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More articles about: Mark and Lori Hacking:

Newspaper says husband confessed to brothers

Associated Press, USA
Aug. 5, 2004
Paul Foy, Associated Press Writer
www.sfgate.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Thursday August 5, 2004

Search resumes for body of Lori Hacking

Mark Hacking confessed to his brothers that he killed his wife and put the body in a trash bin, prompting the grim police search of the county landfill, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Hacking’s brother Scott told The Salt Lake Tribune that it was to him and their brother Lance that Mark confessed on July 24. He said he and Lance together comprised “the reliable citizen witness” who revealed the confession to police and was quoted in an affidavit released earlier this week.

“My brother and I sat and hugged him for about an hour, and then we went home,” Scott Hacking told the newspaper in a copyright story.

Police and cadaver dogs are back searching at the county landfill for the body of Lori Hacking, whose husband is being held on suspicion of murder.

They have 3,000 tons of trash to search through. The digging started within days after Mark Hacking reported his wife missing and has been continuing on and off since then. The searches were halted when the dogs were needed on other assignments and when their handlers felt the animals needed time off.

Large spotlights lighted the area Wednesday night and a backhoe tore out large chunks of garbage that were then spread out for the dogs to go over.

Mark Hacking called police July 19 and said his wife had failed to show up for work after going for an early morning jog.

Police believe that three days before she vanished, Lori Hacking discovered that her husband had not been enrolled in a North Carolina medical school where the couple was packing to move. It also was discovered that he had lied about graduating from the University of Utah.

Police arrested Hacking on Monday on evidence including a bloody knife found in his bedroom, a discarded mattress and the reported psychiatric ward confession.

A day after Mark Hacking gave his reported confession to the brothers, the biggest volunteer search since the woman was reported missing was held. Some churches canceled services so members could take part. Estimates of the turnout ranged from 1,500 to 3,000.

Scott Hacking said that after learning that Mark had lied about so many things, he could not trust the statement about the disposal of the body, Scott told the newspaper.

The following Tuesday, the official search was called off. The families said the searches were entering more risky terrain. Meanwhile, volunteers continued search on their own, and four days later — last Saturday — the families asked that that searching also end. They said that Mark Hacking had provided information that made the search unnecessary.

Mark Hacking was arrested Monday as he was about to be released from the psychiatric ward where he’d been since being found naked outside a hotel the night after he reported his wife missing.

Police said Wednesday that Mark Hacking volunteered the alias “Jonathan Long” when a jailer asked him, “Have you ever used another name — that could be for anything?” He did not say why he adopted the name or how he used it and authorities did not ask, Salt Lake County Sgt. Rosie Rivera said.

It would not be unusual for a defendant to volunteer an alias during a jail booking, Rivera said. Hacking, who has no criminal history in Salt Lake County, was booked Monday in a mental health wing of the Salt Lake County jail.

A judge set Hacking’s bail at $500,000, but defense attorney Gil Athay said he and his client have not even discussed the possibility of posting bail, the Tribune said.

Thursday was the deadline for Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom to file charges, but he said he might not be ready and might ask the court for an extension.

Yocom declined to say whether he would seek the death penalty, but did say the wishes of the victim’s family are given great weight in such decisions.

Scott Hacking said he was aware that his brother, if convicted, could face execution.

“I certainly worried about that,” he told the newspaper. “My family believes in the justice system…. If those consequences are the ones he has to face, then again, we will support him through that point, though I hope he does not have to face that consequence.”

He said he hopes the information resolves the case.

“My family started this entire process with two goals in mind,” he said. “One was to bring Lori back and the other was to discover the truth. And we were determined to do both of those things.

“No brother wants to offer information about his own brother,” he said.