Mother of suicide victim befriends Horner family

The mother of a local suicide victim who had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder is reaching out to the family of accused double murderer Nicholas Horner.

Laurie Claar of Hollidaysburg, whose son Matthew took his life Sept. 21, 2008, following a four-year stint with the Marines in Iraq, has struck up a friendship with Horner's wife, Windy, after reading newspaper accounts of Horner's struggle with PTSD.

Horner, 29, is jailed in the Blair County Prison on murder charges for the April 6 shooting deaths of local residents Scott Garlick and Raymond E. Williams in the Eldorado section of Altoona. A psychiatrist has said that Horner suffers from war-related PTSD as well as depression, panic disorder and sleep problems.

Matthew Claar, his mother told the Associated Press, also suffered from PTSD.

''When you go to basic training, they train you for what they want you to be in a war situation,'' Claar told the AP. ''Why can't they take a couple of months to retrain them to go back to society? I think I could connect to Nick because I was thinking about my own son: What if the tables were turned? What if that were him in jail?''

Laurie Claar wrote a card decorated with a rainbow and flowers, bearing the message, ''caring thoughts are with you,'' to Windy Horner.

''I'm not sure what to say to you all except I understand and you all are in my prayers,'' Claar wrote. ''And I don't think bad of Nick as he needs help to deal with PTSD.''

The two have since spent time together, and Laurie Claar invited Horner to Thanksgiving dinner.

Laurie Claar said she does not pretend to have any great insight into the crimes Nicholas Horner is accused of committing or what to do about them.

''I just think of him as a young person with an issue that he didn't necessarily ask for,'' Claar told the AP. ''Nick and Matt, they served their country, and they didn't ask for the situations that they got into.''

On June 3, the Mirror published a hand-printed letter Nicholas Horner mailed from jail, admitting he killed two people and saying "I feel so guilty."

''I'm not looking for forgiveness or simphy (sic). I just want people to watch for PTSD cases. There are so many of them. This needs to stop!'' Horner wrote.

That day, Laurie Claar mailed the card to the Horners' address listed in the Mirror.

The prosecutor in Horner's case, Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio, says 5 million Americans have PTSD and that ''alone is not a defense to any crime.''

In a statement to the AP, the families of the victims said Horner's trial ''should be an examination of the criminal actions of Nicholas Horner and not a referendum on the military's handling of our country's soldiers.''