The Death of Athena Strand: Jurors to hear, see more evidence of former FedEx driver confessing to killing 7-year-old girl | Live updates

FORT WORTH, Texas — Tanner Horner, a former FedEx driver, has admitted to the capital murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Now, a jury is hearing evidence to determine whether he gets life in prison, or the death penalty.

His trial began Monday April 7 and is expected to continue for weeks. WFAA will have gavel-to-gavel coverage on our TV streaming app WFAA+. 

In November 2022, Horner told police he struck Strand with his delivery van while backing up. He kidnapped and strangled, allegedly out of fear that she would tell her father about the incident, authorities said. Horner later led authorities to where he had left her body in Wise County near Boyd.

Horner’s lawyers have asked the Tarrant County court to take the death penalty off the table, saying he has autism. They argued that Horner’s Autism Spectrum Disorder “reduces his moral blameworthiness, negates the retributive and deterrent purposes of capital punishment and exposes him to the unacceptable risk that he will be wrongfully sentenced to death.” They also argued that data obtained from Horner’s phone should not be admissible at trial. Lawyers not directly involved in the case told WFAA they have mixed feelings about whether Horner’s defense will be successful. 

A jury will now decide that question over the next few days.

WFAA will provide live updates on the trial throughout the day here. You can watch anchored, gavel-to-gavel coverage and analysis of the proceedings live on WFAA+. Here’s how.

Ranger Espinoza is expected to resume testimony today.

WFAA will provide live updates on the trial throughout the day here. You can watch anchored, gavel-to-gavel coverage and analysis of the proceedings live on WFAA+. Here’s how.

The judge adjourned for the day.

Espinoza resumes his testimony after a break. 

He describes them leaving the interrogation room with Horner and taking him back out to look for Athena’s body. He takes them back to the bamboo thicket, and still they can’t find her. Espinoza then switches tactics and decides to talk to “Zero,” Horner’s alter-ego. He told jurors that Horner’s eyes rolled back into his head and he began to tell them exactly where Athena’s body was at Bobo’s Crossing off County Road 4668 where it crosses the West Fork of the Trinity River in Wise County just south of Boyd, Texas. It’s about a 15 minute drive from the bamboo site.

(Google Maps shows the memorial for Athena at the water’s edge)

Espinoza told jurors that Horner told them he dragged Athena out of the delivery van to the river. Espinoza said Athena was face down floating in the water near the shore when they finally located her. She was nude. 

Prosecutors then began playing a 90-minute body cam video of them taking Horner out, once again, to find Athena’s body. It’s about 6 p.m. on Dec. 2, 2022, and the sun is going down. Before they get in the vehicle, investigators give Horner a cigarette and he smokes, leaning against the SUV. He talks breezily about what his favorite foods are, mixing casual talk with talk about whether he needs a lawyer. “The last time I was in handcuffs was four years ago,” he mentions to an investigator, adding that he tried to kill himself. 

He notes that he was unsuccessful.

“Nice truck,” Horner says to the investigator as he climbs inside. At this point, investigators have built a solid rapport with Horner, who appears completely relaxed in the hands of the police officers desperate to find the body of Athena. As they drive, Horner talks casually about work schedules, the weather, and occasionally directs them to the body of the 7-year-old girl he murdered two days earlier.

Or so they think.

Driving at night now, the investigators end back up near the bamboo thicket they had been to earlier in the day. When they — again — can’t find Athena, the investigator asks: “Is there any way you could be confused?” “No, sir.” They let Horner smoke another cigarette, and maintain their patience while talking to him, continuing to trade small talk like old friends. 

“I’m going to be honest with you, it doesn’t look like she’s here,” an investigator tells him.

“Is it Zero that’s fucking with me?” an investigator, possible Espinoza, suddenly asks. “Zero, tell me where she’s at.”

The video image is dark, and Horner is not immediately visible, but investigators follow him into the truck. Horner then talks quietly, barely audible as they begin driving. “Left?” “Yes.” The vehicle’s engine roars as they speed down the road.

There is no more small talk, just an occasional one or two word directions punctuated by the roaring engine.

“We’re getting close. Slow down.”

The vehicle slow to a stop. 

“Where those trucks are.”

“Where did you park?” “Right here.”

The video goes dark here, at the direction of the judge.

“You put her in the water?”

“I tossed her in,” Horner says, barely audible.

“Did she sink?” the investigator asks him. “Did you tie something to her?”

Then: “There she is.”

“Thank you Zero.”

The video them comes back into view as investigators and Horner walk back up the slight grade to the shoulder where they left the truck as crime scene personnel begin arriving.

“What… what happened? How?” Horner says on the video, appearing to “revert” back to himself briefly. The investigators ask to speak to Zero one last time, and thank “him” for leading them to Athena. 

“You did the right thing,” an investigator says. “We needed to get her home.”

An investigator asks “Zero” why he “found” Horner.

“He wanted to die,” he replied. “So I took over.”

“Zero” then talks about why Horner initially told investigators about seeing a green van in the area of the abduction, to deflect attention from himself.

Investigators asked “Zero” if he had ever done this before, and he said no.

In the courtroom, while this section of the video is playing, Tanner Horner sits with his elbows on the defense table, his chin on his fists, his expression blank,

At one point, on the video, “Zero,” who is still talking to investigators on the ride back to the station, admits that him, and Horner, are “fans” of the “white stuff,” aka cocaine. 

As they arrived at the station, “Zero” became less talkative.

Prosecutors stopped the video with about 15 minutes left on the recording.

Prosecutors resume playing the interrogation video. Investigators re-enter the room and encourage Horner to give them more detail. He is now despondent and slow to answer their questions. 

They asked him why he turned off his phone for about a half hour during the abduction and attack, and he said he was hiding the body during that time.

Horner then goes over the facts again with investigators.

“I killed her,” Horner said. He said he “tossed her” into the woods on the side of a rural road.

Investigators pressed him on how far in the woods he hid her. Not far, he told them. “I tried to make it to where somebody would find her. Because I’m a parent. I would want to know.”

Investigators asked Horner why he lied to authorities for days leading up to these admissions of guilt. “That wasn’t me,” Horner told them, apparently referring to his alter-ego.

Horner then laments how he will be missing time with his own child, including Christmases, because he will be going to jail. “All because I listened to some stupid voice!”

Investigators continue to press Horner on where Athena is. He then asks about a lawyer again.

“Also, I need to pee.”

Investigators cuff Horner again and take him out of the interrogation room. The video ends.

During the roughly 90 minute interrogation video, Horner, who is seated at a table, said that he hit Athena with the rear of his truck, and brought her inside. At some point, he began listening to a “little voice.”

“I tried breaking her neck as painless as possible, but she started crying,” Horner told investigators. So, he told them, he strangled her with both hands.

“I was panicking and didn’t know what to do,” Horner said. He described having what felt like an “out of body” experience during the incident, and he said he had those episodes at other times of his life.

He said at some point, Athena told him her name. “I actually thought that was pretty cool because of mythology and stuff,” Horner said.

Investigators then have Horner stand up and show them on a map where he hid her body. While describing the location, Horner is animated, cheerful and easygoing. Investigators listen to him patiently, encouraging him to be specific and trying to make him feel comfortable so he will continue sharing information with them.

“I’m not exactly the dumbest person in the world,” Horner tells investigators at one point as they continue to ask him questions about how he disposed of her body. He also tells them he’s not a psychopath before he describes stopping at a truck stop for supplies to clean up vomit in the delivery truck.

Horner mentions that Athena soiled herself while he choked her, and at that point, the investigator tells him to make sure and tell them everything that happened.

He told investigators that he did think about letting her go, but the “voices” told him not to.

“To hurt a kid, a fucking child,” Horner says at one point, trailing off. “I just want to be with my family.”

“How’s the attorney thing work?” Horner asks.

At some point, investigators leave Horner in the interrogation room by himself. He gets up, without saying anything, and begins to write something off camera on a board on a wall. He then takes his seat and puts his head in his hands.

Prosecutors then stopped the video and asked Espinoza what Horner wrote on the board. “‘He’s going to hurt me please help,'” Espinoza testified Horner wrote. Horner was referring to his alter-ego Zero, Espinoza said.

Ranger Espinoza is back on the witness stand after lunch. He told jurors they drove around the area with Horner for about two hours looking in various parts of the bamboo thicket, but couldn’t find her. Horner told police he “tossed” Athena into the bamboo, according to Espinoza. The ranger recalled Horner, during the search, told them he was worried about what would happen to his own child, and that he could lose his job. 

After two hours of searching, authorities took Horner back to the Wise County sheriff’s office to question him further. They recorded the interview, and before showing it to the jury, prosecutors had Espinoza summarize what Horner told them. Initially, Horner told police Athena had died when he hit her with his delivery truck, but he later told them she was alive when she got into his truck. Horner also claimed Athena told him her name, “and asked him if he was a kidnapper,” Espinoza recalled Horner telling them. 

Espinoza said Horner eventually told them that he first attempted to break her neck and when that didn’t work, he strangled her.

During the course of these interviews, Tanner told police he had an alter-ego named Zero, named apparently for a band that Horner used to be in. During the interview, Espinoza sometimes “talked” to Zero, who answered questions about what happened to Athena. Espinoza said he believed Horner was toying with investigators with respect to Zero, but they played along in order to find Athena.

Espinoza says Horner is calm during the interrogation, and occasionally makes inappropriate jokes.

12:00 p.m.

Jurors are on their lunch break. Testimony resumes at 1 p.m.

10:30 a.m.

After a mid-morning break, Espinoza resumes his testimony, describing how investigators questioned Horner after leaving the bamboo thicket. He said Horner told them that Athena had bruises on her body, and that she was not clothed when he hid her body. 

Jurors then saw a body camera video showing investigators and Horner on the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2022 — two days after Athena was abducted — riding to the bamboo location Espinoza testified about earlier this morning. When they arrive, Horner, still in his FedEx shirt and handcuffed behind his back, stands on the roadside with investigators as they plunge into the thick reeds looking for Athena. After they find nothing, they read Horner his rights and, after a long interval of driving to other locations, they take him back for more questioning.

Texas Ranger Job Espinoza is now testifying. In 2022, he was assigned to Wise County. He helped search for Athena. Initially, they were looking for a green van, based on Horner telling them he had seen one in the area around the time he delivered the Walmart package to the Strand house on the evening of Nov. 30, 2022. Suspicion quickly shifted to Horner, particularly after investigators began getting and reviewing video from the inside of his FedEx delivery van. The video showed Athena was alive, which initially gave investigators hope they could rescue her. After arresting Horner, investigators pressed Horner, who told them Athena was not alive when he put her in the truck because he backed over her. Espinoza said he knew that was a lie because he had seen the video. When they asked Horner where Athena’s body was, he said he would show them.

Espinoza said Horner rode with them and directed them to the site, which was a heavy bamboo thicket just off a roadway in Wise County. Investigators could not find the body. “I felt like I was being lied to and she was not there,” Espinoza testified. After about 45 minutes, Espinoza said he decided to take Horner back and question him more.

Horner has taken his seat at the defense table. 

Joshua Espinoza, a Texas game warden, has taken the witness stand. He was involved in the arrest of Horner, and he gave his body cam to his brother, who is a Texas Ranger. Prosecutors played that body camera video of Horner’s arrest next to his FedEx truck.

Warden Espinoza testified that he helped search for Athena’s body.

Our live stream is up with Tanya Eiserer and her legal guest attorney Mike Howard. We’re awaiting court to resume for day two of testimony in the punishment phase of the trial. We were told yesterday that prosecutors will play approximately four hours of videos today depicting Horner talking to authorities, culminating in him showing them where he hid the body of Athena. Jurors will see it all, but the court has issued a notice alerting the pool cameraman not to show graphic images on the video feed the public will see — although it’s possible there will be disturbing audio of the attack played at some point in the case.

WFAA will provide live updates on the trial throughout the day here. You can watch anchored, gavel-to-gavel coverage and analysis of the proceedings live on WFAA+. Here’s how.

The judge ended the day of testimony with no explanation. It’s unclear why the trial ended early today.

After a lunch break, Patrick McGuire, a FBI special agent, took the witness stand. He testified he was tasked with tracking down who delivered the FedEx package to Athena’s house. They tracked it to the Alliance Airport location. From there, they identified the contractor whose truck made the delivery. A supervisor got Horner on speakerphone in front of the FBI, and he claimed to not remember making that delivery. McGuire testified he then caught up with Horner along his delivery route. 

McGuire said when they walked up to the delivery truck, they startled Horner, who dropped a package as he was getting out. Horner then claimed to remember the delivery. Horner told McGuire that he saw a suspicious green van in the area, and investigators began looking for it. During the interview, McGuire recalled that Horner got emotional and said he couldn’t believe something like this could happen to a child.

McGuire said he went back to the command post, but noted that he still had questions for Horner, even as the investigation turned to locating the green vehicle Horner had told them about. McGuire said they called Horner on the phone to ask him about a stretch of time where Horner was unaccounted for on his route. Horner told McGuire he had not been felling well and pulled over to throw up near a Love’s truck stop to explain the delay.

McGuire said Horner never admitted to him having any role in Athena’s disappearance or slaying. McGuire said they were able to get recordings from the camera showing the inside of the delivery van, and they could see Horner putting Athena in the van.

The next witness is former Wise County Sheriff Lake Akin. He led the investigation into Athena’s death in 2022. He served 16 years with the Texas Rangers. He was elected sheriff in 2016. 

He drove from Llano to Wise County to help supervise the search for Athena. He testified that the area around the Paradise community is rural, heavily wooded and not easy to search — but the community turned up in droves to help. 

“Citizens came from all parts of Wise County to help us find that child,” the former sheriff testified. “It was shoulder to shoulder,” he said, estimating 300 people showed up. “They brought their four-wheelers, some brought horses, some brought dogs. It was…” the sheriff began, and paused, his lip trembling with emotion. “I appreciate the fact that so many people came out to help us that day.”

He told jurors that as the hours passed, law enforcement began to focus on Horner. Investigators determined that the FedEx delivery van was in the area at the time Athena was last seen and they eventually identified Horner as the driver. Horner was taken into custody, and on Friday, they found her body in the Trinity River, about 400 yards off a county road next to a bridge, about 10 miles from her house. The sheriff recalled going to see the girl’s body so he could inform the family Athena had indeed been found. 

“It was heartbreaking. They were just devastated,” the sheriff recalled, growing emotional at the memory. “We were hoping she was alive and well. The information I brought back was not what they wanted to hear.”

Elizabeth Ashley Strand (who goes by Ashley), Athena’s stepmother, has taken the stand to testify. She told jurors that Athena’s mother, who was living in Oklahoma, had been sick and that Athena was living when them in Paradise in Wise County beginning in the summer of 2022. Athena extended her stay with them when school started in August 2022. She testified she’s known Athena since 2017. 

Ashley described the day Athena was abducted Nov. 30, 2022. It was a Wednesday. She told jurors that after school, Athena was supposed to be sorting her laundry while she cooked dinner, but Athena didn’t want to and played instead on the 10-acre property they shared with other family members. “Just being kids in the country,” Ashley testified. After Athena got home from school, Athena’s dad left for a hunting trip out of town. When dinner was ready about 6:30 p.m., Ashley noticed that Athena was missing. 

Relatives also hadn’t seen Athena, so Ashley called the police. “We were everywhere all over the property looking for her,” Ashley testified. “I thought maybe she was just hiding somewhere, playing hide and seek.” She said Athena loved living in the country and fondly described her “wild” and “feral” and happiest when she was playing outside.

Ashley testified that as many as 50 people, including law enforcement, eventually showed up to search for Athena that evening. At one point, Ashley told jurors she found a blue Walmart box that FedEx had delivered outside an abandoned dwelling on the property. It was just off the driveway from where several police SUVs were parked. Ashley said she had been expecting the box, which contained a collection of six Barbie dolls she had ordered for Athena for Christmas.

Athena wasn’t found until that Friday, two days later. Ashley testified that Athena had no bruises or injuries when she went missing. 

Jurors were shown what appeared to be a still image from the delivery van’s interior camera showing Horner driving and Athena standing behind him. She does not appear to be injured. Horner had told police when he was first questioned that he had accidentally backed into her.

10:07 a.m.

Athena’s first grade teacher Lindsey Thompson is the first witness to testify. She told jurors about how hard it was losing Athena, and how school counselors and volunteers came in to support her classmates as they dealt with the grief of the loss. 

The defense lawyer begins his opening statement by saying that, unlike sports injuries, some brain injuries aren’t obvious when looking at someone, suggesting that his client is in some way disabled. He also told jurors that Horner’s mother was a stripper who drank when he was in her womb, and that he was also exposed to lead poisoning in his youth. “Life without parole is a terrible punishment,” he told jurors.

“Don’t scream, or I’ll hurt you,” DA Stainton tells the jury that Horner told Athena when he kidnapped her in his delivery truck. He tells the jury that “she fought with the strength of 100 men” to stay alive when Horner abducted her. Stainton says they have video evidence of part of the crime, apparently from the delivery truck camera, but Horner covered up the camera pens during parts of the attack — however, there is audio of her struggle, he tells jurors.

Stainton says that investigators found DNA on Athena’s body, suggesting sexual assault occurred.

Jurors are being brought into the courtroom. The judge formally took Horner’s guilty plea, and instructed the jury that they now will have to hear evidence so that they can decide punishment. Wise County District Attorney James Stainton is now delivering his opening statement to the jury.

The judge called for a break while the jurors are brought in. It’s unclear at this point how much evidence both sides will put forth, or how long that will take, but the question at this point is whether Horner deserved life in prison or the death penalty.

As soon as the court feed went live, the judge was heard talking to the defense team, and Horner, about his apparent decision to plead guilty. That would mean that the guilt-innocence phase of the trial would be skipped over, and the question about whether he received the death penalty or life in prison would begin.

All this is happening before the jurors are brought into the courtroom.