This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated.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 has asked his parents to relay a few words to the grieving family of his wife, Lori Hacking, whom he allegedly killed in her sleep.
But that message, which the Hackings expect to pass along at Lori's memorial service today, is intended for family alone.
"I can't really say what it was," Douglas Hacking said Friday, a day after he and his wife, Janet, visited their son for about a half-hour in the Salt Lake County Jail. They had not seen Mark since Aug. 1, the day before he was arrested in connection with Lori's death.
Also on Friday, a series of investigative subpoenas was unsealed by a 3rd District judge that show detectives cast a broad net early in their investigation of Lori's disappearance, which her husband reported on July 19.
The subpoenas, which range in date from July 21 to Monday, also seek credit card, financial, home phone and cell phone records. The Hackings had cell phones from Utah and North Carolina, where they were in the process of moving.
Detectives sought access to the University of Utah Health Sciences computer network, where Mark Hacking had a personal login.
One subpoena asked for video surveillance footage taken from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints security cameras that might have focused on State Street, North Temple and Memory Grove, where Lori's car was found.
Another, requested on July 27, asked for security camera footage from the University Neuropsychiatric Institute, where Hacking is believed to have thrown Lori's body in a Dumpster.
Detectives also subpoenaed television footage taken of Mark Hacking around the time of Lori's disappearance.
Though the subpoenas describe what detectives sought access to, they do not detail what they actually received.
Also on Friday, Mark Hacking's defense attorney, D. Gil Athay, obtained from prosecutors all police reports, witness interviews and evidence reports gathered to date.
Mark Hacking was charged Aug. 9 with first-degree felony murder and three counts of obstructing justice, a second-degree offense. He is set to appear Monday morning for a scheduling conference before Judge William Barrett.
According to court documents, he shot his wife in the head with a .22-caliber rifle as she slept during the early hours of July 19.
He remains in the jail's maximum security wing, and Thursday his parents were allowed to visit him.
"He looked pretty good to me," Douglas Hacking said. "It was a good visit."
The Hackings plan to attend services for Lori today, accepting an invitation extended to them by her relatives, the Soares family.
"All of our family will be there," Douglas Hacking said. "They were very kind to make sure we were invited."
Mark's brother, Lance, flew in from Texas with his wife on Friday to attend the funeral. Lance, his wife Stephanie and his fifth child, Wyatt, visited Mark on Friday.
Lance Hacking said he feels "extreme loss on two accounts."
He told his brother that he would remain supportive, while at the same time he wants the attention to shift to Lori and the life that has been lost.
Lori's memorial service today is expected to start at 9:30 a.m., when friends can view a display of her life in the Relief Society Room of the Windsor Stake Center in Orem. The funeral will begin at 11 a.m. The family asks that instead of flowers, mourners donate money to the Lori Hacking Memorial Fund at any Wells Fargo bank. They hope to raise enough cash to create a scholarship or some other memorial honoring her.
Lori Hacking was born in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve 1976, and adopted by Herald and Thelma Soares, who are now divorced. The family moved to Orem in 1988.
She married Mark Hacking, her high-school sweetheart, on Aug. 7, 1999, at the Bountiful LDS Temple.
Their marriage, which family and friends described as ideal, had deteriorated recently, most likely after Lori apparently discovered Mark Hacking's elaborate lies about his educational ventures.
Contrary to his claims, he never graduated from the U. and he never applied to medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the couple was preparing to move.
In a spare bedroom of the couple's Salt Lake City apartment, police found a typed letter they believe was written by Lori. The letter included such statements as: "I want to grow old with you, but I can't do it under these conditions. . . . I can't imagine life with you if things don't change."
Lori and Mark Hacking argued late July 18 about his medical school lies, according to the charges. When Lori went to bed, Mark played video games then "came across" his .22-caliber rifle.
After shooting her once in the head while she slept, Mark Hacking allegedly cut the pillow-top off of the mattress and wrapped her in it. Prosecutors believe he placed her body in a Dumpster near his workplace, and that he threw the gun and the rest of the mattress in other Dumpsters.
Police later recovered the mattress, but have not yet found the gun or Lori's body.
Officers, aided by cadaver dogs, searched the Salt Lake County landfill late Friday for the 11th night. So far, police have found nothing connected to the crime.
A major portion of the criminal case is based on Mark Hacking's confession to his brothers, Scott and Lance, who talked to him while he was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of University Hospital on July 24.
The Hackings have assisted in the investigation and have remained close to the Soares family. At the same time, they have supported Mark Hacking.
Lance talked to his brother Friday about the confession wanting to "make sure he knew we acted out of love."
The Hacking and Soares families have maintained such a solid relationship through their faith and the understanding that they are all grieving, Lance Hacking said. He and his wife complimented Lori's mother, Thelma, for her understanding, forgiveness and unconditional love.
Scott Hacking plans to see his brother Thursday or Friday, the next time he can have visitors. His parents plan to visit him once a week, Douglas Hacking said.
The family has "flooded" Mark with letters, his father said, and have also communicated with him through a series of short phone calls.
Douglas and Lance Hacking would not discuss much of their conversations with Mark because of the criminal proceedings now under way.
Mark Hacking has no contact with other inmates and is only allowed one hour out of his cell each day.
He has spent a good deal of his time reading a Gideon's Bible, provided by the jail. His father said his son has finished all of the New Testament and on Thursday asked for a "triple combination," the three main books of LDS scripture in one volume.
Said Douglas Hacking, "He's praying a lot."