Athena Strand died a brutal death at the hands of FedEx driver Tanner Horner in 2022. Horner pleaded guilty to killing Athena just before his murder trial was set to begin in Texas. Instead of determining his guilt, jurors will now decide whether he’ll face the death penalty. They’ve listened to hours of testimony, watched graphic videos, and listened to disturbing recordings. As Horner spoke with investigators in the days following Athena’s death, he reportedly made a strange request in exchange for giving police all the information they wanted.
Horner wanted to spend time with his son.
Despite killing Athena and taking her away from her family forever, Horner evidently thought the police would give him a break to spend some time with his son. Jurors listened to a recording from a December 7, 2022, police interview with Horner, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. In the recording, Horner tried to make a deal with police.
“If you give me a month with my family so I can have Christmas with my son, I’ll give you everything,” he said, per the newspaper.
Horner added that he didn’t care about the rest of his life as long as he could be with his son. “I would say throw me in a jail cell forever. I don’t care. I would give up all my defenses, plead no contest, tell you everything,” Horner said.
Investigators were not one bit concerned about Horner’s feelings and kept him behind bars.
He blamed an alter ego for killing Athena.
NBC-DFW reported that Horner told police he wasn’t the person who killed Athena, but his alter ego “Zero” did. Horner recalled what sounded like an out-of-body experience watching Zero kill the 7-year-old child.
“I didn’t do it, but he did, and that’s what f–s with me,” Horner told police in a recorded interview. “I’m wondering who the hell’s been in my head this whole time.”
He blamed Zero for the killing. “He told her, ‘Just get in the back of the van, we’re going to go to the hospital,'” Horner told police, per NBC-DFW.
Horner said he thought the entire thing was a dream until he found Athena’s clothing in a backpack.
One expert thinks Horner made up Zero.
Speech-language pathologist Amy Fritz testified on April 27, 2026, that in her opinion, Horner made up Zero. She interviewed him after Athena’s death to determine how his autism affects his communication skills, Fox 4 reported. Fritz believed that Zero is a mechanism for storytelling, not a symptom of multiple personality disorder.
The court continues to listen to testimony. In Texas, Horner could face the death penalty. After what he admitted to doing to Athena, some think that’s the right decision. Others want him to rot in prison for the rest of his life. That’s up to the 12 jurors who will ultimately choose his fate.
