Tanner, Mateo's "best mate" from San Antonio first showed up during a crisis in his life. Tanner was in some sort of trouble and claimed that only Mateo could help him out. Amateur pilot Tanner flew Mateo and Hayley back to Pine Valley in the midst of a fierce storm. From this first flight, Tanner had the hots for Hayley. Admittedly, Hayley also found Tanner mildly attractive. Tanner was determined to win Hayley, and he hired an actor to play his alcoholic father "Earl." Along the way, Tanner found out that Skye switched the DNA test results for Edmund and Maria's child and used this information to blackmail Skye. Tanner snowed everyone else, including the whole Santos family. Tanner developed a complicated plot to "get" Hayley, causing their plane to crash. After slipping her a drink tainted with the date rape drug and Vodka, Tanner had his way with her. Hayley later confessed that she slept with Tanner, thinking that she willingly had sex with Tanner. Mateo called off the wedding causing Tanner to think that he could still win Hayley. Slowly, everyone discovered that Tanner was a monster, and that he has hated Matt Santos, the "golden boy" of San Antonio, for years. Hayley returned to the cave in to see if she could find evidence that Tanner raped her. Tanner followed Hayley to Virginia and tormented her in the cave. Hayley refused to have sex with Tanner and he slapped her. Hayley fell to the ground and hit her head on a rock. Tanner panicked and buried her under a pile of rocks. Mateo found Tanner, they struggled, and a gun that Tanner pulled accidentally went off. Tanner rose to his feet and staggered a few feet before collapsing to the ground. Tanner was rushed to the hospital. Tanner was about to tell everyone where he had hidden Hayley, but nature took its course and Tanner's body gave out.