By that afternoon, police were inside the Hackings' apartment, 127 S. Lincoln St. (950 East), looking for evidence of a homicide.

Among their findings were knives with blood and fibers, bedding with washed-out stains resembling blood, and blood on the headboard of the couple's bed.

A letter addressed to Mark, presumably from Lori, also detailed some element of marital strife. In it, the author states a desire to "grow old with (Hacking) but I can't do it under these conditions."

The letter seemed to support the theory that Lori Hacking had learned of her husband's deceptions — lying about his May graduation from the University of Utah, for which he had ordered printed announcements, and his supposed acceptance to medical school in North Carolina.

Police also recovered a new mattress, which Hacking had bought from the Bradley Sleep Center in South Salt Lake at 10:23 a.m. July 19, in the midst of the time period in which he allegedly was learning that his wife was missing.

Detectives recovered a portion of the couple's old mattress in a Dumpster behind a church meetinghouse a block from the couple's apartment. Police believe Mark Hacking used a hunting knife to cut the pillow-top off the old mattress

An inspection of Lori's car, a gray, Chrysler Sebring abandoned outside the gates to Memory Grove, found blood evidence and Mark Hacking's fingerprints on the rear passenger, driver's-side door.

Learning from life

The journey through these past three months has been the stuff of "bad television movies" and nothing that any family should experience, Paul Soares said.

"Any of the parts of it are hard enough to deal with, but to take them together is overwhelming," Lori's brother said. "First, we deal with her disappearance and then the idea that Mark was lying and the idea that Mark was involved. All of it goes against anything that you could believe. "

Surreal, he added, is the only word to describe it.

In a few weeks, Soares and his wife will deliver a baby boy, and there is great sadness in knowing that his son will not get the chance to know his aunt, Lori.

"Lori will never get a chance to be an example to him. He will never get a chance to play with her son or daughter," he said, his voice breaking as he began to cry. "I'm going to tell (my son) what a great example she would be. To be smart. To study hard. To get your priorities straight."

His sister's death has been a lesson in priorities, Soares added.

"Life is too short. You worry so much about your career or this or that, when really, the important thing is family," he said, adding that he has survived the ordeal in large part because of support from his wife. "You never know when you are are going to leave this life. God knows, I never expected to lose my sister this young."

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E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com