Laurie had her whole future ahead of her, a new home, a loving husband, and the exciting news of a baby on the way. But just days before she was set to leave for a fresh start, she vanished without a trace, supposedly during a morning run. As desperate search is unfolded across Salt Lake City, no one could have imagined the dark secrets that would come spilling out, or that a person who claimed to love her was hiding the darkest of those secrets. This is the story of Laurie K. Sorah's hacking.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a.
True crime podcast. The following podcast material intended for your audiences. Gotta love that sound. Every time it hits just so good.
I feel like it sounds better through the mic though.
It just always sounds good no matter what. Yeah, I will say, Okay, one of the best times I've ever heard that sound. I know, not everyone is an outdoorsman, and not everyone is a hunter. I do partake in hunting once in a while, and I have to say, when you go to a stand or a tree stand and you're sitting in the middle of the forest with either sunrise or sundown, because hey, there are such thing as breakfast beers and you sit inside Lenz and you crack one of those.
Oh my gosh, this is spiful. Is this why you haven't ever got anything?
Maybe?
I mean I haven't ever got I'm kidding, that's malarkey. The last few years you haven't had very much. Lucky I have. That's why. No, that's not why some hunters out there are like, what are you doing? Then?
I don't always it's it's an occasion and it's when it happens, it's so sweet, you know.
Yeah, No, I get that.
Yeah, I didn't write anything for like things we had to talk about, so I don't. If you got anything, let's we can do it, or we can just go right into being like, let's thank awesome patrons.
Well let's thank some awesome patrons.
Okay, so you have nothing to talk about either?
Do I always have shit to talk Oh?
You do? Okay? Cool? Okay, Well let's thank patrons. Then we'll move into what you got. So thank you and shout out to Carol King, Lex, Jeremy Dean, Marley Martinez, mayhan Van, and Lindsay Kurchenko, who all signed up for some extra behind the scenes awesome content over on Patreon and are supporting us. Thank you so much. It means the world.
Sure does it do? For sure? Sure?
Now what do you got?
Well, I was just going to say a goal that I have. I'm going to try to sit with good posture this whole episode.
Oh, make sure your MIC's in a good spot.
Then my body is just wrecked all the time, and I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with me? But then I sometimes look at how I'm sitting when I'm editing, and I'm like, yeah, that's.
Probably why scoliosis posture. Is that what's going on or what?
Or I don't know, Like I have my leg up or like sitting cross legged, and like it's just not healthy. It's not good.
Well that's a good, good, good goal to have.
But I'm also very fidgety too, so it's like to sit in one position for an hour or.
Just I don't know, I can't do that, but you do it all the time when literally every day when you're working.
I get well, I move around a lot, though, Like I'm very like.
Okay, well, Ebbie, twice a week when we record the podcast.
To do it well, I'm going to this is how I'm sitting the whole episode. So okay, watch watch me, all.
Right, Nichole's going to be a gargoyle for this episode, apparently with phenomenal posture leering over me. And I'm going to get into this case. Okay, you ready for this one?
I am. So.
In the morning of July nineteenth, two thousand and four, twenty eight year old Mark Hacking woke up later than planned and immediately noticed something was unusual. Now, his wife, Laurie Soarez Hacking, she wasn't home. He figured she had already left for work at Wells Fargo, where she was a stockbroker's assistant. Now see, Laurie had planned to start the day with an early morning run at Memory Grove
in Salt Lake City, Utah, like she often did. The plan for her was to come home afterwards and then get ready and then Mark was going to drive her to work at seven am. But Mark overslept and woke up at around eight am. Oh dang, yeah, So when he woke up, she was nowhere to be found, and he just kind of assumed that Laurie skipped waking him up and let him have a sleep in and let
him sleep in exactly. So he woke up frantically at eight and was like, oh shit, I slept in, got out of bed and she was nowhere to be found, and say, okay, she just let me have this one.
Yeah, sort of situation fair enough. I mean, I don't think you'd go somewhere negative right away exactly.
Well, like her car was gone from the driveway, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary, d right. It wasn't until about ten PM that things started to feel a little bit off though. Mark called Laurie's office, only to find out that she never showed up that morning for work. And that's when alarm bell seemed to start ringing in Mark's head. As he stood in their bedroom, still on the phone with one of Laurie's co workers, he suddenly
noticed something strange. Laurie's work clothes were still laid out, untouched, the clothes she planned to wear to work that very day. See, this meant that she had never made it back home her run. She didn't come back home, she didn't wake him up, she didn't get dressed, she didn't go to work.
Oh my gosh, that is so scary. And those are things you wouldn't really notice until you're I don't know, alarmed by something, right.
Well, exactly, I mean clothes laying out. I'm sure we all have clothes laying out in our house somewhere right now. I'm sure. So like close out, hey, until he realizes weight like, oh, those aren't dirty clothes or aren't the ones she wore yesterday. These are clean ones she planned on wearing.
Yeah.
So Mark was like, even on the phone, he's like, oh, quote, oh heck, her clothes are still here. Well, actually I screwed up that quote. It's oh my heck, here's her clothes. Oh my heck, yeah, oh my heck, here's her clothes. She never came back from running, That's what he said. Now, panic, Mark of course hung up the phone with the coworker
and dialed nine one one now. But the desk sergeant told him that he had to wait twenty four hours before officially reporting Lori missing, which, unfortunately, is something in many of the cases that yeah, you need to wait for someone to be reported missing because hey, we don't know they're missing yet.
Yeah, we've chatted about that so much. And in some cases it makes sense, but in some it just doesn't. Right, It doesn't so out of character for her. I'm assuming, yes, that they need to be starting to look right away.
But the problem is, how do you triage these situations of who you should and shouldn't look for before twenty four hours the hers right, that becomes a very iffy situation. So, unfortunately he had to wait twenty four hours. Now, Mark was frustrated but determined, so he took matters into his own hands and drove to Memory Grove to look for him for her himself. When he got there there, he found her car still parked near the running trails. Shit,
but there was no sign of Lourie. By then, Laurie's coworkers had also started to worry, and a few of them arrived at Memory Grove as well to help Mark search. Both Mark and Laurie's family members also joined in. Sorry, like both the family members from Mark and Lorie's side. Yeah, so we not only have Mark there looking at Memory Growth now where she went running, also her coworkers and
family members from both their sides. They knew the roots that she typically ran, and they all began checking every possible path that she might have taken. Thankfully, after multiple calls from concerned friends and family. The police arrived to assist in the search. Okay, so they were able to get this expedited, right, Okay good. Laurie's loved ones explained that when she ran alone, she always stuck to the
main road for safety reasons. Yeah, and only ever veered off onto these like side trails when she had company with her.
Okay, that's good. So she's thinking.
She was she was, so they knew she was running alone. So this is where she would have been, right checking that main trail. Now, as with most missing persons cases, investigators quickly turned their attention to the spouse, and when officers spoke with Mark, they noticed he was visibly shaken right away and he was struggling to keep himself together still, though he managed to walk them through what happened that morning.
He also mentioned that he had already run Laurie's usual route himself, hoping to find some clue of where she might have been. Now that included crossing a creek, which he said like, that's why his shoes were wet at the time. Apparently, so he had soaking wet feet. He ran down the trail through this creek, kind of where she would have been no sign of her.
Now.
At one point during the conversation, Mark became so overwhelmed, in fact, with while talking to police officers that he reportedly even lost his balance and fell backwards against Laurie's car. He's so distraughted.
Yeah.
Now, at the time Laurie had vanished, Salt Lake City was still shaken by the two thousand and two kidnapping of fourteen year old Elizabeth Smart, which was a very widely publicized case. The case had actually gripped the nation, and with it still fresh in people's mind, authorities wasted no time launching a full scale investigation into Laurie's disappearance, despite Mark's initially or sorry, despite Mark initially believing he
had to wait twenty four hours to report her missing. Thankfully, now this was all It was unfolding much sooner, and it was expedited. So that was a phenomenal thing. Now, search teams hit the ground, and they hit the ground fast. They deployed canine units, They even had helicopters in the air, hovering low over the trees combing the area. But after hours of searching, there was nothing. There were no clues, there were no witnesses, nothing to explain what had happened
to Laurie. Then, as words spread, women started coming forward with unsettling stories about Memory Grove.
Oh my goodness.
Okay, yeah, so if you recalled creepy encounters with suspicious men in the area, which only fueled the fear that Laurie had been abducted while out on her morning run, much like what had happened to Elizabeth Smart. Now, the timing of Laurie's disappearance made everything even harder for the whole situation. See, she and Mark were at a huge turning point in their lives. They were on the verge of everything they had worked hard towards. They were on
the verge of their dreams coming true. The two of them had been high school sweethearts and were married for five years. Mark had just finished his master's in psychology at the University of Utah and was preparing to attend medical school in North Carolina, following his father's footsteps as
a doctor. Their apartment was nearly packed up, and Laurie had just quit her job to support Mark's schooling, and just three days earlier they had celebrated with a going away party at a mountain cabin owned by her boss. And if that wasn't enough, they had even bigger news. Laurie was about five weeks pregnant. Friends and family said that she was so thrilled about the baby and excited for the move. Everything was falling into place with the two. Everything was just picture perfect.
My goodness. You know, you hear so often about like local parks and stuff not always being super safe. Like I've even heard that a little bit about our park that we have here, the one by the river, Cottonwood. Oh yeah, yeah, I don't know it. Sometimes you wonder if you should be sticking to the road and stuff, But I don't know. There's shit that happens on the road too, So I don't know.
Well, I don't know if I've ever actually told you about this about Cottonwood Park. I had a strange encounter there quite a few years ago. This was probably, I bet you two thousand and nine.
Okay.
So I worked at the sawmill down by this park near the river. But I was going in after work for like a little like ingrown toenail surgery, right, So after work, I drove out of the parking lot and I just worked like a nine hour day work boots stealed hose, sweaty, gross feet. So all my way pulling out, I was like, oh, I should pull over and I'm just gonna like wipe my feet, clean my feet up, chained socks and stuff. Yeah, so I forgot to do
it in the parking lot. So I pulled over in the park and I was doing that, and then I had this like vehicle pull up beside me, and this dude was just like staring at me the whole time.
Ha.
And then like I pulled away out of the parking lot, and so did he.
Oh gosh, Well, because my dad used to have like would go over there because he worked at the same place and it would have his lunch breaks. And yeah, he had some stories too.
Yeah. I think there was like some hookup things going on.
Yeah, I think so.
So I think that this guy thought I might have been there for that.
Yeah, and he was really turned on what you were doing.
WHOA like this dude's wiping down his feet. Anyways, some parks can be creepy at times, but we digress. Let's get back to the story now. A neighbor told police that Lori's car had been parked outside their apartment at seven am. That morning. So the police are continuing to search, they're questioning people, right, Yeah, in fact, like missing person flyers went up that city all that afternoon. But that same neighbor she also said when she left at eight thirty, the car.
Was still there, Okay, which doesn't match.
It doesn't match because Mark had insisted that when he woke up at eight am, the car was already gone. And even when approached with this information that the neighbor said it was there at eight thirty, he's like, no, it was gone by eight, he insisted. Now, if that were true, how did Lori's car end up back at Memory Grove? Though? If the neighbor said it was there at eight thirty, how was it like back? Right? These are two contradicting stories.
But also could the neighbor have just been mistaken. That's sort of where my head goes.
It's possible either one of them was mistaken.
Though.
Honestly, yeah, Now, in detective's press Mark about the timeline, he couldn't explain this car on tradiction. He was certain though, that her car was gone when he woke up. But even when these inconsistencies were coming up, authorities were struggling to find any reason why Mark could have been involved
in Laurie's disappearance. So even if we're saying yes, you know, we focus on the spouse always, right, it's one of the first suspects, and there is an inconsistency in his story, which is like, hey, red flag, the police stood back and they're like, okay, even if this is the case, it doesn't make sense, like why there is no why, there is no motivation. Everything seems perfect. Family and friends are even backing this up.
Not everything like things that seem perfect. Is it's a different story behind closed doors, right.
That's true. That's true. Now, they turned to Laurie's coworkers, who the couple, who knew the couple well. One colleague said Laurie had just seemed so happy in the days leading up to her disappearance. She was upbeat, excited for her future and her marriage heared solid. Mark had even sent her flowers at work recently. Laurie's mother echoed the same sentiment, saying the couple had a loving relationship and they were still deeply in love. Laurie had even called
Mark her big old teddy bear. Friends and family all agreed the two seemed happy no one could imagine Mark being any sort of implication into this whatsoever, But investigators soon discovered appearances can be deceiving.
Oh see, I'm hoping, I am hoping it doesn't involve him. But then there's also that little little voice, right that.
There is that little voice. Now, even with all these signs pointing to a happy marriage, there was one thing that didn't sit right with investigators, something that Mark had done the morning of Laurie's disappearance. See, before he even realized Laurie was missing, between nine and ten am, he went out and he bought a brand new match Ris for their bedroom, supposedly assumingly for their upcoming move.
Shit, that is fucked.
Yeah, that's something that I think will raise eyebrows of any true crime.
Fan big time. That is so messed.
Yeah. So I'm just gonna leave that at that for now. Okay, I'm gonna let you guys ste on that one. Later that afternoon, on the same day Laurie disappeared, Mark was brought in for a quick interview. On the way to the station, he made a comment saying, Laurie's going to be so pissed at me, and when he was asked what that meant. He's like, if you guys ever find her, she's going to be so mad at me because I didn't go running with her, like saying, like, you know,
I left her alone. She'd be mad that I left her alone. I could have been there sort of thing.
Right, Yeah, Like maybe he decided he didn't want to go running, but now look at the situation she's in exactly now.
Once he arrived at the station, Mark sat down with officers and repeat did his version of events. Initially, he even agreed to take a computer voice stress analysis or a CBSA. It's a test that's a controversial tool, kind of similar to like a polygraph sort of thing.
Ok.
It's supposedly to text this deception by analyzing vocal stress. So it's basically a lie detector, but it's vocal. So after investigators explained how it worked and exactly what it was, he soon changed his mind and he refused to take the test.
Okay, I mean I don't fully disagree with that though, because I've felt it many times. I would come across guilty talking to anyone about anything, probably just because I would, in that situation be nervous exactly.
So, I mean it was a voluntary test. They asked, Hey, do you want to do this? He's like, no, I don't want to take that test. So, hey, fair enough, doesn't implicate him in anything by not doing the test.
Well, he'sy regardless of if he did something or not, he's still very stress exactly, and so that could implicate him.
Like, regardless, and this is a stress analysis. It's not a perfect science, and I'll admittedly say I don't know the science behind it and how exactly it works, whether it detected a lying stress differently than it would detect like a just a standard stress stress or other types of stress. But who's to say, I don't know. Regardless, he didn't want to take the test, and so he didn't now something about his behavior though, just wasn't adding
up to authorities. They couldn't quite put a finger on it, but they knew they needed to take a closer look at the couple's apartment. One of the first places that police checked at the apartment was the dumpster outside the complex. While they were searching, Mark's brother showed up and asked why the police were there. Mark's response, he just said, apparently they're nervous that I bought a new mattress, and then he added, I just need to get away.
Well, I mean, if there was any evidence in the dumpster, that would be so dumb. Yeah, but honestly too. But well, I'm like, buying a mattress is so dumb too. But maybe he literally didn't, like, there's still hope.
Well, you do have to think they're about to move. Yeah, right, Yeah, when someone's going to buy a mat that's a good time to buy a new mattress.
Not really, though, because it would be better once you're in your new place.
Potentially my opinion, potentially, But think of it this way. You get rid of your old mattress, you buy your new mattress. If you're moving like tomorrow, it's wrapped in plastic. You can transport it if you got a moving truck, throw it in the truck and away you go.
I guess when you arrive at.
The new place, you have the mattress.
Yeah, yeah, it's just it just seems like it's extra moving.
I get you, though, I get you. No, there there's the other side of the coin for sure. Now, officers dug through the dumpster and they didn't find anything, not even an old mattress. So the search for Lorie continued, and just when it seemed like things couldn't get any stranger, Mark's behavior took another bizarre turn. At two am on July twentieth, just hours after Laurie was reported missing. So this is the next day, but it's early in the morning hours right, Police were called to a hotel about
half a mile from the couple's apartment. See Mark had checked into this hotel for the night instead of staying at the house, but when officers arrived, they found him running through the hallways of the hotel completely naked except for wearing a pair of sandals.
Okay, yeah, what the shit's going on there?
I know. Now, his brother Scott arrived at the scene as well. It's unclear exactly how he came to learn that this is going on, but he learned that his brother was acting like this is the hotel and he showed up to So when he arrived, he found something unexpected on Mark's PDA, which is a small handheld computer basically an early version of kind of like a smartphone sort of thing. So this message read quote to everyone
from Mark, this is justice. I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's unclear exactly what that means.
Yeah, I'm unsure.
So I'm gonna say that one's hey, just open for interpretation.
Okay, Well, I mean, this man is under a lot of stress, So it really is.
And like you say, if you took that stress test, it's probably going to show that he was stressed.
Maybe he had a couple bevies to try to like relax himself, and he's like, hey, this sounds like a good idea.
Here for a good time, not a long time, right, Yeah, I don't know. Well, after this incident, Mark's family decided to check him into a psychiatric unit for treatment. Okay, but later on now I'm not exactly sure when this comment came in, but later an FBI profiler, Candace DeLong, commented on the situation, pointing out something a little interesting. Now, according to Candace, quote, he kept his shoes on. That's not generally something we see in someone truly psychotic.
Oh, like when he was running through the halls naked?
You mean yes? Okay, So her remark led some to believe that Mark might have been faking a sort of mental breakdown, possibly to avoid facing what could have been coming.
Oh okay, because he's not he's a smart man. He's like about to become a doctor, right, so he's using his noggin maybe.
Well that's the thing, you see, Mark had a bit of a secret.
He wasn't actually becoming a doctor.
For years, he was living a double life.
Oh boy, okay, here, I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna be on Mark's side, But am I.
About to turn Well? His family believed he was working hard towards his dream of becoming a doctor. H His apartment was always scattered with open textbooks, and Laurie's mother had even helped him write term papers. Everyone thought he had been accepted to a medical school at the University of Northern Carolina sorry North Carolina Chapel Hill. And that's why they were preparing for this whole move in the first place. Right, But here's the truth. Mark had never
been accepted. In fact, Mark had never even applied.
Oh okay, this dude's getting more and more suspicious. Oh you think, man, I just want to believe so badly that it wasn't him.
Well, the deception didn't stop here. Mark had gone as far as traveling across the country for fake medical school interviews. Keeping up this elaborate lie for years.
Whoa.
As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered years of deception, years of lies so intricately woven that it was almost hard to believe. Holy shit, forget not getting into medical school, Mark hadn't even graduated from the University of Utah. In fact, he had dropped out entirely. All those textbooks scattered around the apartment, the term papers he wrote, those weren't signs of a hard working student. They were props in an elaborate performance to sell his story of lies.
Okay.
Mark had even gone so far as to leave his apartment each day, telling Laurie, his family, and his friends that he had classes to attend, when really he didn't.
What the fuck was he doing with all his time? Then?
Well, yeah, if he wasn't at school, where was he? Right?
Are on these trips and shit?
Well, turns out, instead of studying for medical exams or sitting in lecture lectures, Mark was just hanging out at like a local convenience store, drinking sodas, eating hot dogs, and smoking.
Are you serious?
He was literally just wasting his time, just biding time so we can go back home.
WHOA, Yeah, okay, I don't know why, but I will well, I mean, I know why. I did not expect this shit. That just seems so wild. He's twenty eight years old. I think you said too at that point.
Believe so yeah, Okay, Now, he told employees at these convenience stores and stuff that he was a therapist and even asked them to keep his smoking a secret from Laurie, so assuming that people like knew them, like they shop there or something or whatever. Okay, but he asked them to keep this smoking and stuff a secret since they were both a part of the Church of Latter day Saints, where smoking was frowned upon. So the lies, though, don't
stop here. Mark had also convinced Laurie's mother that he worked at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of Utah running therapy sessions, when in reality he was just a hospital orderly responsible for organizing group activities but definitely not for treating patients.
Well, he really went above and beyond. Yeah, I feel like this is just so much to come up with, Like it really is. What's the point really, Well, and.
That's that's part of this and why it's so so convoluted but also so hard to understand. Sure, and maybe it's a lie that got out of control, but what what what's he doing? What's he gaining from it? He's just eating a fucking hot dog at a convenience store.
Yeah, because it seems so stressful for him to have to also uphold this lie, right that he's literally about to go like move, I don't know how far, but move to become going to medical school exactly.
So what's he going to do when they move to this new place?
Well, yeah, that's maybe that's the problem.
Well, what's he going to do when yeah, if he supposedly is a doctor and he's now supposed to be paying bills, hit like there's he cannot keep it up, you know what I mean.
No, but what I'm just saying is maybe like he had to fix this line some way.
Yeah, and maybe that's how he fixed it. Yeah, that became some of these theories right now. When all this came to light, it shook both Laurie and Mark's family to the core. Up until that moment, they had a belief that the couple was happy. They believed that they were successful and thriving. Mark's own father admitted that quote, we didn't see it coming. We were completely blindsided. People began speculating, began speculating about why Mark had gone to
such lengths to maintain these lies. Many believed it was because of the pressure he felt from his family. His father and his brother were both doctors, and his other brother was an electrical engineer. Maybe Mark had felt that he had to measure up. When confronted, he tried to downplay it all, saying that he only told a little lie that snowballed out of control. Which I mean, hey, there is a possibility that that is the case. There is let's let's play Devil's advocate for a moment here.
Maybe that is the case. One little ee snowballed to this point. Still like, it's got to end somewhere, and he's got to know that well.
And I'm also just had the slot. I'm curious if his wife, you know, knew Maybe she did actually know the truth, maybe sent or found out or something.
Yeah. Now, despite these revelations about what Mark was hiding, Laurie's family still stood by him. They believed they believed him when he said he had nothing to do with Laurie's disappearance. They believed he was innocent.
But after hearing all these lies, how could you even believe anything that comes out of his mouth?
You know, well, they seen the relationship, they seen their daughter with him, so they stood by him.
H Okay, that's good. Now.
As the search continued, police uncovered the last known sighting of Laurie. There was surveillance footage from a convenience store that showed up with her and Mark together on Sunday evening, the before she vanished. Everything seemed normal. They were completely fine and happy. You know, I'm not going to say they were hand in hand because I don't know, but by as far as the accounts say, they were as happy as being hand in hand, let's say that they
might as well have been. It's just a normal couple.
They looked like they were just a normal married couple, exactly, going and getting some snackies or something.
However, a few hours later, at around one am, Mark returned to the store alone to buy cigarettes.
Okay, that gave me kind of chills.
But considering his pattern of lies and going to convenience stores as Devil's advocate here, maybe there's nothing skin me about going to get some smokes.
I guess what my head right away was like, oh, man, she's already dead at that point.
It's possibility. Now I can't say because I don't want to give things away, so let's continue. So when asked, Mark claimed Laurie had gone to bed at that point. That in itself, you know, isn't suspicious, but there's something that still didn't sit right with investigators heading back to that new mattress. Determined to get answers, and particularly around that mattress. Police searched a dumpster at the church that Mark attended, and that's when they found an old mattress. However,
when they found this mattress, something was wrong. Yes, it was an old mattress that was thrown away, but the top part of the mattress had been cut away and was missing, oh, completely stripped off.
Okay, here we go.
When Mark was questioned about it, though, he had an answer.
He is a answer for everything.
He does, he really does, but not for why he had used the church dumpster. More So, this answer was explaining the condition of the mattress in itself. See, he explained that Laurie and he had thrown out the old mattress because Laurie apparently had a heavy menstrual cycle and had bled on the mattress, Okay, which is a rather convenient story if someone's blood is on a mattress.
Yeah, but also if she's like five weeks pregnant, she like that blood was just there for you know how long.
Right, that's the thing.
But I guess you can't have like spotting and earned stuff during like your early pregnancy.
I guess, Well, maybe this mattress just had stains on it from years of use and you know, cycles and some leaking. Who knows. And it's like, well, no one's going to want to buy this, so they like, you know, maybe that's what he's implying.
And she was embarrassed about it or something, so they cut.
It off exactly who knows what. Investigators were not buying it.
Well, yeah, that's really hard to buy it is.
At this point, detectives were starting to suspect that Laurie never even went for her morning run at all. To test this theory, they closely examined Laurie's car, and that's when they found something disturbing. The driver's seat and the mirror they were adjusted for someone much taller than Lori, who was only five foot three. This meant she wasn't the last person to drive the.
Car, so he missed a step.
But even worse, investigators found blood in the back seat.
Oh my goodness.
Now it wasn't just a few drops. It was blood from a transfer stain, meaning that wet blood from one surface had touched another and had transferred over something potentially. I mean, this is a pure speculation of my part, but like a ripped off, bloody top of a mattress perhaps yep. From their detectives turned their attention to the apartment. Inside they found Laurie's purse, her wallet, and keys, everything she would have taken with her if she'd actually gone
on a run that morning. I mean, how could she have driven the car and parked it there? She didn't have her key?
Right? Okay, Well, is this guy complete idiot? Because the fact that he has driven the car and parked it there and then there's a shit ton of blood in there, Like is he? Is he stupid?
Well, I'm sure he's somewhat cleaned the blood. They just found traces and it's like, oh, yeah, there's definitely blood here, Like maybe it was.
Okay, like maybe like sprayed or whatever. You up?
Yeah, who knows, I'm not exactly sure how much blood or how much they had to look. I don't know if they opened the door and was like, oh shit, there's just a bunch of blood here, or if they actually had to like get down nitty gritty to find it.
Okay, I'm starting to get pissed at this point though.
Yeah, well, I mean, at this point, it's it was becoming very painfully clear that Laurie had never made it out the door this morning.
Yeah, and very like it's getting kind of obvious, like if it's not him at this point, I'm going to be shocked.
Yeah. Now, his officer searched the couple's bedroom. They discovered small spots of blood on the headboard and nightstand. Curious, one of the investigators opened the nightstand drawer and inside was a sheathed knife. Now, Mark, who had been with them during the search, let on a nervous chuckle and quickly just kind of like said that, like brush it off.
He's like, oh, yeah, I've owned that knife since, you know, days in my boy Scouts And now, honestly, like as someone who like I carry a knife on me daily and like in my nightstand often there's there's a knife sitting in my knife nightstand, Like, that's not abnormal as far as my perspective.
Is well, and a lot of people too have ways to protect themselves next to their bed, right exactly.
However, in this case, there was something off about the knife. The officer examining the blade noticed what appeared to be a small drop of blood and a fingerprint. At that moment, police knew that they needed to dig deeper. Up until this point, they've been conducting the search in the home with Mark's permission, but now they wanted to do a much thorough, much more thorough investigation, and they needed a warrant, so they told Mark to leave the apartment so they
could continue. It was clear now Mark wasn't just Laurie's worried husband. He was the main and primary suspect in the case. Still, no one could have predicted just how dark this case was about to get. On July twenty fourth, five days after Laurie's disappearance, Mark's father and brothers confronted him, demanding to know the truth, and that's when everything unraveled. Shortly after that, a relative of Laurie's went public, asking volunteers to stop searching for Laurie. Mark had just made
an admission. No one knew exactly why he decided to confess at this moment, but according to him, everything started on the night of July eighteenth, when Laurie confronted him about his lies. She had found out the truth three days before she vanished on Friday, July sixteenth. Laurie had been seen crying at work that same day, the day
of their going away party. She had apparently called the Financial Aid office at the University of Northern Carolina in Chapel Hill to check on Mark's enrollment, and that's when she learned everything. There was no record of Mark attending the university. The administrator even called the American Medical College Application Service, the database for all medical medical school applicants, and confirmed Mark had never even applied.
Wow.
Laurie was so shaken that she left work early, but later that night she still showed up to the going away party with Mark, acting as if nothing had ever happened. So why didn't she say anything then? Like? Why was it all suddenly okay? See? Mark had lied to her again. He told her that he had already spoken to the school and that there had been a simple computer error regarding his application. And attendance. Laurie wasn't convinced, though she
may have been. Her trust may have been bought for that evening, but she wasn't convinced for the long term.
Well, I don't know. She probably is kind of like a woman of her word too, And then they were planning this big party, like she didn't want to let everyone down, so it makes sense that she would go.
Yep. Now, before the weekend was over, she called the university back and left a voicemail saying that Mark had apparently straightened everything out, but she also made it clear that she wasn't entirely convinced. She ended the message with saying, quote, not that I don't trust my husband, but for my own peace of mind, I'd like to confirm everything is okay. Sadly, by the time the administrator heard the message on Monday morning, Laurie was already missing.
Yep, Laurie was already dead.
Oh we don't know she's dead yet.
I feel like she is. Like, Okay, that's true, that's true. Up, that's true. I'm speculating here.
You definitely are now. Laurie must have suspected that Mark was lying, because at some point she finally did confront him, So she must have suspected that he's lying about the lies, like you know what I mean, like the lie on top of it all, so she you know, confronted him once again. Two different neighbors later reported hearing disturbing sounds from their apartment that night. One heard a woman screaming
around midnight, and another heard a man shouting. According to Mark's confession, after their fight, Laurie eventually went to bed. He stayed up for about an hour, you know, just played video games, distressing, distracting his mind, whatever it was. But then instead of going to sleep, he ruffled through some of their packed belongings and he found his twenty two caliber rifle. He took it, loaded it, walked into the bedroom, and shot Laurie in the head while she slept. Seriously, yeah, okay,
after he disposed her body. Then he disposed the gun and of course the bloody mattress, each in different dumpsters around the city. When police reviewed the convenience store surveillance footage from one thirty am, the one where he entered alone without Lourie, uh huh, Mark had been seen buying these cigarettes, but it's now believed that he was out getting rid of evidence at that time. In fact, even in the video, Mark can be seen checking his hands,
his fingernails, and even looking at his watch. Investigators suspect that he was inspecting himself for traces of blood.
What was she married to? Hey?
Yeah?
Complete monster.
So by the next morning, Mark had a plan. He went out bought a new mattress before calling the police and spinning the story about Laurie going for a run and never coming back. But why did he kill Laurie? You know, like why? That's the big question that haunted everyone even through the shocking confession, the story, the reality why it made no sense. Yes, Laurie caught Mark and lies, but her family was convinced she would have forgiven him. In fact, her brother later said, quote, he didn't have
to be a doctor, a president, or anything. As long as he was doing his best, she would have loved him. Still. Investigators uncovered a typewritten note in the couple's spare bedroom. They believe Laurie wrote it, though it's unclear exactly when, but in it she expressed some frustration. The letter, some of it at least, said this, I want to grow old with you, but I can't do it under these conditions. I can't imagine a life without you if things don't change.
Hmm. And then I just realized too that she was pregnant, so he killed her and his baby. Yeah, gosh, Which that makes it just like a hundred times worse, really, like it's already terrible, but the fact that she's also pregnant, you know.
Eight weeks pregnant.
I think five five?
I believe it was five.
Yeah, it was very new, but still.
I lost my spot here now, okayea, So maybe that was the actual answer. Though within that letter, maybe Mark realized Laurie was actually serious and that she could potentially leave, and that he was going to lose her, and if he couldn't keep up this line any longer, maybe thought killing her was the only way out. On August second, two thousand and four, Mark Hacking was officially arrested on
suspicion of aggravated murder. But even with his confession, there was still one thing missing from this case, the body, Laurie's body. With Mark's confession in hand, the search shifted to the Salt Lake City landfill.
Oh oh, you're fucking kidding me.
Investigators believe that's where Laurie's body had ended up after he would have dumped her in a dumpster, but finding her was an overwhelming challenge. For months, search teams sifted through tons of waste, using cadaver dogs and specialized equipment, but there was just no trace of her. Then on October first, nearly three months after she vanished, they finally found her. Laurie's body was severely decomposed, so much so that medical examiners couldn't confirm whether she had truly been
pregnant at the time of her death. But after months of uncertainty, her family finally had an answer. They could finally lay her to rest. When it came time for Mark to face justice, the punishment felt shockingly lenient. He was sentenced to six to life in prison.
What do you mean six years?
Six years to life in prison? That was so he could serve six or he could serve life.
Man, I'm so disturbed at this point.
So it was the minimum sentence under Utah law at the time, and of course the public, I'm sure just like you, was completely outraged at the possibility that he could only serve six years in jail. So the backlash was so strong that the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole held a special hearing to review his sentence Good. So, after reconsidering, they ruled that he would not be eligible for parole until twenty thirty five. So he has another ten years to go.
Oh that's not even enough, agreed.
I one, one hundred percent agree with you.
Like, he was married to her for five years. They were high school sweethearts, and he just liked like she just like is a piece of garbage.
Yeah, he literally treated her like that. Yeah, he threw her in the garbage, not only her, but his potential child as well with her like.
This guy, I am, I don't know. This one's got me here. I'm just like appalled.
Now. Laurie's case held a major change in the Utah sentencing law. The minimum penalty for aggravated murder was increased to fifteen years to life, a change that became known as Laurie's Law in her honor. In the end, Laurie's father made a quiet but powerful statement. He had her married name removed from her headstone, leaving me her maiden name Good. It was as if Mark Hacking had never been a part of her life at all. From that
moment forward and after everything he did. You know what, I don't think he deserves to be a part of it, whether it's in life or death.
You know, that's honestly even just scary as shit, eh, just to like be with someone now long and then bait their whole like so much lies and then he just like kills her. Oh it's terrifying.
It is. So that is the story of Laurie K. Sras. Now. I know I said Lori k. Soras hacking and Laurie hacking throughout this case because of me. Hey that was her married last name, and in this title, if someone's searching for it, hey, you know it's it's search words, search terms and stuff. Right. Yeah, but at the end here I'm referring to as Lori k SaaS good for her dad.
Yeah, I agree that so strong. I feel like that he did that, you know, like so like just such a strong statement.
I agree. It's not even like like it's it's very passive aggressive. But I don't even think it's aggressive. I just think it's very fucking passive, like, you know, like there's no aggression there. It's just like you don't deserve it.
Yeah, fuck you. Yeah, like the person that kills her, killed her should not have his fucking last name on the on her you know. Grave agreed that one is heavy.
Yeah, isn't it? From high school sweethearts to that.
And this piece of shit just thinks that he can buy a new mattress and like, and that's not being questioned, Like he's a complete idiot.
Well and not only that, like the audacity to like use her body functions as the scapegoat. Yeah, like he's pinning it more on her.
And the fact, fuck you, she stayed with him, she found everything. They were fighting, and she stayed there, went to bed.
And then he still fucking killed her.
Oh my gosh, it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart this case, Holy shit.
All because what he wanted to smoke and have a fucking hot dog, Like what the shit? Yeh didn't want to go to school, You just wanted to hang out a convenience store, Like what the fuck?
It doesn't make any sense.
No, his motive is pathetic at best.
Yeah, Like, I honestly just hope that to the fact of thinking about him getting out of jail makes me sick.
Agreed, just sick. Yeah, hopefully you guys got through that one.
All right, I'm just so disturbed right now. Also, those were high school sweethearts, and I'm like, oh my god, this is not okay. This is too relatable for me and it's terrifying.
Yeah, just a little bit too close to home on that one. Kind of well, and there is something else that like Mark apparently, while in jail, was like secretly getting like autographs out to like a true crime memorabilia website where people were actually like purchasing his redship.
Disgusting.
Authorities managed to put a stop to that, but he still went on and like wrote a autobiography or something like that.
Yeah, this guy is a complete, like piece of shit menace to society. Like I am, oh, I think that he is making me pretty angry from the most from like recent I can't even speak.
You guys should see Nicole's face right now.
I'm just so pissed with this guy, the fact that he's trying to make money now from this Are you fucking kidding me?
If there was a word to describe Nicole at this exact moment, it is flabbergasted.
I am, I really am, rightfully, So, who the hell does he think he is? Really? Okay, Well, I'm done with him, I'm done talking about him.
You sure we're gonna turn this episode off and Nicole is going to rant for an hour.
It just doesn't make sense to me that you could be married to someone and you don't think that you know them, and then they're actually this terrible Yeah, that's yeah, I've already said it's scary as shit.
Okay, well, we're gonna go try and distress Cole. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode If you want to check out any of our links there in the description of this podcast, I'll just leave it at that. Today, you guys are incredible. Thank you so much for being here, and until next time, stay wicked.