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.
People who come on a thread just to complain about that thread's very existance tend to irritate me. There are many choices of articles on FR--so why come to one only to complain that's there? (Trust me, if FR management did not think these articles were fit for FR, they'd remove them.)
Which brings to mind yet another question--what's it to you if I respond to such nonsense?
Yep. Good call. And how many people go and buy a mattress a few days before they move?
And wouldn't this come under "obstruction of justice"? I say this because Mark hasn't been diagnosed with a mental problem or anything else. (Per MH's dad's statement.) Mark's just "hiding out."
see also post 7 link
1)SLC PD has had some embarassments in recent years and the mayor is keeping a close eye on them. I think they may want to prove something.
2) The case is only one week old, they have apparently collected a lot of evidence and they appear to be very confident they can solve this themselves.
3) Once the FBI is brought in, they can sometimes irritate the local cops by throwing their weight around. Depends how well the local PD gets along with the people in the FBI field office.
I think you've described the most likely scenario. And it wouldn't surprise me if he'd gotten involved with some other woman, either locally or in NC. He had an awful lot of time on his hands that nobody knew about. I believe we're going to eventually find out what he did with that time.
Another article that was recently posted said that she told a friend at that party that Mark was going to go on out to NC several weeks before she did. She was staying to attend an event the beginning of August and was going to fly out to meet him. I wonder if he was just going to disappear, but she found out about all of his lies when she received that phone call from UNC. The he killed her.
A lot of local LEOs will tell you that "FBI" stands for "Fart, Belch, & Itch" (their alleged behavior on any investigation) or "Federally Badged Idiots" (overall adjective of choice).
If the FBI's profiling shop offered help, I'd take it. They really know their stuff.
I seem to recall that the Feds annoyed the SLCPD while investigating the "Salamander Letter" bombings back in the 1980s.
Fox just reported that Lori & Mark were the managers of the apartment complex. The apartment owners found new managers as they expected Mark & Lori to move to NC, the family is now removing the property from the apartment as the police have turned it back over to the families.
IMO, no. MH displayed behavior sufficiently bizarre to justify his admission to a psychiatric facility for the protection of himself and others. I don't believe there's any requirement that a specific diagnosis be made within a brief timespan but that it's enough to note the behavioral abberation. Besides, the police themselves have stated that MH has been "cooperating" with the investigation, even though they've also stated that he's not told them the truth. They haven't been denied access to him and my guess is that they are probably pleased that he is under wraps like this. It simplifies things for them and they don't have to worry themselves about his doing anything frisky, such as murdering potentially incriminating witnesses or further tampering with evidence.
I really hate to tell you, but none of your scenario makes any sense. First of all, the going away party was Friday, and not Sunday, night. The Sunday night party was at their apartment. Second, to kill someone and dispose of the body so well authorities couldn't find it for at least two weeks takes a lot of planning or preparation and time. Anyone would be hard pressed to do it in 8 or 10 hours without being seen, and if he was planning on doing it in NC as you suggest, he would have screwed something up pretty bad if he did kill her and try to dispose of the body in SLC. Finally, if he was planning on off-ing her in NC, why would he let her know of any housing arrangements? He would have told her he would take care of them himself. He obviously was cunning enough to lead her to believe he was accepted to medical school when he hadn't even applied.
We don't even know if she is dead or if a crime has been committed. Let's wait and see what happens before engaging in silly speculation.
I noticed ,too......;)...Some of us can multitask,read on several subjects...and I have a remote that works instantly when I don't like what I'm watching...like The dem convention speeches.
I think it was "unclear" whether they had an apt. to move straight into in this case. Hence, the phone call Lori got on Friday. They were not booked into an apt. Mark knew this. He was going to wing it once they got to NC. (Tell Lori the apt. isn't ready to move into right now.) This is my take anyway.
I'm wondering about this 'call'. It seems a bit unclear as to whether the school called her or she called the school. But in either case, why would the one call the other? This may be another instance of someone trying to get their face plastered on TV.
I'll bet Mark won't be staying in that hospital once the arrest warrant is issued.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.