Bone-Chilling Audio of Athena Strand, 7, Being Strangled to Death by FedEx Driver Tanner Horner, 34, Will Be Played in Court — After Killer Pleaded Guilty
Tanner Horner confessed to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand.
April 8 2026, Published 1:27 p.m. ET
Jurors deciding the fate of a Texas man who gruesomely strangled and killed a seven-year-old girl, then dumped her naked body in a river, are set to hear the child's bone-chilling final screams and struggles, as her life was taken from her, RadarOnline.com can report.
Tanner Horner shocked the court when he pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder of Athena Strand, just hours before his trial was set to begin, but the recordings are still set to be played.
Audio Will Tell All
The former FedEx driver snatched her in his truck and strangled her.
Horner's guilty plea will spare a formal trial and allow the court to move right into the sentencing phase. However, Texas prosecutors still plan to present their evidence against the former FedEx driver, including an hour-long audio recording from inside the truck where he killed the girl.
The 34-year-old covered an in-truck camera before his crime, but the sounds of her screams were still recorded.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton argued the audio is necessary to hear during the "punishment phase," when jurors will decide if Horner will spend the rest of his life in prison or be sentenced to death.
"You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child," Stainton warned. "And when I say it's horrible, I mean it. I’ve been doing this 25 years, and I promise you, buckle up."
Horner's Flimsy Excuse
Horner claimed he killed the girl after hitting her with his truck.
Horner was working as a contract driver for FedEx when he delivered a Christmas gift of Barbies to her father’s home on Nov. 30, 2022.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Horner confessed to the crime but tried to convince authorities that he accidentally backed into the 7-year-old with his FedEx truck.
He further told investigators that the child wasn’t seriously hurt, but he kidnapped her and strangled her inside the truck so she couldn’t tell her father about the accident.
However, the camera inside his truck told a different story, and a frame from the video shared with jurors showed the girl very much alive, quivering in fear behind the driver.
The Child Fought Back
Jurors listened to audio of the struggle in court.
Her captor warned her, "Don't scream or I'll hurt you," as he picked her up and put her in his truck.
Stainton warned the jury, "I'm going to put you as close as you can be without actually being there that day. We have video of it and we're going to show it."
The prosecutor said jurors will hear that Strand "fought with the strength of 100 men."
"One thing that you can't unhear is the level of fight in a 7-year-old girl when she’s facing certain death," he said, adding that Horner tried to kill the child "over and over again."
Excuses to Avoid Death
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Horner has tried to argue against the death penalty.
Horner's attorney, Steven Gobles, argued his client shouldn’t face the death penalty because he has autism spectrum disorder, saying the condition reduces his moral culpability.
Gobles also said Horner's mother drank while she was pregnant and was exposed to a "massive amount of lead" during his developmental years.
"When someone's brain is what's injured, you don't see it," Gobles argued.
The judge in the case previously denied the defense’s motion to remove the death penalty as a sentencing option.
