- Seven-year-old Athena Strand should have been opening her new Barbies last Christmas. Instead she was abducted by the driver who delivered them.
- Heartrending footage and audio from inside FedEx driver Tanner Horner played in court revealed what happened to little girl.
- Her family have set up the Athena Strand’s Army community in her memory and are determined that her name won’t be forgotten.
Athena Strand, seven, got out of her mum Maitlyn Gandy’s car and waved goodbye.
‘I love you,’ she smiled.
‘Love you,’ Maitlyn replied, telling her girl she’d see her in a few days as she dropped Athena with her dad, Jacob Strand.
It was November 2022 and Athena loved the colour pink, dolls, princess dresses, and riding horses.
She also adored her little sister, Ryland, three.
Staying with her dad, Jacob, and stepmum Elizabeth ‘Ashley’ Strand for a few months, Athena was sleeping with her stepsister in a converted shed while the house was being renovated.
After she got off the school bus three days later, on November 30 about 4.15pm, she went to play in the driveway of the house as the sun was going down.
Inside, Ashley was sorting laundry and preparing dinner. She’d last spotted Athena at 5.45pm. But when she called for her around 30 minutes later, there was no answer.
She searched the shed, the house, and outside, but there was no sign.
Athena wouldn’t just run off. Frantic, Ashley called her husband, Jacob, who was out, and he then contacted police.
When Maitlyn was contacted, she too headed over, as the family began desperately searching nearby properties.
The next day, delivery driver Tanner Horner drove by Athena’s home. Frustrated that the road was blocked off, he asked a passer-by what was happening.
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When told a child was missing, he replied, ‘Are you serious?’
Police interviewed everyone, including Tanner.
He said he’d dropped off a package – a Barbie doll set Ashley had ordered for Athena’s Christmas present – around 5.30pm and seen Athena in the driveway.
Investigators determined he was the last person to see the girl and were struck by his calm demeanour.
Two days later, the case took a devastating turn when Tanner made a horrifying confession.
He told police he’d accidentally hit Athena with his van and, panicking, had dumped her body.
He led police to a remote creek near her home, where they found her remains.
Medical examiners determined Athena died from blunt force trauma and strangulation.
Horner was arrested and charged in February 2023, with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.
As the community reeled, many schools honoured Athena by dressing in her favourite colour – pink.
In April 2026, Tanner Lynn Horner, 35, appeared in Tarrant County Court, Texas, where he pleaded guilty.
He claimed he’d abducted Athena after hitting her in his van while backing up. In a panic, he’d tried to break her neck, and when that failed, strangled her in the back of the van.
Prosecutors called his account a ‘web of lies.’
The court heard that Horner arrived at Athena’s home around 5.30pm. In frightening footage from the van, jurors saw him lift Athena into the truck and shut the doors.
‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you,’ he’d said.
In heart-wrenching audio Athena can be heard asking Tanner, ‘Are you a kidnapper?’
Though Horner covered the camera with a piece of paper, audio continued to record.
He asked Athena about school and she spoke about her teacher. Then his tone shifted.
‘You’re really pretty, you know that?’ he said.
Jurors saw a chilling image of Athena in the back of the van, which that’s life! has chosen not to publish.
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When Athena’s family left the court sobbing, jury members listened to distressing excerpts from more than an hour of video and audio of Athena’s final moments as she begged to go home.
Prosecutors said she’d fought back – Horner’s DNA was found under her fingernails.
Footage also showed Horner buying supplies and cleaning his truck afterward. He later called work, claiming he had been sick in the vehicle and requested the same truck the next day.
He was also seen collecting items, including the clothes Athena had been wearing, and placing them in a backpack, which he put behind the shed where he lived with his fiancée.
The court heard Horner had searched online for, Do FedEx truck cameras constantly record?
In police interviews Horner referred to his alter ego, ‘Zero’, which he called a ‘little devil on my shoulder,’ and said, ‘I didn’t do this, but he did.’
During the trial, Athena’s mother Maitlyn wore pink and clutched Athena’s red hairbow. She described Athena as a loving girl who ‘brought joy to everyone around her.’
Staring directly at Horner she said her daughter ‘deserved to grow up, to laugh, to dream.’
At a news conference she later said, ‘I was robbed of watching her grow up by a man that everyone was supposed to be able to trust to do just one simple task – deliver a Christmas present and leave.’
In court she vowed to be Athena’s voice and make sure people all over the world knew who she was.
Jacob spoke about the future milestones his daughter would never reach – birthdays, school events, and growing into adulthood. ‘It just broke me,’ he said of her murder.
In May 2026, jurors took nearly three hours to sentence the evil postie to death.
‘You will be judged. You will face the wrath of God,’ Athena’s uncle Elijah Strand said, facing his niece’s murderer.
‘You are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story… She was laughter, curiosity, kindness… her name will forever be celebrated and everyone will forget you.’
Determined to keep her girl’s memory alive, Maitlyn set up Athena Strand’s Army, a not-for-profit and a community that’s grown to more than 24,000 followers, remembering the impact Athena left during her time on earth.
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