Tanner Horner, FedEx driver sentenced to death in ‘calculated’ kidnapping & murder of Athena Strand, 7-year-old Texas girl by lethal injection. How a jury came to condemn a man to lethal injection following harrowing evidence, despite claims of an alter ego and mental health issues.
A FedEx driver in Texas has been sentenced to death in the kidnapping & murder of 7-year-old girl, Athena Strand.
It took a jury two hours and 50 minutes to deliberate on whether Tanner Horner deserved to die.
Horner, 34, will be set to death by lethal injection at a future date.
Prosecutors presented evidence contradicting FedEx driver’s claims of accidental killing
The death sentence follows Horner previously pleading guilty to kidnapping and killing Strand just hours before he had been scheduled to go to trial last month.
Despite the guilty plea, prosecutors pushed for the death penalty, saying Horner’s actions were cold and calculated, stating that had he lied to investigators at every turn.
Horner who had arrived at Strand’s family’s Paradise, Texas residence in November, 2022 to deliver the seven year old girl a birthday present had previously alleged ‘accidentally’ hitting the girl with his vehicle and then out of fear bringing the girl into his truck before dumping her lifeless body at a nearby lake.
Damning Horner’s claims of responding with fear and trepidation at having struck and seriously injuring the girl were surveillance images retrieved from inside the FedEx truck showing the girl standing on her volition, fully alert and in fear and trepidation as Horner abducted the girl.
Horner later confessed to strangling the seven-year-old to death as he sang along to ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ on the radio.
Athena’s unclothed body was found dumped in a creek on Nov. 30, 2022.
FedEx driver remains emotionless after read death sentence verdict
Upon being read the verdict, Horner appeared unmoved, retaining a blank expression that betrayed neither culpability nor remorse or guilt.
Addressing the court and pointing at Horner, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, stated, ‘You will be judged. You will face the wrath of god.’
‘But I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story,’ he added. ‘Her name will forever be remembered. Her name will be forever celebrated.’
‘Everyone will forget you. You wanted your 15 minutes of fame. You got it. And no one is going to remember you after this,’ the uncle said, fighting back tears.
Horner’s death sentence was automatically appealed, which is standard procedure when capital punishments are handed down in Texas.
During the trial, the jury was presented with audio of Athena’s murder, pictures of her abandoned clothes, and testimony from forensic experts about DNA found on the girl’s private parts.
Alter ego and mental health
Prosecutors also shared Horner’s Google history, including a search asking whether the cameras in FedEx delivery trucks ‘constantly record.’
Horner’s defense focused on his mental health and background, arguing that he is on the autism spectrum and has struggled with long-term mental illness.
In a letter he wrote from jail before a suicide attempt in 2023, Horner blamed FedEx for switching his routes in the weeks before Strand’s murder.
He claimed that changes to his routine exacerbated his Asperger’s Syndrome.
Horner also blamed the crimes on his alter ego, named “Zero.”
He claimed that he thought the killing was a ‘nightmare,’ until he found Strand’s pants in his backpack the next day.
