This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Mark Hacking told a "reliable citizen witness" that he murdered his wife while she slept, then threw her body in a Dumpster, according to a revised arresting document released Tuesday.
Police believe Lori Hacking's body ended up at the Salt Lake County Landfill and plan to resume a search for the remains tonight.
The document, provided by the Salt Lake County Jail, details the first official statement on specific evidence linking Mark Hacking to the disappearance and death of his wife.
According to the document, Mark Hacking confessed on July 24, five days after he told police his wife never returned from an early-morning jog.
Officially called a "probable cause for arrest and continued detention," the document states that police found a bloody knife in the couple's bedroom along with blood on the headboard and on the bedrail.
The state crime lab matched that blood with "blood flakes" and other blood samples found in Lori's Chrysler Sebring, which police recovered from the mouth of City Creek Canyon, according to the document.
Investigators also seized a mattress from a nearby Dumpster, matching the manufacturer's numbers on the mattress with the box springs found in the Hackings' apartment, the document states.
Mark Hacking first called police at 10:07 a.m. on July 19 to say his wife was missing. Minutes later, he told Lori's co-workers he found her car in the canyon and was looking for her, but he actually was on his way to the Bradley's Sleep Etc. store, where at 10:23 a.m. he bought a replacement mattress, according to the timeline in the probable-cause statement.
Prosecutors with the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office helped homicide detectives draft the revised document Tuesday after a judge balked at the brevity of the original two-sentence statement that police wrote upon booking Mark Hacking into jail.
A probable-cause document must have enough detail for a judge to agree the arrest was valid. Otherwise, the arrested person may be released, District Attorney David Yocom explained.
Third District Judge Anthony Quinn set Mark Hacking's bail at $500,000, cash only, after signing the revised statement Tuesday morning.
That statement also changes the recommended charge from "aggravated murder" to "criminal homicide," but Yocom said that was only to correct a computer error.
He did not discount the scenario that an aggravated murder charge, which carries a possible death penalty, could be filed in the Lori Hacking case.
Yocom reviewed a one-page summary of the case prepared by a detective Monday afternoon before requesting that police conduct additional interviews, transcribe witness statements and gather scientific evidence - and do this work quickly.
Once Hacking was arrested Monday, Yocom's office had 72 hours to file charges or ask a judge for an extension. Yocom said Tuesday that he hopes to make a decision before the Thursday deadline but is prepared to ask for more time if police cannot "marshal the evidence."
Police arrested Mark Hacking without consulting with prosecutors because of his pending release from University Hospital's psychiatric unit, where he stayed since July 20. Such consultation is usual when prosecutors review the case.
The District Attorney's Office asked police and those involved in the case to stop talking to reporters, though investigators are allowed to update the public on the landfill search.
Yocom is hopeful detectives will recover Lori Hacking's body during that search but said his office will move forward regardless.
"We can and we will proceed," Yocom said.
He would not speculate on whether the charge would be a capital offense, but said he would consult with Lori Hacking's family before making a decision.
Proving the family's belief that Lori Hacking was pregnant also could enter into a decision to seek a capital-murder charge.
A "rap sheet" in Mark Hacking's jail file lists no previous charges. A search of court and police records shows that the 28-year-old man hadn't earned so much as a speeding ticket in five years and was, in fact, a Good Samaritan who intervened when he saw a man beating his girlfriend down the street from his apartment, informed police about a stolen car left in his parking lot and reported finding a suspicious package during a run at Liberty Park.
According to jail documents, Hacking also had an alias, "Jonathan Long," which a police captain on Tuesday could not explain. A Salt Lake Tribune search of court records found several traffic citations involving a Jonathan Long who listed a birthdate that was similar to that of Mark Hacking. But the newspaper was unable to confirm whether the two were the same.
Police say Mark Hacking had a deceptive side. He fooled his family and friends about his academic achievements, saying he graduated from the University of Utah and had been accepted to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's medical school when he had not.
Lori Hacking, 27, apparently learned of her husband's deception during a phone call with the University of North Carolina three days before he reported her missing. Co-workers said she left work crying but was composed by the time she arrived at an office party with her husband that night.
But a woman who was one of the last people to see Lori and Mark together the evening of July 18 said Lori Hacking appeared uncomfortable when the subject of their impending move to North Carolina came up.
"I was introducing Mark to my friend and mentioned that he'd just gotten accepted to medical school," the woman, a neighbor, said. "Right at that moment, Lori turned around. She didn't say anything at all. She just went straight back to her home."
Mark Hacking didn't seem phased during the 8:30 p.m. conversation, according to the neighbor. He went on to convince her that he needed to fix her malfunctioning swamp cooler that night, even though they already planned to make the repairs the following morning.
According to Mark Hacking's booking document, he killed his wife about 1 a.m. A short time later, he appeared on a surveillance tape from a Maverik gas station, 301 S. 900 East that he frequented.
In the tape, reportedly shot about 1:30 a.m. on July 19, Mark Hacking walks into the store alone, wearing a T-shirt, scrub pants and sandals. After another customer leaves, he walks to the counter and buys a pack of cigarettes. As he is waiting, he examines his hands and appears to pluck something from his watch band. He gets the cigarettes and leaves but comes back within seconds to retrieve his change. The video then shows him pull away in his wife's car, the Chrysler Sebring.
Hours earlier, a surveillance video showed Hacking - wearing different clothes - and his wife in the store together.
Police say they had information from the first day that Mark Hacking knew more about his wife's disappearance than he let on, but tried Tuesday to quell criticism from some who say investigators should have halted the massive volunteer search earlier.
"We just had a lead that took us to the landfill," Salt Lake City police Detective Dwayne Baird said. "There was no concrete evidence of where she was at."
Police called off the search of the canyon on July 21 and began focusing on the landfill, "based on corroborating interviews with people recently as well as corroborating evidence that led us to the landfill."
The landfill search appears to have been prompted by an unnamed witness alluded to in a secrecy order dated July 21 and approved by the court that says "releasing the identity of this witness or the substance of this witness' testimony" may harm the case.
Mark Hacking is now under suicide watch in the Salt Lake County Jail's mental health unit. A corrections officer patrols this 18-bed unit at all hours checking on each inmate every 15 minutes, and though inmates are seen by a psychiatrist daily, visitors are not allowed, said Sheriff's Capt. Troy Dial.
To minimize objects with which an inmate could harm himself, the cells contain only a bunk, a table, a stool and a toilet.
Physicians classify each inmate into one of three categories based on the danger they present to themselves. In the most severe, the inmate is naked other than a rip-resistant blanket. But physicians can also allow an inmate to wear a jump suit or be completely clothed. Dial could not comment on Hacking's classification due to federal privacy laws.
Only a physician can admit and release inmates from the mental health unit, which houses those who are suicidal or acutely psychotic.
Tribune reporters Matthew D. LaPlante and Ashley Broughton contributed to this story.