A FedEx driver has admitted to the tragic killing of seven-year-old Athena Strand while delivering a Christmas package to her home, revealing the chilling last words he spoke to her. During a court appearance on Thursday, Tanner Horner recounted telling the frightened child, “Just get in the back of the van, we’re going to go to the hospital,” before allegedly taking her life through strangulation.

The 34-year-old is now facing grave charges, including aggravated kidnapping and capital murder, for the November 2022 abduction and subsequent murder of Strand. The incident took place in Paradise, Texas, a small community located roughly 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

Horner, who was working as an independent contractor with FedEx, was delivering a box of Barbie dolls intended as a festive gift for Athena. However, the delivery turned into a nightmare when, according to an arrest warrant, Horner confessed to accidentally striking Athena with his van.

Despite Athena not being seriously injured from being hit while he was reversing, Horner claimed he panicked, leading him to place her in the vehicle. What followed was a tragic sequence of events driven by fear and misjudgment.

According to an arrest warrant, Horner told authorities he strangled Athena after accidentally hitting her with his van while making a delivery. 

Horner said that Athena wasn’t seriously hurt after he hit her while backing up, but he panicked and put her in his van. 

He then strangled her to death in his truck, and her tortured final moments were captured by a microphone in his vehicle after he covered a camera inside.  

During his hearing at court in Forth Worth on Thursday, Horner was also asked whether he put Strand in his truck out of fear of losing his job or freedom. 

Tanner Horner, 34, admitted to killing Athena Strand during a two-hour-long interrogation with police, which saw his eyes roll into the back of his head as he turned into an ‘alter ego’ called ‘Zero’

Strand is filmed being driven to her death by Horner. He admitted the November 2022 murder in court on Tuesday, with jurors warned they must still endure graphic evidence of the little girl’s final moments so they can decide on an appropriate punishment  

‘I wasn’t worried about the ‘losing my freedom’ part because, honestly, that’s an honest accident,’ Horner said. 

‘You know what I mean? Like, all it would take is going up there and just talking to the parents, and saying like, ‘Hey, I accidentally bumped your daughter. Like, there’s more jobs out there, you know what I mean?”

Horner said he tried to calm Strand down, but when he was unsuccessful, a sort of alter-ego of his he called ‘Zero’ ‘kind of took over’. 

‘He (Zero) told her, ‘Just get in the back of the van, we’re going to go to the hospital,” Horner said.

Horner said Zero killed Strand. 

‘I didn’t do it, but he did, and that’s what f***s with me… I’m wondering who the hell’s been in my head this whole time,’ he said. 

‘Part of me is in denial because I didn’t pull the trigger,’ Horner said.

‘You feel like Zero pulled the trigger?’ Investigators asked, to which Horner replied in the affirmative. 

‘I tried to disarm the gun. I tried to stop all of this from happening,’ he said. 

Strand was abducted from her family’s home in Paradise, Texas, on November 30, 2022

Horner was set to go on trial before abruptly pleading guilty to capital murder this week. He now faces a sentencing trial

The jury was shown footage of Horner’s arrest in Texas on December 30, 2022

The warrant said Horner took investigators to where he’d left Athena’s body.

In opening statements, Horner’s attorney Steven Goble told jurors: ‘When someone’s brain is what’s injured, you don’t see it.’

Goble acknowledged that the evidence against Horner was ‘overwhelming’ and ‘terrible’. 

But he also told jurors that Horner’s mother drank while she was pregnant, that he 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. 

Strand, who has since divorced Athena’s father, said Athena 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.