 AP Photo |
Posted on 07/31/2004 10:26:24 AM PDT by MizSterious
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Fri Jul 30, 7:34 PM ET
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By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY - By all accounts, Mark Hacking was fun to be around and loving to his wife. He wanted to be liked and respected and, like his father, to become a doctor.
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But years of deceptions are catching up to Hacking, a 28-year-old former nightshift hospital orderly who has become the focus of police in the disappearance of his wife, who vanished as they were packing to move to a medical school where, it turns out, he wasn't enrolled.
And friends and co-workers are recalling moments when they believe Lori Hacking discovered her husband's propensity for lying. Not only was he never accepted to a North Carolina medical school, he had dropped out of college, even though he kept textbooks spread open around his apartment.
Detective Phil Eslinger said police are trying to build a "rock-solid" case, but they lack one important piece of evidence that had cadaver dogs working a municipal landfill this week.
"We need a body," Assistant District Attorney Bob Stott said Friday.
Mark Hacking often hung out at a neighborhood store — refilling sodas, eating hot-dogs and smoking Camel menthols — when his wife was at work and he was supposedly attending classes or studying for medical exams.
Clerks say he asked them never to reveal his cigarette habit to his wife. He told them he was a therapist.
Like his wife, Mark Hacking is a Mormon who isn't supposed to smoke.
His history of deceptions, petty and grand, took family members by surprise when they started unraveling last week, says his father, Douglas Hacking, a pediatrician.
"We didn't see it coming," he said. "We got completely blindsided by it."
Mark Hacking was taken to a psychiatric ward a day after the search for his wife began, after he was seen running around at night naked in sandals outside a motel where he'd taken a room.
Doctors are trying to "sort out what is going on in his mind," his father said. The family hired a noted Utah defense lawyer, D. Gilbert Athay, who was seen at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute as recently as Thursday. Athay will confirm only that he has spoken several times with Hacking.
Mark Hacking never was on track to become a doctor, nor is he a therapist. State records show he is a licensed health care assistant, a job he resigned July 23 that is being advertised at the University of Utah. The job posting says health care assistants start at $8.42 an hour and must be available for odd work hours.
Records show Lori Hacking, a 27-year-old stockbroker's assistant at Wells Fargo, graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah in 1999. She put her plans to pursue an MBA on hold until her husband could graduate from medical school.
Once, in 2000, a friend of Lori's recalls her confiding that Mark Hacking "just lied to me" about having enrolled one semester at college, both Salt Lake City daily newspapers reported Friday.
But it is believed to be a bigger lie that left Lori Hacking stunned and sobbing on Friday, July 16, three days before her husband reported her missing.
Her colleagues say she had been trying to make some arrangements at the North Carolina-Chapel Hill school. They believe an administrator was returning a call that day to say her husband wasn't enrolled there. A private woman, Lori Hacking didn't share her grief with co-workers, but took up their suggestion to leave work early.
Later that night, she showed up with her husband at a going-away party at her boss' mountain cabin, betraying no sign of distress. She was last seen by friends Sunday night, July 18, and failed to show for work the next morning at 7 a.m.
Mark Hacking has told police his wife didn't return from a sunrise jog July 19, but his timeline is falling apart.
Police don't believe Lori Hacking ever went jogging at a city park and doubt his claims he jogged the route before reporting her missing. They say he was crosstown at a store buying a new mattress at 10:23 a.m, before alerting police at 10:49 a.m. Police have recovered the old mattress from a trash bin in their neighborhood.
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That's not what I said. The media has the power to promote and bury stories. The Sandy Berger affair embarasses Democrats and the left in general. Not something Kerry needs and the newsrooms know it. So, if folks believe that the television networks and newspaper publishers tilt left and have a bias for them, it doesn't hurt news outlets to promote a sensational murder case that's developing and ease scrutiny on a man who is affiliated with the Kerry campaign as we close in on the election.
All I can say is that I hope this horrid story helps someone that may be in the same type of relationship, to see the signs and get out!
Right. If not the murder then something. ANYTHING. They might even have bored us with Nicholas Cage's third marriage stories, etc and more Michael Jackson garbage. Anything but report something that might damage Kerry.
If you mean Utah, I was in the Security field for many years and attended a seminar in Salt Lake regarding fraud. One speaker, from the Salt Lake P.D., said that Utah has an extremely high number of fraud crimes. He also went into the theory that some Mormon young men have a hard time keeping up with their successful dads, brothers, friends, etc, so they get caught up in living a secret life. I didn't think too much of it then, but the investigator's talk sure makes some sense now..
http://kutv.com/home/
...another source
I'm not saying that she left the company poor. But I do know that the "millions" she was expecting never happened. That is a fact.
Thanks so much for the heads up! It's going to be a long night for some SLC cops and parents.
Thankyou so much for the update/confirmation, Palladin! Hopefully, Hacking is now ready to deal. Utah Girl and others pinged me on these threads tonight. To wit: All searching has been called off by police due to Hacking's parents bringing them information about something Mark has told them. Hope it's not another one of his lies.
Really? Isn't it free registration?
Oops! You're right, Vanderbilt has now made it a subscription service. I'll look around for another source that's still free. Pity.
The thought of having to watch this guy's trial night-in and night-out on Greta's show is sickening. I'm already drained by this case and wish that they could find the body and help the family move on. America will be no wiser or better by having to watch the judiciary process work itself out in this murder.
America will be no better or wiser by playing golf either. Should everybody stop playing it?
No, that's okay. I'll look for the info myself. That's what we should all do when in doubt. I was wondering if anyone knew off-hand.
It's none of your business. Smoking IS a legal commodity, don't you know! And 55 million of us smoke, and that doesn't make us all killers. Let's stay on topic, shall we?
GrandMoM, if your talking about the smoking issue........well.....55 million of us smoke, and that sure doesn't make us killers!
Ever since the media brought that out that he "smokes," it seems to make him an even dirtier person then he is. The real issue here is: he's a killer. At least from all reports that "I" am hearing.
If he drank and got drunk, that alone would be the culprit to turn him into a rage fit..............not smoking.
I'm just really tired of all smokers being demonized by the anti-smoking bunch. ALCOHOL set him off NOT smoking, for crying out loud!
If all he did was smoke, Lori would probably still be alive today.
I am keeping an eye on this thread. Anything yet? Did the Hackings go to the Police Station? Did Mark make a statement? Please let us know what you find out, out there!
Let me know what you find if convenient.
He was making $8.42 an hour. That's $16,000 a year if he worked full time. That's not even remotely middle class let alone upper class.
I think the story has gained interest because of it's similarity to the Laci Peterson story (they didn't have money either). But a pretty, pregnant wife disappears. An outwardly "perfect marriage" ... and the husband kills the wife.
I'd like to be on the Hacking case ping list if you or someone is doing one. TIA
hergus
Great idea in highsight. I think most of these women don't realize the level of danger they are in. Who in their right mind would murder someone over a lie? Almost nobody. Almost.
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