• October 18, 2004
• Vol. 62
• No. 16

Finding Lori

By Bill Hewitt

After Months of Searching, Volunteers Discover Lori Hacking's Remains in a Salt Lake City Landfill

For a long time, Douglas Hacking says, he had nightmares every night; he was haunted by the thought that the remains of his daughter-in-law Lori were lost. During the days, he worked as a pediatrician and prayed—both for Lori and for his son Mark, charged with her murder. And every Thursday Dr. Hacking and his wife; Janet, would stop by the massive Salt Lake City landfill to bring food to the law enforcement personnel who had volunteered to spend 10 hours a day, four days a week, picking through the garbage in the hopes of finding Lori's body. "We met them and shook their hands," says Dr. Hacking. "Every chance we got, we expressed our gratitude to them."

At long last, the nearly 2½ months of hard work yielded results. On Oct. 1 searchers came across a plastic bag containing human remains, which were later identified as Lori's. According to authorities, Mark Hacking, 28, had confessed to two of his brothers that he had shot Lori, 27, who worked in a stock brokerage office, as she slept in the early hours of July 19—apparently after she discovered he had been lying to her about getting into medical school and confronted him. Lance Hacking said that his brother Mark, who is being held in the Salt Lake County jail on $1 million bail, was comforted by the news of Lori's recovery. "He's relieved and grateful that they found her," said Lance.

The discovery of Lori's body was the culmination of an extraordinary effort that had come to grip Salt Lake City, one that required the painstaking sifting of some 4,600 tons of garbage and the constant battling against heat, dust, rain and the terrible stench at the dump. (Police discontinued the use of cadaver dogs, which failed to pick up any scent of the victim, within weeks of the crime.) Roughly three dozen volunteers took part in the grueling search, including police sergeant J.R. Nelson, who on the morning of Oct. 1 was using his rake when he tore into a bag containing a clump of dark human hair. At first Nelson, who was supervising the work team, thought it was another sack of clippings from a barbershop, which had fooled searchers in the past. This time, though, he noticed that the hair was attached to a jawbone and he let out a shout. "You couldn't recognize that it was Lori," says fellow searcher Donavan Lucas, a Utah highway patrol trooper, who rushed over. "The remains were very badly decomposed, but we found most of them. It was a tough thing to see." Most of the officers on the scene, including Nelson, began to cry. "It was an emotional moment," says Nelson. "It was very difficult work, but I'm glad we did it. Now the family can give her a proper burial."

At this point, according to Salt Lake City police chief Rick Dinse, it will be virtually impossible to confirm whether Lori, who had told friends she was pregnant, was in fact expecting when she was killed. So far authorities have not recovered the .22-caliber rifle that Mark, who is expected to plead not guilty when he next appears in court on Oct. 29 at a hearing, purportedly used for the murder. The remaining mystery is how someone from a solid family, who appeared so personable and normal, could have felt compelled to spin such an elaborate set of lies—to the point of pretending to go to college classes when he wasn't even enrolled—and then, when it all came crashing down, to allegedly kill a wife he seemed to adore. "Now that I look back I can see that desire for attention," says Lori's brother Paul Soares, "that wanting to be in the middle of things."

That impulse still seems to be with him. In September Hacking announced that he intended to write a tell-all book about what happened to Lori. Her family was appalled. "It disgusts me. With the way he is, it's got to be about him," says Soares. "If Mark wants to tell his side of the story, he should tell it to the judge." His family voiced the hope that he would be doing it for the right reasons. "I think he is trying to look for some way that he can make a positive difference, " says his brother Lance. "This is the only way currently available."

In the meantime, the Soares family, who have remained close to the Hackings, have embarked on their own effort to begin the healing process. Lori's mother, Thelma Soares, and father, Eraldo Soares, issued a statement expressing their heartfelt thanks to the searchers for finding their daughter and thus helping to "bring closure to our nightmare." Thelma has set up a scholarship at Lori's alma mater, the University of Utah's business school, which has already received donations of more than $132,000, including $50,000 from Oprah Winfrey. "It's the perfect way to honor Lori," says her brother Paul. "Education was really important to her." For all concerned, these days remain a time of deep sadness, eased only by faith. Dr. Hacking's nightmares eventually dwindled, he says, when he began to think of Lori "in heaven all the time, in a place where she was happy and secure and surrounded by people who had gone before."

Bill Hewitt. Carolyn Campbell and Cathy Free in Salt Lake City

• Contributors:
• Carolyn Campbell,
• Cathy Free.