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.
I agree. Unless Hacking accepts a plea bargain before trial is in full swing, everything about his background will be fair game for prosecution. Goes to character, as they say. If he does cop a plea, then we'll be spared the ugliness. We'll also have Lori's body and a confession, since I don't believe any plea will be possible without those.
BTW, it's also going to be ugly for Athay. Can you imagine what a nightmare it is for a lawyer whose client tells him nothing but lies?
Lol, reminds me of my ex. There was a switch of attorneys mid stream on his side. I found out a year later what he told his co workers about the reason for the divorce. This would account for his attorney quitting. Why would you file first and give your lying, cheating wife sole custody of the minor children???
His next lawyer was an elderly man who promised, when asked by the judge about the QDRO, that they would take care of it. It still hasn't been taken care of. That's okay, we're moving back up to the court's jurisdiction area. When things settle down, I'll take care of it.
Like my Grandma said, "a liar is worse than a thief, because a liar can cause an innocent man to hang".
I hope Mr. Athay can convince his client to finally do the right thing.
direct appeals to conscience, etc. will do no good, not at any stage of this drama. Athay's first opportunity will come with an arrest and capital charges. If Athay understands his client's personality, he will have already set the stage for a plea arrangement acceptable to his client. At every step along way, Hacking must be made to believe that he is manipulating Athay and the prosecution and that the plea deal was all his idea, accepted reluctantly by the prosecutor after some haggling and resistance.
His desire to cheat the hangman is a given, as it is with almost any other capital defendant, but he cannot be approached in the same way as most of them are. If Athay is not shrewd enough to do this, if either he or the prosecutor bungles it, there may never be a plea deal, not even when that last window of opportunity opens, as the verdict is handed up.
(you have mail)
I'm wondering when LE is going to arrest him? That is when Athay can start working with MH. I'm sure he and the professionals at the hospital know what's up with him. Those outrageous lies cannot be ignored. Athay needs to consult with independent psychiatrists in order to deal with his client. I'm sure he has a lot of experience in the legal field, but dealing with this guy is going to be the mental equivalent of catching a greased pig.
Mabelkitty mentioned the possibility that he is homosexual. I'd love to find out why he was supposedly shipped home early from that mission.
The obvious stance would be that he "wasn't himself, something inexplicably took hold of him," and he blacked out on the essential facts of the killing and its aftermath, ie. what triggered it, how it was accomplished, and much of what he thought and did afterward, except suddenly where that body is and perhaps how he got to that location. So he's now able to give them the body and at least an implicit confession only because of this delayed and unexpected "flashback."
Jekyll and Hide ring a bell?
This way he not only side-steps death row, but most importantly, does not have to admit to any of his lies about Lori and does not have to give up his sense of being in control of others. IOW, he gets to represent himself as a hapless victim who simply got caught up in the relentless grip of something he couldn't resist or even remember, thus preserving his identity of deceiver and manipulator, while also "defeating" the prosecutor and the hangman alike -- and, of course, it was all his own brilliant plan. I believe Hacking could accept that outcome if the gravity of the case against him appeared to warrant it. But Athay and the prosecutor must condition him for all this well in advance, starting now.
I can't speak to the conjecture about his sexuality.
Jekyll and Hide ring a bell?
I'll bet he wasn't himself the whole time he pretended to be in school, right down to sending out all those graduation announcements.
They could try and say he has a split personality...Jeckyl and Hyde insanity plea. I don't think a jury will buy it, unless they move the trial to San Francisco.
This way he not only side-steps death row, but most importantly, does not have to admit to any of his lies about Lori and does not have to give up his sense of being in control of others. IOW, he gets to represent himself as a hapless victim who simply got caught up in the relentless grip of something he couldn't resist or even remember, thus preserving his identity of deceiver and manipulator, while also "defeating" the prosecutor and the hangman alike -- and, of course, it was all his own brilliant plan.
We can know for almost certain that Hacking is going to prison for this, the most important thing right now is finding Lori. Whatever it takes. LE is hopefully looking up other agencies who have had sucess with this kind of technique.
I did read a news account in which one of his fellow missionaries stated he was recalled because he spent his time seducing a new convert, indulging in a variety of other vices (such as alcohol) and attempting to corrupt other missionaries.
I can't speak to the conjecture about his sexuality.
It's the convenience store clerk who said MH smoked cigarettes, that really got me. It's all verboten. Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, not to mention the standard no no's in American society. He seduced a new convert? Boy or girl? If you look at his life, it would be pretty damn awful for a young man who had homosexual feelings, or was decidedly homosexual. It actually could have caused him to "split", so to speak.
How is this for pure speculation. He is gay. He's been gay for years, but can't stand the pressure and turns into either a sociopath or a narcissist. He goes through the motions to maintain support and identity in completely uptight SLC. (no offense anyone, but I'd hate to be a gay Mormon, or gay anything)He marries a girl whose family is close with his. He has absolutely no interest in higher education, family or babies. He drops out of college, but keeps up the charade. He's so good, they believe him without question.
This gives him not only an ego boost, but emboldens him to further lie and manipulate everyone. Did he have a gay lover in SLC? What about Chapel Hill? He went at least once to Chapel Hill to "scout the area". The problem with this is, if his lover is hiding in the closet, no one will ever know. I'm not saying if a person did exist, that he had anything to do with the murder. Chances are, this person would be revolted and horrified.
What if MH had a lover, and didn't mention he was married, but was looking to move into a more accepting enviroment. You have to realize that people like this juggle lies like some parents juggle soccer practices and play dates. All he had to do was tie up loose ends, and he would be out there. There lies the flaw in my suppositions. Oh well I'm not going to delete it. Some parts may have some merit.
Something LE might be doing is running MH through their unsolved crimes data base. I hope they are, anyway. I don't have the data, but many serial killers have had "unresolved homosexual desires". Or however you want to put it.
To all: I am not bashing homosexuals in general, nor am I insulting the Mormon Church.
What did Hacking say that caused the family and police to call off the search outside the dump? The only thing I can think of is that Hacking told them he put her remains in a dumpster, which, if true, would mean they also have a confession by now.
Hope I'm right about that but I'm prepared to find out I'm wrong. It's hard to believe Hacking would flip over his only ace, toss away his only bargaining chip.
What an awful thing, to have dogs digging through a pile of garbage to retrieve what's left of your baby girl so you can bury her.
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