'Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse by Robi Ludwig, Matt Birkbeck Page A
Authors: Robi Ludwig, Matt Birkbeck
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the family was not killed off, in addition to seeing the deaths as a necessary sacrifice. There is also a sense of ownership/entitlement and possessiveness about murder, based on a tremendous difficulty adjusting to parenthood, and a belief that the role of a wife and child/children is to satisfy one’s own personal needs.
The bottom line was Christian Longo thought no life was more important or meaningful than his own. The hostility required to take the life of one’s own wife and children before discarding them and everything they own is unimaginable to most of us, but it is also a clear sign of extreme revulsion and disregard for the human condition.
* * * * *
W HILE Christian Longo killed to free himself into a dream world, MARK HACKING created a fantasy world he couldn’t escape.
For Mark and his wife Lori Soares, their lives together finally appeared to come into focus. Lori, twenty-seven, had just learned she was five weeks pregnant. And the couple was preparing to move cross-country from their home in Utah to North Carolina, where Mark, a health care assistant, had enrolled in the University of North Carolina medical school. With her first child on the way, and a future filled with so much promise, there was much to look forward to for the Hackings.
But on Friday, July 16, 2004, Lori, a trading assistant at Wells Fargo, left work early, visibly upset. She had just called the University of North Carolina inquiring about financial aid for her husband but was told that he had never enrolled there and had never even applied. When she confronted him that evening, Mark claimed it must be a computer glitch. Two days later, he told her the shocking truth: He never enrolled in medical school, and had never even graduated from the University of Utah. For Lori, it was the last straw in a marriage filled with too many lies and deceptions.
After Mark delivered the crushing news about his education and medical school, Lori went to bed that Sunday night sure that her marriage was over. She had even written a letter telling him that she no longer saw any future for them. Later that night, around 1 A.M. , after several hours playing video games, Mark quietly walked into the bedroom and pointed a .22 rifle at Lori’s head. He fired a single shot, killing his sleeping wife. The next morning he called Lori’s office, and then her friends and family, saying she went jogging around 5:30 A.M. and never returned. A massive search ensued and the heartfelt pleas from Lori’s family were broadcast throughout the region and the nation, begging for her safe return. As police began their investigation, Mark checked himself into a psychiatric ward after suffering a mental breakdown, the emotional toll apparently too much to bear. In reality, it was the police who were bearing down on Mark.
The day he reported her missing, police searched their apartment and found a bloody knife, a receipt for a new mattress, and Lori’s letter. The knife, theorized police, was used to carve the mattress, which was later found, bloodied and cut up, in a trash bin near the University of Utah, where Mark worked. The receipt indicated Mark had bought the new mattress less than an hour before he made his first call inquiring as to Lori’s whereabouts. When they inspected Lori’s car, which was recovered near the jogging trail, the police found that the seat had been adjusted to fit someone larger than Lori. They also found the keys to the car inside the Hacking apartment. As they collected their overwhelming evidence, it became clear who had killed Lori Hacking.
On July 24, just five days after she disappeared, Mark gave up his last deception, disclosing the awful truth about the fate of his pregnant wife to his brothers Lance and Scott. Mark told them that after killing Lori, he wrapped her body with garbage bags and placed it in a Dumpster. He then took the bloody mattress, cut it to pieces, and placed it in a trash bin near a church. He also took
The bottom line was Christian Longo thought no life was more important or meaningful than his own. The hostility required to take the life of one’s own wife and children before discarding them and everything they own is unimaginable to most of us, but it is also a clear sign of extreme revulsion and disregard for the human condition.
* * * * *
W HILE Christian Longo killed to free himself into a dream world, MARK HACKING created a fantasy world he couldn’t escape.
For Mark and his wife Lori Soares, their lives together finally appeared to come into focus. Lori, twenty-seven, had just learned she was five weeks pregnant. And the couple was preparing to move cross-country from their home in Utah to North Carolina, where Mark, a health care assistant, had enrolled in the University of North Carolina medical school. With her first child on the way, and a future filled with so much promise, there was much to look forward to for the Hackings.
But on Friday, July 16, 2004, Lori, a trading assistant at Wells Fargo, left work early, visibly upset. She had just called the University of North Carolina inquiring about financial aid for her husband but was told that he had never enrolled there and had never even applied. When she confronted him that evening, Mark claimed it must be a computer glitch. Two days later, he told her the shocking truth: He never enrolled in medical school, and had never even graduated from the University of Utah. For Lori, it was the last straw in a marriage filled with too many lies and deceptions.
After Mark delivered the crushing news about his education and medical school, Lori went to bed that Sunday night sure that her marriage was over. She had even written a letter telling him that she no longer saw any future for them. Later that night, around 1 A.M. , after several hours playing video games, Mark quietly walked into the bedroom and pointed a .22 rifle at Lori’s head. He fired a single shot, killing his sleeping wife. The next morning he called Lori’s office, and then her friends and family, saying she went jogging around 5:30 A.M. and never returned. A massive search ensued and the heartfelt pleas from Lori’s family were broadcast throughout the region and the nation, begging for her safe return. As police began their investigation, Mark checked himself into a psychiatric ward after suffering a mental breakdown, the emotional toll apparently too much to bear. In reality, it was the police who were bearing down on Mark.
The day he reported her missing, police searched their apartment and found a bloody knife, a receipt for a new mattress, and Lori’s letter. The knife, theorized police, was used to carve the mattress, which was later found, bloodied and cut up, in a trash bin near the University of Utah, where Mark worked. The receipt indicated Mark had bought the new mattress less than an hour before he made his first call inquiring as to Lori’s whereabouts. When they inspected Lori’s car, which was recovered near the jogging trail, the police found that the seat had been adjusted to fit someone larger than Lori. They also found the keys to the car inside the Hacking apartment. As they collected their overwhelming evidence, it became clear who had killed Lori Hacking.
On July 24, just five days after she disappeared, Mark gave up his last deception, disclosing the awful truth about the fate of his pregnant wife to his brothers Lance and Scott. Mark told them that after killing Lori, he wrapped her body with garbage bags and placed it in a Dumpster. He then took the bloody mattress, cut it to pieces, and placed it in a trash bin near a church. He also took
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