The contract Fed-Ex driver accused of killing a 7-year-old Texas girl Athena Strand in late November has also been charged with sexually assaulting a child, jail records show, People reports.
According to the report, Tanner Horner, 31, was previously charged with capital murder and kidnapping in Athena Strand’s Nov. 30 death outside her father’s Paradise, Texas, home. But Wise County jail records indicate Horner has also been charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child (it’s unclear whether Strand was a target).
Horner, who delivered Fed-Ex packages as a contract driver, initially claimed he panicked after hitting Athena Strand with his van while delivering Christmas packages to the child’s house.
According to an arrest affidavit, Horner allegedly told police he’d killed the girl inside his van because he was afraid her father would be upset that he’d hit her with his vehicle, according to the report by People.
Horner allegedly told investigators that Athena Strand wasn’t seriously injured after he struck her. However, he allegedly decided to kill her, he told investigators, because he was scared she would tell her dad what had happened.
At that point, Horner allegedly told authorities, he tried to break the little girl’s neck. When he couldn’t, he claimed he strangled Strand in the back of the vehicle “with his bare hands,” per the affidavit.
Strand’s body was found on Dec. 2, discarded in a river-side area about nine miles from her home. Horner allegedly told authorities where to locate her, the affidavit says.
Before her alleged killing and sexual assault, Strand who was then staying with her father and stepmother, reportedly argued with her stepmom, Elizabeth Strand.
The stepmother later went to look for Athena, but told authorities she hadn’t realized the child went outside, most likely to her makeshift bedroom. (Athena and her stepsister were sleeping in a converted storage shed while the house was being renovated, the affidavit says.)
When Horner spotted Strand in the driveway, he had just delivered a package to the home. It was a Christmas gift of “You Can Be Anything” Barbie dolls, said Maitland Gandy, the little girl’s mother, during a press conference.
“I was supposed to bring her back home to [my house in] Oklahoma after Christmas break. Instead, she will come home in an urn,” Gandy said at the press conference.
Since Horner’s arrest, a woman came forward reiterating previous allegations that Horner had sexually assaulted her as a minor.
Shay Marie described the alleged assault on her Facebook page in 2019, naming Tanner Horner as the person who allegedly raped her at 16, when Horner was 23. “December 6th and 7th marks 7 years since you violated me and treated me like you were entitled to my body. 7 years. i was a child in a vulnerable state and you took advantage of that,” Marie wrote last year.
It is unknown whether Horner has entered a plea or retained an attorney to comment on his behalf.
Earlier this month, the District Attorney’s office announced it was seeking the death penalty in his case.