 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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Maggots...3 days, I believe.
Utah posters on CTV reporting families have issued a statement that Mark has talked to police...no longer necessary to search for Lori....That's all...
The police say they are "blindsided by this.".seems the family did not share info yet? Probably no statement before morning..."Doctors and family provided safe atmosphere away from news"...he shared the info then ?..
Unfortunately, I think he left her in several different areas :-(
OTHO - what if she found out about the medical school lie and the stress makes her miscarry. Two dreams go down the drain immediately. She gets so mad at him she sets him up. Leaves a bloody mattress (from the miscarriage) hides a bloody knife (which police later find) , she spreads blood around and cleans it up, knowing they will detect it, and then she skips town. He wants to cover up the fact that she ran away so his family doesn't find out. Then he finds out he's been set up. He goes right over the edge. hmmm. I'm going to start writing mystery books
#82
groan is right!
Found a little blurb about this at ksl.com....I hope he 'fessed up.
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?sid=109982&nid=5...
Not much...but something...
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?sid=109982&nid=5
See if this works
The families of Lori and Mark Hacking have issued a statement late Saturday night saying information Mark Hacking has provided to police investigators now makes any search for Lori Hacking unneccessary. MORE COMING SOON...I just watched KUTV news and the Hackings are on their way to the SLC police station. Apparently Mark Hacking made a statement to someone in the family about what happened. The police issued a statement that they are waiting for the Hackings to arrive at the police station. I'll be up late, so will keep my eye on the news...
Hmmm...the family says Mark has given information that makes search unnecessary. They don't say what exactly.
Ya' know, if I were his family, I wouldn't be confident about information given by him. I hope they have verified the truth of his words before making this statement.
I do hope he's told them where to find the poor woman's body, so her family can have some closure. :(
Thank you...This must be a terrible day for both families...Hope this includes getting Lori's body back..
You mean like"She committed suicide and I couldn't bear for the family to know?..."..I can see problems ahead.
yes! that's exactly what I mean.
I sincerely hope he's told them the *whole* truth, and nothing but the truth. I'm skeptical, hope I'm wrong.
Wonder if this friend is the witness the earlier article had eluded to?
I knew he'd crack!
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