Ex-FedEx Driver Sentenced to Death for Murder of Girl, 7

UPDATE May 5, 2026 4:00 PM CDT

A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift. Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner's punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of Athena Strand's last moments from inside his delivery van, the AP reports. Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began.

• Jurors found there was a probability Horner would commit criminal violence and be a continuing threat to society. They said there was nothing in the commission of the crime or in Horner's background to warrant life without parole instead of death.
• Prosecutor James Stainton told jurors in opening statements that Horner had told "lie upon lie upon lie upon lie" in the case, including telling authorities that he accidentally struck Athena with his van while making the delivery and then killed her in a fit of panic.
• Several jurors cried as they were shown video and heard audio from inside the van after Athena was taken. He could be seen lifting her into the van and then driving away, telling her not to scream or he'd hurt her.
• In the recording, which lasts over an hour, Athena's screams can be heard as well as choking and slamming noises. At one point, he tells her: "If you don't shut up, I will hurt you worse." A medical examiner testified that Athena died of blunt force injuries with smothering and strangulation.

Apr 7, 2026 2:12 PM CDT

A former FedEx driver accused of killing a 7-year-old girl after he said he accidentally struck her with his van while delivering a Christmas gift to her Texas home, and then strangled her during a fit of panic, pleaded guilty to capital murder just after his trial began Tuesday. Tanner Horner faces either the death penalty or life in prison in the December 2022 killing of Athena Strand, whose body was found two days after she was reported missing in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.

• Jurors, who will decide Horner's punishment, began hearing testimony after the plea, the AP reports. As Athena's stepmother testified about the search for the girl, the jury was shown an image of Athena taken from a video inside the delivery truck. She was still alive and sitting on her knees behind the driver's seat.

• According to an arrest warrant, Horner told authorities that he strangled Athena after accidentally hitting her with his van while making a delivery. Horner told investigators that Athena wasn't seriously hurt after he hit her while backing up, but he panicked and put her in his van.
• Horner said he didn't want her to tell her father what happened, so he first tried to break the girl's neck and when that didn't work, he strangled her with his hands in the back of the van, the warrant said. The warrant said Horner took investigators to where he'd left Athena's body.
• Her family said the package Horner had dropped off was a Christmas present for Athena—a box of "You Can Be Anything" Barbies.
• The trial was moved from rural Wise County to Fort Worth after Horner's attorneys argued that he would not have received a fair trial.