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Samantha Hayes reportingMark Hacking's sentencing hearing was the first time family members talked in court about what they have been through in the last year. Now, the end of the judicial process may be over, but the families continue to struggle with very strong emotions.
Lori's mother, Thelma Soares, talked about the day Mark invited her over to the apartment to help look for a picture of Lori shortly after she disappeared. Thelma said she later came to the horrifying realiziation that she had been standing just feet from where Mark shot her daughter.
Thelma Soares turned to face her daughter's killer and asked, "How could you do that." Mark Hacking answered, "I'm sorry."
Lori's father, Eraldo Soares, said, "Right now he is just a typical liar."
It was a path of lies, according to Mark's family, that twisted and turned him into a murderer.
According to Mark's father, Douglas Hacking, "Rather than admit to himself and others that he could not succeed in college, he began to create the illusion that he was going to school and doing well."
And everyone believed it. In a statement released later by Lori's mother, Thelma Soares talks about Mark's deception:
"I loved that young man, as if he were my own son. So, his betrayal is profound. Justice demands that his life remain as irrevocably altered as Lori's..his child's and mine are."
In the courtroom, Mark's family described Lori as having "fire and grace" and that Mark deserved to feel the fire, but also grace in honor of his wife.
"As parents we wish we could have prevented this tragic event. We also loved her and will continue to miss her presence in our lives as well," Doug Hacking said.
A profound feeling of loss for both families over the death of Lori, the incarceration of Mark, and dreams of happiness they used to have for them as a couple.
"I'm not here to bash the Hacking family," Eraldo Soares said. "They are good people. Now they have to live with a murderer in their own family. And for that I feel sorry for them. They have a heavy burden on their shoulders."
Doug Hacking also read a statement from Mark. It says: "To the many people I have hurt, I am more sorry than you could ever know. I wish I could take away your pain. I wish I could take back all the lies I have told and replace them with the truth."
