Mark and Lori Hacking were the epitome of a happy young couple in love. She had a good job with Wells Fargo and was pregnant with her first child, while husband Mark had just graduated from the University of Utah with honors and was headed to medical school at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Life is perfect.
Except, none of us ever really knows the secrets between a married couple.
Listen to the episode HERE
Bianca Sloane (00:06):
That perfect couple that you think you know, so well, don't be so sure they're living a fairytale.
Hello and welcome to the first episode of The Dark Side of Love, a true crime podcast that explores love stories gone wrong. I'm your host, Bianca Sloane, and I happen to be the author of suspense novels about the dark side of love. So, not only am I totally intrigued by the subject, just on a personal level, from a writing standpoint, I get a lot of inspiration from these stories.
I find it fascinating how love gone wrong twists things to the point of murder. One spouse murdering the other, one spouse murdering the other woman or the other man, spouses murdering other people together. I mean, I've had some ex-boyfriends I didn't like very much, but I didn't want to kill them. Mostly.
So, each week, I'll be taking a closer look at some of these true crime stories, from ones that inspired my books, to ones that mesmerized me for whatever reason, and even a few where I may have a teeny tiny personal connection, but more on that as time goes on.
Bianca Sloane (01:08):
Speaking of my books for this first episode, I want to explore a case that did provide a little bit of inspiration for my first novel, Killing Me Softly. And that story, it involves a cold case involving the brutal murder of a woman and her sister's efforts to uncover what happened. And there's also, feeding into that, is the story of the new wife of the dead woman's husband and how she might be involved. So, there's a lot going on there, but it's all good, I promise.
So, although the book came out in 2012, I had actually started working on it in 2005. And at that time, one of the big stories dominating the headlines was the case of Laci Peterson. So, for those of you who don't know, Laci was a 27 year old Modesto, California woman who disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002, after taking her dog for a walk. At the time, she was eight and a half months pregnant with her first child.
Bianca Sloane (02:02):
So, that among other things really amped up the urgency to find her. Unfortunately on April 13th of 2003, the bodies of Laci and her unborn baby, Connor, were found in the San Francisco Bay.
Another big missing woman's story in 2005 was the runaway bride, which was a woman who had disappeared before her wedding. And everyone thought, "Oh, this is Laci Peterson all over again." And it turns out she had just run away because she didn't want to get married. Uh, now the story that we're going to talk about today, which was another major story that emerged after the Laci Peterson case, and actually had more similarities than the Runaway Bride story did, was the case of Mark and Lori Hacking.
Like Laci and Scott Peterson, everyone thought Mark and Lori had the perfect marriage. The truth is though, unless you're under the bed, none of us ever really knows what happens between two people in a marriage.
Bianca Sloane (03:00):
Say it with me, now. The truth is, unless you're under the bed, none of us ever really knows what happens between two people in a marriage. So, let's rewind it. Let's take it back a little bit. And Mark Hacking and Lori Soares met while students at Orem High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The high school sweethearts met during a trip with some of their classmates and soon became inseparable. They eventually married in 1999, and by all accounts, everybody loves the kind, sweet Mark. He was the type of guy who would do odd jobs for neighbors, he would help Lori's mom, Thelma with repairs around her house, could never say no to a stranger in need.
Above all, he was devoted to Lori. And according to her brother, Mark was such a good guy, it actually made him look kind of bad because he was always doing these really sweet and thoughtful things for his sister.
Bianca Sloane (03:59):
In fact, in a story from 48 hours about the case, it was said that Mark worshiped his wife and was not shy about showing it. And that Lori frequently referred to her husband as her quote, big old Teddy bear. Where Mark was more outgoing and more of kind of like that goofy kind of class clown kind of guy, Lori was a little bit more reserved, and in the eyes of their friends and family, that made them the perfect couple.
So, in the summer of 2004, Mark and Lori have been married for five years and they're on the cusp of some pretty big and exciting life changes. Mark had just graduated from the University of Utah with honors, and he and Lori were preparing for a move to North Carolina where Mark would be attending medical school at Chapel Hill. So, pretty prestigious university. Twenty-seven year old Lori had also told friends that she was five weeks pregnant with the couple's first child.
Bianca Sloane (04:57):
So, at this point in life, the future is bright. The future is beautiful. This young couple seemed as though they were on the verge of having it all. Until the morning of July 19th, 2004. Mark had called Wells Fargo where Lori worked as a trading assistant, wondering if his wife was there. She'd gone out for a jog early that morning, like she normally did at Memory Grove, which was a, which is a popular sprawling park in Salt Lake City, where people go for jogs, there's biking, trails, concerts, that kind of thing.
However, she hadn't returned home. Turns out she's not at work. And calls to Lori's friends found that none of them had seen her either. Mark says he actually drove along Lori's jogging route searching for her, but there was no sign of her. So, the obvious conclusion seems to be that Lori has vanished. Mark calls the police, but because it hadn't yet been 24 hours since she was last seen, there wasn't anything that they could do just yet.
Bianca Sloane (06:04):
However, this did not stop friends and family from springing into action. So, they descended upon Salt Lake City to launch a search for Lori. Missing person posters went up around town, the family held a press conference. Everybody's doing what they can to try to find her.
So, in addition to friends and family, hundreds of volunteers turned out to help find her. And in fact, one of the volunteers was Elizabeth Smart's uncle Chris and Elizabeth Smart, as you may recall, was a Salt Lake City, teen who was kidnapped from her bedroom, June of 2002, by a religious zealot slash evil rapist slash there aren't enough adjectives to describe his depravity, Brian David Mitchell, uh, Elizabeth Smart was eventually found alive, fortunately, nine months later in nearby Sandy, Utah.
So, the specter of Elizabeth Smart kind of hangs over the search for Lori because they didn't want to miss her as they felt they had missed.
Bianca Sloane (07:01):
Um, Elizabeth Smart, authorities felt this way. Now, by this point, it's really hard to ignore the similarities between Lori Hacking and Laci Peterson. They were the same age, 27, both beautiful, accomplished young woman who came from loving families. Just like Laci. Lori was pregnant just like Laci. Lori had the perfect marriage, the perfect husband the perfect life. And you're really hoping that Lori's fate is not the same as Laci's.
Now, not long after Lori disappeared, Mark is admitted to the psychiatric unit at the University of Utah after police found him roaming aimlessly around a local motel wearing only a pair of sandals. So, at the time people thought that the stress of Lori's disappearance had sparked a breakdown of sorts.
However, when you start to think about this logically, it doesn't make any sense. He's stark naked, except for some shoes, meaning he had the presence of mind to worry about protecting his feet, while he's running around doing whatever it is that he's doing.
Bianca Sloane (08:10):
I'm just going to say it, but at this juncture, it seems pretty obvious that Mark wants everyone to think he's a cuckoo clock. The obvious question is why the obvious answer, I think we know why. But we're getting there. As we all know, whenever a wife or a husband goes missing, the spouse is always the first suspect.
So, naturally as part of the investigation, police do a deep dive into the couple's background, looking at everything from their finances to their jobs, to what the relationship was like. You know, wasn't really as perfect as it seemed on the surface. Uh, breaking news, probably not. And it was during that deep dive that police found the first crack in Mark's story. Of course.
For starters, Mark never graduated college, much less been accepted to medical school. According to the book, Parents Who Kill by Carolyn Davis, Mark even went so far as to pose for pictures in a fake cap and gown, sent out graduation announcements for the big day, except he came up sick on the day of his graduation, which allowed him to skip the ceremony. Hashtag dedication to the cause, I guess.
Bianca Sloane (09:20):
So, of course, this lie really put Mark under the microscope because obviously if he could lie about this, what else is he lying about? Now, this is when the dominoes really start to fall. While Mark is having his nervous breakdown, police are in the process of collecting evidence and conducting searches. And among the evidence that they collect are packages from some new bedding that they found in the dumpster at Mark and Lori's apartment complex.
They also get some surveillance footage from a nearby convenience store, as well as from a Mormon church near the park where Lori was supposedly jogging. So, in addition to, uh, this, uh, this evidence that they've been collecting with the bedding and the dumpster and all of this stuff, they do a search of the apartment itself where Mark and Lori live. And this is where even more damning evidence comes to light.
Bianca Sloane (10:17):
For starters, the bathtub is spotless, and it smells of bleach, like suspiciously smells of bleach. Lori's purse and keys are there, which is odd because she would have taken them with her in order to drive her car to the park for her jog, unless she flew there.
There's also a new mattress on the bed with new sheets that hadn't been washed before they were put on the bed. Okay, so, no woman would ever, ever, ever put sheets just out of the package onto a bed without washing them first. Something a man might do, sorry guys, but it's something you all might do, but not a woman. A woman would not do that.
Lo and behold, police also find a receipt for a new mattress and bedding purchased that morning. Oh. And they found a bloody knife. It's not looking too good here for our boy Mark. So, now to get back to the question of why Mark is acting like a cuckoo clock.
Bianca Sloane (11:16):
It's because he's obviously involved in what happened to Lori, like big time involved. Now, by this point, there doesn't seem to be any doubt that Lori is dead, because there were just too many things that aren't adding up, too many things that just are way out there for police to ignore.
So, now, they are shifting from looking for a kidnapping victim to looking for a body and the only person who can tell them where to find Lori remains is Mark. And he ain't talking, not only is he still under psychiatric care, he's also got lawyer.
So, police were unable to shake anything out of Mark about where to find Lori's body or about what happened. As it turns out though, Mark's brothers were able to extract a confession from him when they visited him in the hospital and begged him to spill what he knew.
Bianca Sloane (12:12):
So what happened? How did this unravel, how did this perfect marriage, perfect man, perfect relationship end with a search for the wife's body? So, Lori in anticipation of their big move to California, to North Carolina, rather, she had called the medical school where her husband was supposedly enrolled in order to get some information regarding his financial aid, since that's what the couple was going to be living on once they got there.
Except she got told that, nope, Mark is not enrolled. Nope, he is not a student there, nor will he be a student there. And nope, they have no record of him. I mean, I have to imagine Lori's pretty stunned by hearing this, uh, and apparently she questioned him, she confronted him with what she had been told from the medical school. And according to court documents, Mark tells her it's all one big misunderstanding.
Bianca Sloane (13:11):
It's a computer glitch. It's a computer glitch. Again. I have to imagine that Lori is probably feeling relieved at hearing this perfectly logical explanation. And in fact, she called back and left a voicemail for an employee at the school, basically saying that her husband suggested that the whole thing was just a big computer glitch, computer glitch.
So, for a time, anyway, she bought his explanations. However, on the night of July 18th, Mark apparently fesses up. He cops to it and he admits that he has lied about everything. That he graduated from the University of Utah with honors, about being accepted to medical school, lie, lie, lie, lie, all lies.
Bianca Sloane (13:59):
So, sometime after this confrontation, Lori goes to bed and Mark stays up playing video games and then continued packing, tt seems. I'm not sure where he thought they were going at that point. I'm also wondering what his plan was when they got to North Carolina, was he still gonna stay with the computer glitch story? I don't know.
Um, at any rate, according to court documents, it was while Mark was packing these moving boxes that he found a 22 caliber rifle. And at 1:00 AM that morning, he entered the bedroom and shot his sleeping wife in the head.
Bianca Sloane (14:43):
Mark told his brothers that he wrapped Lori's body in some garbage bags and the top of their mattress, which is soaked in his wife's blood. And he tossed her body in a dumpster. That morning, when Mark was supposedly frantic with worry about Lori, that he was out driving along the route where she was jogging, looking for any sign of her, because he was so concerned about her welfare, about her wellbeing, and, Oh my gosh, did something happen?
He was actually out mattress shopping, shopping for new sheets for that bed, with all that blood of his wife's. He was also spotted on surveillance camera footage at a local convenience store, buying a pack of cigarettes. Just what you want after you've shot your wife in the head. Remember that Lori first goes missing in July. And it wasn't until the morning of October 1st, 2004, that her remains were recovered.
Bianca Sloane (15:46):
This followed months and hours and days of volunteers combing a local landfill in the hot summer sun, sifting through thousands of tons of garbage. The search had turned so grim at one point ,that some of them had resorted to digging with their bare hands into all of this trash and in the earth, desperate to turn up something, anything of Lori. Mark had finally told authorities specifically which section of this landfill, where they could find Lori.
So, that enabled investigators to hone in on a more specific area, uh, for the search. And according to authorities, all that was ultimately recovered of Lori were about 15 pounds of remains, including a jaw bone and some of her teeth. Mark was ultimately charged with first degree murder and unbelievably, initially pleaded not guilty.
With any murder, especially one as gruesome and as heartbreaking as this one, we always want to know why? What drives someone to commit murder, especially of your spouse, your wife, the person you vowed to love, to honor, and cherish for all of your days?
Bianca Sloane (17:20):
This all goes back to the elaborate web of lies that Mark had built around himself regarding his background and his education and his future. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Mark had fallen from a roof and had suffered a concussion and a broken back. And that these injuries had severely impacted his ability to concentrate on his college courses, which resulted in him flunking his classes, before he finally dropped out.
The Hacking family was a family of accomplished achievers. His father was a respected pediatrician. His brother was a cardiologist. Another brother was an engineer, and yet another brother worked for the government and his mother also, Mark's mother, was a nurse.
There was speculation that Mark perhaps felt intimidated by his family's success and put pressure on himself to live up to everything that they had accomplished. The family were also devout members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Bianca Sloane (18:21):
And, in a profile in the Deseret News, friends said that Mark dated a girl during one of his missions for the church, causing him to be sent home early. And that in fact, he had dated other girls while on other missions, Other troubling behavior that was at odds with his Mormon upbringing, included smoking, partying, and possible drug use. And Mark lied about all of these things.
He lied about why he'd been sent home early from his mission. He denied smoking, denied partying, denied his possible drug use. He had grown so accustomed to lying, to living this double life of sorts. And then when it came to his academic career and the fact that he had dropped out because he was having so much trouble in his classes, it just became one more lie piled on top of a mountain of lies.
And it caught up to him when Lori uncovered the truth. And rather than get a divorce, which also went against his faith and face up to his deceptions and admit his wrongdoings.
Bianca Sloane (19:26):
Mark decided that murder was the only viable option. Murder. As one does. Mark's defense attorney in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune claimed that he quote loved Lori so much, he wanted to relieve her of the pain she was feeling, which is a crock of, you know what. And according to another article, also from the Salt Lake Tribune, Lori had apparently written Mark a letter a few days before she died, which said in part quote, I can't imagine life with you if things don't change change.
So, Lori was leaving him. And the only pain that Mark Hacking was trying to relieve was his own humiliation, the knowledge that the facade he had wrapped himself in was done, destroyed, over. His life was about to take a major change and he couldn't handle it, so he didn't. After he initially pled not guilty to first degree murder, Mark changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to, get this six years in prison, which apparently was the maximum he could get at the time according to state law in Utah.
That was changed, fortunately, when the Utah Board of Pardons stated that the earliest Mark could get a parole hearing would be 2035. So, his minimum time served would be 30 years. Mark had also claimed at one point that he planned to write a book telling the whole story, or his side anyway, for whatever that's worth. But as of 2021, it doesn't appear that anything has been published.
Bianca Sloane (21:07):
The unfortunate similarities between Lori Hacking and Laci Peterson included both of their husbands being convicted for their murders, as Scott Peterson was convicted in the murders of both his wife and unborn son. Eventually Lori's family removed, Hacking from her headstone and in honor of her Portuguese heritage replaced it with Filhinha, which is the Portuguese word for little daughter.
So there you have it first episode in the can. Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me. And I look forward to many more journeys to come. I'm Bianca Sloane, and this has been the Dark Side of Love.
Thanks for hanging out with me. Drop me a line at bianca@biancasloane.com and let me know what you think. Visit thedarksideoflove.com for show notes and info and stuff. And join me next time for another tale of love gone wrong. I'll see you on the Dark Side.
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