Crime Weekly - Athena Strand's Killer Sentenced to Death

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Tanner Horner, the FedEx driver who murdered seven-year-old Athena Strand in 2022, pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to death on May 5. Under Texas law, the appeals process has already begun automatically, with legal experts warning it could take years before the sentence is carried out. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Lavasser. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. Talking about a case today that we've covered on Crime Weekly News before, there's finally an outcome in it. It's, I have a lot to say about it. But for anybody who who doesn't know in 2022, FedEx driver, Tanner Horner, kidnapped and killed seven-year-old Athena Strand, he was allegedly delivering what would have been her Christmas present. Now, why we're covering it today is that a Texas jury has now sentenced Horner to death. And yeah, there's a lot to talk about anybody who doesn't know this case. I don't think there are many of you. We'll give a quick rundown and then we'll talk about not only the outcome, but how all of us can kind of perceive this incident in general as it applies to our own lives. But Stephanie, take it away. I mean, as, as Derek said, this happened in November of 2022. It was

November 30th. So right after Thanksgiving, Athena was a seven-year-old girlfriend, Paradise, Texas. And she disappeared from her family's property after an argument with her stepmother, which, you know, there's so many layers of sadness and tragedy to this case because you know that what started and just could have remained as this tiny little argument that parents have with kids. And, you know, you kind of get mad at your kid and you're like, go outside or, you know, I can't deal with this right now. And then what happened to Athena after that is something that. I feel like the parents, the stepmother, the mother of the father, they will never be able to get over. Like, that's a guilt. You know, the last thing that happened between you and your stepdaughter was this argument. It's just a level of guilt that, you know, you are forced to live with because of this person that we're talking about here, Tanner Horner, who I don't even want to say his name because he doesn't deserve a name or to be treated as a human.

So she disappears. Athena disappears after this argument. And so at first, the case seemed like a missing child kind of thing, you know, like maybe she was hiding or she'd wandered off or she was like, I'm going to run away because I'm mad at my stepmother. Nobody could really understand, like, how deep it went because investigators quickly started focusing on a delivery made to the home that day, a package containing Athena's Christmas gift, reportedly Barbie dolls that had been delivered by a FedEx worker driving for a contractor. that driver was Tanner Horner. Investigators traced the delivery route. They reviewed evidence from the truck. And they identified Horner as the person who had taken Athena.

Now, according to reporting from some outlets, including AP, video and audio evidence from inside the delivery vehicle showed Athena alive in the van after she was abducted. And Derek and I were, sorry, this is really upsetting. Derek and I were talking on the phone earlier. And he was like, have you heard this audio? And I said, no. And he said, don't listen to it. don't and then I said why you know like we you know just I'm not going to listen to it but give me an indication of what's in it just so I know for the episode and I don't have to listen to it and he started describing it to me and immediately just my stomach dropped like I felt I felt like the like I'd been unplugged from the wall and I just was like losing energy and power and just thinking about what was going through that that little girl's head it was how she was feeling, the fear.

Because according to you, Derek, reportedly in that audio, you can hear Athena asking to be taken back home. And then you can hear Tanner Horner attack her basically and start choking her. To just make it as general as possible, you hear her being killed. It was a camera. It's a camera. So there's this, the image that's circulating. where you see Athena kind of between the two chairs with this with this scumb bag driving the van.

And then he covers the camera. And that's why you only have audio. Allegedly he might have bumped her with the car. I don't even know if I believe that, but he might have bumped her with the car. No, that's what he initially told the police. When they tracked him down, he said, oh, you know, I actually accidentally hit Athena with my delivery van. And then I panicked. But prosecutors did later argue that this was a lot.

designed to minimize what he had done because when you think about it, it's like, what did you do? Why did you do that? There doesn't seem to be some elaborate motive here or any motive at all besides to take this little girl and then take her life. It doesn't appear that he knew her, knew her family. This was a victim of opportunity. But not even for any, you know, which you normally see a man like this, taking a little girl like this, there would be a sexual motive. It does not appear that that was what happened here. No, not that we know of it. So you just wanted to kill a child. That's what I'm seeing is the,

the opportunity that you took, the opportunity to take an innocent child who had never harmed you or anyone and murder her. That was your opportunity. That was what you wanted to do. Yeah, according to him. And I don't believe anything. He hit her. But we, again, that image shows that she was perfectly fine in the truck, right? But then he panicked and, and he took, took her with her with him and and then he felt that the only option was to kill her. Complete bullshit. Oh, yes, because that's a better outcome than. Yeah.

We're totally past the whole like wondering the why. There is no justifiable reason for this. This guy is a living monster, right? And when you look at the trial, there were like the victim impact statements at the end. Athena's uncle actually spoke to him. And I was just watching this clip earlier today where apparently Tanner found God, right? Tanner found God. Oh, don't they always.

So did Chris Watts. They always do. After the fact. After the fact. And the uncle said right out, like, I heard you found God. I'm paraphrasing here. I heard you found God, but just understand. And he started quoting verses from the Bible where it's like, dude, there's no, there's no redemption for this, right? You're going to be held accountable for what you did. And he was very put together. I don't even know how he was this calm in this. I think that's why he was. It's been a long time, right? We're in April of 2026 when, well, yeah. And this happened in 2020. too. And Horner lied initially. He was like, oh, you lied to law enforcement. And then they found her body. I believe it was like nine miles away. He led them. He led them to her body a few days later. Yeah. Yeah. So. And by the way, he kept going with this saying he was innocent and it wasn't like this just malicious murder and that there was this. He kept lying until up in, for years, for four years he kept lying until right. as the trial proceedings were beginning in the first week of April of 2026, when all of a sudden he

changed his tune, pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. So this is a person who let this drag on, who withheld justice and closure from Athena's family after what he had done to her for four years until I think the basic idea and what was probably being communicated to him was, this trial's not going to go well for you. No, it's on video. And finally, that's when he's like, all right, fine. I'll own up to it. Aggravated murder and kidnapping.

I want to talk about the outcome here because the trial started on April 7th. And like you said, he pled guilty. So the proceedings trend to the penalty phase. And on May 5th, which just passed at the time of this recording, they sentenced Horner to death, right? On May 5th. Yes. I'm really, honestly, that's the only. Yeah.

Well, I want to talk about two things. I want to talk about the sentencing, and then I want to transition to how we apply it to our own lives to kind of wrap this up. But as far as the sentencing, and I put up a post on Instagram, and it might seem hyperbolic, I said in the Instagram post, like I said F, lethal injection, I want to volunteer for the firing squad. And I think I said this initially. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I truly believe in the eye for an eye system. and when it's absolutely, there's no doubt that this person committed the crime that is being

discussed, there should be options here. I know we live in a civilized society, but I just don't think that his death, the manner in which he will be killed, is equivalent to what Athena experienced. And that should be the standard. I know that it's probably never going to happen. But why are there not options for a more, for lack of a better way of saying it, like barbaric approach, like an option where the parents who are the ultimate victims here have the choice to be more involved with this person's death. Because at this point, and I don't think,

I don't want to speak for them, but I'll speak for myself, if this had occurred to me, you are never the same. I mean, I would go as far as saying you died a part of you, at least, died that day with your daughter. And I'm not trying to make this morbid, but that's the truth. I don't think that's like an out-of-the-pocket statement. I would want justice by my own hands as her father. And it still wouldn't make me whole, but it would at least give me something for a moment where I could feel something. And why are we not talking about something that would be more painful?

I just put it out there right. Like put him in a room with five life in prison guys who have children, and let's see how that goes for him. Allow the parents to be more involved with the death sentence. Or I mean, just torture. Like, you know, like a public, like execution, like they, you know, like they did back in the old days, you know, drawn, hung, quartered, all of that. Like, really stretch it out. Like, make it something because this is a person who you can never make him feel what the NFL because he's going to go to sleep, Stephanie.

You know what I mean? Like, he's a psychopath. Like, you clearly aren't right. There's something in you that's missing. So you'll never feel the fear and the past. and the pain that you made your victim feel. But at least you should be tortured. At least you should feel the physical pain.

He'll never feel the fear that a seven-year-old girl felt in that situation because he doesn't feel things the way normal people do. But something needs to happen where it's not just like you said, yeah, lethal. And there's going to be people in the comments, by the way, who are like, actually, actually, there's always those people actually. Actually, there's evidence that lethal injection can be very painful. Don't do it. Not painful enough.

Don't do it. Even if it is a little painful, even if he's a little painful, even if there's a few seconds or a minute of suffering, it will never compare to what he did to that little girl. Agreed. Tie him down. Allow Athena's father to go in that room and strangle him to death. The same way he strangled his daughter. Eye for an eye. Very simple.

That's my vote. Honestly, I'm not trying to be hyperbolic. I don't think the punishment here is equivalent to what Athena experienced. And there's nothing you can do to bring her back. You can at least try and have this person experience something that is victim did, if not worse. I can't be in a politics. I can't be a judge because I can't be a legislator because this is to me an injustice.

There should be more. But definitely let us know what you guys think. And we're not trying to just be click baity here. Like that's truly how I feel. And I know Stephanie well enough to know that she's on the same. same page with me. I don't care if it pisses people off. I don't have any sense of justice for her family by him getting the death penalty. Like, okay, great. He's going to be killed with the most humane way possible. Great. That doesn't do it for me. But to transition, because we can't

bring Athena back, but we also know that this guy's not the only one out there like this. And I had some of you guys DM in me about delivery drivers. And I don't, I think it's more than that. It's not just delivery drivers. I don't want to attack UPS workers or delivery drivers or USPS workers. I think we can all learn from this. There was a quote that the uncle said, I'm going to say it now. Quote, he robbed us of safety, peace, and our trust in the world and forever changed who we are as a family. That's important that quote because it should change all of us. because if it happened there, it can happen in your backyard. And I will tell you, when we first covered this case, I made some changes at home.

And more recently being reminded of this case, something that I used, this isn't an indictment on Amazon, but there's a feature called Amazon Key. And for anybody who's not familiar with that, super convenient. It allows the Amazon driver access to your garage, where once they get close and they scan the package, it'll automatically open the garage and then close. close it as they leave. Super convenient, love it, keeps your packages from getting wet or stolen. I get it. I was just going to say, like, don't know most people have doors leading into their house from their garage?

I do. I do. And I have cameras. Absolutely not. I might as well give somebody the code to my garage door. Like, what are you talking about? I agree. And I had it.

I'm blaming myself here. I had it. And you think that I would know better. With Tanner, from what I've understood about him, he didn't have an extensive criminal history, if one at all, but he may have had some mental health issues that he was working through. The moral of the story is, and this is in response to some of you guys in the DMs and the comments, you know, he got through the cracks.

Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything to detect. My point being that there are other Tanner Horner's out there in other professions right now. And you can't stop that. You can't stop that. DoorDash, FedEx, the garbage man, the people mowing your lawn. And it doesn't matter. And there's so, actually the, the uptick in how many things we have delivered to our homes now.

It's insane. And the exposure of random strange people who we don't know if they do have a criminal history, if they do have mental health illnesses, or if they are just a crazy psychopath like Tanner Horner, we don't know. And we're just like bringing them right up to our doorstep. Yep. Driving up to your doorstep, I got Peyton in the background on the trampoline. Now, I'm always out there. But still, the point remains. we as a society have to learn from this.

I don't think it's an overcorrection of like you don't want these services anymore, but there has to be an understanding that not everyone coming to your home has good intentions. I think the default is just assume they don't. I agree. And it doesn't mean you have to treat them disrespectfully. What they're doing is providing a service that a lot of us enjoy, including myself. But we have to take the proper precautions, right? We have to make sure, and I've done this with my job.

children, like they're not allowed to answer the door. The deliveries are always left at the doorstep. I don't care how cold the food gets. I've changed some things with the Amazon key. That's not an option anymore. If your kids are outside, even if it's on your property and you think it's safe, do your best to be out there with them. Yeah, because you can say, oh, I have cameras, but Tanner and Horner clearly didn't care

about cameras. He had one in his truck. No, and it's too late at that point. You have to have someone out there. It's inconvenient sometimes. You've got stuff going on. Ice cream truck. they want to run down the driveway to go get some ice cream.

Don't take the risk because the potential outcome is not worth it. You can ask any family, including Athenas, and they would tell you the same thing. Be annoying, be obnoxious, be the helicopter parent. I'd rather your child feel like, oh, come on, dad, or come on, mom. Like, I can't even walk down the road by myself. No, you can't. I am doing it for me as much as I am for you. I will be there and the only way to guarantee something like this doesn't happen is if you're present.

So if that's the only guaranteed option I have, that's the one I'm choosing every time. And for me, when Peyton or Tenley says, like, I'm going to go down the road or I'm going to walk to a friend's house, when I initially think, like, they're fine to walk themselves. I can see them from here. I think about Athena. And I think about all these other cases we've covered. And every time I make that walk. because of them. So don't let this tragedy be in vain, learn from it and make sure that you're protecting the people you care about because that's the only thing we really have to gain

from this horrific experience at this point. I don't know. I mean, that's, there's no other way around. I mean, it was important that we talked about this case because we talked about it years ago. We did a crime weekly news. Got to do the update on it. We have to do the update. And this is the best case scenario update that we could have, right? And it's not even good, but I agree with you. So we can't, we can't bring Athena back. It would have been terrible if you went to trial and on some technicality didn't get, you know, didn't get charged with murder or didn't get, you know, the death penalty or something like that. He wouldn't have made it. Yeah. So, I mean, this is the best case scenario we can get. So we are updating on it. And, um, yeah. Can we transition to a positive note?

because I just feel horrible. Okay. Positive note, and the segue sucks, but I don't want to end on that note. Thank you to all the Patreon members. For those of you who don't know, we have monthly giveaways. And I just, for anybody who's not familiar with Patreon,

we do the live chats. We have, we do our live monthlies with you guys as well. If you're a higher tier, there's cameos and there's different discussion boards. We also, like I said, do the monthly giveaways and the yearly gifts for our top tier members. But for the monthly giveaway, just by being a member, you get entered into this giveaway, and it usually includes things that are relatable to what we're doing on Crime Weekly.

For example, we gave away Elizabeth Smart's book one month. Also, I wanted to show a couple gifts that I just picked up. I was telling Stephanie about I'm excited. Thinking about podcasting, AirPods Pro 3, got those. Those are going to be going in a giveaway box, and then also the new Kindle. So these are just things that it's our way of giving back to you guys, and you pay a small monthly fee and you have the chance to win a gift basket

that in some cases is worth over $300. So not a bad gig. If you haven't checked it out, head over to our Patreon page. The links will be down below. It's a pretty good return on investment in the community we're building over there is awesome.

We're interacting with you guys and the discussion boards. There's one specific for the case we're covering at the time. We have a crime con one going right now. And then we have a general discussion. We also have a new thing where it allows you to promote your own businesses or organizations that you're passionate about.

So something for everyone. Give it a try. You can even sign up for the trial membership, which is free and upgrade if you like what you're seeing and what you're hearing. So that's all I have. We're going to be back later this week with a new series, a new story.

I guess we'll save it. We've told the last couple. It's an interesting story. Final words, thinking about Athena, her family, everyone from that community, and thinking about all of you. A lot of you guys have kids out there and I'm sure this case has affected you as much as it has affected Stephanie and I.

I've cried multiple times over this case, and my only goal today was not to cry on camera. Mission accomplished so far. Not going to talk about it too much because that could change. We love you guys. We're thinking of you. Everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you later this week. Bye, guys.