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FedEx Driver Kidnaps 7 Yr Old Girl After Delivering Her Barbies Then SA's Her In Back of The Van
00:46:15
35 year old Tanner Horner, a delivery driver with a route in Paradise, Texas writes a letter to the police, “Detective, my family is in danger…” He goes on to claim that the pants in his backpack, although they do belong to the kidnapped and murdered 7 year old girl that recently went missing in Paradise, Texas, were in fact planted there. But that’s just one version of the events Tanner Horner confessed to the authorities. Detectives know it’s not true but how else can they find out what really happened to Athena in the last hours of her life? The true extent of his crimes will not be fully known until simultaneous audio and visual footage plays at his sentencing trial; his delivery truck had an interior dash cam that was recording the entire time. Will Tanner Horner be given life or be put to death? This is the kidnapping, SA, and murder of 7 year old Athena Strand. Full show notes available at RottenMangoPodcast.com
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Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like showing up for movie night ready for a heart pounding thriller. But getting a three hour documentary on lawn care? That's kind of like insurance. Insurance may all seem the same on the surface, but when it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. You wouldn't settle for a snooze fest when you came for a thrill ride. So don't settle for just any insurance when there's State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is
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B
there There's a reason Chevy trucks are known for their dependability. It's because they show up no matter the weather, push forward no matter the terrain, and deliver. That's why Chevrolet has earned more dependability awards for trucks than any other brand in 2025, according to J.D.
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power.
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Because in every Chevy truck, like every Chevy driver, dependability comes standard. Visit Chevy.com to learn more. Chevrolet received the highest total number of awards among all trucks in the J.D. power 2025 U.S. vehicle Dependability Study Awards based on 2022 models. Newer models may be shown. Visit J.D. power.com awards for more details. Chevrolet Together lets drive.
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C
Bada bing, Bada boo.
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Technically, a third of your day you're supposed to be asleep. Eight hours of sleep, 16 hours awake, and at least a few hours alive. We are all sitting around the table with our co workers going, I had the craziest dream last night. And everybody sits there and they try to decode your dream for you in varying degrees. Some of the co workers are skeptical. Maybe it's time to lay off on the melatonin gummies. Others say maybe it's a sign. Maybe you should go through his phone because you never know. Others say it's just a dream. It's your anxiety getting worked up and rehearsing all of these hypothetical situations. It's just a rehearsal. It's no big deal. All the way down to the what about the eggs in the dream? You said you had eggs in your dream. What happened to the eggs? Eggs are one of the most overlooked dream symbols, but you have to be specific. Did you find a nest of eggs? Because when you find a nest of eggs, typically that means that you're going to have wealth coming your way, happiness in your marriage. Something good is about to happen. But if the eggs are broken and the yellow yolk is just spilling out of them and they're fresh, that's good. Fortune is ready for the picking. Even though the egg is broken, it's coming. Luck is coming your way. And let's say you're eating the eggs, any sort of eggs, that means you're absorbing new wisdom. But every time you take a bite of the eggs, if it doesn't taste good, that means you are spiritually and emotionally too. Swallow a tough pill. If you're buying eggs at the supermarket, you should probably buy a lottery ticket because that means you're investing in growth and something good is going to happen. All of that sounds very positive, or at least something that you can work on. And there's lots of symbolisms and nightmares. Like if you dream of a haunted house, each part of the haunted house apparently means something. If you're stuck in the haunted house basement, that means you have unprocessed, repressed trauma that you need to get through. You're stuck in the attic. You have intellectual, spiritual beliefs that you have been neglecting. Maybe a locked room, something is ready to emerge, but your ego is blocking it. There's all these scary things that we can decode. And a lot of people, they have dreams of where they're getting killed or where they're running away from a killer. But what happens if you're dreaming and you're the one doing the killing? Sometimes the scary part is not the dream itself, but what happens when you wake up. 35 year old Tanner Horner claims he's always had these weird dreams. Sometimes he'll wake up and he knows he's fallen asleep in his bed, but when he wakes up, he's just roaming around in his grandma's backyard. He has no clue how he got to his grandma's backyard, but he's just roaming. It's like he blacks out, wakes up and he kind of recalls how he gets to the backyard, but not really because it also kind of feels like a dream. He doesn't know if it's a dream, he doesn't know if it's real life. He says, sometimes I recall in weird ways I recall stuff in dreams. I recall stuff like just random flashbacks through the next day. It's almost like a PTSD kind of thing. But nothing compares to the recent nightmare that he's had. He lives in Paradise, Texas, where everybody has been looking for this missing 7 year old girl named Athena Strand. And maybe like everyone else in the area, he's been thinking about this case a lot because it just materializes in his nightmare. He has this whole nightmare about being the one that kidnapped and kills this missing 7 year old girl in the local area.
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C
That's crazy.
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And then he wakes up and he realized, oh, thank God, that's a nightmare. And then he opens up his backpack, and he sees inside, a pair of small pants, tiny pants with flowers near the pockets, which is the last thing Athena Strand was seen in before she went missing. He says, I don't know what the hell happened. I just found them in my backpack. And I'm just like, are you fucking kidding me? I thought I had a really fucked up nightmare. But no, the pants were inside of his Dragon Ball Z backpack. And now he's panicking. He's going to get arrested. It's only a matter of time. But he doesn't even know what happened aside from this nightmare. But can he even trust the nightmare? That's what he's saying. Or maybe somebody's setting him up. Someone planted the pants there. He writes in a note to the police later, detective, my family is in danger. He writes that he's being framed for the murder of Athena Strand. He writes, don't tell the media. Don't tell my family. They'll tell the media. Don't tell the family of Athena until their lawsuit against FedEx goes through. This is between me and you, Detective. As long as it stays between us, my family stays safe. I will gladly take the blame as long as my family is safe. That is what Tanner Horner tells the detectives. The detectives know that this is not true, but they listen anyway, because they need to figure out what Tanner Horner did to Athena Strand. But it's very hard when not a single thing that comes out of Tanner Horner's mouth is the truth. This is the case of Athena Strand, where Tanner Horner, the FedEx delivery driver kidnapped and murdered her, is now facing the death penalty in Texas. And he can't even seem to stick to one story of what the hell happened that night. Foreign. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the Strands family GoFundMe, which we will also link in the show notes. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's dedicated team of researchers. We'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at rotten mango podcast.com A few notes before we begin. This episode contains discussions of essay, violence and crimes against very young children. Please take care of yourself and don't hesitate to step away if you need to. There are also discussions of mental health, diagnosis, and autism. Please keep in mind that this individual does not represent these communities, nor was it a motive, explanation, cause, or a part of why he committed these atrocities. I want to be very clear because this is going to. He's going to go on and blame the fact that he has autism for this case. This opinion or evaluation of his is not only wrong, but it's very harmful and it is not a reliable representation of the community. As of filming this, he is still in the sentencing phase of his trial. But once, once it's concluded, we're going to have a pinned comment of his sentencing. Everything included in today's case is publicly available online and specific quotes may have been condensed or shortened for brevity. So with that being said, let's get started. Delivery drivers have favorite houses. Circular driveways, usually. Great. You don't have to do a reverse, a 10 point turn to get out. These are like the good ones, a favorite even in the same respect. Delivery drivers have houses that they hate going to. One delivery driver says, I just call it the cat piss house. I hate the cat piss house. It's the worst thing in the world. There's cat piss all over the front porch and you smell it and it stays with you. And imagine that in the summer. Another says, there's this one house with a driveway that looks like the surface of the damn moon with how many craters are on it. But their mailbox slot is so tiny, every single parcel has to go to the front door. Mine's a long rural driveway that pretty much is a junkyard. There used to be these aggressive dogs living there and they just had so many places to hide, always out anyone's guess of which direction these dogs are going to come out and try to attack you. The worst are the houses that have lines of cars that are just parked on the street. So you have to park the delivery truck a house down and then run to the front of the house where you walk up two flights of stairs to deliver it straight to their door. And it's miserable because a lot of delivery drivers, they get paid by the route. They don't get paid by the hour. So they're running to complete the route.
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C
Huh. Interesting.
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Yeah, it's a huge deal and it's miserable. And sometimes certain roads just have random traffic jams for no reason. It's like everybody forgot how to drive. Tanner Horner is sitting in the driver's seat of the big white man with FedEx written in big bold purple and orange letters on the sides. And he's starting to get very agitated. The entire road is blocked. There's rows of boxes stacked behind him. It's almost Christmas time. It's the Time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a delivery driver's peak time for packages. He's got places to go and he's peering over his steering wheel, trying to see what the hell is going on. It's a small residential road. There are cars on both sides blocking him. There's people walking around like, this is not a goddamn road.
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C
What year was this?
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2022.
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Okay.
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Tanner sounds annoyed before he sounds curious. There's honking. I can't get through. There's people in the way. He's trying to tell the people outside, like, hello, I'm trying to get through. Do you not see my giant FedEx van? He's inching forward and he leans out the window and he's asking, can you tell them I need to get through? There's like people in the way. I have more packages to deliver. There's a woman who approaches the FedEx truck. You can pull up and try to ask them to get through, but there's been a kidnapping, so it's all blocked. So you'll just have to pull up and ask the officers and they'll let you through. But there's been a seven year old taken. Are you serious? Yeah. That's what all of this is for. I was wondering what all this was about. Are you serious? The FedEx truck pulls up to the officers. He asks if he can go through, which they let him through. And there's no change in his demeanor because we have the dashcam footage of him sitting in the truck talking to the police. Yeah, just talking to the neighbors. I need to get through. And there's no change in his demeanor. In fact, he's holding a cigarette in one hand. There's no fear. There's nothing. Even though all the police have to do is pull the driver to the side, check his phone, check his backpack, and they would know that he's the one that kidnapped seven year old Athena Strand.
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C
When was the this route that he's
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96 tennis courts does not sound that bad if you had to search through 96 tennis courts. I mean it's bad. But let's say you have a drone. Throw it up in the air and it's an easy search. Unless you're looking for something minuscule. But if you're looking for something bigger, you're going to find it. Unless you fill 96 tennis courts with tall trees, brush, hill and almost freezing temperatures. All of a sudden six Acres is a massive plot of land. Athena Strand and her family live on six acres of land in Paradise, Texas, which is about 50ish miles north of Fort Worth, Texas. If you guys are interested in the locations. But there's technically two families that live on this huge plot of land. You've got Jacob and Ashley Str and they have their children, a 10 year old daughter that's from Ashley from a previous marriage. Then you have 7 year old Athena and then they have a newborn baby together. So Athena has a stepsister and then a half sister. This is a blended family. One thing to note is Jacob is Athena's biological father and Ashley is Athena's stepmother. She's also been in Athena's life since Athena was maybe a year and a half old. So they're a really well blended family. And this is very important. Later on the same property, you have another house with Athena's uncle and aunt. There's from Jacob's side. I mean, that's the whole point of living in Paradise, Texas. The kids can play and run outside and they have their favorite tree that they would go to and climb up. They would run back and forth down the hill to their uncle and aunt's house and then run back up and run back down. It's the countryside. The kids love it. The house is situated very far from the main road. I don't even know if you can call it a main road. It's just a road that leads people to a few properties and it's a dead end, so there's not a lot of through traffic. If someone is coming down the road, it's either because they have a reason to be there, they live there, they're visiting a friend there, or they're delivering a pass package or they're lost. Not really any other reason. Ashley, Athena's stepmom, says Athena loved it so much. I mean she was wild, she loved living out there, loved the freedom of being a kid, getting to just run wild and free on some land. She's trying to explain the situation to the police. The bus drops off the girls at 4.30pm the older sister, the 10 year old, goes to the uncle's house because she needs help with her homework. Athena, she's hanging out with Ashley, the stepmom and the newborn baby. Athena's supposed to be doing her chores though. She's supposed to be sorting her laundry because that's the after school chore. And Ashley's cooking dinner. And Jacob, the dad, had gone out hunting. So it's really just Ashley, Athena and the newborn baby. So Ashley's telling Athena, go finish sorting your laundry before dinner, okay? So Ashley's like, I'm going to check up on you after and make sure your chores are done. It's a very normal thing to do. And she goes to Athena's bedroom, opens the door after dinner is done and Athena is gone. She's calling Athena's name. No response. She calls the aunt and uncle that live down the hill on the same property. Maybe she went to go see her sister there. She's not there. Ashley calls her husband, Athena's biological dad, Jacob, and the police. And at first everyone thinks, okay, she definitely wandered off. Like maybe she's lost in some brush, maybe she tripped and fell. Maybe she's kind of annoyed at you because you made her do the laundry. The main investigator working the case says it's going to be really, really cold tonight. It's going to be freezing temperatures tonight. I'm a father, this is my county. Let's find her quick. I don't want her to get cold. I don't want her to be lost. The original energy, the whole energy of this grid search is let's go find Athena, get her home and quote. Then we can all go home and get warm. The biggest stressor in this case is it's going to be cold that night. The most efficient way is to bring in the air assets. So they bring in these aircrafts with thermal imaging to look for heat signatures on the ground. They're flying low to the ground. They're scanning for anything that produces heat. Trees do not light up like animals do. They find rabbits, hogs, deer, no human movement. But just because thermal imaging does not show it does not mean that there's not a person in there. Civilian volunteers come in, they start doing a shoulder to shoulder search. So they all start at the property line, shoulder to shoulder, and they walk through it as deep as they can get. Because when you have a kid, if they tripped on some brush, it's going to be hard to find them. So I think like 300 volunteers showed up that night because no one thinks something that nefarious happened. A lot of people were initially under the belief that maybe Athena was trying to go to her aunt's house. Maybe slip sprained her ankle, can't shout, no one can hear her. So they're just trying to get her home. Because it's gonna be freezing temperatures that night. They send the dogs out. Volunteers are bringing horses, four wheelers to go through the property. It's almost the energy of let's hurry up, get this over with so that we can all go home. And it's gonna be like a cute little wholesome story that's gonna be in the papers. Most families in paradise have properties that sit on at least an acre of land. So this specific property has been in Jacob's family for 20 years. Athena'. He even grew up on this property running around. So this is not an abnormal occurrence. Everybody in paradise knows, but this is what's abnormal. About it. When police bring in the dogs, the dogs keep doing circles around the main house on the property.
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C
Okay, what does that mean?
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That means her scent just circles the property and just ends. It doesn't follow a lead into the woods. It doesn't follow and go into the aunt and uncle's house. It's just around the property. And then it cuts off. By the end of the night. I think the feeling that she was just lost in the woods is dissipating. They said that they were huddled in a circle as helicopters were flying very low over the property. And that's when they first felt that something bad must have happened. But what, like what could happen? The only thing that they know is Athena goes missing. And the only difference in the entire property is there's this blue box that's been left at the door. It's blue box with white around the edges. It's very clearly a Walmart delivery. They open it up and inside are Athena's Christmas presents. It's a set of Barbies. It's the all you can be Barbies career Barbies. So each one has a different career. And that's the only thing that changed. The rangers who have done missing child's cases, they typically have a pattern that they follow with good reason, I will say, but because more often than not, when a child goes missing, the family is involved. One of the lead investigators working the case says, so my immediate thought is go ahead and lock everybody in on a stake. That's why they try to get statements as quickly as possible. They want to lock you into one version of events. They're going to try to find evidence that doesn't fit that version. And then they're going to force you to change your version over and over and over again until you're just straight up lying. You dig yourself into a hole and then you have to tell the truth. But that's really only if you're guilty. So he's locking everybody into a statement, trying to corroborate that with digital evidence. Where were you? Cell phone towers, text messages? He says, my goal is to lock everybody in that night, especially the people that were in close proximity to Athena at the time. So that's what I doing on the scene. They also go to Athena's teachers. Kids say a lot about their home life at school that you just would not realize. They just say some crazy things. Ms. Thompson is Athena's school teacher. And Ms. Thompson is asked to describe what it's like to teach Athena. She says she's like a free Spirit. I mean, she would come in with stickers on her hands. She loved to dress up. She's truly just like a free spirit. I have no other words to describe her. Her teacher says there was a new student in their classroom that had needs that were harder to fulfill. And Athena opened up her arms to him. She would play with him on the playground. She has this very big heart. I mean, that's just who she is. And now she's missing. And the last thing she was seen wearing are these little pants with little flowers near the pocket. And a shirt and a jacket, of course, but the pants are very distinct. The lead investigator says he just feels it in his gut. He's locking everybody in a statement, but he just feels something is not right. So he starts shifting his attention to the Barbies that were delivered around that time. Which means the Texas Rangers, they need help. They need resources. They reach out to the FBI, fill them in on what's going on. And the first person the FBI want to talk to is the FedEx driver. They're like, Let me call FedEx. They contact FedEx, and they're like, we need to know who the delivery driver was that dropped off these Barbies. Because maybe he's not guilty. That's not what we're saying. We're not that presumptuous. But maybe he saw something. Maybe he saw somebody drive up. Maybe he saw something else. FedEx is like, oh, that. That's not by us. So that was not a FedEx employee. It's through a third contractor, a third party company that we use in the local area called Big Top Spin, which a lot of these delivery companies are doing this recently, especially with companies like Amazon, where they're not employed by the major company, but they have third party companies in local areas that they dispatch to.
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C
But they still drive a FedEx FedEx car.
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Yes. So sometimes they will and sometimes they don't. And that's why you might have seen an uptick of people dropping off an Amazon package in personal vehicle instead of an Amazon vehicle.
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C
You know, interesting.
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So it's. It just varies. Big Top Spin, however, happens to be a company where they will give you vans that say FedEx on the side. So it seems like they do most of the contracting in the area for FedEx. They do deliveries during peak, peak seasons. This is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. November 22, FBI reaches out to Big Top Spin, and they give them a name of the delivery driver who went to deliver Athena's Barbies, coincidentally, right at the time that she goes missing, which I mean, for all the Feds know, this could very well just be a coincidence. They want to talk to him. They want to talk to Tanner Horner. They arrest him while he's working in his FedEx truck.
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C
Arrest him?
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A
Well, they did try to talk to him a few times. But here's the very suspicious thing. The time that he drops off the Barbies, he does not record it delivered. So he drops it off, but he doesn't record the delivery on the paper.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Which is very odd. And then after that, he doesn't have another delivery for at least 30 minutes. But the next delivery zone is not 30 minutes away. So what is this time discrepancy?
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C
So FBI got that information immediately.
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Immediately.
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C
Like the next day?
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A
Yeah.
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C
Wow.
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They start talking to him. He's like, I don't know what's going on. I got sick in the FedEx truck. So that's why you have the 30 minute discrepancy. I actually went to a truck stop called Loves. It's like a convenience store and a truck stop. I had to clean up my throw up because I was so sick. And then that's just what happened. And he starts getting emotional and he's like, you know, I have a one year old son, so this has been really messing with me too, as I'm sure it's messing with everybody else in the community. But eventually they arrest him in his FedEx truck and they have enough reason to believe that Athena is somewhere near him. They slam open the back door. They're looking for Athena in the back and she is not there. She's not in the truck. Athena's biological mother, Maitland, she lives about two hours away. When she heard Athena was missing, even though a lot of people in the community thought that she was just. Just wandering on the property, she drove that two hour drive in 45 minutes. She was beside herself. She says that she knows that whatever news the sheriff is bringing to her 48 hours after her daughter has gone missing is not good. So two days after Athena Strand has been missing, the sheriff find the family at the local church. And she knows what he's going to say because she said that when someone is delivering bad news to you before they deliver the news, they avoid eye contact. And when he brought the family into a back room at the church, he wouldn't make eye contact with any of them. But even then, she said she was in a state of denial. She said, I wanted to tell Sheriff Atkin that he didn't know what he was talking about. I asked him if I Could confirm that that was my daughter. But he told me no, because she looks too bad. And I went into a place of denial. I stopped breathing, and I started to black out as I heard Ashley, Athena's stepmom, screaming. I knew it. I knew it was him. Tanner Horner is brought in for questioning by the police, and he gives various versions of what happened that night when he came to deliver the package of Barbies to Athena Strand's one variation, he says that he was doing the delivery there, and he sees this old green van. It's like a Chevy Astro van. It looks really creepy. It looked exactly like the type of van that would kidnap kids. It had sunspots on the hood of the roof and a piece of the panel missing on the driver door close to the front wheel. He's very specific. So he leaves the packages of Barbies, and then he drives off for the next delivery. But that green van was still there when he drove off. And then he just started feeling sick, so he threw up. And then you get the whole story. Multiple law enforcement agencies put a BOLO out for this green van. Lots of resources are funneled into finding this green van because they have to try go through the databases, physical surveillance on the ground. They put out statewide bolos, dps, aircraft flying nonstop to locate any green vans in the area. Police start going through tower dumps in the area to figure out what cellular devices were in the area at the time. So, like, they'll get a cell tower data and see all the active devices. They have to locate this van, because if they locate this van, they could potentially locate Athena alive. So we're back to the initial search. This is before Athena's body is found. And as law enforcement are looking for this green van, they're just noticing a lot of weird holes in Tanner's story. Not only did he not mark Athena Strand's delivery delivered, he stops delivering for 30 minutes, and then there's another four to five deliveries that were uncompleted that night. And just the way that he's behaving is very uncomfortable. It doesn't make sense. He'll have bursts of emotions near the end of the conversation where he's just like, I can't believe something would happen, like this would happen because I'm a parent. But that feels less like empathy and more like purging of emotions because of tension. In the interrogation room during one of the countless conversations between the lead detectives and Tanner Horner, as Tanner is explaining what happened, the detectives step out for a second. And when they get back. There's this huge whiteboard on the wall that interrogators use, and in red marker, it's scribbled. He's going to hurt me. Please help.
- [26:08]
C
What?
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A
So the detectives are like, did you write that? While we were out of the room for a second. Who's he? Who's gonna hurt you? Please help. Help what? And he says, because if I say too much, I'm gonna die. So, like, what does that even mean? Who's gonna die? Why would you die if you say too much? What are you talking about? This is part of Tanner Horner's story that there was another party involved. And he goes back and forth. So it's not this chronological timeline of story one, story two, story three, story four. It's just a merging of all the stories. But in the event that he claims that there was another party involved in this kidnapping, he even wrote this note later for the detectives as he's sitting in jail. Detectives, my family is in danger. The day Athena was killed, I wasn't the only one involved. When I pulled up to the house, an older man had pulled a rifle on me and demanded my wallet. It's weird. He almost expected me to be there. After he checked my wallet, he gave me instructions. After handing me back my wallet, he told me to take the girl and bring her to a specific spot. This tall grass, bamboo area. He gave me a change of clothes for the girl and told me to have her change into them before handing her to him. He had threatened my family, and I didn't know what to do, so I just went along with it. Don't tell the media. By the way, I don't know if he's going to do something. If I'm killed on the way to and from the courthouses, I'll assume it's him. When I handed her over, she seemed like she knew him. It kind of freaked me out. When she calmed down after seeing him, I shut my headlights off. I followed them, and I saw him park his car near the that creek. The next day, I went there, and I saw the girl's body in the creek. I. Yeah, I needed to get this out, even if it was just in writing. Don't tell the media. Don't tell my family. Don't. They'll tell the media. Don't tell the family of Athena until after their lawsuit with FedEx goes through. This is between me and you, Detective. As long as it stays between us, my family stays safe. I will gladly keep the blame. As long as they're safe. The man was older, probably 50s. Gray hair, short military style haircut. Kind of fat with a bit of upper body muscle. I handed him the girl's clothes when I gave him her. I either missed the pants or put them back in the truck somehow. In my backpack, I'm not sure. But three times he asked me about the cameras on the FedEx truck. Unless y' all find him, keep it from everybody. I don't want my family hurt. I'm sorry I've been a burden on y'. All.
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C
There is a camera in the FedEx.
- [28:31]
A
Yeah. So he tries to go with this whole story that there's another man involved. Authorities sweep the entire state, practically, for this green Astro van that could be involved in Athena Strand's kidnapping. And they don't find it. I mean, I'm sure they do find multiple green Astro vans, but nobody that has any sort of connection with Athena Strand. And it's just a revolving door of excuses with Tanner Horner. So first he says he doesn't even remember delivering the Barbies to Athena's house. Then he says he remembers, and he had to be quiet because that man was involved. That suspicious old man in the green van, and he was getting framed. Then police are able to get the dash cam footage of Athena inside of the FedEx truck. Video placing Athena into the truck, into the back of the van. There's video of him putting her into the back of the van. And they don't see a green an Astro van anywhere in the vicinity. Then he switches his story. He says, let me tell you what really happened. All of this is an accident. I accidentally reversed into Athena. I hit her with the FedEx truck as I was backing up, because I was trying to get onto my next delivery. And I panicked, thinking that she was gonna go tell on me and I would lose my job. So I put her in the back of the van. He says the first version, she was already practically dead when he hit her with the truck. But that's not true at all. There's dash cam stills of Athena alive and unharmed in the FedEx truck, at least in the beginning. To which Tanner then changes his story once more. Where is.
- [29:53]
C
What's that camera like? It's the reverse.
- [29:56]
A
So there's multiple cameras all over the FedEx truck. There's a reverse camera that he says was not working at the time. But there's cameras in the back of the van. There's cameras where the packages are. There's cameras, like, all over the inside and outside of these FedEx vans. However. However, he covered up a lot of them with sticky notes before. So we don't. We don't see the footage of him placing Athena in the back of the truck. We don't know which camera it is. I'm assuming it's probably an exterior camera, but the interior camera, he's covered up most of the ones in the back,
- [30:31]
C
so there are a few that's not covered.
- [30:33]
A
There's one in the front dash that shows him driving that's not covered, at least initially. And you can see Athena. That's where the picture comes from that everybody has seen. There's a still photo that has been used in trial where she is standing between the driver's seat and the passenger seat and she looks really alarmed and he's just driving.
- [30:56]
B
Huh.
- [30:58]
A
Eventually, the detectives will get their hands on the full audio from the cameras because even though he covered them up with sticky camera or sticky notes, the audio was still recorded. Eventually, Tanner changes the story once more that he had to strangle her. So he backs up into her, she's alive. He puts her in the back of the van because he's freaking out about losing his job. And then he decides that he's going to strangle her. To make sure that she keeps silent about him hitting her with his van. He claims he didn't do anything else to her. He just, quote, tossed her body so that he could keep his job. Tanner Horner takes them to a location filled with bamboo. These are like 10 foot tall bamboo trees, stating that this is where he left Athena's body after he killed her, but only because it was an accident. The lead detective says, I'm walking him and he's pointing at a location that's not too thick into the bamboo, and he's stating that it's not too much further in there. And just essentially giving me an idea of where she was in the bamboo. They bring in the dogs, they bring another help. And the detective immediately knows this is not where Athena Strand is. He says, quote, at the time, I felt like I was being lied to again and that she was not here. Just the amount of resources we had, especially with canine resources and everything. In my prior experience, especially if we're being directed to that area, we usually find, unfortunately, human remains are humans with a canine. Very quickly, Tanner Horner offers up the possibility maybe potentially after he, quote, tossed Athena's body, somebody else and came and picked her up. And the police, the whole time, they do a really good job of not getting triggered because I think this case has really affected everyone in Paradise, Texas, in A very strong way. I. I mean, cell towers. Athena Strand's color is pink. That was her favorite color. Cell towers, government buildings, city lights were all changed to pink for the longest time. I just imagine that these police fucking hate his guts, but they don't show it. And they're trying to be very chill with him, and they're like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. But, like, who would do that? Someone who wants to be a hero who's like, oh, I found the little girl. You think that's what it is? He's like, no. I've noticed there's quite a bit of tweakers out here. Here.
- [33:03]
C
What's up?
- [33:04]
A
Tweakers, I guess a very derogatory term for people who use drugs, typically used against people without homes. I think he's trying to paint this picture that someone very nefarious came along and took Athena Strand's body. And he's just like the innocent guy who, quote, tossed her body. He uses the word tossed multiple times. How old is he at this point during the trial? Right now he's 35. So he must have been 31. One, 32. And she's not here. She's not in this bamboo. It's very clear. And it's not until two days after she goes missing. The investigators are led to Bobo Crossing. It's a bridge and a creek. Nobody knows why it's called Bobo's Crossing. Apparently, it's just a creek with murky water. It's very stagnant. It gets very deep at the center, and they see Athena submerged in about three feet of water. The lead detective says, when I first walked up to the edge of the creek, he told me, she's right there. That's where I put her. So he changes his story. He's like, okay, fine. I took her to the creek.
- [34:00]
C
Okay, so. So she's just in the middle of the creek?
- [34:04]
A
Yeah.
- [34:05]
C
This is two days in or 48 hours?
- [34:08]
A
About two days in. And based on the water visibility, it was dark. The detective says, I had a flashlight. I angled the flashlight at different angles, and I was able to see her nude body, buoyant beneath the water. She's a very tiny frame, 4ft, 4 inches tall, and only weighing 62 lbs. Pounds. So she's face down in the creek with her arms to the side, completely unclothed in the water. And authorities say they were led to Bobo Crossing by a person named Zero. Zero is the one that led them here. Zero says he's the one that killed Athena, not Tanner Horner. It's all him. He got rid of her after all of that, and he took off her clothes as a way to humiliate her. It was all him. The lead investigator asks him, did y', all, like, you and Tanner, really try to break her neck? Zero responds, it didn't work.
- [34:58]
C
Well, I'm sorry. Zero is the real name.
- [35:00]
A
Yeah, Zero is the name.
- [35:01]
C
Okay.
- [35:02]
A
And the investigator asks, was it you trying to break her neck, or was it Tanner trying to break her neck? Zero says it was all him. He's the one that broke Athena's neck. Did you choke her from behind like you said earlier? He's nodding. Did she defecate on herself? He nods. Did she struggle? He nods. He says that she was struggling and trying to kick him, but she wasn't able to. They ask about whether or not he took any of Athena's clothes, and he responds, no, I just threw her clothes on the highway. So you're saying you stripped her naked to throw her clothes out the window on the highway? Is that what you're saying? Because why would you take off her clothes after you kill her and then throw her in the creek nude? I thought it was funny. You thought it was funny? You took all her clothes off of her shirts, pants, underwear, everything. I left the panties on. So why did Tanner take any of the clothes home, you think? I don't know. He's not stupid. He later takes that back and he admits that he's the one that planted the pants in Tanner's backpack. Quote, the pants and the underwear. You said it was funny throwing her clothes out on the highway. Which highway did you throw them out on? 14. Why'd you take her clothes out there? It's funny. Is that like a form of humiliation? He nods really slowly and says, she was gonna tell, so you had to punish her. He nods slowly again. Did you tell her? Like, did she tell you she was gonna tell? He nods. She did. When did she tell you that she was gonna tell? At the house. Who the hell is Zero, and what the hell does he have to do with any of this? Was he in the FedEx truck? What's his connection to Tammy Tanner? Zero is Tanner's alter ego, according to Tanner Horner.
- [36:53]
C
Is this recorded or.
- [36:55]
A
All recorded?
- [37:02]
B
Adobe Acrobat, your new foundation. Use PDF spaces to generate a presentation. Grab your docs, your permits, your moves, AI levels of your pitch. Gets it in a groove. Choose a template with your timeless cool. Come on, now, let's flex those tools. Draft, design, deliver, make it sing. AI builds the deck so you can Build that thing. Do that, do that. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more@adobe.com do that with Acrobat.
- [37:38]
A
Tanner then moves on. So he goes from, I'm being framed by a green van man. And then he goes to, it was a complete accident. She was already dead when I backed up into her. And then I just disposed of her body. It was a pure accident. I was overworked. The FedEx camera trucks, backup cameras don't work. And then it switched to, you know what? She was alive when I put her in the van, but I had to strangle her because she said she was gonna tell. And then it turns into. But it wasn't me strangling her. It was actually my alter ego, Zero strangling her because I have three alter egos. Tanner then gives the investigators his newest version of A V that 0 is to blame for all of this.
- [38:17]
C
So how did they get to speak? To quote Zero.
- [38:20]
A
Okay, that's the very frustrating thing, too. So not only is he just trying to use autism as an excuse to negate any bad wrongdoing that he's done in the entirety of his just God awful life, but on top of that, he tries to pretend that he has did. I don't even think he knows what he's doing. And then the only way you can talk to Zero is the investigators go, zero, I would like to talk to you. And then he rolls his eyes to the back of his head and he tilts his head to the side and suddenly he's giving the worst performance I've ever seen in improv history. That's how you talk to Zero.
- [38:58]
C
So he changed his whole mannerism for that, right?
- [39:00]
A
Yeah. This is my personal belief. I tend to believe that Zero is his real personality. And I'm not saying personalities as in he has different alters and different personalities. I think those are his true inner things, thoughts. And Tanner is like how he would like to present himself to the world because that's. I mean, everybody does that. You have your true inner thoughts and then you say things to the outside because you don't want to seem crazy. There's just a lot in the interrogation footage. There's a lot of things that don't make sense, but I'm just going to give you the most important parts at some point. Tanner is still trying to sell this story that he himself, Tanner Horner, and Zero, who is still him, but he himself never wanted Athena to get hurt. And he has this very alarming, jarring moment during the interview where he says she was A sweet kid. And he's describing how they're driving down the road and she kept asking where we were going. I didn't know what to tell her, so I just talked to her about random things. He said that she's in the truck and, quote, just trying to figure out what I was gonna do about this situation. She kept asking questions. She's hanging out in the back. And then. Where did you go? We went down this private road. And I listened to that little voice again. To hurt her. So he's saying that this little voice is zero. He starts sniffling into his hand. He's, like, in the interrogation room, sniffling into his hand, leaning up against the wall. They're like, it's all right. The investigators are like, it's all right. And he's like, it's not all right. It's okay to tell me. You gotta get it off your chest. How did you hurt her? I just told her to turn around. He starts rubbing his head. You choked her. One hand or two hands? Two. Two. Was she facing away from you while you were choking her? It started off. I tried to break her neck, make it as quick as possible, but it didn't work. She started crying. He says he had her face away from him. He just didn't want her to see it coming. He doesn't recall how long it took. He doesn't even have a ballpark of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes. He says the voice just said that, you know, he's got to get rid of her. Quote, we needed to keep her from telling anybody. Everything was at risk. My job, my family, everything. I didn't know what to do. He says he came to the realization, quote, I couldn't just keep running around with the kid in the back like that, that. So he stops by the bamboo trees, and he just, quote, I just tossed her in. I just tossed her in the bush or whatever you want to call that. She was not alive at the time. I was relatively sure. I mean, I didn't check her heartbeat or anything, but I didn't. I was relatively sure that she wasn't alive. Did you mainly do this because you didn't want to get in trouble for hitting her with or FedEx or legally or what? He says, essentially just panicking. I didn't know what to do. And it almost seemed like it was a dream for the most part. It kind of seems like I wasn't. You know what I mean? It seems like I wasn't behind the wheel at the time. And the detective testifies when I Asked him if he communicated with her. He stated that he did, and she told him her name and also asked him if he was a kidnapper. One of the first words Athena asked was, are you a kidnapper? At one point, he tries to say that the van didn't have backup cameras or sensors, so he believed that contributed to this happening. And then he claims that he tossed her in the bamboo. Words. Toss again. That's the word that he chooses. And he says that he didn't push put her deep into the bamboo woods because he wanted her to be found. Why would you want her to be found? Because I'm a parent. I wouldn't, you know, I would want to know. Okay, during the next couple of days, you didn't go back to the bamboo forest. So he's saying, like, I'm not the one that moved her to the creek. I put her at the very edge of the bamboo forest. They're like, you didn't go back? No. Why not? You're a parent. I didn't want to know. I just. I didn't want to know what was. I was hearing updates about this constantly. I wanted someone to be able to find this poor little thing. After getting rid of Athena's body in the bamboo area, he says that he went to Loves, which is a convenience store and truck stop, where he gets cleaning supplies. The lead detective is like, did they ask you what you're cleaning up? Because he didn't even buy the supplies. He says that he just went to the counter and was like, hey, I made a mess in the van. Can you give me some cleaning supplies I can use? So the front desk gives him some cleaning supplies. What did you tell him you were cleaning up? Up? He stated that he was cleaning up vomit and feces. And he's like, it's my vomit. The detective asks him, wait, whose feces are you cleaning up though? Athena's. He continues to insist that he is not the one that killed Athena. He believes it was like he was in the back seat. He was almost dreaming at the time. He believes it's his alter ego, Zero. Now we're going to go into what Tanner and his alter. I don't even want to call it an alter ego. What? Tanner says pretending to be zero. It's not even in the slightest bit unbelievable. It's like pissing on someone and saying that it's raining. Nobody's believing it, and it's just insulting to those who actually have did. But before we go there, let's go through the irrefutable evidence There is footage from inside the FedEx truck where Tanner had preemptively covered the FedEx truck cameras with sticky notes days before the kidnapping, which a lot of people believe that this indicates he was trying to kidnap someone within the next few days. He made sure that he was in the same FedEx van all those days and then even after the crime, so that he could be in control of what they've been calling his mobile crime scene. But there's still audio recordings and at least a few visual pieces of evidence that place Athena alive and in the back of the FedEx truck. There are also markings on her face. There are grid like patterns that match the floor of the FedEx truck, as well as boots. They call it a tread pattern. The Emmy says it's kind of like zigzag patterns. And it's like if you were to press someone's face down onto the van floor, floor, she suffered some sort of trauma or event that would cause her to clamp down so harshly on her own tongue that there would be teeth markings embedded into her tongue. There was a rope bungee like cord found inside the truck. There was DNA tested on vaginal and anal swabs that came back. There was blood and semen found on several of Tanner's clothing, including his FedEx work shirt, his hoodie, jeans, and underwear. Athena was presumably essayed in the van before being strangled. To after killing Athena in the truck. He makes sure that his next few shifts he gets the same exact FedEx truck. And Tanner, he refuses essaying Athena. And he continues to state that all of this happened just because he backed into Athena and he was scared of losing his job. And nobody believes it. Nobody believes that he backed into Athena. Nobody believes any of this. He says, I have a fucking one year old. If I lose this job, I lose everything. At this point, even if this whole accident story were even a smidgen believable, which it's not, Tanner's telling the detectives that he tossed her body. He tossed her here, he tossed this. He. There's just a lack of remorse and a lack of care when he even references Athena. If this was a pure accident, I would imagine that someone is in shambles describing what happened. The investigators ask, did she bleed or anything in that truck? I don't know. Possibly. He says that he did throw her in the van so she could have some cuts and stuff from being thrown in the van. But, quote, I'm not some sort of psychopath. He says after he kills a little girl, he goes home after a shift and Quote, I just went home and I went to sleep. I took my sleeping medication, watched Game of Thrones, and I home was at. Out. Did you take anything from her? I mean, not that I can think of. I mean, I might have found a sock, but I just kind of threw it, so. He's just making it sound so casual. Is that a maybe, or did you find socks? I did find a sock, but it was just. Was it one of her socks? I think so. Unless it's just some other driver's sock, which, by the way, he took the socks home, and they were found in this. What could be described as a junkyard on his property. Was it one of her socks? And he's like, I think so. Unless it's just some other driver's sock. And they're like, well, I mean, you would be able to know if it's a little girl's sock or a driver's sock. Be really? And he's like, yeah, okay. He says, I do think she pooped herself also. When? I really don't want to say it. When you choked her? Yeah. It wasn't like she's still alive. And then she pooped herself. Right. How do you know she pooped herself? I mean, I smelled it when I was moving her. Some of it got on the floor. He says he stopped by the truck, stopped to clean. What did you. You know, what. Did you pay when you were at Love's getting the stuff to clean? Did you pay in cash? I didn't pay for anything. I just asked if they any cleaning supplies. When he's asked to describe the person working at Loves for the cleaning supplies, this is the part that he says he did kind of look like he might be part Jewish. Okay. Why do you say that? God, this is going to sound terrible. Like, as if everything else he said is not terrible. Because he doesn't preface anything else about killing Athena as terrible. He's not like God. I can't believe I'm saying that. He's just like God. This is going to sound terrible. He had a decently big nose. I know. I know that sounds terrible. I'm sorry. It's still, you know, I try not to discriminate because it's just kind of shitty crazy. With his confession, the FedEx footage, the audio evidence, the DNA evidence, forensic evidence. Tanner Horner is charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, which means he's up for the death penalty in Texas. He has pled guilty. Guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. So why do we still have a second part of this Podcast. Why do we have so much ground to cover? Just send him into gen pop and let one of the guards tell the others what he's done and just. I mean, I don't know. Some people believe in capital murder, some people don't. So that's up for debate. But, like, why is this a big deal if he's already pled guilty to the charges? But because this is Texas, and because he's pled guilty to capital murder, it doesn't matter if he wants to die by the state. There has to be a whole charge trial where the jurors are told by the judge, quote, there will no longer be a first phase of the trial where you will be determining whether or not guilt has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Your sole duty now will be to listen to all the evidence that is going to be presented to you because you will be using that evidence to determine the proper punishment to be assessed. So instead of determining whether or not he's guilty of the crime, they're going into the punishment phase. They will be deciding whether or not he deserves to die for it, whether he will get the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
- [49:07]
C
And that's happened yet or right now?
- [49:10]
A
We're still on as of filming this, we're still on the defense side. They are projected to close their arguments, I think, May 5th.
- [49:18]
B
Wow.
- [49:20]
A
And that is the first part of the audio podcast. The second part of the audio podcast. We're going to go through all of the details, defense and what they're saying of why this happened and more of the actual interrogation from Zero and the stupid Zero that no one believes exist. And the whole trial has just been very emotional. So with that being said, stay tuned for part two, Stay safe, and I will see you in the next one.