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KSL Team CoverageDramatic new information is surfaced Wednesday, about a letter written by Lori Hacking to her husband Mark. It suggests Lori may have wanted out of the marriage.
Details of the letter surfaced in a search affidavit released late Wednesday afternoon. There are several new details contained in the search warrant affidavit filed by police. Police say that letter indicates Lori and Mark were having severe marital problems. Detectives found it the day Lori disappeared, folded, sitting on a shelf in the spare bedroom of the couple's apartment. (View the Hacking Apartment Search Warrants)
The letter police say Lori wrote to her husband Mark says: " I want to grow old with you, but I can't do it under these conditions. I hate coming home from work because it hurts to be home in our apartment. I can't imagine life with you if things don't change. I got someone I don't want to spend the rest of my life with unless changes are made."
Dr. Jennifer Mackenzie, YWCA: "The letter is interesting and concerns me on some levels"
We shared Lori's words with Dr. Jennifer Mackenzie of the YWCA, an expert in domestic violence.
Jennifer Mackenzie, Ph.D., YWCA: "Clearly it sounds like she was on to his lies and saying if things don't change, I'm going to leave."
Police seized a computer from the couple's apartment to find out when Lori typed the letter, information detectives haven't made public.
Dr. Mackenzie says a date on the letter would give experts better insight: What was Lori's state of mind, did she write it after uncovering Mark's lies about medical school -- or long before that?
But one thing's for certain, statistics show threatening to leave a partner increases the risk of domestic violence homicide.
Dr. Jennifer Mackenzie, YWCA: They're at an increased risk for homicide, because usually if the perpetrator feels threatened they're of a mindset, if I can't have you no one else will."
So if Lori was ready to leave, why didn't friends or family know it? Initially a lot of people said publicly the Hackings were a happy couple. Experts say it's not unusual for women to keep marital troubles a secret.
The search warrant paperwork also indicates Mark Hacking initially told police he'd thrown away the couple's mattress a month before Lori disappeared because she'd bled on it during her menstrual cycle. Police actually recovered the couple's old mattress from a dumpster near the Hacking's apartment shortly after Mark reported his wife missing.
In the affidavit, police also took dozens of personal items from the couple's cars, Mark's locker, and the apartment, where bedding, a computer, and underwear for DNA reference were seized.
Another new piece of evidence has surfaced in the Mark Hacking case. Police have a videotape that may show Hacking dumping his wife's body.
Police are interested in digital images recorded by 16 security cameras at the Utah Neuropsychiatric Unit where Mark worked. It could be the place where, as Mark told his brothers, he put Lori's body in a dumpster.
We don't know what's actually on the tape, but the company that is assisting in reviewing and enhancing those digital recordings says there are images on them.
Justin Harryman, Vice President, FutureTech: “I’m just going off what the police want to look at. They tell me where they want to look and what times. And we just help them.”
So far police have reviewed recordings from just one of 16 cameras.
Coverage Continues: Witness List In Hacking Case Continues To Grow
