Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Murder of Lori Hacking

Transcript

The Murder of Lori Hacking · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Laurie had her whole future ahead of her, a new home,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a loving husband, and the exciting news of a baby
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: on the way. But just days before she was set
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to leave for a fresh start, she vanished without a trace,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: supposedly during a morning run. As desperate search is unfolded
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: across Salt Lake City, no one could have imagined the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: dark secrets that would come spilling out, or that a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: person who claimed to love her was hiding the darkest
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of those secrets. This is the story of Laurie K.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Sorah's hacking.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: and Grim, a.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: True crime podcast. The following podcast material intended for your audiences.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Gotta love that sound. Every time it hits just so good.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I feel like it sounds better through the mic though.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: It just always sounds good no matter what. Yeah, I
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: will say, Okay, one of the best times I've ever
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: heard that sound. I know, not everyone is an outdoorsman,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and not everyone is a hunter. I do partake in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: hunting once in a while, and I have to say,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: when you go to a stand or a tree stand
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and you're sitting in the middle of the forest with
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: either sunrise or sundown, because hey, there are such thing
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: as breakfast beers and you sit inside Lenz and you
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: crack one of those.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is spiful. Is this why you
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: haven't ever got anything?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: I mean I haven't ever got I'm kidding, that's malarkey.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: The last few years you haven't had very much. Lucky
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I have. That's why. No, that's not why some hunters
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: out there are like, what are you doing? Then?
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I don't always it's it's an occasion and it's when
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it happens, it's so sweet, you know.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I get that.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't write anything for like things we had
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to talk about, so I don't. If you got anything,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: let's we can do it, or we can just go
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: right into being like, let's thank awesome patrons.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Well let's thank some awesome patrons.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you have nothing to talk about either?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Do I always have shit to talk Oh?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: You do? Okay? Cool? Okay, Well let's thank patrons. Then
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: we'll move into what you got. So thank you and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: shout out to Carol King, Lex, Jeremy Dean, Marley Martinez,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: mayhan Van, and Lindsay Kurchenko, who all signed up for
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: some extra behind the scenes awesome content over on Patreon
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and are supporting us. Thank you so much. It means
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the world.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Sure does it do? For sure? Sure?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Now what do you got?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I was just going to say a goal that
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I have. I'm going to try to sit with good
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: posture this whole episode.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, make sure your MIC's in a good spot.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Then my body is just wrecked all the time, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with me? But
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: then I sometimes look at how I'm sitting when I'm editing,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, yeah, that's.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Probably why scoliosis posture. Is that what's going on or what?
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Or I don't know, Like I have my leg up
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: or like sitting cross legged, and like it's just not healthy.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: It's not good.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Well that's a good, good, good goal to have.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: But I'm also very fidgety too, so it's like to
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: sit in one position for an hour or.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Just I don't know, I can't do that, but you
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: do it all the time when literally every day when
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: you're working.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I get well, I move around a lot, though, Like
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I'm very like.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, Ebbie, twice a week when we record the podcast.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: To do it well, I'm going to this is how
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I'm sitting the whole episode. So okay, watch watch me, all.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Right, Nichole's going to be a gargoyle for this episode,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: apparently with phenomenal posture leering over me. And I'm going
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to get into this case. Okay, you ready for this one?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I am. So.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: In the morning of July nineteenth, two thousand and four,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: twenty eight year old Mark Hacking woke up later than
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: planned and immediately noticed something was unusual. Now, his wife,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Laurie Soarez Hacking, she wasn't home. He figured she had
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: already left for work at Wells Fargo, where she was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a stockbroker's assistant. Now see, Laurie had planned to start
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the day with an early morning run at Memory Grove
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City, Utah, like she often did. The
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: plan for her was to come home afterwards and then
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: get ready and then Mark was going to drive her
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: to work at seven am. But Mark overslept and woke
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: up at around eight am. Oh dang, yeah, So when
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: he woke up, she was nowhere to be found, and
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: he just kind of assumed that Laurie skipped waking him
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: up and let him have a sleep in and let
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: him sleep in exactly. So he woke up frantically at
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: eight and was like, oh shit, I slept in, got
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: out of bed and she was nowhere to be found,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: and say, okay, she just let me have this one.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sort of situation fair enough. I mean, I don't
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: think you'd go somewhere negative right away exactly.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Well, like her car was gone from the driveway, so
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: nothing seemed out of the ordinary, d right. It wasn't
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: until about ten PM that things started to feel a
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: little bit off though. Mark called Laurie's office, only to
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: find out that she never showed up that morning for work.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And that's when alarm bell seemed to start ringing in
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Mark's head. As he stood in their bedroom, still on
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the phone with one of Laurie's co workers, he suddenly
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: noticed something strange. Laurie's work clothes were still laid out, untouched,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the clothes she planned to wear to work that very day. See,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: this meant that she had never made it back home
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: her run. She didn't come back home, she didn't wake
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: him up, she didn't get dressed, she didn't go to work.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that is so scary. And those are
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: things you wouldn't really notice until you're I don't know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: alarmed by something, right.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Well, exactly, I mean clothes laying out. I'm sure we
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: all have clothes laying out in our house somewhere right now.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sure. So like close out, hey, until he realizes
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: weight like, oh, those aren't dirty clothes or aren't the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: ones she wore yesterday. These are clean ones she planned
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: on wearing.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So Mark was like, even on the phone, he's like, oh, quote,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: oh heck, her clothes are still here. Well, actually I
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: screwed up that quote. It's oh my heck, here's her clothes.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Oh my heck, yeah, oh my heck, here's her clothes.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: She never came back from running, That's what he said. Now, panic,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Mark of course hung up the phone with the coworker
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: and dialed nine one one now. But the desk sergeant
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: told him that he had to wait twenty four hours
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: before officially reporting Lori missing, which, unfortunately, is something in
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: many of the cases that yeah, you need to wait
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: for someone to be reported missing because hey, we don't
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: know they're missing yet.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've chatted about that so much. And in some
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: cases it makes sense, but in some it just doesn't. Right,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: It doesn't so out of character for her. I'm assuming, yes,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: that they need to be starting to look right away.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: But the problem is, how do you triage these situations
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of who you should and shouldn't look for before twenty
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: four hours the hers right, that becomes a very iffy situation. So,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: unfortunately he had to wait twenty four hours. Now, Mark
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: was frustrated but determined, so he took matters into his
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: own hands and drove to Memory Grove to look for
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: him for her himself. When he got there there, he
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: found her car still parked near the running trails. Shit,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: but there was no sign of Lourie. By then, Laurie's
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: coworkers had also started to worry, and a few of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: them arrived at Memory Grove as well to help Mark search.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Both Mark and Laurie's family members also joined in. Sorry,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: like both the family members from Mark and Lorie's side. Yeah,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: so we not only have Mark there looking at Memory
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Growth now where she went running, also her coworkers and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: family members from both their sides. They knew the roots
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: that she typically ran, and they all began checking every
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: possible path that she might have taken. Thankfully, after multiple
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: calls from concerned friends and family. The police arrived to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: assist in the search. Okay, so they were able to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: get this expedited, right, Okay good. Laurie's loved ones explained
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: that when she ran alone, she always stuck to the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: main road for safety reasons. Yeah, and only ever veered
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: off onto these like side trails when she had company
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: with her.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. So she's thinking.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: She was she was, so they knew she was running alone.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: So this is where she would have been, right checking
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: that main trail. Now, as with most missing persons cases,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: investigators quickly turned their attention to the spouse, and when
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: officers spoke with Mark, they noticed he was visibly shaken
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: right away and he was struggling to keep himself together still,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: though he managed to walk them through what happened that morning.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: He also mentioned that he had already run Laurie's usual
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: route himself, hoping to find some clue of where she
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: might have been. Now that included crossing a creek, which
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: he said like, that's why his shoes were wet at
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the time. Apparently, so he had soaking wet feet. He
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: ran down the trail through this creek, kind of where
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: she would have been no sign of her.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: At one point during the conversation, Mark became so overwhelmed,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: in fact, with while talking to police officers that he
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: reportedly even lost his balance and fell backwards against Laurie's car.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: He's so distraughted.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Now, at the time Laurie had vanished, Salt Lake City
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: was still shaken by the two thousand and two kidnapping
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: of fourteen year old Elizabeth Smart, which was a very
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: widely publicized case. The case had actually gripped the nation,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: and with it still fresh in people's mind, authorities wasted
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: no time launching a full scale investigation into Laurie's disappearance,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: despite Mark's initially or sorry, despite Mark initially believing he
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had to wait twenty four hours to report her missing. Thankfully,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: now this was all It was unfolding much sooner, and
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: it was expedited. So that was a phenomenal thing. Now,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: search teams hit the ground, and they hit the ground fast.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: They deployed canine units, They even had helicopters in the air,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: hovering low over the trees combing the area. But after
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: hours of searching, there was nothing. There were no clues,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: there were no witnesses, nothing to explain what had happened
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: to Laurie. Then, as words spread, women started coming forward
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: with unsettling stories about Memory Grove.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so if you recalled creepy encounters with suspicious
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: men in the area, which only fueled the fear that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Laurie had been abducted while out on her morning run,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: much like what had happened to Elizabeth Smart. Now, the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: timing of Laurie's disappearance made everything even harder for the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: whole situation. See, she and Mark were at a huge
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: turning point in their lives. They were on the verge
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: of everything they had worked hard towards. They were on
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the verge of their dreams coming true. The two of
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: them had been high school sweethearts and were married for
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: five years. Mark had just finished his master's in psychology
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: at the University of Utah and was preparing to attend
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: medical school in North Carolina, following his father's footsteps as
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a doctor. Their apartment was nearly packed up, and Laurie
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: had just quit her job to support Mark's schooling, and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: just three days earlier they had celebrated with a going
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: away party at a mountain cabin owned by her boss.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: And if that wasn't enough, they had even bigger news.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Laurie was about five weeks pregnant. Friends and family said
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: that she was so thrilled about the baby and excited
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: for the move. Everything was falling into place with the two.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Everything was just picture perfect.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: My goodness. You know, you hear so often about like
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: local parks and stuff not always being super safe. Like
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I've even heard that a little bit about our park
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that we have here, the one by the river, Cottonwood.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I don't know it. Sometimes you wonder
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: if you should be sticking to the road and stuff,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: But I don't know. There's shit that happens on the
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: road too, So I don't know.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if I've ever actually told you
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: about this about Cottonwood Park. I had a strange encounter
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: there quite a few years ago. This was probably, I
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: bet you two thousand and nine.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: So I worked at the sawmill down by this park
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: near the river. But I was going in after work
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: for like a little like ingrown toenail surgery, right, So
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: after work, I drove out of the parking lot and
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I just worked like a nine hour day work boots
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: stealed hose, sweaty, gross feet. So all my way pulling out,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I should pull over and I'm
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: just gonna like wipe my feet, clean my feet up,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: chained socks and stuff. Yeah, so I forgot to do
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: it in the parking lot. So I pulled over in
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the park and I was doing that, and then I
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: had this like vehicle pull up beside me, and this
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: dude was just like staring at me the whole time.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Ha.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And then like I pulled away out of the parking lot,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and so did he.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, Well, because my dad used to have like
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: would go over there because he worked at the same
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: place and it would have his lunch breaks. And yeah,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: he had some stories too.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think there was like some hookup things going on.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So I think that this guy thought I might have
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: been there for that.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was really turned on what you were doing.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: WHOA like this dude's wiping down his feet. Anyways, some
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: parks can be creepy at times, but we digress. Let's
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: get back to the story now. A neighbor told police
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that Lori's car had been parked outside their apartment at
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: seven am. That morning. So the police are continuing to search,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: they're questioning people, right, Yeah, in fact, like missing person
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: flyers went up that city all that afternoon. But that
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: same neighbor she also said when she left at eight thirty,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the car.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Was still there, Okay, which doesn't match.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: It doesn't match because Mark had insisted that when he
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: woke up at eight am, the car was already gone.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: And even when approached with this information that the neighbor
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: said it was there at eight thirty, he's like, no,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: it was gone by eight, he insisted. Now, if that
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: were true, how did Lori's car end up back at
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Memory Grove? Though? If the neighbor said it was there
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: at eight thirty, how was it like back? Right? These
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: are two contradicting stories.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: But also could the neighbor have just been mistaken. That's
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: sort of where my head goes.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: It's possible either one of them was mistaken.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Though.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Honestly, yeah, Now, in detective's press Mark about the timeline,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: he couldn't explain this car on tradiction. He was certain though,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: that her car was gone when he woke up. But
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: even when these inconsistencies were coming up, authorities were struggling
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: to find any reason why Mark could have been involved
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: in Laurie's disappearance. So even if we're saying yes, you know,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: we focus on the spouse always, right, it's one of
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the first suspects, and there is an inconsistency in his story,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: which is like, hey, red flag, the police stood back
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: and they're like, okay, even if this is the case,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: it doesn't make sense, like why there is no why,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: there is no motivation. Everything seems perfect. Family and friends
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: are even backing this up.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Not everything like things that seem perfect. Is it's a
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: different story behind closed doors, right.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Now, they turned to Laurie's coworkers,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: who the couple, who knew the couple well. One colleague
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: said Laurie had just seemed so happy in the days
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: leading up to her disappearance. She was upbeat, excited for
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: her future and her marriage heared solid. Mark had even
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: sent her flowers at work recently. Laurie's mother echoed the
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: same sentiment, saying the couple had a loving relationship and
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: they were still deeply in love. Laurie had even called
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Mark her big old teddy bear. Friends and family all
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: agreed the two seemed happy no one could imagine Mark
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: being any sort of implication into this whatsoever, But investigators
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: soon discovered appearances can be deceiving.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Oh see, I'm hoping, I am hoping it doesn't involve him.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: But then there's also that little little voice, right that.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: There is that little voice. Now, even with all these
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: signs pointing to a happy marriage, there was one thing
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: that didn't sit right with investigators, something that Mark had
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: done the morning of Laurie's disappearance. See, before he even
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: realized Laurie was missing, between nine and ten am, he
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: went out and he bought a brand new match Ris
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: for their bedroom, supposedly assumingly for their upcoming move.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Shit, that is fucked.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's something that I think will raise eyebrows of
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: any true crime.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Fan big time. That is so messed.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I'm just gonna leave that at that for now. Okay,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you guys ste on that one. Later
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: that afternoon, on the same day Laurie disappeared, Mark was
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: brought in for a quick interview. On the way to
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the station, he made a comment saying, Laurie's going to
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: be so pissed at me, and when he was asked
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: what that meant. He's like, if you guys ever find her,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: she's going to be so mad at me because I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: didn't go running with her, like saying, like, you know,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I left her alone. She'd be mad that I left
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: her alone. I could have been there sort of thing.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Like maybe he decided he didn't want to
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: go running, but now look at the situation she's in
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: exactly now.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Once he arrived at the station, Mark sat down with
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: officers and repeat did his version of events. Initially, he
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: even agreed to take a computer voice stress analysis or
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a CBSA. It's a test that's a controversial tool, kind
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of similar to like a polygraph sort of thing.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Ok.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: It's supposedly to text this deception by analyzing vocal stress.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: So it's basically a lie detector, but it's vocal. So
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: after investigators explained how it worked and exactly what it was,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: he soon changed his mind and he refused to take
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the test.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, I mean I don't fully disagree with that though,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: because I've felt it many times. I would come across
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: guilty talking to anyone about anything, probably just because I would,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: in that situation be nervous exactly.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So, I mean it was a voluntary test. They asked, Hey,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: do you want to do this? He's like, no, I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: don't want to take that test. So, hey, fair enough,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't implicate him in anything by not doing the test.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Well, he'sy regardless of if he did something or not,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: he's still very stress exactly, and so that could implicate him.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Like, regardless, and this is a stress analysis. It's not
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a perfect science, and I'll admittedly say I don't know
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the science behind it and how exactly it works, whether
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: it detected a lying stress differently than it would detect
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: like a just a standard stress stress or other types
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: of stress. But who's to say, I don't know. Regardless,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to take the test, and so he
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: didn't now something about his behavior though, just wasn't adding
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: up to authorities. They couldn't quite put a finger on it,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: but they knew they needed to take a closer look
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: at the couple's apartment. One of the first places that
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: police checked at the apartment was the dumpster outside the complex.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: While they were searching, Mark's brother showed up and asked
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: why the police were there. Mark's response, he just said,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: apparently they're nervous that I bought a new mattress, and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: then he added, I just need to get away.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if there was any evidence in the dumpster,
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: that would be so dumb. Yeah, but honestly too. But well,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: I'm like, buying a mattress is so dumb too. But
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: maybe he literally didn't, like, there's still hope.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Well, you do have to think they're about to move. Yeah, right, Yeah,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: when someone's going to buy a mat that's a good
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: time to buy a new mattress.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Not really, though, because it would be better once you're
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: in your new place.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Potentially my opinion, potentially, But think of it this way.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: You get rid of your old mattress, you buy your
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: new mattress. If you're moving like tomorrow, it's wrapped in plastic.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: You can transport it if you got a moving truck,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: throw it in the truck and away you go.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I guess when you arrive at.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: The new place, you have the mattress.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's just it just seems like it's extra moving.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I get you, though, I get you. No, there there's
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the other side of the coin for sure. Now, officers
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: dug through the dumpster and they didn't find anything, not
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: even an old mattress. So the search for Lorie continued,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: and just when it seemed like things couldn't get any stranger,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Mark's behavior took another bizarre turn. At two am on
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: July twentieth, just hours after Laurie was reported missing. So
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: this is the next day, but it's early in the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: morning hours right, Police were called to a hotel about
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: half a mile from the couple's apartment. See Mark had
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: checked into this hotel for the night instead of staying
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: at the house, but when officers arrived, they found him
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: running through the hallways of the hotel completely naked except
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: for wearing a pair of sandals.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, what the shit's going on there?
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I know. Now, his brother Scott arrived at the scene
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: as well. It's unclear exactly how he came to learn
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: that this is going on, but he learned that his
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: brother was acting like this is the hotel and he
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: showed up to So when he arrived, he found something
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: unexpected on Mark's PDA, which is a small handheld computer
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: basically an early version of kind of like a smartphone
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: sort of thing. So this message read quote to everyone
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: from Mark, this is justice. I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: unclear exactly what that means.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm unsure.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say that one's hey, just open for interpretation.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I mean, this man is under a lot
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: of stress, So it really is.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: And like you say, if you took that stress test,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: it's probably going to show that he was stressed.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Maybe he had a couple bevies to try to like
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: relax himself, and he's like, hey, this sounds like a
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: good idea.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Here for a good time, not a long time, right, Yeah,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, after this incident, Mark's family decided
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: to check him into a psychiatric unit for treatment. Okay,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: but later on now I'm not exactly sure when this
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: comment came in, but later an FBI profiler, Candace DeLong,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: commented on the situation, pointing out something a little interesting. Now,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: according to Candace, quote, he kept his shoes on. That's
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: not generally something we see in someone truly psychotic.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, like when he was running through the halls naked?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: You mean yes? Okay, So her remark led some to
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: believe that Mark might have been faking a sort of
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: mental breakdown, possibly to avoid facing what could have been coming.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, because he's not he's a smart man. He's
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: like about to become a doctor, right, so he's using
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: his noggin maybe.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Well that's the thing, you see, Mark had a bit
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: of a secret.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: He wasn't actually becoming a doctor.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: For years, he was living a double life.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Oh boy, okay, here, I'm like, you know what, I'm
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: gonna be on Mark's side, But am I.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: About to turn Well? His family believed he was working
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: hard towards his dream of becoming a doctor. H His
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: apartment was always scattered with open textbooks, and Laurie's mother
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: had even helped him write term papers. Everyone thought he
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: had been accepted to a medical school at the University
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: of Northern Carolina sorry North Carolina Chapel Hill. And that's
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: why they were preparing for this whole move in the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: first place. Right, But here's the truth. Mark had never
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: been accepted. In fact, Mark had never even applied.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, this dude's getting more and more suspicious. Oh
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: you think, man, I just want to believe so badly
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: that it wasn't him.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Well, the deception didn't stop here. Mark had gone as
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: far as traveling across the country for fake medical school interviews.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Keeping up this elaborate lie for years.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Whoa.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered years of deception, years
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of lies so intricately woven that it was almost hard
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to believe. Holy shit, forget not getting into medical school,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Mark hadn't even graduated from the University of Utah. In fact,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: he had dropped out entirely. All those textbooks scattered around
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the apartment, the term papers he wrote, those weren't signs
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of a hard working student. They were props in an
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: elaborate performance to sell his story of lies.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Mark had even gone so far as to leave his
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: apartment each day, telling Laurie, his family, and his friends
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: that he had classes to attend, when really he didn't.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: What the fuck was he doing with all his time? Then?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, if he wasn't at school, where was he? Right?
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Are on these trips and shit?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Well, turns out, instead of studying for medical exams or
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: sitting in lecture lectures, Mark was just hanging out at
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: like a local convenience store, drinking sodas, eating hot dogs,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and smoking.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Are you serious?
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: He was literally just wasting his time, just biding time
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: so we can go back home.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: WHOA, Yeah, okay, I don't know why, but I will well,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know why. I did not expect this shit.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: That just seems so wild. He's twenty eight years old.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: I think you said too at that point.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Believe so yeah, Okay, Now, he told employees at these
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: convenience stores and stuff that he was a therapist and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: even asked them to keep his smoking a secret from Laurie,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: so assuming that people like knew them, like they shop
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: there or something or whatever. Okay, but he asked them
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: to keep this smoking and stuff a secret since they
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: were both a part of the Church of Latter day Saints,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: where smoking was frowned upon. So the lies, though, don't
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: stop here. Mark had also convinced Laurie's mother that he
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: worked at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of Utah
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: running therapy sessions, when in reality he was just a
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: hospital orderly responsible for organizing group activities but definitely not
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: for treating patients.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Well, he really went above and beyond. Yeah, I feel
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: like this is just so much to come up with,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Like it really is. What's the point really, Well, and.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: That's that's part of this and why it's so so
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: convoluted but also so hard to understand. Sure, and maybe
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: it's a lie that got out of control, but what
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: what what's he doing? What's he gaining from it? He's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: just eating a fucking hot dog at a convenience store.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because it seems so stressful for him to have
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: to also uphold this lie, right that he's literally about
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: to go like move, I don't know how far, but
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: move to become going to medical school exactly.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: So what's he going to do when they move to
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: this new place?
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's maybe that's the problem.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Well, what's he going to do when yeah, if he
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: supposedly is a doctor and he's now supposed to be
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: paying bills, hit like there's he cannot keep it up,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: No, but what I'm just saying is maybe like he
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: had to fix this line some way.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe that's how he fixed it. Yeah, that
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: became some of these theories right now. When all this
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: came to light, it shook both Laurie and Mark's family
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: to the core. Up until that moment, they had a
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: belief that the couple was happy. They believed that they
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: were successful and thriving. Mark's own father admitted that quote,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: we didn't see it coming. We were completely blindsided. People
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: began speculating, began speculating about why Mark had gone to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: such lengths to maintain these lies. Many believed it was
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: because of the pressure he felt from his family. His
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: father and his brother were both doctors, and his other
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: brother was an electrical engineer. Maybe Mark had felt that
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: he had to measure up. When confronted, he tried to
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: downplay it all, saying that he only told a little
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: lie that snowballed out of control. Which I mean, hey,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: there is a possibility that that is the case. There
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: is let's let's play Devil's advocate for a moment here.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Maybe that is the case. One little ee snowballed to
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: this point. Still like, it's got to end somewhere, and
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: he's got to know that well.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: And I'm also just had the slot. I'm curious if
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: his wife, you know, knew Maybe she did actually know
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the truth, maybe sent or found out or something.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, despite these revelations about what Mark was hiding,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Laurie's family still stood by him. They believed they believed
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: him when he said he had nothing to do with
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Laurie's disappearance. They believed he was innocent.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: But after hearing all these lies, how could you even
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: believe anything that comes out of his mouth?
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: You know, well, they seen the relationship, they seen their
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: daughter with him, so they stood by him.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: H Okay, that's good. Now.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: As the search continued, police uncovered the last known sighting
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of Laurie. There was surveillance footage from a convenience store
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: that showed up with her and Mark together on Sunday evening,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the before she vanished. Everything seemed normal. They were completely
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: fine and happy. You know, I'm not going to say
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: they were hand in hand because I don't know, but
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: by as far as the accounts say, they were as
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: happy as being hand in hand, let's say that they
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: might as well have been. It's just a normal couple.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: They looked like they were just a normal married couple, exactly,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: going and getting some snackies or something.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: However, a few hours later, at around one am, Mark
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: returned to the store alone to buy cigarettes.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, that gave me kind of chills.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: But considering his pattern of lies and going to convenience
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: stores as Devil's advocate here, maybe there's nothing skin me
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: about going to get some smokes.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: I guess what my head right away was like, oh, man,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: she's already dead at that point.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: It's possibility. Now I can't say because I don't want
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to give things away, so let's continue. So when asked,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Mark claimed Laurie had gone to bed at that point.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: That in itself, you know, isn't suspicious, but there's something
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: that still didn't sit right with investigators heading back to
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: that new mattress. Determined to get answers, and particularly around
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: that mattress. Police searched a dumpster at the church that
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Mark attended, and that's when they found an old mattress. However,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: when they found this mattress, something was wrong. Yes, it
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: was an old mattress that was thrown away, but the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: top part of the mattress had been cut away and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: was missing, oh, completely stripped off.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, here we go.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: When Mark was questioned about it, though, he had an answer.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: He is a answer for everything.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: He does, he really does, but not for why he
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: had used the church dumpster. More So, this answer was
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: explaining the condition of the mattress in itself. See, he
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: explained that Laurie and he had thrown out the old
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: mattress because Laurie apparently had a heavy menstrual cycle and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: had bled on the mattress, Okay, which is a rather
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: convenient story if someone's blood is on a mattress.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but also if she's like five weeks pregnant, she
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: like that blood was just there for you know how long.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Right, that's the thing.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: But I guess you can't have like spotting and earned
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: stuff during like your early pregnancy.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I guess, Well, maybe this mattress just had stains on
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: it from years of use and you know, cycles and
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: some leaking. Who knows. And it's like, well, no one's
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: going to want to buy this, so they like, you know,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: maybe that's what he's implying.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: And she was embarrassed about it or something, so they cut.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: It off exactly who knows what. Investigators were not buying it.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's really hard to buy it is.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: At this point, detectives were starting to suspect that Laurie
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: never even went for her morning run at all. To
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: test this theory, they closely examined Laurie's car, and that's
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: when they found something disturbing. The driver's seat and the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: mirror they were adjusted for someone much taller than Lori,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: who was only five foot three. This meant she wasn't
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the last person to drive the.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Car, so he missed a step.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: But even worse, investigators found blood in the back seat.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Now it wasn't just a few drops. It was blood
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: from a transfer stain, meaning that wet blood from one
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: surface had touched another and had transferred over something potentially.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is a pure speculation of my part,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: but like a ripped off, bloody top of a mattress
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: perhaps yep. From their detectives turned their attention to the apartment.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Inside they found Laurie's purse, her wallet, and keys, everything
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: she would have taken with her if she'd actually gone
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: on a run that morning. I mean, how could she
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: have driven the car and parked it there? She didn't
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: have her key?
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Right? Okay, Well, is this guy complete idiot? Because the
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: fact that he has driven the car and parked it
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: there and then there's a shit ton of blood in there,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Like is he? Is he stupid?
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure he's somewhat cleaned the blood. They just
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: found traces and it's like, oh, yeah, there's definitely blood here,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Like maybe it was.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, like maybe like sprayed or whatever. You up?
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, who knows, I'm not exactly sure how much blood
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: or how much they had to look. I don't know
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: if they opened the door and was like, oh shit,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: there's just a bunch of blood here, or if they
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: actually had to like get down nitty gritty to find it.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm starting to get pissed at this point though.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, at this point, it's it was
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: becoming very painfully clear that Laurie had never made it
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: out the door this morning.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and very like it's getting kind of obvious, like
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: if it's not him at this point, I'm going to
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: be shocked.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, his officer searched the couple's bedroom. They discovered
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: small spots of blood on the headboard and nightstand. Curious,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: one of the investigators opened the nightstand drawer and inside
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: was a sheathed knife. Now, Mark, who had been with
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: them during the search, let on a nervous chuckle and
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: quickly just kind of like said that, like brush it off.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: He's like, oh, yeah, I've owned that knife since, you know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: days in my boy Scouts And now, honestly, like as
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: someone who like I carry a knife on me daily
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and like in my nightstand often there's there's a knife
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: sitting in my knife nightstand, Like, that's not abnormal as
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: far as my perspective.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Is well, and a lot of people too have ways
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: to protect themselves next to their bed, right exactly.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: However, in this case, there was something off about the knife.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: The officer examining the blade noticed what appeared to be
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a small drop of blood and a fingerprint. At that moment,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: police knew that they needed to dig deeper. Up until
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: this point, they've been conducting the search in the home
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: with Mark's permission, but now they wanted to do a
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: much thorough, much more thorough investigation, and they needed a warrant,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: so they told Mark to leave the apartment so they
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: could continue. It was clear now Mark wasn't just Laurie's
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: worried husband. He was the main and primary suspect in
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the case. Still, no one could have predicted just how
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: dark this case was about to get. On July twenty fourth,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: five days after Laurie's disappearance, Mark's father and brothers confronted him,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: demanding to know the truth, and that's when everything unraveled.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Shortly after that, a relative of Laurie's went public, asking
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: volunteers to stop searching for Laurie. Mark had just made
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: an admission. No one knew exactly why he decided to
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: confess at this moment, but according to him, everything started
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: on the night of July eighteenth, when Laurie confronted him
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: about his lies. She had found out the truth three
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: days before she vanished on Friday, July sixteenth. Laurie had
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: been seen crying at work that same day, the day
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: of their going away party. She had apparently called the
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Financial Aid office at the University of Northern Carolina in
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Chapel Hill to check on Mark's enrollment, and that's when
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: she learned everything. There was no record of Mark attending
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: the university. The administrator even called the American Medical College
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Application Service, the database for all medical medical school applicants,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: and confirmed Mark had never even applied.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Laurie was so shaken that she left work early, but
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: later that night she still showed up to the going
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: away party with Mark, acting as if nothing had ever happened.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: So why didn't she say anything then? Like? Why was
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: it all suddenly okay? See? Mark had lied to her again.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: He told her that he had already spoken to the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: school and that there had been a simple computer error
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: regarding his application. And attendance. Laurie wasn't convinced, though she
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: may have been. Her trust may have been bought for
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: that evening, but she wasn't convinced for the long term.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. She probably is kind of like
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: a woman of her word too, And then they were
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: planning this big party, like she didn't want to let
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: everyone down, so it makes sense that she would go.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Yep. Now, before the weekend was over, she called the
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: university back and left a voicemail saying that Mark had
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: apparently straightened everything out, but she also made it clear
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: that she wasn't entirely convinced. She ended the message with saying, quote,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: not that I don't trust my husband, but for my
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: own peace of mind, I'd like to confirm everything is okay. Sadly,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: by the time the administrator heard the message on Monday morning,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Laurie was already missing.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Yep, Laurie was already dead.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Oh we don't know she's dead yet.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I feel like she is. Like, Okay, that's true, that's true. Up,
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: that's true. I'm speculating here.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: You definitely are now. Laurie must have suspected that Mark
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: was lying, because at some point she finally did confront him,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: So she must have suspected that he's lying about the lies,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: like you know what I mean, like the lie on
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: top of it all, so she you know, confronted him
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: once again. Two different neighbors later reported hearing disturbing sounds
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: from their apartment that night. One heard a woman screaming
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: around midnight, and another heard a man shouting. According to
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Mark's confession, after their fight, Laurie eventually went to bed.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: He stayed up for about an hour, you know, just
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: played video games, distressing, distracting his mind, whatever it was.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: But then instead of going to sleep, he ruffled through
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: some of their packed belongings and he found his twenty
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: two caliber rifle. He took it, loaded it, walked into
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the bedroom, and shot Laurie in the head while she slept. Seriously, yeah, okay,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: after he disposed her body. Then he disposed the gun
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: and of course the bloody mattress, each in different dumpsters
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: around the city. When police reviewed the convenience store surveillance
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: footage from one thirty am, the one where he entered
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: alone without Lourie, uh huh, Mark had been seen buying
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: these cigarettes, but it's now believed that he was out
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: getting rid of evidence at that time. In fact, even
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: in the video, Mark can be seen checking his hands,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: his fingernails, and even looking at his watch. Investigators suspect
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that he was inspecting himself for traces of blood.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: What was she married to? Hey?
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Complete monster.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: So by the next morning, Mark had a plan. He
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: went out bought a new mattress before calling the police
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: and spinning the story about Laurie going for a run
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: and never coming back. But why did he kill Laurie?
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: You know, like why? That's the big question that haunted
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: everyone even through the shocking confession, the story, the reality
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: why it made no sense. Yes, Laurie caught Mark and lies,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: but her family was convinced she would have forgiven him.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: In fact, her brother later said, quote, he didn't have
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: to be a doctor, a president, or anything. As long
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: as he was doing his best, she would have loved him. Still.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Investigators uncovered a typewritten note in the couple's spare bedroom.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: They believe Laurie wrote it, though it's unclear exactly when,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: but in it she expressed some frustration. The letter, some
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: of it at least, said this, I want to grow
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: old with you, but I can't do it under these conditions.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine a life without you if things don't change.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Hmm. And then I just realized too that she was pregnant,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: so he killed her and his baby. Yeah, gosh, Which
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: that makes it just like a hundred times worse, really,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: like it's already terrible, but the fact that she's also pregnant,
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Eight weeks pregnant.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: I think five five?
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: I believe it was five.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very new, but still.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I lost my spot here now, okayea, So maybe that
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: was the actual answer. Though within that letter, maybe Mark
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: realized Laurie was actually serious and that she could potentially leave,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and that he was going to lose her, and if
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: he couldn't keep up this line any longer, maybe thought
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: killing her was the only way out. On August second,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: two thousand and four, Mark Hacking was officially arrested on
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: suspicion of aggravated murder. But even with his confession, there
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: was still one thing missing from this case, the body,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Laurie's body. With Mark's confession in hand, the search shifted
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: to the Salt Lake City landfill.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: Oh oh, you're fucking kidding me.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Investigators believe that's where Laurie's body had ended up after
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: he would have dumped her in a dumpster, but finding
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: her was an overwhelming challenge. For months, search teams sifted
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: through tons of waste, using cadaver dogs and specialized equipment,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: but there was just no trace of her. Then on
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: October first, nearly three months after she vanished, they finally
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: found her. Laurie's body was severely decomposed, so much so
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: that medical examiners couldn't confirm whether she had truly been
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: pregnant at the time of her death. But after months
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: of uncertainty, her family finally had an answer. They could
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: finally lay her to rest. When it came time for
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Mark to face justice, the punishment felt shockingly lenient. He
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: was sentenced to six to life in prison.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: What do you mean six years?
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Six years to life in prison? That was so he
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: could serve six or he could serve life.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: Man, I'm so disturbed at this point.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: So it was the minimum sentence under Utah law at
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: the time, and of course the public, I'm sure just
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: like you, was completely outraged at the possibility that he
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: could only serve six years in jail. So the backlash
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: was so strong that the Utah Board of Pardons and
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: Parole held a special hearing to review his sentence Good. So,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: after reconsidering, they ruled that he would not be eligible
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: for parole until twenty thirty five. So he has another
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: ten years to go.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: Oh that's not even enough, agreed.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I one, one hundred percent agree with you.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: Like, he was married to her for five years. They
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: were high school sweethearts, and he just liked like she
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: just like is a piece of garbage.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he literally treated her like that. Yeah, he threw
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: her in the garbage, not only her, but his potential
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: child as well with her like.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: This guy, I am, I don't know. This one's got
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: me here. I'm just like appalled.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Now. Laurie's case held a major change in the Utah
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: sentencing law. The minimum penalty for aggravated murder was increased
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: to fifteen years to life, a change that became known
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: as Laurie's Law in her honor. In the end, Laurie's
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: father made a quiet but powerful statement. He had her
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: married name removed from her headstone, leaving me her maiden
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: name Good. It was as if Mark Hacking had never
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: been a part of her life at all. From that
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: moment forward and after everything he did. You know what,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think he deserves to be a part of it,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: whether it's in life or death.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: You know, that's honestly even just scary as shit, eh,
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: just to like be with someone now long and then
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: bait their whole like so much lies and then he
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: just like kills her. Oh it's terrifying.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: It is. So that is the story of Laurie K. Sras. Now.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I know I said Lori k. Soras hacking and Laurie
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: hacking throughout this case because of me. Hey that was
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: her married last name, and in this title, if someone's
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: searching for it, hey, you know it's it's search words,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: search terms and stuff. Right. Yeah, but at the end
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: here I'm referring to as Lori k SaaS good for
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: her dad.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree that so strong. I feel like that
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: he did that, you know, like so like just such
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: a strong statement.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: I agree. It's not even like like it's it's very
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: passive aggressive. But I don't even think it's aggressive. I
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: just think it's very fucking passive, like, you know, like
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: there's no aggression there. It's just like you don't deserve it.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fuck you. Yeah, like the person that kills her,
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: killed her should not have his fucking last name on
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the on her you know. Grave agreed that one is heavy.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't it? From high school sweethearts to that.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: And this piece of shit just thinks that he can
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: buy a new mattress and like, and that's not being questioned,
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Like he's a complete idiot.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Well and not only that, like the audacity to like
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: use her body functions as the scapegoat. Yeah, like he's
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: pinning it more on her.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: And the fact, fuck you, she stayed with him, she
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: found everything. They were fighting, and she stayed there, went
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: to bed.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: And then he still fucking killed her.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it breaks my heart. It breaks my
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: heart this case, Holy shit.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: All because what he wanted to smoke and have a
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: fucking hot dog, Like what the shit? Yeh didn't want
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: to go to school, You just wanted to hang out
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: a convenience store, Like what the fuck?
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: It doesn't make any sense.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: No, his motive is pathetic at best.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I honestly just hope that to the fact
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: of thinking about him getting out of jail makes me sick.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Agreed, just sick. Yeah, hopefully you guys got through that one.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: All right, I'm just so disturbed right now. Also, those
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: were high school sweethearts, and I'm like, oh my god,
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: this is not okay. This is too relatable for me
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: and it's terrifying.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just a little bit too close to home on
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: that one. Kind of well, and there is something else
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: that like Mark apparently, while in jail, was like secretly
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: getting like autographs out to like a true crime memorabilia
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: website where people were actually like purchasing his redship.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Disgusting.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Authorities managed to put a stop to that, but he
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: still went on and like wrote a autobiography or something
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this guy is a complete, like piece of shit
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: menace to society. Like I am, oh, I think that
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: he is making me pretty angry from the most from
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: like recent I can't even speak.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: You guys should see Nicole's face right now.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: I'm just so pissed with this guy, the fact that
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: he's trying to make money now from this Are you
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: fucking kidding me?
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: If there was a word to describe Nicole at this
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: exact moment, it is flabbergasted.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: I am, I really am, rightfully, So, who the hell
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: does he think he is? Really? Okay, Well, I'm done
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: with him, I'm done talking about him.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: You sure we're gonna turn this episode off and Nicole
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: is going to rant for an hour.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't make sense to me that you could
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: be married to someone and you don't think that you
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: know them, and then they're actually this terrible Yeah, that's yeah,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: I've already said it's scary as shit.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, we're gonna go try and distress Cole. Hopefully
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: you guys enjoyed this episode If you want to check
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: out any of our links there in the description of
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: this podcast, I'll just leave it at that. Today, you
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: guys are incredible. Thank you so much for being here,
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: and until next time, stay wicked.