Moments after Tanner Horner picked up Athena Strand and placed the 7-year-old in his FedEx truck, the confused little girl wanted to know what was going on.
“Are you a kidnapper?” she could be heard asking him in video footage from inside the truck that was shown to jurors in Horner’s sentencing trial.
As PEOPLE previously reported, on Tuesday, April 7, Tanner Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in the Nov. 30, 2022 death of the first-grader.
Now jurors are weighing whether to sentence him to life in prison without parole or to death.
Jurors learned from prosecutors and the video that after luring Athena to his truck and kidnapping her from the driveway of her Paradise, Texas, home, he set her down in the cargo area of the truck behind the passenger seat and told her to stay there.
The video, however, shows Athena standing up and holding onto the door frame between the driver’s seat and the cargo area while she continues to ask him questions.
When she asked him where they were going, he replied, “It doesn’t matter,” NBC DFW and the Star-Telegram report.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/athena-strand-1-041726-432dae0770574b6eb7f77a6581205f82.jpg)
Athena Strand inside Tanner Horner’s FedEx truck on Nov. 30, 2022.
News
They murdered her pregnant mother. They murdered her grandmother. They murdered her 12-year-old uncle.
An Alabama woman, her pregnant teenage daughter and her 12-year-old son were found brutally murdered in their home, authorities said. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said deputies responded to a home in Wilmer just after 2:30 a.m., where they discovered the three bodies in separate rooms with their hands tied behind their backs. The victims were identified as […]
They murdered her pregnant mother. They murdered her grandmother. They murdered her 12-year-old uncle. But when they reached the 18-month-old baby… they walked away. Hours later, the toddler was still inside the house, possibly calling out: “Mommy… why won’t you wake up and play with me?” Why was this innocent child the only one spared? Some are calling her the Miracle Baby of Wilmer. Others say this is the most haunting detail of the entire case. What do you think happened that night? Comment gently below 👇
An Alabama woman, her pregnant teenage daughter and her 12-year-old son were found brutally murdered in their home, authorities said. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said deputies responded to a home in Wilmer just after 2:30 a.m., where they discovered the three bodies in separate rooms with their hands tied behind their backs. The victims were identified as […]
Imagine an 18-month-old toddler walking through a silent, blood-stained house at night…
An Alabama woman, her pregnant teenage daughter and her 12-year-old son were found brutally murdered in their home, authorities said. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said deputies responded to a home in Wilmer just after 2:30 a.m., where they discovered the three bodies in separate rooms with their hands tied behind their backs. The victims were identified as […]
“Mommy… why won’t you wake up and play with me?” That may have been the last thing the 18-month-old baby girl said inside the Alabama house of death.
An Alabama woman, her pregnant teenage daughter and her 12-year-old son were found brutally murdered in their home, authorities said. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said deputies responded to a home in Wilmer just after 2:30 a.m., where they discovered the three bodies in separate rooms with their hands tied behind their backs. The victims were identified as […]
Why wait until 3:14 AM to destroy everything you once claimed to love?
The maniac who slaughtered seven of his children and one of their cousins in Louisiana on Sunday was set to do battle with his estranged wife in divorce court Monday. Stress-riddled Army vet Shamar Elkins, 31, called his mom, Mahelia Elkins, and stepdad, Marcus Jackson, on Easter Sunday to tell them that his wife of two years, Shaneiqua Pugh, […]
3:14 AM: WHEN THE DEVIL CALLS
The maniac who slaughtered seven of his children and one of their cousins in Louisiana on Sunday was set to do battle with his estranged wife in divorce court Monday. Stress-riddled Army vet Shamar Elkins, 31, called his mom, Mahelia Elkins, and stepdad, Marcus Jackson, on Easter Sunday to tell them that his wife of two years, Shaneiqua Pugh, […]
End of content
No more pages to load
