Trial for Tanner Horner in Athena Strand Case
A former FedEx driver, Tanner Horner, has confessed to investigators about the circumstances surrounding the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand. During a video interrogation presented to jurors who are weighing his fate between the death penalty and life imprisonment, he stated that after killing her, he “kind of threw her into the woods.”
In the footage shown in court, police confronted Horner regarding the whereabouts of the missing girl after searching his residence. “I’ll show you,” he reportedly told them. When asked if she was alive, his response was grim: “When I put her in the truck, she wasn’t alive.”
Horner, who is now 34, initially claimed he had accidentally run over her with his delivery truck. However, he later changed his story, admitting that he kidnapped Athena while delivering a package and then strangled her.
In court, prosecutors portrayed him as a calculating figure, ruthless in his actions. “When Tanner Horner picked Athena up, put her in his truck, and bent over, the first thing he said to her was, ‘Don’t scream or I’m going to hurt you,’” prosecutor James Stainton noted. He added that any attempt to imagine a 7-year-old fighting for her life is heart-wrenching.
Stainton further stated that DNA evidence suggests potential sexual assault, revealing traces of Horner’s DNA in unexpected areas under Athena’s fingernails and elsewhere. “We’re talking about American warriors,” he said, emphasizing Athena’s bravery during her ordeal.
The prosecution argued that Horner’s misleading statements were merely a part of a larger “pattern of lies,” saying the only truth he told was about killing her. Evidence presented indicated that he hid a camera and threatened her while she was in his truck before abandoning her body in a rural area near Boyd, Texas.
Following the incident, Horner returned to work, continuing deliveries while the community actively searched for the missing child. The defense attorney, Lindsey Thompson, argued that Horner faced mental health challenges, including a brain injury and autism, suggesting these issues should factor into the jury’s decision about his potential danger to society.
Horner has pled guilty and, if sentenced to life without parole, he would spend his remaining years in prison. He kidnapped Athena while delivering a package containing a Barbie doll for Christmas. After an extensive search involving various resources, Athena’s body was found less than 10 miles from her home about a week after her disappearance.
