More than two and a half years after 7-year-old Athena Strand was abducted and killed while her Christmas gift was being delivered to her North Texas home, her family has received a final legal ruling in the case that has shaken the nation. On Tuesday, a Texas jury handed down a death sentence to 25-year-old Tanner Horner, the former delivery driver who admitted to the brutal capital crime. The guilty plea from Horner came earlier this year, as his trial got underway, where he formally confessed to charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. The weeks-long sentencing phase concluded with jurors selecting the harshest available punishment over the alternative of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The details of the crime that emerged during court proceedings have added to the collective horror surrounding the case. On November 30, 2022, Horner arrived at the Strand family’s property near Fort Worth to drop off the little girl’s holiday gift: a box of Barbie dolls. Instead of completing the delivery, he kidnapped Athena, and two days later, her body was discovered just a short distance from her home. During the sentencing trial, jurors were forced to listen to a disturbing audio recording capturing the young victim’s final moments inside Horner’s delivery van, a piece of evidence that underscored the brutality of the crime. When the death sentence was read aloud by the judge, court video footage captured Horner showing absolutely no visible reaction to the verdict. He is scheduled to be executed via lethal injection at a date yet to be confirmed, in the early morning hours before sunrise.
In the moments after the verdict was announced, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, addressed the perpetrator directly in court, laying bare the irreversible damage his actions caused the entire family. “There are no words that truly capture the devastation that Tanner Horner caused us and our family,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. Speaking directly to Horner during proceedings, he added: “You destroyed a family. You will feel the wrath of God.” He emphasized that the family will forever honor Athena’s memory while Horner will be forgotten, saying: “I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story. Her name will forever be remembered, her name will forever be celebrated, and everyone will forget you.”
Beyond the criminal case, a separate civil lawsuit has been filed by the Strand family against Horner, global delivery giant FedEx, and Big TopSpin Inc., the independent logistics contractor that hired Horner to complete deliveries for FedEx. The suit alleges that both companies failed to complete a required background check on Horner before putting him behind the wheel for residential deliveries, a negligent act that the family argues allowed the crime to occur. In the immediate aftermath of the 2022 murder, a FedEx spokesperson told U.S. media outlets that the company was aware of the pending litigation and extended its sympathies to the grieving family, saying “Our thoughts remain with the family of Athena Strand in the wake of this tragedy.” The BBC has reached out to FedEx for an updated statement following Tuesday’s sentencing, while Big TopSpin Inc. has not responded to multiple requests for comment and has not issued any public statement on the case since the murder.