Re-watch the livestream coverage for Day 8 of the trial here.

2:10 p.m.

The prosecution rested its case at the conclusion of the video. The court stream will resume on Wednesday morning, which is when jurors will return to the courthouse to resume the trial. On Friday, Monday and Tuesday, the lawyers will argue over which of the defense witnesses will testify next week.

1:30 p.m.

Jurors watched the last 30 minutes of the video depicting the violent murder of Athena. We’ll have a report soon from Rebecca Lopez and legal expert Terry Bentley Hill, who are inside the courtroom.

The courtroom feed is back on, apparently documenting the aftermath of the attack. The video playing for jurors right now is Just after 1 a.m. on Dec. 1, 2022, the day after the attack. This may be when Horner is taking the truck back to the warehouse.

Credit: Courtesy
Jurors watched video of Tanner Horner inside his FedEx van after he killed Athena Strand.

The video shows Horner, still in his FedEx shirt, stopping at a gas station, getting out, and returning to the truck with a spray bottle and roll of paper towels. He then goes into the rear of the van and begins scrubbing the floor. Testimony earlier in the trial revealed that Horner later told police Athena threw up in the van during the attack and soiled herself.

He talks on the phone with someone as he leaves the gas station. He appears to make another phone call, asking to have the same van tomorrow for work.

“It kind of smells like barf in here,” Horner says to the person on the phone. He lies and says he threw up in the truck after eating something that didn’t agree with him. “It smells bad,” Horner says.

His boss tells him he hopes Horner is feeling better. Horner assures them he will be at work tomorrow.

“Take care,” he tells Horner.

He then makes another call and again lies about throwing up in the van. He claims he had a truck stop hamburger that was “pink in the middle.”

“I actually feel a lot better,” he says.

He hangs up and smokes a cigarette as he drives. He parks the van at FedEx.

He puts what appears to be Athena’s clothes, which had been laying on top of his lunch box on the passenger seat of his van, into his backpack.

He then gets out of the van, and the video goes dark.

12 p.m.

Court has recessed for lunch. We’re about to get a report on what the video showed from our Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Rebecca Lopez, who was inside the courtroom this morning. Terry Bentley Hill, one of our legal experts, is with her.

Here are some notes from Rebecca Lopez:

Before prosecutors played the video from the FedEx van, Athena Strand’s mom and dad left the courtroom.

In the video, from Nov. 30, 2022, Horner is seen at Athena’s house, getting the package containing her Barbie dolls out of his truck. Several minutes later, you see Horner walking towards the truck — with Athena following him. She had been playing outside after school.

They are standing at the back of the van, and he lifts her inside, and shuts the door and gets in the truck with her.

“Don’t scream or I will hurt you,” he tells her.

“Where are you taking me?” Athena asks.

She stands up and he makes her sit back down.

She look scared. She asks again: “Where are you taking me?”

Horner then covers the camera lens. The audio is still recording.

Horner mumbles something and calls Athena “sweetie.”

“I have school tomorrow,” Athena tells him.

How old are you, he asks her.

She tells him that she is 7.

“Why do you have a lunch box?” she asks.

For my lunch, he tells her. Where do you go to school?

Athena says she is in elementary school. Horner asks her if her teacher is nice, and she says yes. Horner asks her if she has a horse, and Athena again says yes.

Horner starts slowing down the van. Athena asks, is this your house? Horner says no. Athena asks where he lives. Far away, he answers.

Where are we going? What are you doing?

We are going to hang out for awhile, Horner tells her.

Take off your shirt, he orders her.

Athena:  Why? What are you doing?

Horner: ssshhhhhh

Athena starts crying. She asks what he is doing, and if he is a kidnapper.

My mom said you can’t do that, Athena tells him. And she continues crying.

I’m not going to hurt you, Horner tells her.

The radio comes on.

Athena cries no, no no, and asks for her mother. She asks to go home and asks, again, if he is a kidnapper.

Then: “Why are you doing this?” she asks.

“Because you are pretty. You know that?” is Horner’s reply.

“My mom says I can’t do that to somebody. And you can’t do that to me either.”

She asks, again, to go home.

Then you can hear her choking, and a slamming noise.

At this point, some jurors are crying. They hear Athena gasp for air, whimpering and moaning in pain. Horner is breathing hard.

He apparently stops the van, and Athena is screaming. Then you hear what sounds like stomping or slamming her against the floor. She continues to scream in pain.

By now, 30 minutes have elapsed in the recording.

Then, you hear Jingle Bell Rock come on the radio. As Athena continues screaming and moaning in pain, Horner begins to sing along to the song.

“Shut up,” he tells her. “If you don’t shut up, I will hurt you worse.”

11:30 a.m.

Jurors are still watching video, and listening to audio, depicting the killing of Athena. The courtroom feed is still disabled, per the judge.

10:30 a.m.

We’re told that jurors are now watching about 2.5 hours of video that includes the abduction and killing of Athena. The judge has ordered the video feed cut. We will have a live report from our reporter and legal expert, both of whom are in the courtroom viewing what the jurors are seeing, later this morning.

10 a.m.

After a break, prosecutors and Espinoza continue walking jurors through videos from inside Horner’s FedEx delivery van, including for Dec. 1, 2022, the day after he abducted and killed her.

As he approaches a roadblock related to the search for Athena, he asks out an open window what’s going on. He then drives along a roadway lined with police and searchers.

Credit: Courtesy
Jurors see Tanner Horner driving his FedEx van through the search party the day after he killed Athena.

At one point, he honks at the search party, which is blocking the road and yells at them to move out of the way because he needs to make his deliveries

There’s been a kidnapping, a woman tells him through his open driver side window.

“Are you serious?”

Then he drives away and smokes a cigarette.

9:30 a.m.

Ranger Job Espinoza is called back to the witness stand to walk jurors through videos from Horner’s FedEx delivery van, both before and after Athena’s disappearance and murder.

He said that at times, while making deliveries, Horner periodically covered up the camera recording the inside of his van with a sticky note.

9 a.m.

Athena’s father Jacob Strand has taken the witness stand. He describes how devastated was by his daughter’s death.

He begins by describing how on the evening of Nov. 30, 2022, he was leaving for a hunting trip when Athena came up to give him a hug.

“I gave her a hug and told her I love her.” That was the last time he saw his daughter alive.

When he was told she was missing, initially he thought she was playing hide and seek. He returned and helped search for her. He had lived on the 10-acre property since he was 8 years old.

“It made me feel horrible,” he testified. “I wasn’t there to protect them.”

He said he held his emotions in and drank to deal with the loss. He lost his marriage. He said he couldn’t sleep, and only ate once a week, losing 50 pounds.

He said he will most miss “her laugh and her spirit,” he said. “She loved everybody.”

“I just hope that the jury and the justice system make the right decision.”

As they did with Athena’s mother, defense attorneys did not cross examine him and expressed condolences.

Updates for Wednesday, April 15

Re-watch the livestream coverage for Day 7 of the trial here.

2:45 p.m.

Athena’s mother Maitlyn Gandy is now on the witness stand.

Credit: Courtesy
Maitlyn Gandy, Athena’s mother, takes the witness stand.

She describes the evening she was told Athena was missing on Nov. 30, 2022.

She drove from her home in Oklahoma to Wise County. The drive normally takes two hours. She made it in 45 minutes, she testified.

“It felt like I was dying” during the drive, she told jurors. “I couldn’t breathe. But I knew i had to keep going. I almost tapped the brakes because I thought I was having a heart attack. But I just told myself that if I kept going, it would be OK and I would find her.”

She described going to identify her daughter’s body. Her dad accompanied her. She wept at the recollection of seeing her daughter nude and cold. She put a hospital gown on her, but later that night, she couldn’t sleep, so she went to Walmart to get her new clothes.

“I got her some bows,” her mom told jurors.

Athena would be 10 years old today, her mother testified.

The prosecutor asked why she makes it a point to attend every hearing that’s occurred in the case.

“Because I had to cover up handprint bruises around my daughter’s neck. And because she no longer has a voice. I want people to know that she’s not just some story. She’s not just some number. She’s not just some picture you see in a headline. She was loved, she is loved. She is missed and she was real. And she had a life. And she wanted to live,” and at this point, she turns to Horner and stares at him. “And no one can take that from her.”

Credit: Courtesy
Maitlyn Gandy addresses Tanner Horner directly. “She wanted to live,” she says, looking at him.

She said she still talks to Athena, reassuring her that she will get justice.

Crying, she says she’s sorry she couldn’t protect Athena.

Horner is staring at the witness box wide-eyed, blinking slowly.

Credit: Courtesy
Tanner Horner listening to Athena’s mother testify.

On cross examination, a defense lawyer simply says: “We’re very sorry for your loss.” No questions.

The judge recessed court for the day.

1 p.m.

Kristen Cossota, a Texas DPS crime lab forensic scientist, is now on the witness stand. She is testifying about the DNA evidence. This should be the last witness in the chain of custody.

Cossota said that Horner’s DNA could not be excluded as a contributor to the profiles found on swabs taken from Athena’s vaginal and anal regions and mouth.

11:40 a.m.

The court has recessed for lunch. Testimony will resume at 1 p.m.

11 a.m.

James Becker, a vice president at Velocitor Solutions, is testifying about the camera systems that they provide to FedEx.

He told jurors about how he helped Texas Ranger Job Espinoza get his company’s video from the FedEx van camera from Nov. 30, 2022, the day Athena was abducted.

This is the type of witness we’d expect to see before the jury is shown the video of Horner abducting and killing Athena. As a reminder, the judge has said that video won’t be shown over the live stream.

Becker said that the camera is programmed to stay on for 15 minutes after the delivery van is powered off.

Credit: Courtesy
Prosecutor Patrick Berry shows a witness video cards containing dash cam footage from Tanner Horner’s FedEx van.

10:30 a.m.

Ruby Kelly, a Texas DPS forensic scientist, is now on the witness stand. More chain of custody-building.

Prosecutors are building toward revealing whether Horner’s DNA was found on Athena’s body.

Credit: Courtesy
Tanner Horner listens to testimony about DNA evidence at his trial

9:30 a.m.

Amber Moss is now on the witness stand. She’s also a forensic scientist for the Texas DPS lab in Garland.

Elizabeth Seastrunk, another DPS analyst, also testified.

All three witnesses this morning appear to be building a chain of custody for how the DNA was analyzed in this case.

9 a.m.

Erica Reynaga, a forensic scientist with the Texas Department of Public safety crime lab in Garland, is now on the witness stand.

It appears that some of her results were inconclusive.

Updates for Tuesday, April 14

Re-watch the livestream coverage for Day 6 of the trial here.

3 p.m.

Testimony is done for the day. Tomorrow, jurors are expected to hear more DNA evidence.

2 p.m.

The next witness is testifying remotely. Her name is Jacqueline Ferrara, a DNA analyst.

She told jurors that the lab detected male DNA in Athena’s vaginal and anal regions. A test was inconclusive for male DNA in her mouth, she testified.

Athena’s sweatshirt found on Horner’s property tested positive for semen, she testified.

Ferrara testified that Horner’s jeans tested positive for blood and semen. They also found semen in his underwear.

Tests revealed male DNA on Athena’s fingernail clippings.

1:30 p.m.

The second sexual assault victim resumed her testimony after lunch. She said that when she went public in 2018 and told people Horner had raped her, he accused her of slander.

She also testified that Horner told her he had rape fantasies, specifically about tying people up during sex.

“I lost my sense of self for years,” she told jurors when asked about how the attack impacted her life. “I felt guilt for not coming forward. I felt shame for not speaking up sooner, legally speaking. I felt a lot of pain reliving those memories over and over again.”

11:30 a.m.

A defense lawyer questioned the sexual assault survivor about drug use, and consent. Specifically, the lawyer asked her about statements she made to police that at least one of her encounters with Horner was consensual — even though she was underage and not legally able to consent.

She also testified that, at one point, Horner tried to hang himself on Facebook Live.

Prosecutors called the next witness, another woman who said she was raped by Horner in 2014. She was 14 when she met him and she was 16 when the assault occurred. At the time, Horner was in a band.

Like the previous witness, she testified Horner told her to tell his mother she was 18, as well as his bandmates. She said they had been drinking at a house, and eventually they went to bed together. She said she told him not to touch her. She woke up to him raping her, she testified.

10:30 a.m.

After a mid-morning break, the trial resumes.

Prosecutors call a woman to the stand, and the judge orders the courtroom feed blurred to protect her identity because she is a sexual assault survivor.

She is testifying about Facebook messages she traded with Horner. Horner messaged her about images of her cosplaying as an anime character from Death Note. “I just creamed in my panties,” Horner wrote to her. They continued to chat online, and eventually they began dating for about a week. She was 16 and he was 22. Horner told her that if his grandmother asked about her age, to say she was 18.

She said Horner sexually assaulted her twice in 2013.

She said she reported the incident after Horner was arrested for killing Athena. “I’ve been struggling mentally since the news was announced,” she testified, her voice wavering. “I have felt guilt due to the fact that if I had reported, things may not have happened to other people.”

10 a.m.

The next witness for the state is Kevin Huffman. He’s the Wise County Precinct 4 constable. He lives on County Road 3573 in Wise County. On Nov. 29, about 5:45 p.m., Horner delivered a package to his home, which is about 10 miles south of where Athena was abducted.

Huffman’s two daughters, 7 and 10, were home at the time of the delivery and both were playing outside. Prosecutors show Huffman pictures apparently from that day, but it’s unclear their source. And the pictures were not shown on the live stream.

The jury is now watching video from inside Horner’s FedEx van making a delivery to Huffman’s house. He parks, and Horner leans out the window and he asks to speak to an adult. He gets out of the van, and through the open door, and we can see a child walking in the yard. As Horner gets into the back of his van to get the package, Huffman comes out of the house and watches as Horner get the large box off the back of the van and sets it down next to the front door of their home.

As Horner’s about to drive away, Huffman appears at the rear of the van and reminds Horner to close the back of his van. Horner gets out, secures the door, and gets back in the truck.

Huffman testifies that Horner was cordial and did nothing out of the ordinary.

A day later, Horner abducted and killed Athena.

9 a.m.

Scott Morris, digital forensic examiner for the FBI, is now testifying. He goes over Horner’s internet search history.

Horner abducted Athena on Nov. 30, 2022. At 1:30 a.m., on Dec. 2, he apparently searched “my fiance’s family makes me out to be a demon.”

At 1 p.m. on Dec. 1, he looked up several pictures of Athena on Facebook. About an hour later, he searched “do fedex cameras constantly record.”

He also looked up Facebook photos of the search for Athena before she was found, including media coverage, missing photos and alerts.

8:40 a.m.

The court feed kicked on and a witness was on the stand. We didn’t catch his name and now and the lawyers are debating — presumably outside the presence of the jury — whether to call him as a witness.

It appears he is a relative of another young girl who lived on the same road as Athena and who Horner allegedly targeted in some way a day before Athena’s abduction. The court feed is not working well so we’re having trouble hearing what’s being said.

The lawyers are now in a sidebar conference with the judge.