Daily Mail78%
Shockingly self-pitying outburst of FedEx driver Tanner Horner as he was busted for abducting and killing Athena Strand, 7 58%
By Natasha Anderson0%
4/9/2026, 12:58:40 PM
Topics: Texas
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Negativity Bias, and Self-Serving Bias, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 28.9% saturation with 301 hits. Analysis detected 1,580 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,042 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 54.9% and a BS Rank of 58% (7,097 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 57.80% of the article peer group.
A FedEx driver who snatched a seven-year-old girl from her North Texas home and strangled her to death whined to police about not being able to watch his son grow up after he was busted for murder.
Detectives urged Tanner Horner, 34, to help them find Athena Strand's body after he admitted 'I killed her' and 'kind of tossed her' remains in the bushes, his punishment trial heard Wednesday.
Horner begged police to 'shoot him' after he confessed to murdering the little girl before complaining about how his going to prison would ruin his own child's life.
'This is something that can be overcome,' a detective told Horner, police surveillance video shown to the jury revealed.
'I'm going to miss out on this part of my child's f*****g life, OK?
I can't,' Horner said.
'Well, I don't know [that] I would say that, I mean,' the officer replied.
But Horner cut him off: 'This isn't one of those probation things.
This is one of those I'm going away for a long time things, and I'm going to miss out on all of my f*****g son's life.
I would rather die.'
'No.
I'm not,' Horner said.
'I'm going to miss out on all my son's Christmases, his birthdays, and growing up.
I'm going to miss out on everything.
All because I listened to some stupid voice that isn't probably even there.'
Horner abducted Strand from her family's home in Paradise on November 30, 2022, as he delivered a box of Barbies to the residence.
The delivery was meant to be her Christmas present.
Strand was strangled to death by Horner in his truck, with her tortured last minutes captured by a microphone in his vehicle after he covered a camera inside.
Horner confessed to the brutal killing while in police custody, footage shown at his trial on Wednesday revealed.
He told police he 'backed up' his delivery truck and accidentally struck Strand with the vehicle, the video showed.
'She was on the ground crying,' he said, alleging he 'felt bad' and 'tried calming her down.'
Horner went on to claim that a 'voice in my head told me we're going to get in trouble' so he decided to take her.
'I had to do something with her, so I told her to get in the truck, and for a long time, I was trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.
I didn't know what my next step was, I'm just going to drop off somewhere, I don't know,' Horner told police.
He then admitted that he killed the little girl while parked on a private road.
'I don't like saying it,' he said.
But a detective pressed further: 'One thing, you don't have to say it very descriptively, but say what you did to her.'
'I killed her,' Horner said, before letting out a groan.
He paused, then added: 'So I was trying to figure out what to do with the body.
So we left here.'
Bodycam shown in court then revealed how Horner took the officers to search for Strand in a wooded area.
After they failed to locate her, Horner told officers he was unsure of her exact location because of the callous way he dumped her remains.
'I just kind of tossed her in,' he said, adding: 'I don't know why y'all haven't found her yet.'
Horner, whose lawyers cited mental illnesses during their opening statements, only told officers the exact location of her body after they spoke directly to his 'alter ego' called 'Zero,' the court heard.
The killer presented as Zero multiple times throughout his two-hour-long interrogation at the jail.
'His demeanor, physical demeanor changes,' Texas Ranger Joshua Espinoza said on the stand.
'His head goes into a sideways motion.
His eyes roll into the back of the head, and he pretends to turn it to Zero.'
Espinoza said that he knew to find Strand's body, he would have to 'play his game' and 'address him as Zero.'
Once the ranger spoke to 'Zero,' Horner directed them to a cliff near a guardrail and showed them where he placed Strand's body.
Espinoza testified that he saw her naked body lying beneath the water.
The ranger then addressed Zero directly: 'I know Tanner didn't sexually assault this girl.
I know Tanner didn't hurt this girl, but I know you did.
Did you sexually assault this girl?'
'No,' Horner replied.
'Did you kill this little girl, Zero?'
the detective asked.
'Tanner wouldn't do it,' Horner replied.
'Thank you for bringing me to her.
Thank you for letting me get her home,' the detective said.
Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder of a child under ten and aggravated kidnapping on Tuesday, just before his trial was due to begin.
He now faces a punishment trial in which a jury will determine if he should be sentenced to death.
Strand's mother, Maitlyn Gandy, has vehemently supported the death penalty for her daughter's killer.
Jurors were cautioned by Wise County prosecutors that they will still be presented with all the gruesome evidence in the case, including horrific audio of Strand's killing.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said: 'You are going to hear what a 250lb man can do to a 67lb child.
And when I say it's horrible, I mean it.'
But Horner's attorney Steven Goble, in his opening statements Tuesday, pointed to Horner's physical ailments and mental illnesses.
While acknowledging that the evidence against Horner was 'overwhelming' and 'terrible,' he told jurors that Horner's mother drank while she was pregnant, that he has autism and suffered from 'various mental illnesses throughout his life.'
'When someone's brain is what's injured, you don't see it,' Goble said.
Horner was also exposed to a 'massive amount of lead' during his developmental years, he said, citing how the killer had 24 times the normal amount of lead in his bones.
'You don't have to be a scientist or doctor to know that lead has terrible effects on the brain,' Goble added.
The defense has asked jurors to sentence him to life in prison.
Horner's trial resumes today at 9am local time (10am EST).
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