Family pressed Mark for truth

Together the brothers of Mark Hacking comprise the "reliable citizen witness" who told police that Mark had confessed to them he had killed his pregnant wife as she slept.

Mark Hacking's arrest Monday in connection with the death and disappearance of Lori Hacking, 27, was based on those witness statements, according to a probable cause statement.

"I believe that when they're talking about the witness they're referring to my brother (Scott) and I," Mark's eldest brother, Lance Hacking, said in a phone call with the Deseret Morning News from his home in Austin, Texas. "It was a difficult decision. We knew it would be hard for us to go in there and directly question Mark. We felt it was the right decision, for everyone, including Mark."

Three days earlier, Mark had reportedly looked his father, Douglas, in the eye and told him he had nothing to do with Lori's disappearance. Even so, Lance Hacking said there were just too many questions after the lies about his brother's schooling history were revealed.

Family patriarch Douglas Hacking also told the Associated Press Thursday that he believes his son Mark "snapped" after Lori learned that Mark had lied to her about his education and career aspirations for several years.

"I think it's clear that this whole house of cards he had built, all this deception, had come to an end. He had been found out. His wife discovered his deception and confronted him with it, and I just think he just saw his whole world collapsing and broke down," Douglas Hacking told the news service.

"He just snapped and did something there's no explanation for. That's the only way I can envision it," he said.

Telephone calls from the Deseret Morning News to Douglas and Scott Hacking were not returned Thursday.

Lance Hacking said he and Scott went to the University of Utah psychiatric unit where Mark was a patient on July 24 to seek information about Lori's disappearance. That's where Mark reportedly revealed he had killed his wife.

"At that point, steps were taken to relay this information to the proper authorities as quickly as possible and to halt the majority of search efforts until more information was available," a Hacking family statement released Thursday afternoon states.

The next day, however, more than 1,200 people turned out to continue a search of City Creek Canyon, the Avenues neighborhood and many other locations in the Salt Lake Valley for Lori, who had first been reported missing by Mark on July 19. The search was suspended a week later after the families of Mark and Lori Hacking said information provided by Mark had led them to that conclusion.