How Did FedEx Driver Tanner Horner Get Caught After Murdering Athena Strand?

Convicted murderer and kidnapper Tanner Horner was sentenced to death for the murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand. The former FedEx driver kidnapped the little girl from a driveway in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30, 2022. According to CBS News, he was sentenced to death after pleading guilty at his trial.

His trial began in April, and he pleaded guilty during the proceedings on April 14, 2026. Horner snatched the little girl after delivering a Christmas package to the home, and the jury was shown disturbing footage and audio of the crime that left many of them in tears.

So how did the murderer get caught?

FBI Special Agent Patrick McGuire testified at the trial that a lead connected to a Barbie doll box delivered to the home helped to find Horner, per CBS News. The Barbie doll box was delivered by FedEx through a third-party contractor that Horner drove for, and he was identified as the delivery driver who delivered the Barbie doll to the home.

The package was a gift from Athena's stepmother — a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbie Dolls.

The camera software Velociter used inside the trucks by FedEx revealed chilling details of the kidnapping and murder. Horner kidnapped Athena in an attempt to molest her. Video footage captured him picking her up and putting her inside his van. She is seen asking him if he was a kidnapper on the video, as well as Horner asking her to take off her shirt.

He covered the camera in the van and said, "You’re really pretty. You know that?”

Audio of Athena saying "No" as she cried for her mother was played for the jury, and banging and screaming was also heard on the video. Athena's nude body was found two days later in Boyd, Texas. The little girl had been strangled, smothered, and beaten to death, according to medical examiner Dr. Jessica Dwyer, per Fox News.

Horner told the police that he'd hit the little girl with his van by mistake and put her into the van, but District Attorney James Stainton told the jury he was a liar.

"It is lie upon lie upon lie upon lie," he said. "The first thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up and puts her in that truck, he leans down and he says, ‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.’ He says that twice. You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child. And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it.”

Athena's uncle, Elijah Strand, addressed Horner in open court.

"She will never celebrate a life she will never get to live, because of his actions," he said before addressing the killer directly. "You will face the wrath of God I want you to know you are a footnote in Athena's story. Her name will forever be remembered. Her name will be forever celebrated, and everyone will forget you."

The killer will remain an inmate at the Tarrant County jail until he is transferred to the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville and death row.