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.
All decisions made by the families over the past several weeks have been made in consultation with the Salt Lake City Police Department, the Hacking family statement says.
But police and prosecutors would not comment about the Hacking brothers' statements Thursday. Mark Hacking's attorney, D. Gilbert Athay, did not return any calls Thursday.
Charges due Monday
Meanwhile, Mark Hacking remained in the Salt Lake County Jail Thursday for investigation of criminal homicide. Bail is set at $500,000 cash.
Prosecutors will have until Monday at 5 p.m. to file charges against Mark Hacking after a judge on Thursday granted them additional time to prepare their case.
Lori Hacking was reported missing before 11 a.m. July 19. Investigators believe she was killed late July 18 or early July 19.
Police believe her body was dropped in a trash bin, which was eventually taken to a Salt Lake Valley landfill. After a week's rest, police resumed a search of the facility with a team of four cadaver dogs Wednesday night. They are sorting through some 3,000 tons of trash in hopes of finding her body.
Salt Lake City police detective Dwayne Baird said they searched for about six hours but found nothing of consequence. Investigators were back at the landfill Thursday night and early today.
Lance Hacking said that in talking to Mark, both he and Scott hoped to get at the truths hidden among the web of lies they now know Mark had told friends and family for as long as 18 months.
One of the first lies uncovered by Salt Lake police was that Mark never graduated from the University of Utah, even though he told his family he had. He also told them he had been accepted to medical school in North Carolina, even though he had never applied.
"It was always the family's goal, for both families, to do everything we can to find Lori (and) to get the truth out. Both of those, regardless of the consequences, would be in Mark's best interest as well," Lance Hacking said.
Thursday's Hacking family statement expressed deep sadness at the situation and continued admiration for Lori's parents, Thelma and Eraldo Soares, and family.
"... We again express our love and regret to all members of the Soares family," the statement reads. "We too will continue to grieve for Lori until the day we die."
The Hacking and Soares families publicly stood united during a week's worth of press conferences after Lori's disappearance, pleading for the public's help in finding her. But there were questions about Mark they needed answered early in the investigation.
"We always had concerns. But we were so concentrated on the search for Lori, and with all our knowledge about what a good guy Mark was, it seemed like everything was being handled correctly by police," Lance Hacking said.
"The whole experience has been really hard on both families," Hacking said. "We call and talk and pray together and do everything to be supportive."
Lance Hacking said in addition to the families supporting each other, they also still support Mark.
"That has never wavered. He's still our brother, our son, our brother-in-law. We will always love him," he said.
Burden of proof
The Hacking brothers' stepping forward with an apparent confession by Mark, combined with evidence of a bloody knife found in Mark and Lori's apartment, would seem to create a long road ahead for the defense.
But Pamela Lindquist said prosecutors are the ones who have the burden of proving their case "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Lindquist is a private investigator who has worked for several defense attorneys in Utah.
"Every single piece of evidence that the state presents is looked at just as hard by the defense," she said.
She did not want to speculate specifically about the Hacking case because she is not involved with it. However, she said just because an alleged confession is given, it doesn't mean it will hold up in court.
"Confessions are thrown out all the time," she said.
Lindquist worked recently on the Motel 6 murder case where one defendant reportedly confessed twice. However, the confession was thrown out each time because it was given involuntarily.
Similarly, convicted forger and bomber Mark Hofmann's alleged confession to a nurse after he was injured by one of his own bombs was suppressed because of rules surrounding doctor-patient privileges, she said. Hofmann is serving a life sentence at the Utah State Prison.
When an alleged confession is given in a case, the defense will look at such things as whether it was given involuntarily, what was the state of mind of the defendant during the confession, what was the defendant's emotional and psychological state at the time of confession or whether the defendant was on any type of medications at the time, Lindquist said.
As for a family member of a defendant providing potentially damaging information, Lindquist said one need only look at Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and how he was eventually captured and convicted. Kaczynski's brother was the one who provided information to authorities.
But even if a family member steps forward with information regarding a confession, the standard of whether that confession was obtained lawfully most likely would still be applied, said Lindquist, who also noted she is not an attorney.
What a defense team will do is look at all the evidence collected and determine if it can be tied to another person, she said.
E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com; preavy@desnews.com