SALT LAKE CITY - A first-degree murder charge was filed Monday, August 9, 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 local landfill.
The charge against the husband carries a sentencing range of five years to life in prison, and bail was set at $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 cause statement.
He then wrapped her body in garbage bags and put the body in a trash bin at the University of Utah about 2 a.m. that day. 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.
An unidentified tipster gave police information that led to the landfill search, which was expected to resume this week.
Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom said the crime was 'cowardly, despicable, monstrous, cold-blooded.'
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, which DNA tests showed was Lori Hacking's.
There was speculation that Hacking would be charged with aggravated murder, which carries the death penalty. But Yocom said prosecutors didn't have enough evidence for that charge because they couldn't prove Lori Hacking was pregnant.
The woman had told friends just before her disappearance that she was five weeks pregnant, relying on the results of a home pregnancy test. Police have not confirmed she was pregnant and can't do so without a body. She apparently did not visit a doctor.
Police have said they are confident in their case against the husband even without a body. Hacking is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday.
Hacking's attorney, Gil Athay, did not return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Mark Hacking, 28, reported his 27-year-old wife missing July 19. He said she had gone jogging at a downtown park and never showed up for work. But police later uncovered a series of lies by the husband, and said his wife likely never went jogging that morning.
The night she 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.
Hacking made the reported confession to his two older brothers, Scott and Lance, when they talked with him at the psychiatric ward July 24. The brothers asked that hospital staff delay Mark's medication so he would be 'lucid' when they talked with him.
For years, Mark Hacking lied to his wife, family and friends about his education and career plans. Not only wasn't he enrolled at medical school, he hadn't even graduated from the University of Utah as he claimed. Yet he and his wife were packing for the move to Chapel Hill, N.C.
Despite the lies, police say the statements attributed to Hacking in the probable cause document are credible.
'Everything corroborates the truth of this statement to a `T,'' Yocom said.
However, Yocom said investigators still had not found the gun allegedly used in the crime or spoken with any witnesses in the couple's apartment complex who heard a gunshot.
The Friday before she was reported missing, Lori Hacking left work stunned and sobbing. A University of North Carolina financial aid worker told police she had talked to Lori Hacking that day and informed her that Mark Hacking had never even applied to medical school, according to court documents.
His father believes Mark 'just snapped' and killed his wife after she learned he had been lying for years about his education and career plans.