FedEx driver Tanner Horner pleads guilty to murder of Athena Strand in Paradise, Texas
A court has heard chilling details about the final hours of Athena Strand after a driver admitted responsibility for her death. Warning: Distressing content
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
Sickening footage has emerged of the last moments seven-year-old Athena Strand was seen alive in the back of a delivery truck before the driver murdered the young girl.
A former FedEx driver has pleaded guilty to abducting and murdering seven-year-old Anthena after striking the child with his delivery truck as he was reversing from the family’s driveway in Paradise, Texas.
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Anthena had arrived home from school at about 4.30pm on November 30, 2022, before heading inside the house. When family members were unable to locate her later that evening, she was reported missing at about 6.40pm, sparking an urgent search from authorities.
It was later determined that the delivery driver had been in the area at the time she disappeared.
The Mirror reported that the young girl’s body was eventually located two days later, about six miles from her home near the town of Boyd.
During the proceedings, jurors were shown evidence, including a photograph taken inside the delivery truck, showing Anthena in the rear of the vehicle shortly before her death. The image captured the child kneeling behind the driver’s seat, appearing distressed as she steadied herself inside the van.
Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping at the beginning of the trial, with prosecutors outlining what they described as a deliberate effort to conceal the crime.
The court heard Horner initially told police the child had not been seriously injured after the collision, but later admitted he attempted to kill her after becoming concerned she would reveal what had happened.
Prosecutors told jurors the first words Horner said to the child were, “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you” according to The Mirror.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton warned the jury that they would hear confronting audio and video evidence captured on the day of the murder.
“Somebody covered up the camera because they don’t want you to see. Guess what? Audio is still running, and you’re going to hear it,” he said, according to the outlet.
“You’re going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child. And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it. I’ve been doing this (for) 25 years, and I promise you, buckle up.”
Horner now faces the possibility of the death penalty, with jurors tasked with determining whether he should be sentenced to capital punishment or spend the rest of his life in prison.
