‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.’ Those were the chilling last words seven-year-old Athena Strand heard before she was abducted and murdered in rural Texas in November 2022.
Athena lived in Paradise, Texas, with her father and stepmother. Her family described her as bright, energetic, loving and curious.
She especially loved toys, which made the events of November 30, 2022, even more heartbreaking.
That day, Athena was expecting a Christmas delivery consisting of a box of Barbie dolls. The package arrived at her home carried by former FedEx driver, Tanner Horner.
Before the delivery, Athena had reportedly argued with her stepmother, Elizabeth Strand. The girl was last seen at around 5.45pm.
Elizabeth later went looking for her at half-past 6, telling authorities she had not realized Athena had gone outside, likely heading to her makeshift bedroom in a shed where the child was sleeping while the home was under construction.
The only thing she noticed that was unusual or out of place was a Walmart parcel containing the Christmas present she had ordered for Athena.
It had been dropped in front of an abandoned trailer that was on the property.
Strand was snatched by Horner as he dropped off a package containing a Christmas gift for the youngster – a box of Barbie dolls
Athena Strand is filmed being driven to her death by kidnapper Tanner Horner. He admitted the November 2022 murder in court on Tuesday
Athena was reported missing that same day, and a 72-hour search began, involving over 200 members of the community.
When the search party failed to find the child, investigators focused on Horner, who had been delivering packages in the neighborhood during the time of her disappearance.
A SWAT team searched his home where they found items of Athena’s clothing, including her socks and underwear thrown in a bin.
When apprehended, Horner confessed to killing the child, initially framing Athena’s death as an accident.
He claimed he struck the girl with his delivery van while backing up near her home.
Later changing his story, Horner admitted to investigators that Athena was alive after the incident, claiming the child was speaking and even told him her name.
He said he panicked, fearing Athena would tell her father what had happened and that he would lose his job.
Instead of getting help, Horner put Athena in his truck and drove away.
Horner admitted he drove around for a while trying to decide what to do before eventually driving down a private road where he told Athena to turn around before murdering her.
He confessed he tried to break her neck. When that failed, the affidavit states he strangled her in the back of the van ‘with his bare hands.’
After killing Athena, Horner dumped her body beside a country road near a river, around nine miles from her home.
But the FedEx driver led Texas Rangers on a wild goose chase to ‘help’ them find Athena, bringing them to a bamboo thicket where he claimed he ‘tossed’ her body.
However, it was then revealed he was lying, and he eventually led them to Bobo’s Crossing on the Trinity River near Boyd, Texas, where the child’s body was found on December 2.
Athena was naked when she was discovered, and prosecutors indicated there was DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Horner was subsequently charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Now, more than three years later, as her killer faces the possibility of the death penalty, disturbing testimonies and new evidence are exposing what prosecutors describe as a calculated ‘web of lies’ behind Athena’s death.
When he was formally indicted on February 16, 2023, Horner initially pleaded not guilty.
Sgt. Job Espinoza, lead investigator in the Texas Rangers’ search for Athena, testified that when investigators asked Horner to revisit what happened on that private road, Horner described the attack as feeling like a ‘dream’ or an out-of-body experience, and that a ‘little voice’ was telling him what to do.
As the investigation unfolded, detectives said Horner began repeatedly referring to an alter ego called ‘Zero.’
Espinoza testified that Horner mentioned ‘Zero’ multiple times during interviews. He said Horner told investigators it was something he and his wife had discussed in the past and that he had made it up.
At one point, while investigators stepped out of the room, Horner wrote ‘Zero’ on a whiteboard.
Espinoza said they eventually leaned into the persona as an interview technique to gather information and locate Athena.
‘His demeanor, physical demeanor changes,’ Espinoza testified. ‘His head goes into a sideways motion. His eyes roll into the back of the head, and he pretends to turn into ‘Zero.’
Horner also told investigators, ‘If I say too much, Zero is going to hurt me.’
He asked them, ‘How can you stop me from hurting me?’ and warned, ‘Zero is telling me this is all a trap.’
As the investigation unfolded, detectives said Horner (pictured) began repeatedly referring to an alter ego called ‘Zero’
The box of Barbies that Athena was supposed to receive on Christmas
Espinoza told the court Horner appeared emotional and fidgety during questioning but seemed detached from the gravity of the crime.
‘Horner showed little understanding of the seriousness of the situation, lacked a clear grasp of the gravity of what had happened,’ Espinoza said.
During one particularly disturbing moment at Horner’s questioning, investigators asked whether the FedEx driver had ‘stripped [Athena] naked to throw her clothes out the window.’
To which Horner replied: ‘I thought it was funny.’
Upon his arrest, investigators discovered that Horner had a child of his own.
During questioning, the FedEx driver seemed more preoccupied with how his imprisonment would ruin his child’s life than with the murder he had just committed.
‘I’m going to miss out on this part of my child’s f***ing life, OK? I can’t,’ Horner said.
‘This isn’t one of those probation things. This is one of those I’m going away for a long time things, and I’m going to miss out on all of my f***ing son’s life. I would rather die.’
In a separate interview, Horner begged law enforcement for one month to spend with his family.
‘Even if y’all have to put an ankle monitor on me, GPS monitor, check-ups with you… If you give me a month with my family, so I can have Christmas with my son, I’ll tell you everything,’ he pleaded.
Years after Athena’s death, prosecutors are now arguing that Horner’s original account was itself a fabrication.
At Horner’s capital murder trial this week, prosecutors unveiled a newly released black-and-white image from inside the FedEx truck taken on the day Athena died.
The photo shows Athena alive inside the vehicle, standing behind Horner and appearing concerned while he drives.
Prosecutors say the image contradicts Horner’s initial claim that she had been fatally injured after being struck by the truck.
‘She wasn’t alive when I put her in the truck,’ Horner had earlier told police.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton told jurors that evidence will prove otherwise.
‘I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to see right up front here. She was very much alive and very much uninjured when he put her in the truck,’ Stainton said.
‘The pattern and web of lies that he put together, it’s going to be hard for y’all to keep up with. It is lie upon lie, upon lie, upon lie,’ he told the court.
‘What’s the story that was told in the beginning? That he hit her with the truck? That he somehow freaked out because he thought he was going to lose his job, or she was going to tell on him. He picked her up, still freaked out and killed her.’
The attorney claimed: ‘That is an absolute lie. There is no truth to that in any form or fashion. None. Zero. ZIP. Not of nudge. No truth to that whatsoever.
‘The first thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up and puts her in that truck, he leans down and he says: “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.” He says that twice.’
During his hearing at court in Forth Worth on Thursday, Horner was asked whether he put Strand in his truck out of fear of losing his job or freedom.
‘I wasn’t worried about the “losing my freedom” part because, honestly, that’s an honest accident,’ Horner said.
‘You know what I mean? Like, all it would take is going up there and just talking to the parents, and saying like, “Hey, I accidentally bumped your daughter.” Like, there’s more jobs out there, you know what I mean?’
Horner said he tried to calm Strand down, but when he was unsuccessful, his alter-ego ‘Zero’ ‘kind of took over.’
‘He (Zero) told her, “Just get in the back of the van, we’re going to go to the hospital”,’ Horner said.
Horner said Zero killed Strand: ‘I didn’t do it, but he did, and that’s what f***s with me… I’m wondering who the hell’s been in my head this whole time,’ he said.
‘Part of me is in denial because I didn’t pull the trigger,’ Horner said.
Tanner Horner during questioning by investigators following the murder of Athena Strand
Athena Strand’s (pictured) mother has said she supports the death penalty being given to her daughter’s killer
Jurors were warned they will hear horrifying audio allegedly recorded during Athena’s final moments.
According to prosecutors, although a camera inside Horner’s truck was covered during the killing, audio continued recording.
‘You’re going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child,’ Stainton said.
Compounding the horror surrounding the case, Horner is also facing separate allegations involving children.
On top of the murder charges, he has been charged with sexually assaulting a child nearly a decade ago and faces three additional counts of sexually abusing a child in Fort Worth in 2013.
On Wednesday, Horner appeared before State District Judge George Gallagher as charges of capital murder of a child under 10 and aggravated kidnapping were read aloud, and changed his plea.
When Horner was asked how he pleaded, he said: ‘Guilty, your honor.’
Because of the guilty plea, the guilt-innocence phase of trial was skipped. The jury is now focused solely on deciding Horner’s punishment.
Under Texas law, capital murder of a child under 10 qualifies Horner for the death penalty. Horner’s defense team, however, is fighting to spare his life.
Earlier this year, his attorneys filed motions arguing that Horner’s autism spectrum disorder should exempt him from execution.
‘Mr. Horner’s autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reduces his moral blameworthiness, negates the retributive and deterrent purposes of capital punishment, and exposes him to the unacceptable risk that he will be wrongfully sentenced to death,’ one filing stated.
Defense attorney Steven Goble also told jurors Horner had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome as a child and had been exposed to lead during his developmental years.
‘You don’t have to be a scientist or doctor to know that lead has terrible effects on the brain,’ Goble said.
While acknowledging the evidence against his client is overwhelming, Goble argued that life in prison without parole is punishment enough.
But for Athena’s loved ones, only the harshest sentence feels just.
Shortly after her daughter’s murder, Athena’s mother Maitlyn Gandy spoke publicly about the devastating loss.
‘Athena was robbed of the opportunity to be anything she wanted to be. And this present, ordered out of innocence and love is one she will never receive,’ Gandy said.
‘I was robbed of watching [Athena] grow up by a man that everyone was supposed to be able to trust to do just one simple task: deliver a Christmas present and leave.’
After Horner was indicted, Gandy made her stance on punishment very clear.
‘I support the death penalty. In any sentencing that may come,’ she told WFAA. ‘Every breath he takes is one my daughter doesn’t.’
‘If I could sit down in front of him, I would tell him that he is nothing, but that Athena is absolutely everything – and I will make sure that everybody in this world knows that he is nothing and that she is everything,’ the grieving mother added.
After Athena’s murder, other family members spoke out, including her grandfather, who offered a heartbreaking message of forgiveness to her murderer.
Mark Strand said despite part of him wanting ‘five minutes alone in a cell’ with Tanner Horner, he decided to listen to another part that told him forgiveness was the only way for him and his family to recover.
‘This man I am is angry, and I want five minutes alone in a cell with the psycho that took our Athena away from us, but there’s a soft, gentle voice in the back of my head telling me I need to forgive him,’ he wrote in an emotional Facebook post.
‘If I allow this hate to consume me, that voice will fade and eventually be silenced. Then that ugly spirit of hate will have succeeded and that’s why this gentle voice persists to tell me I need to forgive this man.’
The trial continues.