This haunting CCTV image shows a seven-year-old girl being driven to her death by a FedEx driver who abducted her while dropping off her Christmas present.
Athena Strand’s body was found two days after she disappeared from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth in Texas, in 2022.
Tanner Horner, now 34, told detectives after his arrest that he bundled the young girl into his van after accidentally hitting her with it and then strangled her to stop her telling anyone.
But footage recorded inside the truck paints a very different – and far more sinister – picture.
The newly released still image captured inside the vehicle shows Athena uninjured and looking over Horner’s shoulder as he drives them away.
And far from looking panicked or fearful, her killer looks calm – as if he could even be whistling. He even had the peace of mind to put his seatbelt on.
Horner has pleaded guilty to the capital murder of a child under 10 as well as aggravated kidnapping.
The case has skipped the trial phase as a result and will proceed straight to the punishment phase.
While the evidence will still be presented in the same way, the decision left to jurors will be whether Horner should be sentenced to death or get life without parole.
Opening the prosecution case, Wise County District Attorney James Stainton told them: ‘The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her.
‘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.’
Horner’s claim that he scooped up the youngster after accidentally running her over is an ‘absolute lie’, Stainton told the jury, pointing to the image showing her unhurt behind the driver’s seat.
‘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,’ Stainton said.
The prosecutor warned jurors that the evidence in the case is ‘rough’.
While the truck’s camera was covered when Athena was strangled, the audio kept recording.
‘You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child,’ Stainton said.
‘And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it. I’ve been doing this [for] 25 years, and I promise you, buckle up.’
He said Athena fought Horner, and his DNA was found under her fingernails.
Stainton also said Horner’s DNA was found ‘in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a seven-year-old girl’.
In opening statements, Horner’s attorney Steven Goble submitted that physical and mental illness played a part in the killing.
He told jurors: ‘When someone’s brain is what’s injured, you don’t see it.’
While acknowledging the evidence against Horner was ‘overwhelming’ and ‘terrible’, he told them Horner’s mother drank while she was pregnant.
He also said Horner has autism and suffered from ‘various mental illnesses throughout his life’ in addition to being exposed to a ‘massive amount of lead’.
Goble asked jurors to sentence him to life in prison.
Ashley Strand, Athena’s stepmother, told jurors that the package Horner had dropped off was a Christmas present for Athena — a box of ‘You Can Be Anything’ Barbies.
Ms Strand, who has since divorced Athena’s father, said the youngster enjoyed living out on their land in the country, where she got to ‘run wild and free’.
The trial was moved from rural Wise County to Fort Worth after Horner’s attorneys argued that he would not have received a fair trial.
In a statement following Horner’s indictment, Athena’s mum Maitlyn Gandy said she supports the death penalty in this case, adding: ‘Every breath he takes is one my daughter doesn’t.’
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