“If you give me a month with my family so I can have Christmas with my son, I’ll give you everything,” Tanner Horner said in a recorded interview played for jurors
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Tanner Horner during the first day of his capital murder trial on April 7, 2026 in Fort Worth, TX; Athena Strand. Credit :
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via Getty; Wise County Sheriff’s Department
Tanner Horner told investigators he would “give [them] everything” regarding the killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand — if they would let him spend one last Christmas at home with his young son.
“There’s only one thing in this world that I want … I want a month,” Horner told the case’s lead investigator Job Espinoza in a Dec. 7, 2022 interview he requested while behind bars at the Wise County Jail, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“If you give me a month with my family so I can have Christmas with my son, I’ll give you everything,” Horner said in the interview, which was recorded and shown to jurors at his trial for Strand’s aggravated kidnapping and murder, per NBC DFW and the Star-Telegram.
“I would give up everything,” Horner told investigators. “I would say throw me in a jail cell forever. I don’t care. I would give up all my defenses, plead no contest, tell you everything.”
PEOPLE previously reported that Athena Strand was kidnapped outside her family home on Nov. 30, 2022 while Horner — a FedEx driver — was delivering a set of Barbie dolls to the residence.
Her body was recovered two days later, just before Christmas.
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Former FedEx driver Tanner Horner pleads guilty to killing 7-year-old girl.
WFAA/YouTbe
As Horner beat and strangled the screaming girl to death in the back of his van, he could be heard singing along to “Jingle Bell Rock” as it was played on the radio, according to previous PEOPLE reporting.
Horner also claimed that an alternate persona he called “Zero” was responsible for the killing.
“I was in the back seat watching everything happen, and I’m kind of freaking out,” he said, per NBC DFW. “I wouldn’t have the heart to do that.”
Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping on April 7, and jurors are now weighing whether to sentence him to life in prison without parole or death.
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Wise County Sheriff’s Department
Athena Strand Was Kidnapped and Killed After a FedEx Driver Made a Delivery at Her Home. Inside the Case and Her Killer’s Plea
What to Know About Tanner Horner’s Family Amid His Trial for the Murder of Athena Strand
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NBC DFW/YouTube
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This comes after the first part of his sentencing phase, where prosecutors showed jurors chilling surveillance footage taken from inside the truck that day, NBC DFW and the Star-Telegram reported.
In the footage, Strand could be seen on camera and heard asking Horner, “Are you a kidnapper?”
Horner then covered the camera inside the truck, but audio of what went on inside was still being recorded. He asked the young girl how old she was and about her school, before he said, “You’re really pretty, you know that?”
After the truck stopped, Horner ordered her to take off her shirt. The 7-year-old could be heard saying “no,” and telling him she wanted her mother, NBC DFW reported.
Jurors then heard sounds of banging and choking and Athena screaming and crying, per the Star-Telegram. Some jurors began to cry when the audio was played in court.
Strand’s parents had left the room before the video began.
The medical examiner determined she died from blunt force trauma, smothering and strangulation.
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