Chilling audio of Athena Strand’s final moments moves jurors to tears

Disturbing recordings of a 7-year-old child’s final moments left jurors visibly distraught on Thursday, April 16, during the sentencing trial of an ex-FedEx driver accused of kidnapping and strangling the young girl.

Tanner Lynn Horner, 34, pleaded guilty on April 7 to capital murder in the case of Athena Strand, the little girl taken from her Wise County, Texas, home in November 2022. The ongoing sentencing trial, which also began on April 7, will determine if Horner is subject to the death penalty.

Sobbing jurors heard excerpts from more than an hour of video and audio that captured Athena’s final moments, starting from the time she was lured into Horner’s vehicle and continuing through the attack, reported local news outlet NBC DFW.

Judge George Gallagher warned observers in the courtroom of the recording’s graphic nature on Thursday, April 16, saying, “If you think you cannot watch it or listen to it, leave now. Now’s your time to get out.”

Athena’s parents left the room before the audio, which reportedly left jurors shaking and weeping, was played. In earlier testimony, Athena’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, apologized to “innocent people” who had to listen to the recording in full, reported Fox4.

“Not anyone in this room besides Tanner Horner asked for what’s on that video, and Athena definitely did not,” she said.

Defendant Tanner Horner reacts during testimony on April 7, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Horner pleaded guilty to …Show more
AMANDA MCCOY, FORTH WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM VIA REUTERS CONNECT

Chilling audio, video captured 7-year-old girl’s final moments

Horner was caught on the camera installed in his FedEx delivery vehicle approaching Athena’s house to deliver a package on Nov. 30, 2022. He returned minutes later with the 7-year-old in tow, whom he picked up and placed in his truck. Horner covered the lens of the truck’s internal camera after the initial kidnapping, which only captured audio from that point forward.

Amid a deluge of details, certain moments drew reactions from jurors and observers, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, NBC DFW and Fox 4,including Athena’s first questions to Horner, “What are you doing?” and “Are you a kidnapper?”

Horner brushed off questions from the child seemingly confused as to where they were going, said the news outlets. At one point, he told the girl, “You’re really pretty. You know that?”

He could be heard on the recording telling the girl, who had begun to cry, to remove her shirt and threatening to hurt her if she screamed. Athena repeatedly told Horner no and asked to go home to her mother. Later, “Jingle Bell Rock” played from the radio as Horner told the screaming Athena to “shut up” or he would hurt her more, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Tanner Horner, a former FedEx driver charged with kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Athena Strand in 2022, walks into the courtroom during the first day of …Show more
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The audio recording captured the sounds of the ensuing attack, including banging, screaming, crying and choking. Jurors reached for piles of tissues and audibly sniffled in the silence that fell between the audio playback, local outlets reported.

The jury also saw video from the day after the kidnapping, when Horner returned to the area from which he took Athena, again in his FedEx truck. He acted surprised when a woman told him that the area was blocked off due to a kidnapping investigation, telling her he had to get through to deliver more packages, according to Fox 4.

“You’ll have to pull up and ask them if they’ll let you through. There’s been a seven-year-old taken,” said the woman, to which Horner responded, “You serious? That’s what all this is for? Are you serious?”

Athena’s father, Jacob Strand, also took the stand on Thursday, describing how his daughter’s death has impacted his life.

“It just broke me,” he said, according to CBS. He explained that in the aftermath, he turned to alcohol, lost 50 pounds, ruined his marriage and rarely sleeps or eats.

Jury weighs death penalty for former FedEx driver

Tanner Lynn Horner pleaded guilty on April 7 to kidnapping and killing Athena, USA TODAY previously reported.

Horner previously told investigators that he took Athena on Nov. 30, 2022 after he accidentally hit her with his vehicle so that she wouldn’t report him, though she wasn’t seriously injured initially. He said he panicked and strangled her after she said she would tell her father he hit her.

Prosecuting attorney James Stainton declared this a “lie” in his opening testimony, saying Horner gave multiple differing stories about what happened to Athena and where her body was during the course of a police investigation.

Athena was found naked in the Trinity River on Dec. 2, two days after she was reported missing by her stepmother. The medical examiner determined that she died of blunt force trauma and strangulation.

Stainton said that the hour-long recording and physical evidence show that Athena fought back. She had Horner’s DNA under her fingernails, he said, and DNA was found in “places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.”

While Horner has already pleaded guilty to capital murder, jurors are now tasked with deciding if the death penalty is on the table. Prosecutors rested their case on Thursday, April 16, and the defense began its arguments on Friday, April 17.

Defense attorney Steven Goble said Horner suffered from mental illnesses throughout his life and is autistic. Goble asked jurors to consider mitigating factors and sentence Horner to life in prison rather than the death penalty, USA TODAY reported.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Christine Fernando, USA TODAY