Tanner Lynn Horner pleaded guilty to murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand in the opening moments of his capital murder trial Tuesday in Fort Worth.
Horner was charged with kidnapping and killing Strand, who attended Paradise Elementary. She was reported missing Nov. 30, 2022. Authorities found her body on Dec. 2, 2022.
Now the trial shifts to the punishment phase.
The defense is seeking a life sentence without parole. Wise Count prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Day 1
Horner pleads guilty to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand
9 a.m.
In a shocking development, Tanner Horner pleaded guilty to murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand at the start of his capital murder trial in Fort Worth.
When the proceedings began at 9 a.m., 297th District Judge George Gallagher could be overheard talking to the defense team, and Horner, apparently about his decision to plead guilty to capital murder.
His plea means the guilt-innocence phase of the trial is over, fast-tracking arguments over whether Horner should receive the death penalty. This all occurred before jurors had entered the courtroom.
Jurors were scheduled to be seated at 9:20 a.m.
9:30 a.m.
Judge Gallagher formally accepted Horner’s guilty plea after the jury was sworn in and seated.
District Attorney James Stainton delivered his opening statement to the jury. He quoted scripture from 2 Corinthians saying, “Satan masquerades as an angel of light.”
Stainton continued by saying when Horner was delivering packages, he was not bringing happiness, but rather violence, fear and death.
“Don’t scream, or I’ll hurt you,” Stainton told jurors Horner said to Athena when he kidnapped her in the delivery truck. He said Athena was a “warrior” and “fought with the strength of 100 men” when Horner abducted her.
Stainton said that crime scene investigators found DNA on Athena’s body and suggested that sexual assault had happened. He continued by saying Horner made it as difficult as possible for investigators to locate her body after she was killed.
Stainton told the jurors that experts would testify over the course of the punishment phase about Horner’s medical, cognitive and emotional issues, calling them a “long line of excuses.”
10 a.m.
Horner’s defense opened by saying that brain injuries are not obvious and cannot be diagnosed like sports injuries, a suggestion to the jurors that Horner had some sort of disability.
The defense said that Horner had longstanding mental injuries, stemming from his mother’s substance abuse issues when she was pregnant with him. He also said Horner was exposed to lead poisoning in his youth.
Horner’s lawyer added that Horner was diagnosed with Asperger’s as a student in school, which is now considered part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder, further suggesting he had disabilities.
The defense told jurors to sentence Horner to life without parole.
10:15 a.m.
Athena’s first grade teacher at Paradise ISD, Lindsey Thompson, was the first witness to testify. She described Athena as a “free spirit.”
Thompson told the jurors how difficult the loss of Athena was for her and her students. She said counselors and volunteers visited the school to provide grief support to deal with the death of Athena.
Thompson also said she has undergone therapy since the loss of Strand.
“I adored Athena,” Thompson said.
10:50 a.m.
Elizabeth Ashley Strand (who goes by Ashley), Athena’s stepmother, took the stand to testify.
She told jurors that Athena began living with her in May 2022 after Athena had moved from her mother’s home in Oklahoma. Athena enrolled in school in Paradise in August 2022. Ashley said she had known Athena since 2017.
Ashley described the day, Nov. 30, 2022, when Athena went missing, saying that Athena arrived home from school around 4:20 p.m., and was supposed to be sorting her laundry, but went to play outside instead. Athena was not on the Cottondale property when the family was preparing to eat dinner at 6 or 6:30 p.m.. Athena’s dad had previously left for a hunting trip.
Ashley said she and other family members searched the 10-acre property, then called police after the entire property had been searched and Athena was not found.
“We were all over the property looking for her,” Ashley said. She testified that Athena loved being in the country and thought she was maybe just playing hide-and-seek.
Ashley testified that she realized something was wrong when a search party of as many as 50 people, including law enforcement officers, showed up to the property and she observed helicopters flying overhead.
She testified that she found a blue Walmart box that FedEx had delivered to her property near an abandoned trailer. Ashley said it was a Christmas gift for Athena — a set of Barbie dolls. It was near a driveway where several law enforcement vehicles were parked.
Ashley also described the pants Athena was wearing the day of Athena’s disappearance.
Ashley told jurors she was at a church in Cottondale when she was notified of Athena’s death on a Friday, two days after she went missing when law enforcement found her body.
“I lost it,” Ashley said. “…[It] affected me, my marriage, my children.”
Ashley said Athena’s death impacted her entire life, and testified that her divorce from Athena’s dad, Jacob, had stemmed from the incident. She added that her other children were impacted as well, and were scared when any delivery driver dropped off packages at their home.
“I’m not the same,” Ashley told jurors. “I don’t trust anybody.”
Jurors were shown a still image from the FedEx delivery truck’s interior camera showing Horner driving and Athena behind him in the back of the truck. Athena did not appear to have any bruises or injuries. Ashley had earlier testified that Athena did not did not have any injuries Nov. 30, the day she went missing.
When first questioned, Horner told law enforcement officers that he had accidentally backed into and hit Athena with his FedEx truck, and abducted her because he was scared of what Athena’s dad would do.
11:55 a.m.
Former Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin, who was sheriff at the time of Athena’s abduction and death, took the stand.
Akin led the investigation into Athena’s death. He was sworn in as a peace officer in 1974, testifying he had previous experience in missing persons cases.
Akin told jurors that the first time he heard Athena’s name was around 7 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2022. He was on his way back from Austin and planned to stay in Llano, but when significant time had passed, he left Llano and drove to the scene in Cottondale.
He said that the search party included several law enforcement agencies, including the Texas Rangers, Texas Game Wardens, DPS Troopers, Fort Worth Police Department helicopters, drones from Denton County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and local volunteer fire departments — any first responding agency that could aid in the search.
In addition to sworn personnel, Akin said a large group of local citizens became part of the search party. He testified that approximately 300 people registered to aid law enforcement in the search for Athena.
“I’ll never forget the morning of Dec. 1. Citizens came from all parts of Wise County to find that child,” Akin said. “…It was shoulder-to-shoulder.”
Akin added that a missing person bulletin was produced by the sheriff’s office and dispersed electronically to agencies across the state. He said it was delivered to all state agencies and some neighboring states.
Akin told jurors that as the sun was setting Dec. 1, 2022, law enforcement began looking at nearby waterways. He said that as more time passed, the criminal investigation began to scale up.
Akin testified that law enforcement began to focus on Horner, determining his FedEx delivery truck was in the area at the time Athena went missing and identified him as the driver. Horner was located by the FBI, Texas Rangers and WCSO and taken into custody.
Around 7:30 or 8 p.m., Akin testified, he learned that Athena’s body was located Dec. 2, 2022 in the Trinity River near Bobo Crossing, about 12 miles driving distance from her Cottondale home. Crime scene investigators, the WCSO and FBI worked to recover her body.
Akin testified that his focus was on Athena’s family, and he was the one to notify them that Athena’s body had been found.
After observing Athena’s recovered body, he told her family of the discovery.
“It was heartbreaking,” Akin said. “They were just devastated.”
1:49 p.m.
Patrick McGuire, FBI agent in Fort Worth, was called to testify by Patrick Berry of the prosecution.
McGuire detailed his involvement in the case between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2 — the period of time between Athena Strand’s disappearance and Horner’s eventual arrest in her murder.
McGuire began working a potential lead about recent FedEx package deliveries. He determined that deliveries in the area came from the FedEx facility at Alliance Airport, with several trucks operated by Big Topspin.
After determining a package delivered to the Strand household did originate from the location, and that Horner was the driver assigned to the route, he testified about a series of interactions with Horner, which included phone and in-person interviews.
Horner initially told McGuire over the phone that he had no specific memories of the delivery.
McGuire met with Horner the next day while Horner was delivering additional packages to ask additional questions.
“He was getting out of vehicle when I approached,” McGuire said. “It scared him and he dropped his package.”
Horner informed him that driving near the crime scene — and seeing the law enforcement presence — refreshed his memory, according to the FBI agent’s testimony. At that point, he told McGuire that he saw a green Chevrolet Astrovan leaving the scene around the time of the delivery.
“During the majority of the interview, [Horner] was articulate, he answered properly, it was a good back and forth conversation,” McGuire said. “Towards the end, he became emotional, to the point of tears, stating he couldn’t believe something like this would happen.”
McGuire then relayed that information about the possible suspect vehicle to the search command post, where he and another agent were tasked with interviewing family members, he said.
“If that information were true, [the person in the green van] would’ve been someone we’d want to talk to,” McGuire said.
Berry noted that this delayed the investigation, and occupied law enforcement resources.
While being diverted to conduct additional interviews with family members, McGuire continued to follow the lead, noting discrepancy in Horner’s delivery that night after gathering additional information about his route, including that he failed to deliver the rest of his packages on the that night and did not log his final delivery of the evening in the system.
Horner eventually told McGuire that the discrepancy was a result of him becoming sick, throwing up multiple times — first on the side of the road and then at a Love’s Truck stop, before returning back to the airport.
McGuire said this interview took place as Horner was finishing up his route, delivering the packages that he failed to complete on the night of Athena Strand’s disappearance. While McGuire noted that Horner was performing his job duties as normal, McGuire did say he noted that Horner showed additional signs of suspicion.
“He backed out of the driveway and struck a tree on the other side of the road. He exited the driver’s seat, looked at the read, got back in the vehicle and left,” McGuire said. “I thought it was odd.”
The FBI began surveilling Horner’s location after these first two interviews, while seeking out dashcam footage from the delivery truck that Horner was operating on Nov. 30 as well as additional information about the deliveries in the area that night.
McGuire testified that investigators were eventually provided a partial video of the dash cam footage which showed a young girl in Horner’s vehicle.
“It was a phone recording of the video that showed Horner placing a small girl in the back of his FedEx van,” McGuire said.
Shortly after receiving the video, McGuire said that Horner was arrested Dec. 2, ending his involvement with the case.
Following the testimony, the court adjourned, with the proceedings to continue 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Brian Knox, Brendan Marchand and Austin Jackson contributed to this story.
Background
Nearly 3 1/2 years after the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand, the man accused of her murder will place his fate in the hands of a jury Tuesday, April 7.
Tanner Lynn Horner, 34, is charged with capital murder, and prosecutors will seek the death penalty if he is found guilty.
Jury selection, which began at the end of January, has been completed, and opening statements in the case are set to begin this week in Tarrant County.
The trial will be held in the 297th District Court in Fort Worth after the case was moved from Wise County in 2024 at the request of Horner’s attorneys, who argued their client could not receive a fair trial locally due to “inflammatory pre-trial publicity.” Judge George Gallagher was appointed last year to preside over the case.
An autopsy report found Strand suffered blunt force injuries to her head and neck along with evidence of asphyxia. The report lists the cause of death as “blunt force injuries with smothering and strangulation” and the manner of death as “homicide.”
Horner was indicted for capital murder and aggravated kidnapping of Strand in February of 2023, 2 1/2 months after his arrest. Following that indictment, prosecutors with the Wise County District Attorney’s Office announced they intended to seek the death penalty upon conviction.
District Attorney James Stainton told the Messenger in February of 2023 that the decision to seek the death penalty was made due to the age of Strand and evidence of a high level of violence that contributed to her death.
“You look at that little girl’s face and you just ask yourself, ‘why?’ It’s just the brutal nature of what went on, the level of violence that the guy brought to this. It’s just unspeakable. I do not comprehend how an individual can do this with that level of violence to a child,” Stainton said in 2023.
Horner was driving a FedEx truck and made a delivery to Strand’s Cottondale home on Nov. 30, 2022, about the time the 7-year-old went missing, according to investigators. Two days later, investigators tracked down Horner while he was on a delivery route in the Cottondale area for questioning about the child’s disappearance. He told investigators he accidentally struck Strand with his delivery vehicle at the home and later strangled her so she wouldn’t tell her father what happened, according to an arrest affidavit in the case.
He then led investigators to County Road 4668 (Bobo Crossing) near Boyd where investigators found Strand’s body in the water at the Trinity River crossing, the affidavit states.
Horner is being represented by attorneys with the Regional Public Defenders Office.
Previous Messenger coverage:
Mother of Athena Strand calls for stricter driver screenings
Affidavit: Horner says he hit Athena Strand with truck, then killed her to silence her
Lake Worth man arrested for kidnapping and murder in missing child case
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