The Hour of His Reckoning.

This article focuses on the murder of Lori Hacking allegedly by her husband, Mark Hacking, who is expected to accept a plea bargain instead of facing trial for her murder. Charged with shooting his wife as she slept in their Salt Lake City apartment, then wrapping her body in garbage bags and throwing it in a Dumpster, Hacking is due in court on April 18, when jury selection for his trial is set to begin. But family members are hoping that at an April 15 pretrial hearing Hacking--who, according to prosecutors, admitted to his brothers that he killed Lori--will accept a plea deal, and with it a potential sentence of life in prison without parole. For Lori's family, the alternative--an emotional, drawn-out trial at which they will have to relive her senseless murder--seems almost too much to bear. The lies and deceit that apparently led to Lori's murder may never be fully understood. So far the two families united first by marriage and then by tragedy are still on good terms, though sometimes the strain of their ordeal is apparent.