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This episode is brought to you by. Prime Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice off campus. Elle every year. After the Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point and more slow burns, second chances chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. She loved the color pink. She loved to put on beautiful pink princess dresses when she would go outside to play in the dirt. She called herself the best big sister in the whole entire world. And all of her family members, her mom especially, would agree that she was right. Her teachers loved her. Her family loved her. Her friends loved her. Athena Pressley Monroe Strand was 7 years old. She was full of life, full of noise, full of love. And on the last Wednesday Of November of 2022, she walked outside of her family's home in rural Texas for the very last time. What happened in the hours that followed shook a nation, broke a family apart, and set in motion a legal reckoning that would take over three years to reach a conclusion. The story of Athena Strand isn't one that should be defined. What happened to her? And if you've heard her mom talk about her, you will hear her say that over and over. She does not want Athena to be remembered by what happened to her. She wants Athena to be remembered for the little girl that she was. Because before she crossed paths with the man that would ultimately end her life, she had spent her very short seven years on this earth knowing nothing but love. If you guys have heard anyone talk about this case lately, I feel like it's been kind of all over social media again because the trial just took place. I feel like every single person that I've heard talk about it says that it's one of the worst cases they've ever heard of because of how gruesome and violent and just plain evil this whole thing was. So with that being said, I feel like I have to give my usual warning. We are talking about a child and it's never easy, but I feel like the details of this one, specifically the details that were revealed during the trial and knowing the information that we now know is it's added hundreds of layers of heartbreak and grief and loss and it's not an easy story to tell or to listen to. So if you think that listening to this is going to harm your mental health in any way, shape or form, please click out of this episode now and I will see you in my next one. Take care of yourselves. I mean, it I love you. And with all that being said, welcome to this episode of I Wish youh Were Here. I'm your host, Michelle Cuervo. Athena Strand came into this world on May 23, 2015. She was born to Maitland Presley Gandy and Jacob Strand, a young couple who, though they would eventually part ways, never stopped co parenting with the one same thing at the center of every decision, Athena's happiness. Her mom was just 19 years old when she gave birth. Jacob, her father, was 23 at the time. And Maitland would later express in the courtroom quote, she was a perfect mixture of me and Jacob. She loved to wear her pretty princess dresses, but at the same time, she would play in the dirt in the same pretty princess dresses. She was free and she was wild and she was bright and she was loving. She wanted to love and be loved. That's it. Athena grew up between two her mother's house in Oklahoma and her father's house in the small rural town of Paradise, Texas. Paradise, Texas is deep in Wise county, and it's the type of place where the roads are long and the houses sit pretty far apart from each other. By the time she was seven years old, she had settled into a rhythm between the two, going to school in Texas, primarily staying with her father only temporarily because her mom had been dealing with some health issues that she was working on figuring out for the last few months. But she was also at the same time spending long weekends at her mother's house. By the sounds of it, Athena's mom and her biological father had a very healthy co parenting relationship because they both understood that Athena always came first. And they also got that even though they didn't work out romantically, that didn't mean that they couldn't be civil with each other. It didn't mean that they couldn't keep a friendship. And they did. They co parented together very, very well. Athena was also incredibly loved, not only by her parents, but also by her parents new partners. She was loved by her dad's partner, Ashley, and her stepsister who lived with them in Paradise, Texas. And no matter the details in this case, that is the one thing that no one can deny that this little girl was adored and she was happy. She was the eldest of her siblings and that big sister title was one, was one that she took very, very seriously. She absolutely loved being a big sister and she was so good at it. Pink was her favorite color, drawing was her hobby, and playing outside in the yard was the one thing that she did pretty much every single day. So like I mentioned, in the fall of 2022, Athena was living in paradise full time with her father Jacob and his partner Ashley, a woman who had known Athena since she was barely a year and a half old. The family house was mid renovation, so even though there were big projects to do, there was a lot of excitement in the home because Christma was coming. They had started to order presents online as you do. They were getting ready to do everything to make Christmas the magical holiday that they always did. Wednesday, November 30th of 2022 was the last day of November. Normal cloudy day, but pretty much just like any other Wednesday. At around 4:30pm, Athena arrived home from school and she went to her bedroom. Ashley was inside of the house beginning to cook dinner and Jacob was gone because he had left earlier that afternoon for a hunting trip with his father. At some point between 4:30 and 5:30, while Athena was playing and Ashley was cooking dinner, a green FedEx delivery van pulled up to the driveway. The driveway climbed out with a package in hand. Inside of it were Barbie dolls. That package was Athena's Christmas present, ordered by her father. The driver of the vehicle was 31 year old Tanner Lynn Horner. Tanner had been working as a contract driver for a FedEx subcontractor called Big Toss Bin for approximately six months. So he did not work for FedEx directly, but he did deliver their packages. And obviously before that night, Athena had never met him or seen him before, ever in her entire life. But within minutes of Tanner pulling up in that delivery van, Athena disappeared. Athena was last seen near the house at approximately 5:30pm Ashley, again busy in the kitchen cooking dinner, assumed that her stepdaughter was still inside of the house folding clothes. When dinner was ready, she went to go call her, but Athena's room was empty. Ashley searched the yard. She walked around the house yelling her name. She couldn't find her. So minute by minute, she started to feel her anxiety levels go up. She started walking faster, looking harder, yelling her name out louder, until eventually it got to be 6:40 6:50pm and realizing that she was not going to find her, Ashley picked up the phone and she called the police. Afterwards, she called Athena's dad. Jacob filled him in and he immediately stopped his drive and turned back around to head home. We know that there was a little bit of an argument between her and her stepmom last night, but it isn't anything unusual. There was that argument, then her stepmom went to fix dinner, come back to get Athena, and Athena wasn't in her room. End quote. The Wise County Sheriff's office issued a flyer describing Athena. Blue jeans with flowers embroidered on the pockets. A gray long sleeved shirt, light brown boots. She was first listed as an endangered child. And once Jacob got back and authorities were there, the search to find Athena Strand officially began. Investigators moved very quickly on this, questioning and talking to everyone that they needed to talk to to try and make sense of how a little girl just seemingly disappeared into thin air. They also put out an Amber Alert on her. And I told you that the area that they lived in was pretty quiet because of where they were located in. It was common for families around there to own and live on at least an acre of land and for the houses to be pretty spread out. So because of that, investigators needed to figure out exactly who had been in the area apart from the family to try and put some dots together. And that's when they discovered that that FedEx driver had made the delivery to the Strand property during the window of time when Athena disappeared. The package had been delivered by that third party contractor, big toss bin. And they soon identified the driver as Tanner Horner. Identifying him, getting the name Tanner Horner and starting to dig it, dig into who he was as a person only peeled back the layers of a truly vile, despicable man. And the more they found out about him, the worse things were starting to look. Taking a very quick break to thank today's sponsor, my favorite Quinns. I've told you guys before, I'm kind of prepping for the wedding, guys. It's next month. I'm kind of freaking out in a good way. But, like, I'm definitely freaking out. And I'm just kind of now making sure that I have outfits for everything, including not only the fun outfits that I will wear the day off, but also all the outfits before. And my go to that has been my go to for months now is Quince. Duh. Who Surprised? Not me. I've bought so many of their T shirts. I've spoken about their T shirts before. They're so affordable, they're so comfortable. They're just. I only wear Quince T shirts if you want me to be honest with you. Because they have the perfect neckline, I feel they're the perfect length to the point that you could wear low rise jeans, they look cute. You can wear high rise jeans, they still look cute. They just. I don't know how they do their measurements for that T shirt specifically to look good on every single body type. But whatever measurements they have, they need to keep forever because not only Is the cut of it perfect? The sleeves are perfect. The sleeves might be my favorite part. 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That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com wish for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com wish thank you so much, Quint, for sponsoring this week's episode. Love you guys. Foreign FBI Special Agent Patrick McGuire led a team that began pulling digital evidence from that FedEx van's internal cameras. And what they found was damning, to say the least. It was also more than enough to prove to them that they were looking into the right person, because camera footage from inside the vehicle showed not only Tanner inside of the van the night of November 30, but also a small girl, Athena. She was seen inside of the van with the driver. In an attempt to deflect suspicion, I guess, one detectives spoke to Tanner. He told investigators that he remembered seeing an older green van that was leaving the area around the same time that he was there for his delivery. And he went pretty far, to be honest with you, with this lie, even describing the van in detail, saying that it had a missing lower panel on the driver's door. And because they couldn't necessarily rule anything out yet, authorities did look into it. They even issued a statewide alert for that vehicle. But the more that they looked, the more that the digital trail pointed not outward, not into a mystery green vehicle, but directly back to Tanner Horner. Cell tower data, van footage and his own inconsistencies on top of literal proof they had of Athena inside of his van. Everything combined began to slowly close in around him. Two days after Athena Strand went missing on December 2nd. Prosecutors later revealed at trial that Tanner Horner drove past the Strand residence while police and family members were gathering in a search effort. He was stopped and informed that a seven year old girl had been kidnapped and body camera footage footage captioned his reaction when he was told. His initial reaction was, are you serious? I was wondering what all this was about. The way that he lied straight to the face of the officer was shocking and quite frankly, disgusting. Later that same day, Wise County Sheriff's Lane Atkin announced the arrest of Tanner Lynn Horner. When police approached him, Tanner did not resist. And because he couldn't really deny it, he told the truth. Well, not really. Tanner admitted to taking Athena, confirming that yes, he was involved and he did have something to do with her disappearance. And what he told them did confirm something that they already suspected because he confessed that Athena was dead. His initial account, which prosecutors would later argue was almost entirely fabricated and full of lies, claimed that he had accidentally struck Athena with his delivery vehicle while he was backing being out of the driveway. His claim was that he hit her with a van on accident. And according to him, he said that Athena was not seriously hurt, but that he panicked, didn't know what else to do, and decided that the best idea for whatever reason was to place her in the van. Does anyone think that that's what actually happened to. No. Does anyone believe that he actually hit her with the van panic, didn't know what to do and put her in the van? I don't think so, but that's the story that he was trying to sell. Afterwards, he claimed that he strangled her out of fear that Athena would tell her father. But of course he wasn't telling the truth because the fact of it was that what he did to 7 year old Athena Strand was far more calculated, far more brutal and far more devastating than anyone could have ever imagined. Trial evidence would later show that surveillance footage from inside the van captured the moment that Tanner Horner placed Athena inside of the van. Van quote, 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 will hurt you. He says that twice, end quote. Athena could be heard on audio asking if he was a kidnapper. She flat out asked him, are you a kidnapper? And then she started crying out for her mom. A seven year old little girl crying for her mom. Jurors who Were warned about the footage and how heavy and horrible it was before it was shown, openly cried in the courtroom. It was horrible for everyone listening to what Athena went through in her last few moments, but it was absolutely soul crushing to her family. It affected the jurors, the officers, the detectives, the investigators. Every single person who was involved with this case, voluntarily or not, was changed by the things that they heard on that Audi audio. And it is truly gut wrenching to think about that. The fact that Athena was the victim who experienced all of those things that everyone listened to in that courtroom being done to her. A seven year old little girl full of innocence, A seven year old girl who knew nothing but love, and a seven year old little girl who died crying out for her mom. It is an unimaginable kind of pain that none of us could ever even try to understand. Evidence presented at trial indicated that Athena remained alive for some time after the abduction. And evidence also showed that she had tried her best to fight back. Of course, given her size and her strength compared to a 31 year old man, meant that she never had a chance. But within roughly only an hour of being taken, Athena was dead. She had been brutally essayed and murdered. Tanner Horner had strangled her. He then disposed of her body at a creek near Fort Worth, Leaving her face down and wearing nothing, her little body floating in the water approximately nine miles away from her home. That same afternoon, Tanner led investigators to the creek to show them where he had left her. FBI agent Dave Rogers, who was present when Athena's body was pulled from the water, described the moment to the jury. Quote, I remember her being really cold to the touch, Firm and with the lights and everything on the skin, her skin appeared to be glistening, kind of angel like. End quote. Let's talk about Athena's mom, Maitland. When she initially received the phone call that her daughter was missing, she was at home in Oklahoma. And as soon as she heard, she got in the car immediately and started driving. No questions asked, no, no thinking about what she could do or should do. She was on autopilot with one thing in mind and only one thing. Finding her daughter. Quote. It felt like I was dying. I couldn't breathe, but I knew I had to keep going. I almost tapped the brakes because I thought I was having a heart attack. But I just told myself that if I kept going, it would be okay and I would find her. End quote. From the moment that she was told that her daughter was missing until the day of the arrest, the. The day her body was found, and every day since then, Maitland has had to fight and give her all. Not only to survive, but she has to give every ounce of energy that she has to continue being a mother. Despite her entire world feeling like it undid. She is still a mother and she has a duty to continue to raise Athena siblings and to Maitland, to her, the title of mom is it has always been the most important one. Jacob, Ashley and Maitland were gathered at a local church, which was the central hub for the search efforts. When investigators arrived to deliver the news, they told them that Athena had been found and that she was gone. The three of them, a father, a stepmother and a biological mother, sat in that church together and tried to process the news that the seven year old little girl who had been the center of their universe was never coming home. Maitland later went to identify her daughter's body. The memory of that moment would stay with her forever. She described it in the courtroom from the witness stand and she said that both her and Jacob were going to be the ones to identify the body. But Maitland showed up before she told Jacob to be there because she didn't know what condition Athena's body would be in. She didn't know what she would look like or if she would even be recognizable. And when she got there before to see, she did that because she didn't want Jacob to have to see their daughter in the state that she was in. Her ears were messed up and she had incision lines and her chin was scraped up. I searched her body looking for any reason that that wasn't my baby. End quote. Athena had no clothes on when she was found. And that night, unable to fall asleep, Maitland drove to a Walmart and she bought her daughter new clothes. She wanted to find a pretty dress for her as the last thing that she would ever be able to give her. The day after Athena's body was discovered, her paternal grandfather, Mark Strand, sat down and wrote a Facebook post. This flesh, this man that I am, is angry and I want five minutes alone in a cell with a psycho that took Arthena away from us. But there is a soft, gentle voice in the back of my head telling me I need to forgive him. This flesh man wants that psycho to burn in hell for all eternity. Yet that gentle voice continues to yell at me that I need to forgive him. End quote. Maitland, meanwhile, could not choose forgiveness. This was her baby. And if there was one thing that she wanted from Tanner, it was justice. On social media. She called Tanner an absolute monster, which is exactly what he is. She demanded that his face be everywhere. Quote I do not want the bastard that took my baby from me, county, state, or country without every single person knowing her face. End quote. Also, within days, school districts across Texas were dressing their students in pink, which was Athena's favorite color, in her honor. More than 20 districts participated. So who was Tanner Horner? Tanner Lynn Horner was born on August 8, 1991. His childhood was, by the testimony of those who knew him and his own family, and deeply unstable. His mother, Melissa, testified that she had been abused herself from a very young age, had dropped out of school at 14 years old, and had used substances throughout much of her life. She acknowledged that she had been drinking and using substances in the weeks before she discovered that she was pregnant with Tanner. And she continued to smoke cigarettes, amongst other things throughout her pregnancy. We also learned that Tanner Horner had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Asperger syndrome, adhd, depression, and bipolar disorder. He was described by former teachers as a lonely kid who was trying to find his place. He had prior accusations of SA against minors dating back to 2013. Three separate incidents involving girls aged 16, for which he was never prosecuted for. And during the trial, two women victims came forward to testify about these incidents. When he began working for Big Tossman as a FedEx contractor approximately six months before Athena's murder, something appeared to shift inside of Tanner, according to the people closest to him. And listen to this. He later told investigators that he had developed an alter ego that he called Zero, which he described to be a Persona that, quote, unquote, emerged around the time that he started working as a delivery driver. During police questioning, Tanner appeared to slip in and out of the Zero identity. He would drop his head to one side, he would roll his eyes to the back of his head, and he would tell investigators, quote, if I say too much, Zero is going to hurt me. Zero is telling me that this is all a trap. Texas Ranger Sergeant Job Espinosa described that behavior that he was expressing throughout his interviews later on to the jurors in the courtroom, quote, his demeanor, physical demeanor, changes. His head goes into a sideways motion, his eyes roll into the back of his head, and he pretends to turn it to Zero, end quote. Forensic psychologists were unimpressed. Expert analysis concluded that this Zero identity appeared to be something constructed post offense rather than a documented long standing condition, end quote. Described plainly as a strategic narrative or a desperate move to avoid personal responsibility. So it sounds like in their opinion and in mine as well, he made up this Zero personality because he was incapable of admitting that what he did was a choice that he made himself. He didn't want to make himself the person responsible. So he made this identity up inside of his head, called it zero, and said that Zero told him to do all the bad things and that it wasn't his fault. The day after the murder, Tanner Horner had had Googled, quote, paradise, missing girl, end quote. He had searched for photos of Athena's missing posters, and he had typed into Google, do FedEx truck cameras constantly record. He also had, at some point before the abduction, tried to use sticky notes to cover the cameras inside of that FedEx van. The DA argued that this was not the behavior of a man in the grip of an alter ego. It was the behavior of a man who knew exactly what he was trying to do, exactly what he did do, and a man that was trying to not get caught. On December 5th of 2022, Tanner Horner was formally charged with aggravated kidnapping and capital murder of a child under 10 years old. On December 14, Jacob Strand filed a civil lawsuit against not only Tanner, but FedEx and Big Toss Bin, seeking over $1 million in damages for negligence. The lawsuit stated, quote, this is about Athena Strand, a vibrant young girl who deserves to have her memory live on for the good that she brought to the world. It is about a life that was taken senselessly, a child who could have been any of ours. It is about a loss that could have and should have been prevented, end quote. On February 16th of 2023, Tanner was formally indicted by a wise county grand jury. Six days later, District attorney James Staton announced that he would be seeking the death penalty. In March of 2023, Tanner entered a not guilty plea. The case then moved slowly through the system. There were psychiatric evaluations, legal filings, as Athena's family waited year after year for the moment that they would finally be in the same room as the man who killed their daughter. While awaiting trial, Tanner wrote letters. Investigators found two of them during a search of his cell. The first one was addressed to Athena's family. Quote, I'm sorry I allowed my mental state to be unstable. I'm sorry I took your little angel away from you. You didn't deserve it. You all didn't deserve it. My son didn't deserve to lose his father. My mother didn't deserve to lose her son. My fiance didn't deserve to have her wedding day stripped away from her. I pray that my death eases your suffering in some way. A second letter found was labeled detectives only. And that letter spun an elaborate story about an armed man who had supposedly appeared at the Strand driveway and and forced Tanner Horner to take Athena. But of course, investigators found absolutely no evidence at all that that would support any of that because it was a lie. And it once again just shows how incapable this man is at accepting responsibility, that he did what he did, because he is an evil man at his core. The trial of Tanner Lynn Horner was scheduled to begin on April 7th of 2026 at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice center in Fort Worth, more than three years after Athena's death. Maitland wore pink for Athena. Jacob sat straight back in the gallery. Ashley, who had been the last person to see Athena alive, presented herself to testify. And then before a single piece of evidence could be presented, something unexpected happened. Tanner Horner stood up and he pleaded guilty. He pleaded guilty to both counts, aggravated kidnapping and capital murder of a child under the age of 10. The trial, which had been anticipated to determine whether he was guilty or innocent, converted immediately into a sentencing phase. And the jury, rather than having to decide whether he did it, would now decide whether he lived or died. But the worst thing that happened inside of that courtroom is that Athena's family, her parents, the people who loved her the most in this world, had to sit there and relive the worst loss they had ever experienced while listening to what Tanner did to Athena in excruciating detail. Over the following weeks, jurors were shown footage and heard audio from inside Tanner's FedEx van on the day of the abduction. They were warned. Many cried openly. The courtroom fell silent as Athena's voice filled the room again. A seven year old little girl asking her kidnapper what he was doing while crying out for her mother. You could hear her little voice asking, what are you doing? Forensic evidence was presented. An essay examination of Athena's body had revealed his DNA. Male DNA. Blood and semen were also found on Tanner's FedEx shirt. And even though there was a mountain of evidence in regards to the essay, again, Tanner never admitted to that because he could not. Dressed in pink, Maitland bravely walked to the witness stand and she faced the man who had killed her daughter. She spoke about Athena's laugh, her princess dresses, her stubbornness, her love. She told the court about the last time that she dropped off Athena at her father's house. It was a quick handover because Jacob was taking the kids to see Christmas lights that evening. Maitland was asked by a prosecutor to share the last thing that she said to her daughter. She paused before saying, quote, I told her that I love her and that I would see her on Friday, end quote. She described identifying Athena's body. She described the hospital gown that she dressed her daughter in. She described going to Walmart at midnight because she couldn't sleep, buying new clothes for her baby, who was already gone. There were handprint bruises around my daughter's neck. And because she no longer has a voice, I am her voice. She's not just some story. She's not just some number. End quote. Jacob Strand testified about the guilt of a father who had left his house to go on an innocent hunting trip that afternoon. He spoke about Barbie dolls, the Christmas present that Tanner had delivered before taking his daughter. He said that he felt like he wasn't there when he should have been to protect Athena. And he said that he hoped the justice system would make the right decision. And then Ashley Strand, Athena's stepmom, went on, went up to testify. She became emotional on the stand as she described the moment that she realized that Athena was not in that house. The frantic search of the yard, the phone calls and the escalating worry and concern. And even some jurors who had managed to hold themselves together through the other testimonies finally broke down after nearly a month of testimony. After the footage, the audio, the DNA, the letters, the psychiatrist, the weepings, the cryings, 12 jurors deliberated for less than three hours. And they came back with a unanimous decision. Tanner Lynn Horner was sentenced to death on May 5, 2026. He showed no visible reaction as Judge George Gallagher delivered the sentence. The courtroom, which had carried the weight of this case for weeks, let out a collective breath. Maitland, who had worn pink throughout most of the trial, had changed into a black suit for the final day. Athena's uncle Elijah Strand then addressed the court. There are no words that can truly capture the devastation that Tanner Horner caused for us and our family. What he took from this world is not just a child. He took a light, a future, and a piece of every single person who loved her. Maitland addressed him directly. You are nothing. Athena's name will forever be remembered. Her name will forever be celebrated. And everyone will forget you. End quote. The strength of Maitland. I can't even put it into words. And since that terrible day, Athena's mom Maitland has not stopped. In the years since her daughter's death, she has built a non profit organization called Athena Strands army, dedicated to pushing for faster and more effective alert systems for missing children. Her advocacy has already achieved what is called the Athena Alert, a Texas law allowing law enforcement to issue regional alerts for missing children within a hundred mile radius without requiring immediate proof of abduction and I want to end this episode with a quote from Maitland. Quote I know that Athena's death will not be in vain. I will spend the rest of my life fighting for her so that no other family will endure such unbearable pain and grief. A monster attempted to take Athena's voice, but she is louder now than she has ever been. End quote. Yeah, this was a difficult one. I'm not gonna lie. That is all I have for today's episode. Thank you guys for spending time with me today and for listening to Athena's story. I hope you guys are having the best day. If not, go do something to make it the best day. Make somebody happy and I will see you in my next episode. Massive kiss on the forehead to every single one of you. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of I wish you were here. As a reminder, you can listen to this podcast anywhere. You get your podcast video version also available on YouTube. Love you guys.