Posted on 07/27/2004 10:15:01 AM PDT by Bonaparte
Missing: The family hires a criminal defense attorney to represent Mark Hacking, who remains hospitalized
By Ashley Broughton
and Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
2004-07-27 00:39:09.532
Three days before she disappeared, Lori Hacking may have uncovered her husband's deceptions.
She received a phone call at her work, started crying and went home early, said a colleague at Wells Fargo Institutional Brokerage and Sales.
"I could hear her say things such as, 'But he's already been accepted. He's already applied. This can't be correct,' said Darren Openshaw, a Wells Fargo employee who overheard the phone call about 2:15 p.m. on July 16.
Openshaw said he believes the caller was from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
"I don't know for sure it was the school," he said. "I can only assume."
Lori Hacking and her husband, Mark Hacking, were preparing to move to Chapel Hill, where he said he had been accepted to medical school.
But last week, shortly after Mark Hacking reported his wife missing, police learned he had never applied at North Carolina and had lied to his family about graduating from the University of Utah.
His family members, meanwhile, said Monday that they have retained Salt Lake City criminal defense attorney Gilbert Athay to represent him. Family spokesman Scott Dunaway said the move was necessary because of news media reports regarding Mark Hacking.
Monday marked one week since Lori Hacking, 27, dis- appeared.
The Salt Lake City woman, who reportedly was five weeks pregnant, failed to return from an early-morning jog in City Creek Canyon, according to her husband.
Friends have said that Mark Hacking contacted them about his wife's disappearance about 10 a.m., claiming he had twice run his wife's usual jogging route three miles each way, looking for her before he called police.
But police said last week that before Mark Hacking reported his wife missing, he was purchasing a new queen-sized mattress at a South Salt Lake furniture store.
Authorities have been unable to confirm Lori Hacking was in the canyon that morning and consider her husband, Mark Hacking, the only "person of interest" in the case.
Dunaway said relatives were not aware of the phone call Lori Hacking apparently received at work July 16.
The last time Lori Hacking contacted her mother was by e-mail July 14 or 15, he said, making arrangements for her to take care of the couple's cat while they were preparing for their move to North Carolina.
Before Lori Hacking received the phone call on Friday, Openshaw said, he had seen her looking at UNC-Chapel Hill's Web site.
Afterward, "she hung up the phone and sort of sat there crying," he said. "We asked her if she was OK and if she wanted to leave a little early."
She did. But by the time she arrived at her going-away party held that evening, she seemed fine, Openshaw said. Co-workers were so relieved at her elevated mood that they didn't bother to inquire about the phone call.
"We didn't think of it," he said. "We assumed everything had been worked out, that there may have been a misunderstanding. Whatever it was that upset her seemed to have been resolved."
Pictures from the party, held at a supervisor's cabin in the Uinta Mountains, show Lori Hacking in a baggy gray University of Utah sweatshirt, smiling widely with her husband's arm wrapped around her shoulder.
Another shot depicts her standing next to her supervisor, Randy Church, and a cake that reads: "We'll miss you, Lori."
But those present didn't intend the party to be the last time they saw Lori Hacking. Her last day at Wells Fargo was to be Aug. 5, according to a company spokesman.
Those at the party said the guest of honor didn't speak in detail about her future plans, but seemed optimistic about the impending move.
Openshaw said he asked Mark Hacking at the party whether he was planning on rooting for UNC or rival Duke. "He said he didn't really get into stuff like that."
A close friend of Lori Hacking, who saw the couple at a housewarming party the night before she disappeared, said she made no mention of an upsetting phone call.
"Lori was just acting totally normal," said Erin Galbraith, a former college roommate of Lori Hacking. "I would have sensed something weird. I was in their apartment. I was looking at boxes."
Mark Hacking remained hospitalized Monday, Dunaway said, after suffering what relatives have called a "breakdown" the evening of June 19.
Police last questioned Mark Hacking on Wednesday. "To go back and re-question him on the same issues when we don't feel he's been truthful the first time - I don't think that would do us any good," said Detective Dwayne Baird, a police spokesman.
Baird said Mark Hacking has been cooperative with authorities, however.
Police are still awaiting test results from the state crime lab. "They have a lot of material," he said.
Athay said he was retained to represent Mark Hacking late Thursday and has met with him several times. He would not describe the meetings or discuss his conversations with his client.
Asked why Mark Hacking needs an attorney, Athay said, "Everybody needs a lawyer when they're under investigation or suspicion."
He said he was returning calls to reporters Monday because of curiosity regarding his role in the case, but said he will not be saying much in the future.
"You know me," he said. "I'm pretty closed-mouthed and tight-lipped."
Mark Hacking called his wife's office about 10 a.m. on July 19, speaking first to Brandon Hodge, another trading assistant she was training. He didn't ask where his wife was, but instead how she was doing, Hodge told The Associated Press.
''By the way, how is Lori?'' Hacking reportedly asked. Hodge said he replied, ''Well, she's not made it into work yet.''
Church then took the phone and recalls Hacking saying she hadn't returned from a sunrise jog at Memory Grove, a downtown park near the office. Hacking made it seem he was calling from his apartment, Church told the AP.
''Oh, my God, her [work] clothes are still here,'' Hacking reportedly said to Church, who had been expecting Lori Hacking at 7 a.m. and says she was never late to work.
''I said, 'You need to call police immediately. Just get off the phone,' Church said.
Police said Mark Hacking's call came in at 10:49 a.m. Monday - about 25 minutes after he used his credit card to buy the mattress at Bradley's Sleep Etc.
In other developments Monday:
l Salt Lake City Police officers used dogs to search the city landfill Monday night. Baird said they were finishing up a search of the area that had started last week. High temperatures and the availability of the dogs were the reason for the night search, he said.
l Police said they are looking into a lead that Mark Hacking may have visited an R.C. Willey Home Furnishings store nearby before going into Bradley's.
l Authorities have asked anyone who was in Memory Grove Park or City Creek Canyon between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. on July 19 to call 799-3000 or 799-INFO (4636).
l Police continued to decline comment on reports of blood and a bloody knife found at the Hackings' apartment, saying the information is evidentiary in value.
l Police rejected a Salt lake Tribune open-records request for initial police reports in the Lori Hacking case, as is routine in most disappearance cases. In a letter to the newspaper, Capt. Mark Peck said releasing the information might interfere with a law-enforcement investigation, disclose investigative techniques or deprive a person of a right to a fair trial.
l A BFI Waste Services driver who picked up the Hackings' garbage at about 3:30 p.m. on July 19 said he saw nothing unusual and wasn't asked by police to inspect his collections, as is often the case in drug investigations and other crimes.
l The Salt Lake City office of the FBI said it has not been involved in Lori Hacking's case. The FBI has offered its help through agents and profilers but police have so far has not accepted, said spokesman Bob Wright.
aebroughton@sltrib.com
mlaplante@sltrib.com
---
Tribune reporters Stephen Hunt and Michael Westley contributed to this story.
Utah Code Ann. §§ 76-5-201, et seq. declares that a person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, causes the death of another human being, including an unborn child.
Utah considers any stage of pregnancy to be a viable fetus under the law - so this would be a double homicide.
What was Scott Peterson's motive? Who knows. I agree that he didn't kill his wife because he wanted to be with another woman. It has been said that Amber Fry called his home when he stood her up Christmas Eve. What if Laci answered the phone, found out about Amber, then confronted Scott? Pathological liars cannot bear to be unmasked. I don't think Scott wanted this child in the first place. If Laci threatened divorce, it would mean child support and possible alimony payments. Dump it all together and, SNAP!
I wonder what kind of evidence the police have in this case. Just because we haven't heard anything about luminol in this case, doesn't mean they don't have that evidence. SP could have killed his wife by strangling her from behind. This would explain the lack of bruises and scratches. We know that the killer duct taped her crotch area. That might be because he didn't know whether the baby might instantly pop out, or for fear that fluids might seep out after death. Scott is smarter than Mark.
It has been reported that Laci sold some inherited jewelry. Imo, that is odd considering their nice home and cars. That's the kind of thing you do in financial desperation.
Let's just sit and wait for the possible bomb that the prosecution may drop in that case.
Well put, TSO. I theorize, perhaps wrongly, that if this comes to trial and the jury turns in a verdict of guilty/1st deg non-capital/recommended 30 years without parole, the prosecutor could broker with the judge a sentence reduction to 20 years without parole on condition that Hacking shows them a body. That would tie things up as neatly as circumstances permit. Closure for the family, decent burial for Lori, freedom for Hacking when he's pushing 50 instead of 60, no lingering juror remorse, less chance of expensive appeals. IOW, nobody gets everything, everybody gets something and justice is done (more or less).
Alternate option is, of course, pre-trial plea arrangement. That would be better for everybody, but if Hacking is stubborn and unrealistic and/or his lawyer is egotistical, it might not be in the cards.
Has anyone talked about her purse? If she drove her car for the "jog", then she must have had her car keys with her and locked her purse in the car?
sw
It is true that Lori was adopted..
http://www.misfitting.com/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=549
Scroll down for a comment by a coworker of Mark's.
I seemed to have picked up a virus or something on my computer. I've been having problems all day with this search thing popping up, and not allowing me to do much of anything. I'm giving up on the search for now, perhaps others have had better luck. I have Spybot and Adaware, ran them earlier when I couldn't get into my email on yahoo, but now it's starting back up again.
If news accounts I've read so far are accurate, he may not have known she was pregnant, since it was reported that Lori had told her sister-in-law (who said she saw the positive pg test) that she was planning to tell Hacking some days hence as a sort of timed surprise. But who needs the "pecuniary gain" element (in this case, a "pre-emptive" gain) when you've already got (1)(b)?
Amazingly small world re your daughters' acquaintance with the Hacking kids. I believe Sarah is the sister Lori confided in about her pregnancy. I suspect Althany will be calling small armies of character witnesses if this makes it to trial. The prosecutor could counter by sending out "invitations" to people like your daughter (oops!).
Reading your description of your daughter's impressions re Mark and putting them together with everything else I've learned about him and his family, I'm put in mind of what Dr. Robert Hare has said about sociopaths -- that they're born, not made. Doing a little speculating of my own, my guess is that while Mark's parents were undoubtedly shocked and horrified by the murder, they both knew deep down that Mark had always been a mischief maker and liar.
One point you may be able to help me with is the whole issue of temporary insanity and how it could apply in a case like this in Utah. When the police were quoted by Fox News as calling this a "rage killing," I was thinking in California mode (always risky) and cringed since, in this state, a phrase like that could only help the defendant. Do the exclusions to affirmative defense cited at bottom of post 164 do away with the McNaughton rule?
I have no virus showing, yet yesterday my Norton had to be turned off to allow me to get online...???
fiesti would like to be added to the ping list.
thanks.
I hadn't heard this before. Have you?
Yes, I did hear that she was adopted and that it could make it harder to match it up. I don't know just how this will play out. In cases like this, I would suppose the original adoption agency would still have records of the birth parent/s and that those records could be subpoenaed. Or perhaps the state would have those records if the agency folded. Then a search could be made for those parents and samples obtained. For all I know, Lori's parents may actually be acquainted with those people and they may already have been contacted.
Early pregnancy screening may have included tests which revealed something more about Lori's blood than just her type, Rh factor, etc.; something unique to her or at least very uncommon; something that would show up from crime scene evidence as well.
Remote possibilities could include things like blood taken for autologous transfusion in anticipation of intraoperative losses (extremely unlikely in this case) or ova laid away for possible in vitro fertilization (the Hackings were reportedly having trouble reproducing).
You've asked a very intriguing question, as you so often do, Spunky.
Done!
So, it's possible that he could plea bargain for a lighter sentence? I agree about finding Lori's body, but if evidence shows that Mark killed her, he shouldn't get off so lightly.
TheSpottedOwl says, 'Have you ever visited Sam Vaknin's site on Narcissism? It's an education on how their minds work. They think and behave believing that they're smarter than everyone else. Pay close attention to the topic of "narcissistic injury".'
do you happen to have a link?
thank you.
The evidence at this point is all but overwhelming that she never drove her car to Memory Grove that morning and that she didn't go jogging either. You might say she was "dead tired" from the earlier morning exertions.
one thing I have wondered ... the last person who saw Lori besides her husband, was Mark's sister, and she said that was late Sunday evening.
It occurs to me that maybe Lori was hurt/gone by then, and Mark got his sister to lie about having seen her. If so, Lori may have been hurt even earlier?
I am wondering about Sunday too, if Lori wasn't hurt / injured / hidden for a long period of time before Mark reported her "missing" Monday.
I think the Laci Peterson case was pre-meditated murder. I think the Lori Hacking case was probably unplanned and a bad bad scene where husband's efforts to control wife escalated till he severely injured her and possibly killed her.
To me they are very different.
Scott Peterson's motive was that he was a totally selfish loser who wanted a fresh start in life without the inconvenience of child support payments and killing his pregnant wife seemed like the most convenient way to accomplish that. It was pre-meditated.
Don't get me wrong -- I think all 4 will want him out of circulation for the protection of society, but I think their pain and grief about Lori must be excruciating. Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe Hacking will confess, show police the body and, for once in his life, take his medicine like a man in front of the firing squad. But I'm not holding my breath. We're going to have to settle for what's gettable and I won't like it any more than you will if this killer is set loose in another 20 years or so.
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