Why Did Tanner Horner Take Athena Strand? Here's What We Know About the Kidnapping and Murder

Content warning: This article contains information that readers may find disturbing.

The alleged kidnapper and murderer of 7-year-old Athena Strand pleaded guilty during his trial on April 14, 2026, and people want to know why Tanner Horner decided to take the little girl from her family. Horner reportedly kidnapped Athena from the driveway of a home where she was staying with her parents in Paradise, Texas, on Nov. 30, 2022, per WFAA News. The little girl was found dead two days later in the town of Boyd, Texas.

Horner was a FedEx delivery driver and had delivered a Christmas package to the home, and disturbing footage was shown to the jury during the trial that left many in tears.

Horner reportedly kidnapped the little girl in an attempt to molest her. Footage recorded Horner pulling up to the house and later picking Athena up and putting her in his van. Athena asked him if he was a kidnapper on the video, and it also captured him asking her to take off her shirt, per NBC5 News. Before Horner covered the camera in the van, he said, "You’re really pretty. You know that?”

Audio is then heard of Athena saying "No" and crying for her mother. Screaming and banging are also heard on the video, and the attack lasted for more than one hour. Before the footage was shown, Judge George Gallagher advised the court, "If you think you cannot watch it or listen to it, leave now. Now's your time to get out." Athena's parents left the room at that time, and after Horner threatened to hurt Athena on the video and she screamed, other family members left the courtroom as well.

Jurors were seen crying and shaking after watching and hearing the video, while Horner sat with his head down. The killer claimed Horner claimed that he'd hit Athena by accident with his van and strangled her after he panicked, but District Attorney James Stainton called the defense “an absolute lie," per NBC News. “The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,” said the District Attorney.

“The pattern and web of lies that he put together, it’s going to be hard for y’all to keep up with. It is lie upon lie upon lie upon lie," he continued. “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.”

Horner strangled, smothered, and beat the little girl to death, per medical examiner Dr. Jessica Dwyer via Fox News. The Christmas package being delivered was a gift from Athena's stepmother — a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbie Dolls.