When we become mothers, our lives change in ways we’d never expect. We want nothing more than to care for, love, and protect our children. Sometimes, that means fighting for our lives so they remain safe. When Jackie Horne heard her daughter screaming from her bedroom in the middle of the night, she didn’t hesitate to run and help. What she found in that room changed their lives forever.
Horne told News 12 that an intruder broke into her Mesa, Arizona, apartment on September 17, 2025, and entered the room shared by her 16-year-old daughter, Layla, and 18-year-old daughter, Jax. Horne heard Layla scream around 4 a.m. and knew in an instant something was very wrong. She tried to find a pocketknife but instead grabbed a hammer and ran.
“All I could see was just this tall shadow on top of her. I couldn’t see his head, just his back, so I get the hammer and I just charge at him, and I hit him as hard as I can on his back. I think I hit him at least twice,” Horne recalled, per News 12.
She then realized the man had a knife, and he stabbed her several times. Layla tried to escape, but the attacker chased her and stabbed her in the hallway. At some point, he returned to Horne, and Layla made her way outside to get help.
“He takes the knife again and just starts stabbing me. That’s where he stabs me in my face. And he stabbed me several times, and I could just feel like the energy start to kind of drain out of me,” Horne said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I need to do something. I’ve got to save the kids.’”
When the intruder apparently became tired of stabbing, he moved on to viciously beating Horne until she could no longer see. She realized that if she wanted to stay alive, she’d have to play dead, and that’s exactly what she did. When she slumped over, the man left.
Horne feared she would die that night. “My 10-year-old, he grabbed paper towels. And he’s like, giving us paper towels. He’s like, ‘Put this on your wound, try to stop the bleeding,’” she recalled to News 12. “I tell my kids, ‘I love you guys so much. I want you guys to know that.'”
According to court documents obtained by News 12, police arrested 22-year-old Lowell Dorn a short time later. He allegedly tried to break into another home after leaving Horne’s. When police questioned Dorn, he reportedly told them his intent was “to kill.”
“He admitted that he has mental health issues and he has been using illegal drugs,” a prosecutor shared during Dorn’s initial court appearance, according to the news outlet.
As for the family, they’re thankful to be alive but remain traumatized by the entire situation. Horne’s sister, Jessie Mariano Shaffer, created a GoFundMe account to assist the family during this extremely difficult time. It’s raised nearly $30,000 thus far.
“The neighborhood they lived in was not the greatest (clearly) and it is our family’s goal to get them out of there to somewhere much safer. We would appreciate SO incredibly much your help! Medical bills, replacing anything they might need and moving expenses will be very expensive,” Shaffer wrote on the page.
Horne said she’ll always remember what happened that night. “You hear random things that happen to people, and everybody thinks it’s not going to be you. And we know it can be us now, and I think that’s always going to be in the back of our mind,” she said.
Horne’s mama bear instinct kicked in and she used everything she had to protect her kids — and we bet she’d do it again in a heartbeat. There’s nothing like a mother’s love. Nothing.
Dorn remains in jail on a $2 million bond.
