(AP) Police are reviewing security-camera images from
a hospital where they believe Mark Hacking dumped his wife's body in a trash
container, a technology executive said Wednesday.
Hacking has been charged with murder, accused of shooting his wife after an
argument provoked by her discovery that he had been lying about his college
education and plans to enroll at a medical school. Prosecutors filed court
documents detailing Hacking's confession to the slaying, made to his
brothers when they visited him in a psychiatric ward.
With help from the security-camera company FutureTech, investigators have
started reviewing images taken by 16 motion-triggered video cameras at and
around the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute, where Hacking
worked as an orderly.
Justin Harryman, a vice president of FutureTech, said it took police three
hours to methodically review images from just one of the cameras.
"It's hard to say if it's him," said Harryman, who refused to elaborate.
It was not immediately known what the person on tape was seen doing. Police
did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The body of Lori Hacking, 27, a stockbroker's assistant, is believed buried
under tons of trash at a county landfill.
Her family placed an obituary in both Salt Lake City daily newspapers
Wednesda,y saying she "slipped into eternity" July 19. A memorial service is
scheduled Saturday.
The obituary describes Mark Hacking as Lori's high school sweetheart. The
couple were married Aug. 7, 1999.
Hacking, 28, told his brothers he shot Lori in the head as she lay sleeping,
then put the body and a .22-caliber firearm in separate trash bins AT about
2 a.m. July 19, according to court documents.
He disposed of a mattress in another trash bin at a church, according to the
documents. Police found the mattress but they lack Lori's body, the murder
weapon, bed sheets and the mattress pillow top, which was cut off and may
have been used to wrap the body.
Detectives discovered Lori's car keys and wallet in a purse at her
apartment, even though her husband said she had driven her car to a city
park for an early morning jog.
Her car was found at the park, and police said the driver's seat and mirrors
had been adjusted for a large man. Lori Hacking, 5-foot-3 and barely 115
pounds, couldn't have reached the pedals or steering wheel in that seating
position, the documents say.
Police also said that after Hacking reported his wife missing, he went to a
store across town and bought a new mattress before going to the park to look
for her.
"The police from Day One suspected Mark and have conducted their
investigation as though he was the prime suspect," said Greg Skordas, a Salt
Lake defense lawyer and former chief deputy district attorney.
Authorities believe Lori Hacking was killed after confronting her husband
over his deceptions about his college education and plans to become a
doctor. The couple were packing for medical school where, she had apparently
just discovered, he wasn't enrolled.