U.S. News
FedEx Driver Tanner Horner Sentenced to Death for Killing 7-Year-Old Athena Strand
By Erica Coleman · May 8, 2026
On November 30, 2022, FedEx driver Tanner Horner delivered a package to a home in Paradise, Texas. The package was a Christmas gift for 7-year-old Athena Strand — a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies. He then kidnapped her, drove her away in his van, and killed her.
On Tuesday, a Tarrant County jury sentenced him to death. They deliberated for two and a half hours.
Horner, 34, had pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping at the start of his trial on April 7 — shocking a courtroom that had assembled for what was expected to be an emotional weeks-long fight over guilt or innocence. The plea shifted the trial immediately to punishment, which meant a month of testimony about what happened inside that van, what Horner’s childhood looked like, and whether any of it was enough reason to spare his life.
The jury decided it wasn’t.
Before Horner pleaded guilty, investigators had already shown jurors what the van’s dashboard camera captured before Horner covered the lens. In the footage, Athena can be seen kneeling next to Horner as he drives. The first thing he said to her when he put her in the truck: “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.” He said it twice. After he covered the camera, the audio kept recording.
Athena asked him if he was a kidnapper. She told him she wanted her mom. She told him: “My mom says I can’t do that to somebody. And you can’t do that to me either.”
The prosecution’s case was built on those recordings and on a medical examiner’s finding that Athena died of blunt force injuries with smothering and strangulation. A shoe print matching Horner’s shoe was found on her face. DNA evidence indicated she was sexually assaulted before her death. Her body was found in a creek nine miles from her home, two days after she was reported missing.
Horner’s defense spent weeks trying to convince the jury to choose life in prison rather than death. His attorneys described a childhood marked by a mother who drank and used drugs while pregnant, an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, bullying in school, and lifelong social isolation. Defense expert Dr. Jolie Brams testified about the neurological impact of an unstable early life on moral development. Horner’s mother — referred to only as Mrs. Horner in court — broke down on the stand describing her son’s childhood: “He wanted to get along with people, but they just weren’t interested in having conversations with him.” Then she was asked about Athena. “I am so mad at him,” she said through tears. “She was just a baby.”
The jury found two things: that there was a probability Horner would commit criminal violence in the future, and that there was nothing in the crime or his background sufficient to warrant life without parole instead of death.
After the sentence was read, a victim impact statement from Athena’s uncle was delivered directly to Horner.
Athena Strand was born May 23, 2015. She was seven years old. The sentence is automatically referred to the Texas Criminal Appeals Court.