Mark Hacking murdered his wife Lori Hacking please pray for the family

		Lori Hacking, 27, was last seen Monday near a park in Salt Lake City.
		AP

Meanwhile, questions arose when investigators learned that the woman's husband, Mark Hacking, has not been admitted to the University of North Carolina's medical school — or even applied there — as he had told his family.

Detective Kevin Joiner said police removed several items from the Hackings' apartment Wednesday and impounded a large trash bin from nearby.

Joiner said the initial investigation was for a missing person. "And the investigation, as it unfolds, is leading us to believe that there's foul play involved," he said.

The couple was about to move to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the fall semester, said the missing woman's mother, Thelma Soares. She said movers were scheduled for today to load a truck. Mark Hacking planned to drive with his parents to Chapel Hill. His wife was supposed to fly there Aug. 6 with their cat, Soares said.

Police and hundreds of volunteers were asking questions and distributing fliers in downtown Salt Lake City on Wednesday near Memory Grove Park and City Creek Canyon, a popular jogging area.

Hacking, an avid jogger, ran there up to six times a week, said Debra Gehris, a friend of Soares'. Both Gehris and Soares live in Orem, about 40 miles south, but both drove to Salt Lake City after Lori Hacking was reported missing.

Gehris said the family was surprised to learn that Mark Hacking had not been accepted at Chapel Hill. "The fact remains that we still have a missing woman," Gehris said.

"We think that if Lori had been in the park, she would have been found," Soares said earlier Wednesday.

"This is a fairly steep, rugged place. ... They have combed and combed and re-combed that area. We think Lori is not there. We think Lori has been abducted."

Lori Hacking learned she was five weeks pregnant a week ago. The couple's fifth anniversary is next month. She was last seen Monday stretching near the park, and her car was found near the front gates of Memory Grove, police said. Her husband called police Monday morning after she did not show up for work at Wells Fargo, where she works in the brokerage division.

Lori Hacking's disappearance reminded many in Salt Lake City of the Elizabeth Smart case. Smart was 14 when she vanished from her bedroom in June 2002 and was found alive nine months later 15 miles from her home. Authorities also searched the Memory Grove and City Creek Canyon areas after her abduction.

Chris Smart, Elizabeth's uncle, has offered help to the family, Gehris said. "When he met with us yesterday, he said, 'You have some good news: They haven't found Lori, which means she isn't laying dead up somewhere in the canyon. And you have some bad news, which is that they haven't found Lori, which means you have to keep looking.' "

Soares, before learning her son-in-law had misled her and family members about his education, started crying as she talked about her daughter's marriage. "This is not a fly-by-night romance. This is real. ... They are totally dedicated to each other. Mark is devastated, and his heart is broken, just like mine is," she said.

"Anybody who knows Mark and Lori knows how much they loved one another. And now the frosting on the cake is that she found out she was pregnant," she said.

"Don't let anybody tell you there is any foul play going on here except for the pervert who has gone off and captured her."

To Lori's parents and friends: This is Pastor Jerry and I am praying for Lori right now. Oh lord I still hold out the prayer for her safe return. Lord in Jesus name we pray for her safe return. Remember we really do care for you. Pastor Jerry

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Originally Posted by JG SALT LAKE CITY — Bloodstains have been found all over the apartment of Mark and Lori Hacking (search), family and investigative sources told Fox News. Police sources say that when they entered the Hacking apartment earlier in the week, it appeared to have been cleaned. But investigators detected a substantial amount of blood and blood drippings using the forensic chemical luminol (search), which can make traces of blood glow blue-green in the dark even if it has been cleaned up, sources say. Police say they believe the blood is Lori’s and that she was attacked in her apartment. Toxicology results that can confirm whether it is Lori’s blood are still pending. Detectives meet privately with the Mark and Lori’s families earlier in the day. Homicide detectives usually inform family members in high profile cases before announcing pertinent information to the media such as possible suspects. Police have previously called husband Mark Hacking (search) a “person of interest” in the investigation, but have not declared him a suspect. Police searched a municipal landfill with cadaver sniffing dogs earlier today, possibly searching for a discarded mattress. Mark Hacking reportedly purchased a queen-sized mattress a mere half hour before reporting his wife missing to police. Investigators removed a box spring from the couple’s apartment late Monday afternoon.

This photo of Mark and Lori Hacking was released by their family during a news conference in Salt Lake City. Lori Hacking was reported missing Monday, July 19, 2004 when she reportedly went out for a jog.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY Some are saying a "rage killing" may have taken place inside Lori and Mark Hacking's apartment hours before Lori was reported missing, as reported by FOX News has learned.

An investigative source working on the case told FOX News that 27-year-old Lori Hacking was likely attacked inside the apartment, sometime between the night of Sunday July 18 and the morning of Monday July 19, when she was reported missing.

We must pray for the families. This type of instanity in America must stop. Police would not confirm the theory, saying Lori Hacking is still considered a missing person.

Sources close to the case said there was some evidence of a struggle, but no indication that it was a chaotic situation. Though there were drops of blood found inside the apartment, there was no evidence that any blood had been cleaned up, sources said.

Police Don't Believe Lori Hacking Ever Went Running or Was Abducted in Memory Grove

Salt Lake City police say they are making progress in the investigation into the disappearance of Lori Hacking. At this point they don't believe Lori ever went for a morning run through Memory Grove. That means they also don't believe she was randomly abducted last week. Mike Headrick has more.Questions surrounding Lori’s husband Mark have not made him a suspect but investigators now call him their primary “person of interest”."We haven't come to brick wall of any kind in this case," said S.L. Police spokesman Detective Dwayne Baird.

According to reports in the Deseret Morning News and on KSL NewsRadio. A convenience store clerk may have been one of the last people to see Lori Hacking before she vanished,

The clerk at a convenience store near the couple's apartment, who was not identified, said Mark and Lori Hacking came in between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. July 18, the day before Lori was reported missing.

The source told the radio station that Mark Hacking was talking with the clerks and seemed happy, but his wife did not seem happy. The clerk said Mark visited the store several times a week and asked employees not to tell his wife he was buying cigarettes.

Meanwhile, the search for Lori Hacking was winding down as hope she would be found alive faded.

The families of Mark and Lori Hacking on Wednesday shut down their volunteer command post at a Mormon meeting house after calling off an organized search of neighborhoods, industrial areas and nearby canyons.

Police with cadaver dogs turned up no clues to the pregnant woman's whereabouts in an early morning search.

The canine crews found "nothing of consequence" at the municipal landfill before breaking off for the day, but they have not finished methodically churning up 15 feet of garbage and dirt over a wide area, Detective Phil Eslinger said Wednesday. The search was conducted overnight because the dogs work more effectively in the cooler air, authorities have said.

The voluntary community search for Lori Hacking had been called off Tuesday, eight days after her husband, Mark, reported that she had not returned from an early morning jog.

Organizers said the search was moving from neighborhoods, industrial areas and nearby canyons into more rugged terrain, and they did not want volunteers getting hurt.

The volunteer search could resume later using specialized teams or specific tips, and all-terrain vehicles and helicopters could be deployed as needed, according to Scott Dunaway, a spokesman for Lori Hacking's family.

Husband Still Silent

Mark Hacking, 28, who has been hospitalized since last week in a psychiatric unit, has retained high-profile defense attorney D. Gilbert Athay, who deployed his own team of investigators on Tuesday.

Athay said he has spoken to Mark Hacking many times since he was hired last week, but refused to characterize the conversations.

Assistant District Attorney Bob Stott said Mark Hacking is free to leave the hospital. Hacking did not return a phone message left Tuesday with an administrator at the University of Utah hospital.

Earlier this week, police confirmed that a bloody knife with strands of brown hair on it was among the numerous pieces of evidence they removed from the couple's apartment.

There were also unconfirmed reports that authorities were testing a clump of brown hair found in a trash bin just a block or two from the store where Mark Hacking purchased a mattress minutes before he called police about his wife's disappearance.

On the day the Lori disappeared, authorities were seen removing a box spring from the couple's apartment. Investigators have refused to confirm reports that they found a mattress in a nearby trash bin the same day.

Detective Dwayne Baird would not say Tuesday if police recovered a mattress, although he did say investigators are not looking for one.

Also Tuesday, police completed their search of the apartment. The families of the missing woman and her husband began packing up and moving out the couple's possessions.

The couple were planning to leave their Salt Lake City home last week and move to North Carolina, but Lori Hacking disappeared just days before, apparently on July 19. Lori had just learned she was five weeks pregnant.

After she vanished, police and family members learned that besides lying about being accepted to medical school, her husband had not even graduated from college.

"We learned a lot of things in his life that are not true," Baird said Tuesday. "Medical school was the pinnacle of that deception."

Disturbing Phone Call

In other developments, police confirmed news reports that Lori Hacking's last day at work before she disappeared was cut short by a phone call that left her so distraught she went home early.

"We wouldn't have any reason to doubt" the employee accounts, Baird said Monday.

Hacking's co-workers said Lori was sobbing after the University of North Carolina (search) medical school called to say her husband was not enrolled there, as he had told her he was. Lori had been trying to arrange on-campus housing.

Colleagues at Wells Fargo Securities Services (search) said Lori, a trading assistant, was a normally private young woman who did not share personal troubles, making her breakdown in the office all the more unusual.

The co-workers gave accounts of the phone call to homicide detectives after she was reported missing. Officials at the University of North Carolina were trying to determine whether one of their administrators made the call.

Church said detectives showed up at Wells Fargo the day after Hacking's disappearance and inspected her e-mail and computer files. Results on some of the other evidence collected by police are pending.

"She was visibly upset. She started to cry and got up to walk away," her supervisor, Randy Church, told The Associated Press on Monday.

He added that when co-workers asked her what was wrong, she replied, "It's no big deal; I'm OK. But I think I will go home."

Lori Hacking left work early after receiving the call Friday afternoon, July 16. Mark Hacking reported his wife's disappearance the following Monday.

Mark Hacking said his wife did not wake him up after coming home from an early morning jog July 19 and never showed up to work.

Police later said he was at a furniture store buying a new mattress only about a half an hour before reporting that Lori was missing.

Footage from a surveillance camera shows Mark Hacking looking for a mattress in one store but then leaving, apparently when he found out he couldn't take his purchase with him right then, FOX News has learned.

Instead, he wound up buying the mattress he came home with from a store across the street.

Mark Hacking has been at the psychiatric hospital since police found him running around naked in sandals the night after the search for his wife began.

It looks like Mark Hacking confessed to his family Saturday that he murdered Lori. The family have notified the police department with the news and asked all volunteers to stop the search. They said in a fax to the police department 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.

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.