Lorrie’s Interview Transcript
*All information APPROVED by Lorrie post-interview
Interview with Lorrie, mother of Heather Horst
Over the phone (call)
27 March, 2026
9:00am-9:26am
*Transcript is edited/condensed for easier reading, time stamps removed*
*begin recording*
0:27
[INTERVIEWER] And I’m just gonna read off of a sheet that I have for this interview, [LORRIE] Okay
[INTERVIEWER] Just to keep all the questions organized and make sure I get to everything. Okay, okay, so I just want to start with that–only share what you feel comfortable with. You’re welcome to skip any questions that you want, change them or just add on to them.
[INTERVIEWER] So the first kind of…section is just gonna be about experiences. So could you tell me a little bit about yourself and your connection? To the Hope Act.
[LORRIE] Yeah, sorry. I’ve been involved with the Hope Act for the past few years because of my daughter, Heather. And I know you guys are working to get rid of life without parole, [yeah] and that’s–her dad’s and I–that’s what we want. If she could come home tomorrow, she’d already be here, [right] I started with David in the end slavery act [inaudible], and I don’t remember exactly how I got connected with you, but I was able to connect with you and started doing video chats and things with you. It’s been…hard…not having the connection that I did with Heather, [yeah] when she was a child. We have traveled. My husband and I traveled a lot, and we spent time overseas and visited Australia and lived in Saudi Arabia for six years. And if my kids had been young–and it would have been great, but–they could have experienced that with us, birthdays, holidays, those are always hard. She lost her grandma since she’s been here. She lost my brother, so it makes it harder, but you guys have–the Hope Act–has actually given me a lot of hope. [Yeah, that’s amazing] that fingers crossed, no not fingers crossed, she will be home one day. [Yeah] that’s my belief. And, I’m gonna stick with it. Okay, what else?
[INTERVIEWER] Yeah, and what stands out to–stands out about Heather, just as a person to you?
[LORRIE] Oh, very she’s very intelligent. And I guess in a way, it’s bad to say–she’s got an opportunity. So she fought not gotten. She’s fought to get to the school, because when she first got there, it was absolutely not because she had life, or would you want to take the time to let somebody like that learn? And she has been in a lot of ways. She’s tried and done some changing in the system over there, just because she’s fought so hard, and she always has been a bite of her daddy.
[INTERVIEWER] Yeah, and how has she impacted your life or your perspective?
[LORRIE] I always wanted a little girl to begin with, and I had a son first. In my mind it was the perfect family, one of each, when she was a child. Even though we haven’t been able to be with her, at least step up the way–in the last almost 12 years, because she’s been there almost 12 years, we’ve been supporting her, and I think she knows we will never stop doing that. I think she’s impacted a lot of people on the inside because of what she has tried to do in there. She’s involved with having resolutions to conflict, and she’s gotten a paralegal license, and she has been actually really awesome since she’s been there. She’s a very strong person. She always has been. [Yeah] Uh, what else can I say?
[INTERVIEWER] I mean, what would you want people–because we are doing storytelling–what are things about her that you want people to know about?
[LORRIE] I would say, currently, the things she has done, where she’s at, and her trying her best to get out. [yeah] To come home, that has always been a big thing for us. We were in Saudi Arabia when we found out she was convicted. That was extremely hard, and until I got together with you guys [Hope Act], I had lost all hope. I just knew that we were going to have to live by a different schedule. But I think Heather has probably impacted everybody she’s ever met, whether or not they take the time to get to know her. She is a good person, she always has been. And I think anybody else in her situation would probably have given up, yeah, and that’s not my daughter. She’s not going to give up.
[LORRIE] I just hope that she comes home. Sooner rather than later, because her father and I are aging [yeah] but the family–the family aspect for her–aspect for her has always been very, very important, and in a way, she’s made a family–a separate family in there. So I think it actually met her. I’ve seen a few videos that she’s been involved with, and I think anybody that actually got to know her would know what a great person she is, and not about her or things that happened in her past.
[INTERVIEWER] So all right, and I know you’ve kind of talked about this already, but if you want to expand, what’s the impact of incarceration just on you and your family?
[LORRIE] Not seeing her. We live in another state, we have to fly to go see her. I mean, we could drive, but it’s gonna take a solid day to get there. The fact that we have to go by their schedule, by the prison’s schedule, to see her, and then she has a niece that was probably–she was born in ‘13, and Heather went in ‘14, so she was about less than a year old when Heather was incarcerated.
[LORRIE] And she now has a nephew. He just turned two so she’s missed out on all that, the impact on the family and the relatives here, I’m sorry. She did have an uncle that passed away a couple of years ago, yeah, also the people that–she has people that she’s in contact with here,
besides mom and dad, which is good, but the main impact is that your family connection dynamic changes immensely because you have to, it’s not family rules anymore, and trying to stay close and that sometimes is very difficult. If she moved closer, we would actually be able to visit her more often but flights are getting very, very expensive. But yeah, the social impact of the family.
[LORRIE] Also, Christmas Eve, we can have 30 to 50 people at this house celebrating, opening gifts. She hasn’t done that in over 12 years. Yeah, so that holidays, usually I’m–Thanksgiving is my family–it’s my dad and my brother who come over for Thanksgiving. But the dynamic, it just–it isn’t there anymore. Yeah, and that is very, very difficult to deal with sometimes. And when we were overseas, we always bought items for everybody. We were in Australia, then we were in Thailand, we bought bells? Or not bells, shot glasses, yeah, for Heather. And I have taken a few pictures of them, but it would be nice if I could just hand them to her, or she could have come with us. And I think that’s the hardest part, because we when she was young, we traveled with the helicopter logging company, and we lived in a fifth well, but we always had, no matter where we were, no matter what time of year it was, we always had four of us [inaudible] over the years. I know she’ll always be with us in spirit, but it’s not the same as physically right being with the family. Some of the rules have changed, because now we can put our arms around everyone when we take photos and when we first saw her, it was a hug when we saw her and a hug when we left. So some of the rules have turned but not as much as I would like.
[LORRIE] But yeah, I mean these types of situations, especially since she–I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that she didn’t pull the trigger and still got the sentence she did. And I have heard and done a little bit of research of other people that are doing–were only in there for a few years, and their crime was they actually physically shot somebody, so that, and we weren’t involved with the justice system at all until all of this happened to her. So it’s been a little bit of a rude awakening. [Yeah] seeing sometimes how the justice system works, [right]
[INTERVIEWER] And because this whole process has been so difficult, do you have any kind of support or care networks that have helped you?
[LORRIE] Family and my husband. And uh–I was seeing a psychiatrist for a while. When I was younger, I had a lot of trauma, so she has given me coping mechanisms to help. But the main thing is my husband and some of my closer relatives. We have an aunt that lives just down the road. She’s been a pretty big support, too. But for me, it’s usually–it’s usually more. I feel like we’ve always been, even growing up, I was pretty family centered, but when I got into this family, because Rex and I have been married 38 years, this year, they have–had–a lot of them had passed away, but they had a huge family center. We always do. We have a huge property, so everybody comes to our house and does easter egg hunting. So, and then usually Christmas Eve. And so it’s that family center has always been really helpful, for me.
[INTERVIEWER] Alright, and then, is there anything else that you wish people outside
understood about having someone inside?
[LORRIE] Oh, sometimes I wish they could just walk away in our shoes. and–and us living further away, we are allowed to see her longer than just an hour, but just the stress of this last time, when we went home in December, we only got to see her twice. There was a mix up with the visiting schedule. So we actually only got to see her twice, and we were there 15 days. So it was hard. I talked to her every day because she’d call and we couldn’t do a video chat, because we–you have to have a laptop to actually physically do a video, yeah, which is frustrating too. It really shouldn’t matter what device you use, But the family going back, and I’m sorry I always go back to the family Makes it a lot harder, because we did. We planned on seeing her at least six or seven times, so it was, I mean, and they were the second time, they were decent and let us visit her. We got to see her for a couple of hours that time. So we got to see her for about five hours total. And we had plans of, you know, three hours or close to three hours every time we got to see her. And I haven’t even got notification, we’re going to start filling that paperwork out every year, rather than because we’re not sure when we’re going back.
[LORRIE] But just the impact, nobody can understand the impact of hearing–And we were in Saudi Arabia when his–his brother in law, and his mother called and his brother in law was the one that told us that she’d been convicted. And um you can never, unless somebody’s been in those shoes, you can’t–emphasizing that–the pain of learning that your child is and at that time, we understood it as spending their life in prison. It just that, like I said, unless somebody’s been in, it’s like ripping your heart out, honestly, because and I she has done a lot, and I’m very grateful that she has fought hard enough to get more things that just the aspect of knowing, until recently, that you’re never going to see your child outside of those walls, those prison walls, and that’s the hardest part, is knowing that you have to fit their schedule, just like I said, we planned on seeing her several times before that home in December, and then realizing that that wasn’t happening was another heartbreak for us.
[LORRIE] And or I’ve only seen my husband cry a couple times, Three times actually. And when, when we got that phone call, we were both on the floor, hugging each other, crying, because we knew our future outlook looked a lot different than we you know, when you have kids–like you haven’t gotten there yet–but when you have kids, your lifestyle changes, [right] And having grandchildren, and, you know, being the big happy family, and we’re still a happy family because we are emotionally supporting each other, including Heather, [yeah] as much as we can, but that dynamic is a complete 180 now, it’s not like I can call and say, oh, let’s go to Starbucks or [Yeah] you know, some place and have coffee or lunch that is. That’s been gone for almost 12 years.
[LORRIE] So that aspect of it, it was very hard for me to wrap my head around and tell like I said recently, because now I do have hope because of what you guys are doing. Yeah, and that makes a big difference. In those first few years, I would try to busy myself as much as I could, because I didn’t want–I didn’t want to think about it, [yeah] And some days it is still hard when
holidays and birthdays come. Yeah, she should be here celebrating with us. And even though she is in her heart, it’s not the same. So, I mean, I can’t tell you exactly how it feels unless you’re in my shoes, basically walk a day in my shoes.
[INTERVIEWER] And how do you find hope for her as she’s incarcerated?
[LORRIE] Through you guys, through the Hope Act. As soon as you started–and one day it is gonna be–gonna be taken off. Life without parole is going to be taken off. And she is, she has been in there 12 years, and I’m not sure, but I think Minnesota is still–they classify 30 years as a life term, but I’m not positive with that. But if it were, there could be a chance that in a few years, she could actually be out and be a productive member of the society. because she has a lot to give–she has a lot that she could–and from being on the inside, she might be able to help people from getting in through the situation of going to prison.
[INTERVIEWER] And then this might be hard to define what does hope mean to you?
[LORRIE] My family being together again. We are Lutheran, so I remember when this happened with Heather, I got my–kind of got into a fight, not really, but because I couldn’t understand why it had to happen to her that a church family, their church members, they know what happened, and they are very supportive of it. So hope for me is just knowing one day she’s coming home. I’m going to keep that hope forever, just that she’s going to be with us. I’m glad that I can wake up every day, you know, and still have hope. So to me, the main thing is just I also want you to grow and learn, hope that I can learn something from this situation,and I know it’s going to end up–end up better, because you guys are in the process of making that happen.
[INTERVIEWER] And again, you’ve kind of talked about this, but if you want to say anything else, what kind of stories or lessons do you think the public needs to hear most about people who are serving life sentences?
[LORRIE] One thing that’s situational–it isn’t always the same she got a life sentence, and like I said, she didn’t pull that trigger. She’s met people since she’s been in there that have done worse than she did, and they’re out in a few years. It just doesn’t make sense that it’s not for lack of a better saying, evenly divided.
[INTERVIEWER] All right, I’m probably gonna wrap up soon. Is there anything that wasn’t covered that feels important for you to share or emphasize?
[LORRIE] We all and–I know you hate hearing this–the family aspect of it. I do not hate hearing that] *laughs*] My son was in the service. And when he was in the service, he had another-another family, because he had to rely on those men that were there with him. He never went to Iraq or anything like that. So I was very lucky in that aspect. And he recently had a service member he knew died, and he’s struggling with it, because this guy was 39 years old, as
far as I’m concerned, he’s too young. But this–I feel like you guys are part of my family too, because we’re all fighting for the same thing. We all want for one thing, a better life. I feel like everybody can be more family, and when you treat people more like family, most of the time, you respect people more.
[INTERVIEWER] Yeah, all right. And are there any other stories, poems or creative works that you’d like to share or include–I know there’s some of Heather’s works on the website, I believe, but if there’s anything else…
[LORRIE] Not right now, but I did have some kind of a poem, I will try to–it was a poem somebody else did, and I believe in it. If I can find it, I’ll send it to you, because it is very heart felt, [yeah] and I think a lot of people sometimes–sometimes people think they’re alone when they’re actually not. just like with my husband and I, until I got involved with you guys, we thought we were alone, even though, when there were people in prison, we were trapped in a cage, thinking that nobody else understands what we’re going through, and there’s more people that are than a lot of people realize.
[INTERVIEWER] Alright, well, is that everything that you’d like to talk about?
[LORRIE] As far as I can, as far as I think, I hope you didn’t think that I was rambling on too much.
[INTERVIEWER] No, no, you’re just fine. The more information the better. Honestly.
[LORRIE] Yeah, I agree with you, that way more people understand. She has a family on the outside that cares about her, and a lot of people my–my brother’s killers were–my brother was very brutally murdered. And it was hard when that happened, because it was similar to what Heather was accused of, and they only got 25 years. [Wow] So It was a different state, so–but other than that, I think I’m good.
[INTERVIEWER] Yes well, thank you so much. We will be in contact for sure, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.
[LORRIE] You too, sweetie, thanks.
[INTERVIEWER] Thank you. Bye,
[LORRIE] bye.
26:36
*end recording*