Husband Held in Death of Utah Woman

Mark Hacking, who two weeks ago reported that his pregnant wife had disappeared after going for a morning jog in a Salt Lake City park, was arrested Monday in connection with her death.

Police said that Hacking, 28, probably killed his 27-year-old wife, Lori, inside their apartment. He has not been formally charged.

“We guessed early on,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said at a news conference after Hacking’s arrest. “I’m confident we have a good case.”

Hacking was taken into custody about 11:45 a.m. at the psychiatric hospital where he had been receiving treatment. He is being held at Salt Lake County Jail under a suicide watch.

Dinse would not comment on a motive for the crime or on how authorities believe Lori Hacking died. He said investigators had information that made them confident that her body was in the Salt Lake Valley landfill, where detectives had dug through 500 tons of trash. He also said evidence was gathered from the Hacking home, the couple’s car and a dumpster a block from their apartment.

Police have been looking for the body around the clock, Dinse said, adding that there was enough evidence -- including the suspected murder weapon -- to charge Mark Hacking even if his wife’s remains were never found.

“The fact that we have to go through a landfill to look for a body is not a pleasant task,” he said. “Three thousand tons of garbage will have to be gone through to be sure we have gone through everything.”

Dinse said he didn’t know if Lori Hacking was five weeks pregnant, as she had told her family. But if true, her husband could face two murder counts.

A woman answering the phone at the Lori Hacking help line Monday said that Scott Dunaway, a spokesman for both families, would not discuss the arrest. D. Gilbert Athay, Mark Hacking’s attorney, also refused to comment. Police would not provide any more details on the investigation.

The case of the missing woman has gripped Salt Lake City. Mark Hacking reported July 19 that his wife had failed to return from a morning run in Memory Grove Park. The couple’s parents organized 1,200 volunteers, who combed the park and surrounding area for days. They appealed to the media and set up a website reporting on each day’s activities.

Meanwhile, Mark Hacking’s story began to unravel, authorities say.

Police removed a set of box springs from the couple’s house after it was revealed that Hacking had purchased a new mattress just before reporting his wife missing.

Hacking’s story to family members about enrolling in medical school in North Carolina turned out to be a lie. And he did not graduate from the University of Utah, as his family had believed.

There is speculation that Lori Hacking discovered the truth weeks ago after getting a phone call, reportedly from the University of North Carolina Medical School. Afterward she left work in tears, witnesses said.

The day after reporting his wife missing, Hacking was found running around naked outside a Salt Lake motel and was taken to the psychiatric hospital.

Police then labeled him a “person of interest” in the case and began searching the landfill with cadaver dogs.

Over the weekend, investigators said, Hacking gave family members “substantive new information” on the case that prompted the victim’s parents to abruptly end the search. Although they had once cultivated the media to get out the message about their daughter’s disappearance, they now said they wanted to be left alone.

“The parents were hopeful that there would be a happy conclusion to all of this,” Dinse said.