this guy is guilty as sin of killing his wife, or he's a poor chump who just saw the lie that was his life unravel in front of him. Either way, the breakdown is significant."
That's a good theory. My personal theory is that he knew he was going to be exposed very soon. His father was supposed to drive with him to North Carolina yesterday, and the whole house of cards would have come tumbling down quickly. Maybe his Dad was even paying his med school tuition.
He had to be twisted to keep up the elaborate lie for this long. I think, in his mind, the only way to avoid going to medical school that someone would believe was to have his wife disappear. That way, no one would expect him to go this year, and he could pretend for the rest of his life that he was just too crushed to continue with his "goal."
That way, when he was still an orderly at age 40, his family would say, "Poor Mark. He was such an achiever. On his way to medical school when someone kidnapped his wife. He's never been the same." Instead of, "Mark is a lying loser."
I had a roommate in college who I later found out was doing the same thing, right down to the "high-achieving brother" part. He seemed to be going to school (apparently went to classes, bought books, etc), and appeared to spend time studying. He even made up a sister (with an eye problem). Had a bunch of us fooled for several years. The whole thing finally unravelled on him when a girl tried to find him "at the lab" or something, and they'd never heard of him.
The thing was, we had no reason not to believe him, and there was nothing that spurred us to check his story. He said it, seemed sincere, and was plausible. I think that's the same thing that happened in this case.
The charade obviously unraveled in this case, too. It's hard to know what happened after that, though it looks very bad for the poor woman.
Yeah, that too! Designer steroids at work. Or meth...but it's his brother's fault.
BTW. This is so heartbreaking for the family. Mark's dad is a fine pediatrician with 7 otherwise sterling kids. Both Mark and Lori went to the same high school my kids did.
It's been said that Mark's father was going to drive with them to North Carolina. Moment of truth approaches. He's in a world of trouble. So what if Mark decided to confess to Lori? She naturally became shocked and angered at the deception and screamed she was "out of there".
Not so fast.
Since Lori was the only good thing Mark had achieved in his life, he couldn't bear her leaving him, so he would rather have her dead than gone.
The rest is history.
sw
I feel so sorry for his family and Lori. I'm praying that she simply left because she found out the truth, but I'm leary of that scenario.
Thanks for the new thread!
Pinging....
It certainly would explain the breakdown. Is that enough to make a guy snap, and lash out at even a wife he loves? Sure. But he could also have broken down because wife he loved got killed by someone concurrently with his life's deception being exposed. Alternate theory of the crime, committed by someone else. I wouldn't want to prosecute this guy without some kind of forensic evidence available to me.
If I were defense counsel, my first question would be if he were competent enough to stand trial. There's enough here that makes me wonder.
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