Murder charge filed against Mark Hacking

A first-degree murder charge was filed Monday against Mark Hacking, who allegedly confessed to relatives that he shot his sleeping wife in the head and threw her body in a trash bin.

Lori Hacking's body has not been found, despite numerous searches of a landfill.

The charge against the husband carries a sentencing range of five years to life in prison. Hacking remained jailed on bail of $1 million.

A probable-cause statement released Monday states that Hacking told his brothers that he and his wife had been arguing the night of July 18 when he revealed to her that he had lied about his education and future plans.

Lori Hacking later went to bed, and Mark Hacking stayed up to play Nintendo. As he continued packing for the couple's planned move to the medical school at North Carolina, he came across a .22-caliber rifle, walked into the couple's bedroom and shot his wife, according to the probable-cause statement.

He then wrapped her body in garbage bags and put the body in a trash bin at the University of Utah in the pre-dawn hours. He disposed of the gun in another bin and after cutting off the pillow top of the mattress, he put the mattress in a third bin.

Gil Athay, Mark Hacking's lawyer, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Athay has questioned the circumstances of the alleged confession.

"Remember Mark was housed in a psychiatric unit for the period of time these brothers are claiming they spoke with him," Athay told Salt Lake television station KUTV last week. "To me that creates a substantial issue."

Mark Hacking is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

An unidentified tipster gave police information that led to the landfill search, which was expected to resume this week.

The night Lori Hacking was reported missing, police found Mark Hacking naked outside a hotel near the couple's apartment. He was checked into a psychiatric ward by his family, where he stayed for more than a week before his arrest.

Mark Hacking, 28, made the reported confession to his two older brothers when they talked with him at the psychiatric ward July 24.

Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom said the statements attributed to Mark Hacking in the probable-cause document are credible. "Everything corroborates the truth of this statement to a 'T,"' he said.

Hacking was also charged with three counts of obstructing justice, each carrying a sentence of one to 15 years in prison, for allegedly hiding evidence of the crime.

Mark Hacking was arrested Aug. 2. Court documents say investigators found human blood on a knife in the couple's bedroom, on a headboard and on a bed rail. DNA tests showed the blood was Lori Hacking's.

Yocom said prosecutors did not have enough evidence for a charge of aggravated murder, which carries the death penalty, because they could not prove Lori Hacking was pregnant.