Lori Hacking
Encyclopedia
Lori Kay Soares Hacking was a Salt Lake City, Utah
, woman who was killed by her husband, Mark Hacking, in 2004. She was reported missing
by her husband, and the search earned national attention before her husband confessed to the crime.
. Herald Soares was a Portuguese teacher for Sunny Hills High School
and was also a native of Piracicaba
, Brazil
. He met Thelma when they both served as missionaries
for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon
or LDS Church) in Rio de Janeiro
. Lori's parents divorced in 1987 and Thelma and Lori relocated to Orem, Utah
the following year. Lori and Mark both attended Orem High School
, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
to report his wife Lori Hacking missing at 10:49 a.m. She was 27 years old when she disappeared. Mark Hacking told police she had left home early for a customary jog in the Memory Grove and City Creek Canyon area northeast of downtown Salt Lake, but had not returned home or arrived at work. A woman who said she had seen Lori near the grove that day later withdrew her claim.
According to some family members, Hacking was about five weeks pregnant when she vanished. She had planned to move to North Carolina
, where her husband had said he was to study at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
medical school
, having recently graduated from college. However, police say Mark had never completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Utah
as he led family and friends to believe, and the medical school had no record of him having ever applied.
Shortly after his wife's disappearance, Mark Hacking was reportedly found running naked through the streets, and was admitted to hospital for mental evaluation. While in the hospital, Mark engaged a locally prominent defense attorney
, D. Gilbert Athay.
while she was asleep and disposing of her body in a dumpster
. They found blood
in several places in the couple's apartment, including on a knife
located in the bedroom and on the headboard of the bed, as well as in Lori's car. In addition, Scott and Lance Hacking, Mark's brothers, claim that he confessed to them on July 24, 2004 of having murdered Lori. First-degree murder charges were filed against Mark Hacking on August 9, 2004.
On October 1, 2004 at approximately 8:20 a.m. (Mountain Daylight Time
) searchers found human remains in the Salt Lake County landfill. By that afternoon, police had confirmed that the remains were those of Lori Hacking.
On October 29, 2004, Mark Hacking pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, despite the victim's brother, Paul Soares, begging Mark in a letter earlier in the day to "save your family the grief and cost [and] plead guilty to murder".
On June 6, 2005, Mark Hacking was sentenced 6 years to life in prison, the maximum the judge could give under Utah law. Under Utah's system of indeterminate criminal sentences, first-degree felony murder brings a mandatory five years to life, but Hacking's minimum is increased to six years because he used a firearm.
In July 2005, the Utah Board of Pardons decided that Mark Hacking's first parole
hearing would come in August of 2034. Upon hearing this news, Thelma Soares made this statement: "While it is a terrible waste of his life, [the decision] lifts a great burden from my mind and heart. The six-year minimum imposed by law is an insult not only to Lori and the baby, but to me and my family as well. I thank the members of the State Board of Pardons and Parole for their diligence and sense of justice in dealing with this tragic case. My faith in our justice system has been upheld."
. "We just felt that Mark obviously didn't want her anymore," said mother Thelma Soares. Where Lori's married name once was on the headstone is now engraved the Portuguese
word "Filhinha," which translates to "little daughter."
On March 20, 2006, Utah House Bill 102, also known as "Lori's Law," was signed into law. It increases the minimum penalty for a person convicted of first degree murder in Utah to fifteen years to life.
In June 2006, prison officials in Utah discovered that personal items related to Hacking's conviction, including autographs, a hand tracing, various prison forms, and magazines, were on sale at an on-line site called "Murder Auction". After speaking with Hacking, the prison officials announced that he had agreed to voluntarily discontinue selling anything online.
"I know prison is where I need to be. I will spend my time there doing all I can to right the many wrongs I have done, though I realize complete atonement is impossible in this life. I have a lot of healing and changing to do, but I hope that some day I can become the man Lori always thought I was.
To the many people I have hurt, I am more sorry than you could ever know. Every day my soul burns in torment when I think of what you must be going through. I wish I could take away your pain. I wish I could take back all the lies I have told and replace them with the truth. I wish I could put Lori back into your arms. My pain is deserved; yours is not. From the bottom of my heart, I beg for your forgiveness.
There is no such thing as a harmless lie no matter how small it is. You may think a lie only hurts the liar, but this is far from the truth. If you are traveling a path of lies, please stop now and face the consequences. Whatever those consequences, they will be better than the pain you are causing yourself and others."
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, woman who was killed by her husband, Mark Hacking, in 2004. She was reported missing
Missing person
A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
by her husband, and the search earned national attention before her husband confessed to the crime.
Biography
Lori was the adopted daughter of Thelma and Herald Soares, formerly of Fullerton, CaliforniaFullerton, California
Fullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 135,161.It was founded in 1887 by George and Edward Amerige and named for George H. Fullerton, who secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway...
. Herald Soares was a Portuguese teacher for Sunny Hills High School
Sunny Hills High School
Sunny Hills High School is a public high school located in Fullerton, California, USA. Established in 1959, it is part of the Fullerton Joint Union High School District....
and was also a native of Piracicaba
Piracicaba
Piracicaba is a city located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The population in 2009 was 368,843 in an area of 1,369.511 km², at an elevation of 547 m above sea level.-Name:...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. He met Thelma when they both served as missionaries
Missionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
or LDS Church) in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. Lori's parents divorced in 1987 and Thelma and Lori relocated to Orem, Utah
Orem, Utah
Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...
the following year. Lori and Mark both attended Orem High School
Orem High School
Orem High School is a high school located in Orem, Utah, part of Alpine School District. It was built originally in 1956 and has since undergone major renovations...
, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
Disappearance
On July 19th, 2004 Mark Hacking called 9-1-19-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
to report his wife Lori Hacking missing at 10:49 a.m. She was 27 years old when she disappeared. Mark Hacking told police she had left home early for a customary jog in the Memory Grove and City Creek Canyon area northeast of downtown Salt Lake, but had not returned home or arrived at work. A woman who said she had seen Lori near the grove that day later withdrew her claim.
According to some family members, Hacking was about five weeks pregnant when she vanished. She had planned to move to North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, where her husband had said he was to study at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
, having recently graduated from college. However, police say Mark had never completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
as he led family and friends to believe, and the medical school had no record of him having ever applied.
Shortly after his wife's disappearance, Mark Hacking was reportedly found running naked through the streets, and was admitted to hospital for mental evaluation. While in the hospital, Mark engaged a locally prominent defense attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, D. Gilbert Athay.
Mark Hacking arrested
On August 2, 2004, Mark Hacking was arrested on suspicion of the aggravated murder of his wife. Police believed that he acted alone, killing Lori in their apartment with a .22-caliber rifleRifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
while she was asleep and disposing of her body in a dumpster
Dumpster
A dumpster is a large steel waste receptacle designed to be emptied into garbage trucks. The word is a genericized trademark of Dumpster, a American brand name for a type of mobile garbage bin...
. They found blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
in several places in the couple's apartment, including on a knife
Knife
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
located in the bedroom and on the headboard of the bed, as well as in Lori's car. In addition, Scott and Lance Hacking, Mark's brothers, claim that he confessed to them on July 24, 2004 of having murdered Lori. First-degree murder charges were filed against Mark Hacking on August 9, 2004.
On October 1, 2004 at approximately 8:20 a.m. (Mountain Daylight Time
Time zone
A time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
) searchers found human remains in the Salt Lake County landfill. By that afternoon, police had confirmed that the remains were those of Lori Hacking.
On October 29, 2004, Mark Hacking pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, despite the victim's brother, Paul Soares, begging Mark in a letter earlier in the day to "save your family the grief and cost [and] plead guilty to murder".
Guilty plea
On April 15, 2005, Mark Hacking pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for prosecutors dropping other charges. Because there was a firearm involved, the statutory sentence is six years to life. Some additional hearings have been scheduled before actual sentencing.On June 6, 2005, Mark Hacking was sentenced 6 years to life in prison, the maximum the judge could give under Utah law. Under Utah's system of indeterminate criminal sentences, first-degree felony murder brings a mandatory five years to life, but Hacking's minimum is increased to six years because he used a firearm.
In July 2005, the Utah Board of Pardons decided that Mark Hacking's first parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
hearing would come in August of 2034. Upon hearing this news, Thelma Soares made this statement: "While it is a terrible waste of his life, [the decision] lifts a great burden from my mind and heart. The six-year minimum imposed by law is an insult not only to Lori and the baby, but to me and my family as well. I thank the members of the State Board of Pardons and Parole for their diligence and sense of justice in dealing with this tragic case. My faith in our justice system has been upheld."
Afterword
The Soares family has removed the name "Hacking" from Lori's headstoneHeadstone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. In most cases they have the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on them, along with a personal message, or prayer.- Use :...
. "We just felt that Mark obviously didn't want her anymore," said mother Thelma Soares. Where Lori's married name once was on the headstone is now engraved the Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
word "Filhinha," which translates to "little daughter."
On March 20, 2006, Utah House Bill 102, also known as "Lori's Law," was signed into law. It increases the minimum penalty for a person convicted of first degree murder in Utah to fifteen years to life.
In June 2006, prison officials in Utah discovered that personal items related to Hacking's conviction, including autographs, a hand tracing, various prison forms, and magazines, were on sale at an on-line site called "Murder Auction". After speaking with Hacking, the prison officials announced that he had agreed to voluntarily discontinue selling anything online.
Final statement from the Hacking family and Mark Hacking
On June 6, 2005, the father of Mark Hacking read a statement from his family that he said would be their final statement to the press about Mark killing Lori. The statement clarified several events leading up to Mark's confession and conviction. The statement ended by quoting Mark, who said the following:"I know prison is where I need to be. I will spend my time there doing all I can to right the many wrongs I have done, though I realize complete atonement is impossible in this life. I have a lot of healing and changing to do, but I hope that some day I can become the man Lori always thought I was.
To the many people I have hurt, I am more sorry than you could ever know. Every day my soul burns in torment when I think of what you must be going through. I wish I could take away your pain. I wish I could take back all the lies I have told and replace them with the truth. I wish I could put Lori back into your arms. My pain is deserved; yours is not. From the bottom of my heart, I beg for your forgiveness.
There is no such thing as a harmless lie no matter how small it is. You may think a lie only hurts the liar, but this is far from the truth. If you are traveling a path of lies, please stop now and face the consequences. Whatever those consequences, they will be better than the pain you are causing yourself and others."
External links
- Statement of Charges
- An Analysis of Mark Hacking's Statements
- Desert News, "Hacking family statement," June 7, 2005
- Lori Hacking at Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...
] - http://www.amazon.com/Every-Womans-Nightmare-Fairy-Tale-Marriage/dp/0312937415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306019985&sr=1-1Every Woman's Nightmare: The Fairytale Marriage and Brutal Murder of Lori Hacking, by Steven LongSteven LongSteven Hayward Long , from Houston, Texas, is an American journalist, magazine publisher and nonfiction author of three true crime books...
, St. Martin's Press, April 4, 2006]