The 26-year-old Whitefish man accused of fatally stabbing his father earlier this week has been formally charged with deliberate homicide and is scheduled for arraignment July 19 in Flathead County District Court.
Tanner Lehnen Hosek faces a single felony count of deliberate homicide related to the July 9 death of his father, 65-year-old Eric Kevin Hosek, a well-known financial advisor with deep ties to the community. The tragic incident occurred at the Hoseks’ home on Wilderness Lane just south of Whitefish.
Hosek will appear before Judge Dan Wilson. Deputy Flathead County Attorney Travis Ahner is prosecuting the case.
Court records dating back to 2015 show that Tanner Hosek suffers from a severe psychiatric disorder. He was living under his parents’ custody to ensure he was medically compliant and did not pose a safety threat to himself, the records state.
According to Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry, law enforcement was notified July 9 at 8:30 p.m. after a passerby witnessed a struggled between the father and son and called 911. Sheriff’s deputies arrived and found Eric Hosek dead.
Tanner Hosek admitted he had stabbed and killed his father, according to an affidavit in support of the criminal charge made public Thursday.
Separate records from three years ago, submitted to the Flathead County District Court by a treating psychiatrist and a social worker, portray a man who struggled with severe psychiatric issues, but had learned to live with schizophrenia through the aid of consistent medication and a stable setting at home with his family.
He was well liked by those who knew him, and doctors enjoyed working with him.
However, the records note that Hosek was prone to “episodes where his judgment is impaired to the degree that he needs monitoring and supervision for his own safety and protection.”
That was the opinion of a treating psychiatrist who worked with Hosek following bouts of hospitalizations and acute inpatient psychiatric treatment, as well as some legal issues stemming from the psychosis. The psychiatrist’s report states, “a big part of these hospitalizations had to do with being noncompliant with medication as well as noncomitant substance abuse.”
“Tanner is a very intelligent young man and I do feel that he has a lot of potential to accomplish meaningful things in life,” the report states.
A separate report submitted by a social worker in the matter of guardianship around the same time explains that Hosek was a top student and athlete at Whitefish High School, where he graduated in 2010. After enrolling at the University of Montana, he began experiencing auditory hallucinations and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The report explains that Hosek found stability back in Whitefish after a months-long period of hospitalizations, arrests and returning from traveling abroad in Europe without a passport, following a hospitalization in a Dutch hospital where he was placed under involuntary commitment.
“Tanner remains stable at this time but if he decides to go off his medications, per history, he is not capable of making rational decisions on his behalf,” the report states. “Eric and Linda Hosek are the most appropriate people to take on this guardianship and will do what it takes to keep Tanner safe.”