Posted on 08/01/2004 7:25:22 AM PDT by JockoManning
Search now 'unnecessary,' say families of Lori Hacking By Jennifer Dobner Deseret Morning News
Mark Hacking told his family something important Saturday — and whatever it is, it apparently makes any further volunteer searches for his missing 27-year-old wife unnecessary.
That news came late Saturday, not from Salt Lake City police but by way of a statement faxed to the Deseret Morning News and other media by Mark and Lori Hackings' families. "The families understand that Mark Hacking has provided information that makes it unnecessary for individuals or groups to continue the volunteer search," the statement reads. "At this time, the families ask that all efforts from volunteers cease and that anyone with information that they feel might be helpful contact the Salt Lake City Police Department directly." Salt Lake City police were to meet with family members late Saturday, and the family was expected to share with investigators details of their conversation with Mark Hacking, detective Phil Eslinger said. "To my knowledge we are going to work through the night with the family to determine what that information is," Eslinger said. "All I know is that it was a legitimate fax from the family. This is not another one of those cruel jokes or rumors." Police are expected to hold a news conference sometime today.
No further statements are likely from the Hacking or Soares families in the near future. Their statement included a plea that their privacy be respected in what was described in the families' statement as "this difficult time" and indicated they plan to make no further statements about the case. Contacted at his home Saturday night, attorney D. Gilbert Athay, who has been hired to represent Mark Hacking, said he had no comment. Lori Hacking disappeared July 19, allegedly while jogging in Memory Grove just before 6 a.m. Volunteers' search efforts in the park and nearby canyons, which over a week drew more than 4,000 people, were unsuccessful.
Police now say they believe Lori, who had just learned she was five-weeks pregnant, was never in the park. Mark Hacking has been hospitalized since the day after he reported his wife missing. He has also been named a "person of interest" in the case by police but as of Saturday had never officially been called a suspect. However, investigators took numerous pieces of evidence from the couple's apartment at 127 S. Lincoln St. (945 East), including box springs and computers. Also among the evidence being evaluated by forensic experts is a knife said to have blood and hair samples. Before Lori Hacking disappeared, the couple was supposedly moving to Chapel Hill, N.C., where Mark was to attend medical school. But three days into the case, it was learned that Mark Hacking had lied about his acceptance to medical school, as well as his recent graduation from the University of Utah. Over the past two weeks, more and more information has trickled out indicating that Mark may have been lying to his friends and family for as long as 18 months about his present and future life. The details and the time line of events Hacking shared with police also quickly crumbled. Mark Hacking said on July 19 that he had learned Lori had failed to arrive at work about 10 a.m., but a mattress store clerk said Mark was shopping for a mattress at the time. A credit card receipt showed he had indeed purchased one, just 26 minutes before he called police at 10:49 a.m. Until Saturday, it appeared that Mark had also maintained he knew nothing about his wife's disappearance. In a conversation with his father, Douglas Hacking, Mark said he had lied about his life because he felt pressure to be successful like his father and siblings. But he said he didn't know what had happened to his wife.
"He looked me in the eye and said, 'No,' " Douglas Hacking said when recounting his conversation with his son to reporters July 23. No one is certain what Lori Hacking knew of her husband's deception or when she knew it. However, co-workers at Wells Fargo Bank have said that the Friday before she disappeared, Lori received an upsetting phone call and left in tears. Police have focused most of their search efforts on the Salt Lake Valley Solid Waste Facility, sifting through piles of refuse on four separate occasions with investigators and four cadaver dogs. That search was temporarily suspended on Friday, with police saying the dogs needed a day or two of rest. So far, the only comment from police about the landfill searches has been that "nothing of consequence" had yet been found. Landfill searches are expected to resume, but police have not been specific about when. The task of finding what is presumably Lori Hacking's body in the landfill could be seen as nearly impossible. More than 2,500 tons of refuse is deposited there daily by more than 600 dump trucks. Police have focused their efforts on a one- to two-acre segment of the facility. Police apparently believed the landfill held significant clues as to Lori Hacking's whereabouts as early as one day after she went missing. Landfill executive director Romney Stewart told the Deseret Morning News last week that police asked him on July 20 to suspend dumping in a certain area so that it could be searched.
E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595081258,00.html
Most people right off hand would answer, "It's her sister's new boyfriend" or, "Her sister said he's off limits/no good."
But,
a person with psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies would right away answer "So she can go to another funeral and maybe see the guy again."
Hi. They are Mormons. The Hackings live in my stake. Lori's mother lives in another close by stake.
As I've said on other threads, the Hackings have 7 children. Three of my kids were friends with 3 of the Hacking kids -- not Mark -- in high school. In each instance, they said the Hackings (2 daughters and 1 son) were among the nicest people they knew.
Mark Hacking's parents are, according to everyone who knows them, salt of the earth. I've met them both in business settings, and they were kind, unaffected, and friendly.
You notice that the families have not given any press conferences since it became increasingly clear that Mark was the culprit. In the last conference I heard, their spokesman (Thelma Soares' Stake President) said the families had heard all the press reports. They were not in denial. And they were preparing themselves for the worst.
They all love Mark, including Thelma Soares. They gave him the benefit of the doubt for as long as they could. But Mark's family were also saying last week that they had full confidence in law enforcement. They were not claiming his innocence. Now, it's clear that the Hacking family has been cooperating with police to resolve this.
I don't think Thelma Soares' reaction has anything to do with the "head of household" theory. I think it has to do with the fact that she has known the Hacking family for years, and knows what good people they are. She knows that they have been as blindsided by Mark's life of lies as she was.
The only connection to Mormon theology that I see is this: To a Mormon parent, the most important thing in the world is the spiritual development of our children. We believe in eternal families. In order for us to have our families for eternity, however, its members must observe the tenets of the religion. In short, the family of the murder victim loses that child for this life. The family of the murderer loses that child for eternity.
Even if you're not a Mormon, I think the feelings would be the same. Ask yourself, which is worse? To have your beloved child be murdered by a monster, or to have your beloved child become that monster?
In the early 90's, my cousin's son (Mormon), was horrifically murdered by an ex-con (Catholic). As he was convicted, his poor, sweet parents came weeping to my cousin and her husband to express their sorrow over what their son had done, and to say, "Please forgive us, we still love him."
As much as Thelma Soares is grieving for her loss, as a compassionate person, she is also grieving for Doug and Janet Hacking's loss.
The arrest is done..but no body yet.
Aggravated murder...must have good evidence to make it aggravated murder without a body.
and further on...
It's an interesting speech this judge gave and sheds light on much that has been changing in our jury system, including the variation in jury composition in different jurisdictions. You've brought up a noteworthy point. It might be worth the time to find out just how SLC selects its jurors.
Sometimes, I think that half the country has fallen off the garage onto their heads.
If you look at the numbers, the No. 1 guilty party in a woman's death is the husband or boyfriend. The law ALWAYS holds him as a suspect until he's positively cleared.
That would, IMO, mean that the police and DA believe they have a lock on this. He's either confessed, perhaps implicitly, or made a statement so self-incriminating as to be tantamount to confession. So even if the body turns out to be non-recoverable, Hacking can probably be convicted on the basis of this and the other evidence/testimony alone.
Very interesting, I think this might be an interesting dinner question. Find a little inside info on my family, you know just to be on the safe side.
"A woman goes to her mother's funeral. At the funeral, she sees a man she's never seen before and it's love at first sight. She fell in love with him right there on the spot, but never asked for his number and could not find him afterward. The next day, the woman kills her own sister. Why?"
Supposedly, and I don't know if it's true or not, several of America's most notorious serial killers answered this puzzle in the same way. Anyone who arrives at the same answer as the serial killer is thought to harbor sociopathic tendencies. This could all be Snopes.com nonsense, but I don't believe that this is in their archive at the moment.
Just be prepared for the "wrong" answer from a love one.....
They arrested him because he was going to be released from the hospital..They have evidence in car, apartment and a trash bin(dumpter?)....Took the time to build the case while he was hospitalized.
My dad practiced law for 50+ years before his retirement, he has served on several juries - civil and criminal. And one of our local federal judges, Judge Evans, served on an armed robbery trial awhile back. Nobody seemed to mind. If anything, I think a fair-minded lawyer would bend over backwards to follow the judge's instructions and require the correct burden of proof.
It's more important to strike the kooks, the prejudiced, and the self-important know-it-alls from the jury. Of course, those categories often overlap when you're talking about lawyers . . . :-D . . . but I wouldn't strike a lawyer on voir dire if he seemed like a sensible fellow.
That "friend" was, according to the article I read, Sarah, sister of Mark Hacking. She may have also told somebody else. Who knows?
Did the report you read/heard specifically state that Lori had not seen a doctor for confirmation of her test result?
Home pregnancy tests can vary quite a bit in reliability, depending on which one is used and the characteristics of the user. From what I've heard, the lion's share of error occurs for false negatives, ie. the user is pregnant and the test says she isn't. That would not apply to Lori.
I have heard the in home test kies often give a false-positive result.
I heard some years ago, there was a test done for
these kits, using elderly ladies and it came out
50/50. Some kit results said they were pregnant.
LOL
The answer that popped up for me was, "Her sister has stolen every boyfriend she ever had."
Ah, a defensive-coordinator type. Maybe you should come work for my alma mater's football program!
Ah, a defensive-coordinator type. Maybe you should come work for my alma mater's football program!
The body is one aspect. Another is the pregnancy. If prosecution can show convincingly that Lori was indeed pregnant, then Hacking murdered two people. That is one of the defining criteria of aggravated murder and would qualify him for the death penalty.
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