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Husband Arrested in Case of Missing Utah Woman
Mark Hacking and his missing wife Lori Hacking
The husband of a pregnant woman who disappeared two weeks ago has been arrested on a charge of aggravated murder, police announced Monday.
Lori Hacking, 27, has been missing since July 19, when her husband told authorities that she failed to return from an early morning jog. Her body has not been found.
The investigation took a grim turn over the weekend when her relatives asked volunteers to stop looking for her in response to new information from Mark Hacking, and authorities said they would focus their search on a landfill.
''We believe that Mark Hacking is responsible for her disappearance and her death,'' Police Chief Rick Dinse said Monday.
Dinse said investigators believe Lori Hacking was killed in her apartment, but did not say how.
Since he reported his wife missing, Mark Hacking's credibility has crumbled amid revelations that he lied to his wife about enrolling at medical school in North Carolina and about graduating from the University of Utah.
Hacking, 28, was taken to a psychiatric ward on July 20, after he was seen running around at night naked in sandals outside a motel where he'd taken a room.
Investigators focused on Hacking after learning he was at a store buying a new mattress just before reporting his wife missing. Investigators have refused to confirm reports that they found a mattress in a nearby trash bin.
A media statement released by the family late Saturday said Hacking had given them information that made a volunteer search unnecessary. It did not reveal what Mark Hacking told his family, and Detective Dwayne Baird said only that it was ''additional substantive information.''
The search for Lori Hacking has taken volunteers to neighborhoods, industrial areas and canyons around the park where she was said to have been jogging the morning she was reported missing.
Investigators plan to resume their search at the landfill this week.
Source: AP
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