Former FedEx driver Tanner Horner admitted Tuesday to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand of Texas, pleading guilty to one count each of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Horner had been scheduled to stand trial in the child’s killing but pleaded guilty before proceedings began. According to Law&Crime, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and jurors will decide Horner’s punishment.
A former FedEx driver pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl after delivering a Christmas gift to her Texas home. He told authorities he accidentally struck her with his van and then strangled her in a fit of panic.
The man faces either the death penalty or life in prison… pic.twitter.com/2j044ANFq1
— ABC News (@ABC) April 8, 2026
Prosecutor Patrick Berry cautioned jurors about the severity of the case. He said jurors would hear audio recorded inside the delivery van where Athena was murdered.
Berry told the court, “The one thing you’re gonna hear — that is something you can’t unhear — is the level of fight that a 7-year-old girl has when she’s facing down certain death. We talk about warriors in America. I’ll tell you that little girl right there is a warrior. She fought with the strength of 100 men.”
Lane Akin, an investigator in the case, also took the stand and recalled when Athena’s family was notified that her body was found.
Authorities found Athena’s body in a body of water miles from her home.
Akin said, “It was heartbreaking, and they were just devastated…I wish I could have done something to make it better. We were hoping, right to the last minute, that she was alive and well.”
According to Fox News, an interrogation video showed Horner telling the officers how he “kind of tossed” Athena into the woods after killing her. This footage was also shown in court, and here, Horner said, “I can show you,” after he was pressed on locating the missing child.
Later, when one officer asked, “Is she alive?” Horner said, “She wasn’t alive when I put her in the truck.”
Horner had initially claimed that he accidentally hit Athena with his delivery truck, but then eventually admitted to strangling her after abducting her.
James Stainton, another prosecutor, told the jurors, “First thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up, puts her in that truck, leans down, and he says, ‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.’”
During opening statements, Stainton suggested that Athena may have been as*aulted, stating, “We have DNA. Not only do we have initial DNA from Athena that has Tanner Horner’s DNA under her fingernails. We also have Tanner Horner’s DNA in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.”
‘Loving’ 7-year-old goes missing from Texas home after fight with stepmom https://t.co/ak3lRAo1Pp pic.twitter.com/hH7ebi2rSD
— New York Post (@nypost) December 3, 2022
However, a medical examiner ruled that out. They stated there was no evidence of se*ual as*ault and confirmed the cause of death was blunt-force trauma and strangulation, according to the Dallas Morning News.
According to Law&Crime, Horner claimed to have killed the child because he feared “she was going to tell her father about being hit by the FedEx truck,” according to the affidavit.
Jurors would now look at more evidence to decide on life imprisonment or the death penalty for Horner.
