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
Did that drop like a lead balloon or what?
Please add me to your ping list.
Thank you
if only they would use FReepers to be the jury, we would fall for any insanity BS!
would s/b wouldn't
No one has said what time this afternoon the news/press conference will be. And I don't want to keep the news channel on for hours and hours waiting.
Lazamataz, good one, you say, 'Never marry a man whose last name
is 'Hacking", 'Slaughter', 'Bloodshed', 'Wantonmurder', or 'Depravedindifferencetohumanlife'.
*big grin*
I'm leaving mine on anyway--much going on today, especially in Iraq. Very disturbing.
Any attempt to lawyer his way out of responsibility is dishonorable.
no problem.
Sorry to hear about your cousin's daughter. Hope the whole family has gone through the grief process and come out the other side with closure and peace.
LOL!
He probably did spin a tale just about that outlandish, and his folks bought it, like so many other times.
randog, you spend a lot of time watching the SciFi channel, dontcha?
I agree. If that were my son, I would have gotten the
truth out of him long ago and went to the police. The searches would have been over days ago. (Yes, I have three adult sons
older than Mark.)
They always overlook "something."
HB sez 'why he would get rid of the body and the mattress, but not the knife'?
Maybe a mistake on his part? But hey, the guy was so dumb he hurried out and bought a mattress thinking no one would ever find out! So maybe he "hid" the knife there believing no one would find it. Glad they do have the knife, though.
I have said before, they say DNA evidence is more difficult since Lori was adopted; well, didn't her mother keep a lock of baby curls from Lori's first haircut or her baby teeth? We have those items in sandwich baggies, stapled in the kids' baby books. I thought everybody kept at least one memento?
I do not watch TV. We don't have cable or satellite, believe it or not we still have an antenna on top of our roof and all it affords us is PBS and ABC and those very snowy. Even the radio is broken in my car, so I don't even hear the news when I am driving.
The Internet is my sole source for news. Praise the Lord for Free Republic!
uvular sez, 'I had a granddaughter and 2 puppies flying through the room during this, so not real positive of what I heard!'
AWESOME! At your house your grandchild and your dogs can FLY? That's phenomenal. National Inquirer oughtta do an article on this.
Scroll on Fox says Mark has volunteered new information. Doesn't say when or who Mark spoke to.
Lol! The one puppy is a Bassett and her ears could qualify her for actual flight!
The family said "it was their understanding Mark had provided information"..The doctor or lawyer could not provide specific info without Mark's permission...The location of Lori's body is the only thing I can think of they can mean..
If Mark knows where the body is, he may try the "She committed suicide and I couldn't bear for the family to know" routine
He loves to fool ya..I don't trust what he says.Could be a game.
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.