Hidden Truth: Lori Hacking case

On July 24, while sitting in a psychiatric hospital, Mark Hacking's brothers say he told them that he killed his wife, Lori, and then put her body in the trash. It is believed her body is buried under more than 2,000 tons of garbage.

By all accounts, Mark Hacking worshipped his wife of five years, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. Correspondent Maureen Maher has this 48 Hours update. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “He adored her. And she adored him,” recalls Lori’s mother, Thelma Soares. “I couldn’t have asked for a better son-in-law. Lori used to call him ‘My big, old teddy bear.’”

Mark, 28, was outgoing and romantic, while Lori, 27, was private and practical. But according to Lori’s only sibling, Paul Soares, the combination worked.

“They were different. They say opposites attract. And that -- I think that was the situation,” says Soares.

“And we would always joke around with him. Like, how did he get such a cute woman? Everyone kidded him about that. Because, you know, he was just like this goofy dude that-- you know, goofy guy,” says Brian Hamilton, who became friends with Mark when they worked together in the children’s psychiatric unit of a Salt Lake City hospital. He said Hacking loved to entertain the kids at the hospital.

The couple had just learned Lori was five weeks pregnant, friends say. And they were about to embark on a cross-country move to North Carolina, where Hacking said he would be starting medical school.

“It seemed as though they had their life planned, chapter by chapter,” says Hamilton.

On Thursday, July 15, Lori emailed the Hamiltons with their new address. But the day after she sent the email, Lori received a phone call from the University of North Carolina. She left work early in tears.

Apparently, she’d just learned that Mark’s big plans for medical school were all a lie. He’d never even enrolled with the school.

A few days later, on Sunday evening, the couple went to a convenience store. It’s the last place where anyone would see Lori Hacking alive.

As seen in surveillance footage from later that night, Hacking returned to the store around 1 a.m. – but this time, he was alone.

Now that Hacking has allegedly confessed to killing his wife while she was sleeping, people wonder, after seeing these images on the surveillance tape, had he just murdered his wife? Or was he about to?

The next morning, Hacking reported his wife missing. He said she never came home after going for an early jog in nearby woods. Hacking said he went searching for her, but later that day, police learned that he’d been shopping for a new mattress before he called 911.

That was the first sign that Hacking’s concern for his wife was all an act. And it was the first of many lies to come.

“My name is Mark Hacking,” he said in a press conference. “And I have so much gratitude today for the friends, the family, the officers, the search-and-rescue people. Everybody. It’s just been the worst day of my life; it’s good to feel some comfort from the community.”

Later that night, Hacking was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after he was seen walking around outside, naked.

“He kept his shoes on - his sandals - that's not generally something we see in someone truly psychotic,” says Candace DeLong, who was an FBI profiler for 20 years.

Does she think he was faking his condition and setting up a defense? “I think there’s a very good chance he thought that might work,” says DeLong.

In the days following Lori’s disappearance, while hundreds of volunteers searched for her, it became apparent that Hacking had been making up stories for years.

“We were under the impression that Mark had been accepted to medical school and just found out a few minutes ago he never even applied to medical school at North Carolina,” says Mark’s father, Douglas Hacking.

In fact, Hacking had never even graduated from college. He stopped attending classes at the University of Utah three years ago, and Lori, and Mark’s family, found out.

“His mother called their house and left a message asking why he wasn't enrolled in school, 'cause she had attempted to pay the tuition and it wasn't-- he wasn't in the — enrolled,” recalls Hamilton.

Lori heard the voice mail first, and when Hacking came home, she confronted him. He took off in his car, and when Lori couldn’t find him, she called the Hamiltons. “She was just crying on the phone,” says Hamilton.

“We didn’t really think anything of it because the next day, Jennifer talked to Lori and she said, ‘Oh, yeah. Well, we went and we reconciled things and made up,” says Hamilton.

“And the way that it kind of played out was that he had made a mistake or he had forgotten to register. I think that's how it went. We thought he went back to school.”

And apparently, so did Lori. And from then on, Hacking’s lies just got bigger and more elaborate.

“I remember for the last two-plus years, the extensive preparations for medical school,” says Lori’s brother, Paul Soares.

In fact, Mark went so far as to fly to Manhattan, and pretend to interview for medical school, while staying with his cousin.

“He got up in the morning, put his suit on -- like day before, she drove him by where Columbia was, so he'd know where it's at,” recalls Soares. “And-- left-- went to do his interview and came back a few hours later and talked about the interview and how it was.”

“He talked a little bit about his deception to us, how it all got started a few years ago,” says Mark’s father, Douglas Hacking. “He has two brothers who are high achievers. He felt pressure to excel as well.”

The real tragedy is that many believe Lori would have loved Hacking, no matter what he did for a living.

“As long as he was doing his best, she would have loved him with all of her heart,” says Soares. “And he didn't have to be a doctor, a president -- whatever it was. As long as he was doing his best, she would have loved him.”

“Failure just was not an option. It almost seemed like-- he couldn't handle the idea of letting her down,” says Hamilton. “Basically, I think that maybe he was just so sad or so distraught about the idea of letting her down that maybe something did snap. I mean what that was, I don't know.”

“I had real pride and real joy when I said she was my sister,” says Paul Soares. “And to know that-- how-- she's expecting a child. She would have been a wonderful mom. And it's sad that she'll never have that opportunity.”

Am I the only one who thinks he might be telling another lie?

The second that was announced on tv, I thought he's lying again. Then LE has been so slow at getting the dogs out to the landfill and twiddling their thumbs that they probably know it's a waste of time too.

I know lots of men who play Nintendo. And they have careers and children and grandchildren and pets and mortgages. I hope they're not all psychotic.

I know allot of non smokers and we all can smell a smoker a mile away.

I have an employee that cuts back on her smoking breaks while at work, plus with the allergies I have her walk out a ways from the job to smoke.

Still can smell it regardless of the hand washing mouth cleaners.

When she is waiting to get off work you can see the anxiety wanting that cig fix.

Sooooo How did his wife not know about his smoking. If he was not smoking while at home he woud have been very moody wanting that fix.

I am going to assume he was not a "daily" smoker, and therefore he would probably not crave like a normal smoker. I believe she still would have smelled the smoke on him but he could always get away with that by lying and saying that he was around other smokers. That would have been an easy enough lie to get away with. Mouthwash and gum work well in hiding smokers breath.

There's some discrepancy between the Hacking brothers and the SLPD. They said they went to the police on July 25, the day after Mark Hacking confessed. I haven't heard the SLPD's response to this.

Ugh, Gil Athay. I knew he defended Pierre Dale Selby, but not for free. lady lawyer, can you shed any more light on Athay?

Selby and his cohort are responsible for one of Utah's most gruesome multiple murders, the Hi-Fi murders. That case had an eyewitness to the murders, and still Athay defended Selby because Athay is a staunch opponent of the death penalty. I think he defended Selby for 14 years. I don't think he was Andrews' attorney, but if I remember correctly, Andrews appeals went on for

I won't put the horrid details here, but you can go to amazon.com and read the review of the book Victim. I highly recommend this book, it is about the victims of the Hi-Fi shop murders, but does give the details of the murderers.

Actually, LE had dogs in the landfill searching a couple of days after Lori disappeared. However, the dogs were called to search for a lost Boy Scout, and something else that I can't remember. Plus the dogs get overwhelmed and have to take breaks. The dogs have been out there almost the maximum amount of time. The SLPD is determined to find Lori's body.

Thanks for the ping. I was married to a man like this once. Luckily for myself and my daughters, he killed himself before I let him kill us.

It's so easy to be decieved bc it is so incomprehensible statitically that there are people that have these characteristics. I have been fooled myself. Apparently one percent of the general population has sociopathic tendencies. Glad you got away alive. Still it leaves you scared forever.

"How did his wife not know about his smoking. If he was not smoking while at home he would have been very moody wanting that fix."

Good question, Mark must've really cleansed his mouth, throat and lungs out with some heavy duty breath mints because my husband isn't suppose to smoke but I let him slide now and then. When he leans in for a kiss or hug the smoke literally permeates, comes back up from his lungs and I can smell it and bust him every time. He smokes those horrid little cigars like Clint Eastwoods cowboy character did in the spaghetti westerns. Uck!

" Selby and his cohort are responsible for one of Utah's most gruesome multiple murders, the Hi-Fi murders. That case had an eyewitness to the murders, and still Athay defended Selby because Athay is a staunch opponent of the death penalty. "

And I am a staunch advocate of VICTIMS RIGHTS. Even though I feel most murderers were abused to the point of mental psychotic break down they do not have the right to displace their abusive or homicidal anger, cycle of death and destruction onto innocents. That is why I believe in life sentences and the death penalty providing "without a doubt" evidence and / or DNA testing.

"The pictures are funny and the comments are hysterical, but this news article stated Senator John Kerry tried to convince his wife, Teresa, to walk to the edge as they visited the South rim of the Grand Canyon yesterday.
Teresa refused to go near the edge of the canyon with him."

LOL ! Gee John Kerry having one of his "hopeful" moments.

Mark Hacking won't get away with an insanity defense. He walks around naked with a cell phone and then checks himself into the looney bin. A two year-old could see through this. His family should either shut up or denounce him, not waffle around about how sad it is that Laci didn't get a chance to love him as a total fraud. No mention of her being cut into various bits and pieces. No mention of the murder of her son. We waft all that away as 'unfortunate'. Oh, and Mark loved her so very much. So much that he chopped her up and dumped her in the ocean. Too bad he was too stupid to realize she wouldn't stay down.

Ooops, I was watching court TV and the Laci Peterson case, so ranted about that as well as that murdering louse, Hacking. But you all figured out I forgot to take my meds, right?

Hacking seems to be a narcissist, too. Everything is always about him. He controlled everything, lied like a rug, probably got a kick out of that. Then the roof fell in and he didn't like what she had to say to him, so he killed her. Now, as the victim, esp. one whose body is missing, she's basically disappeared from the judicial process. He should be happy now. Everything from now on, from the state's point of view is all about him.

Doubtless jealous of his older, successful brothers, angry that he was expected to achieve at their level, depressed as hell...I imagine. He was probably fantasizing about killing Lori while he played Nintendo. Interesting program on cable last night. Too much testosterone along with low levels of seratonin can affect men very, very badly. They're overly aggressive with literally no anger control. Serial killers and impulse killers exhibit this. Scientists tested a zillion killers in jail and that's what they found.

I know somebody like this. And she thinks she is the smartest thing ever born.

She told me one time, "I can convince anybody, of anything, at any time"!

These kind of people are dangerous!

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