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Timeline Lori Hacking's Disappearance Photo Essay The Search for Lori Hacking Video Hacking on Surveillance Tape
Cops Announce Hacking Arrest Profile Lies Catch Up to Mark Hacking Stories Select One Aug. 7: Report Says Mark Hacking Asked Patients to Call Him 'Franz' Aug. 6: Hacking's Attorney to Challenge Confession Aug. 6: Hacking's Dad Says Mark 'Just Snapped' Aug. 5: Mark Hacking Told Jailers He Used Alias Aug. 4: Mark Told Psych Ward Patient He Killed Lori Aug. 3: Tape Shows Mark After Alleged Murder Aug. 2: Mark Hacking Arrested on Murder Charge July 31: Lab Evidence May Help Solve Hacking Case July 30: Police Say Lori May Have Never Gone Jogging July 29: Source Says 'Rage Killing' in Hacking Home July 27: Co-Workers Say Lori Got Upsetting Phone Call July 25: Bloodstains Found in Hacking Apartment July 24: Dad Confronted Mark Hacking at Hospital July 23: Jogger's Family Says She Was Deceived July 21: Pregnant Woman Disappears While Jogging
Lori's mother, Thelma Soares, wept as she talked to reporters after the hearing.
"I still have a lot of questions that are, have never been, addressed, and I need to get some answers from Mark," Soares said. "But that will have to be between Mark and me in the future at some point."
Hacking reported his wife missing on July 19, 2004, telling friends and family she had gone out for a jog and hadn't returned.
That same day, hours after making a televised plea for his wife's return, Hacking was spotted running around a local motel naked. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
As a massive search for Lori Hacking's body was under way, a string of lies Mark Hacking had told his wife and family came to light. Investigators discovered that not only had Hacking not been admitted to medical school, he had never even graduated from college.
They also discovered Lori Hacking's car keys and wallet, discounting Mark Hacking's claim that she had driven out to a nearby park to jog. It was also found that Hacking had dumped the couple's mattress and had purchased a new one just before he phoned police to report his wife missing.
Family members and friends were stunned at the revelations. A little more than a week after Lori Hacking disappeared, Mark Hacking confessed to his brothers that he killed her.
Two-and-a-half months later, Lori Hacking's remains were found in a Salt Lake county landfill.
There was speculation after Hacking was arrested that he would plead innocent by reason of insanity. But according to local newspapers, none of the possible key witnesses in the case were ever contacted by defense attorneys, signaling Hacking decided to avoid going to trial some time ago.
Before the hearing, Lori Hacking's brother Paul Soares said he was not looking forward to seeing his brother-in-law.
"For 12 years this was a person I got along with, a person I loved," Soares told FOX News. "Now, looking back at what he's done, it's going to be really hard."
Erin Galbraith Huband, a close friend and former roommate of Lori Hacking, said earlier on Friday she was relieved at news of the plea deal.
"It was good to hear that maybe he might step up and say, 'This is what I've done and I'm willing to take responsibility, finally,'" she told FOX News.
FOX News' Jane Roh and Adam Housley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Salt Lake City (Utah) resident and hospital orderly Mark Hacking pleaded guilty Friday to killing his wife Lori, and placing her body in a dumpster.

Mrs. Hacking’s disappearance last summer touched off an intense, weeklong search in Salt Lake County which a wire service report said was similar to the other sensational Salt Lake crime, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart from her own bedroom.

After Hacking admitted details of his crime to his family, earlier, he suffered a breakdown and was placed in a psychiatric hospital. He was seen in court Friday with his hands cuffed behind his back.

He admitted to the judge that he killed his wife while she slept. His motives, according to prosecutors, were his anger and despondency when she discovered that he was not accepted into a North Carolina medical school as he had claimed, but would remain a hospital orderly.

Mrs. Hacking is reported to have broken down sobbing at her workplace, a Wells Fargo brokerage, after discovering her husband’s deception. She had placed a call to the medical school’s administrators and been told he was not enrolled. He had lied to her about graduating from the University of Utah as well.

Mrs. Hacking’s mother and father were in the courtroom to hear their son-in-law declare: “I intentionally shot Lori Hacking in the head with a .22 rifle.” They said it was like a “knife in the heart” to hear that, but were happy he owned up to the crime.

The attack occurred last July. Volunteers scouring a landfill found her decomposed remains after three months of searching.