Transcript
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True Crime Narrator (0:30)
The Capitol murder trial for former delivery driver Tanner Horner resumes in a few hours.
Annie Elise (0:35)
Without the jury, jurors cried, some wept openly as the prosecution played the audio recording from inside Tanner Horner's delivery truck. 7 year old Athena Strand asking if he is a kidnapper. Horner telling her to take off her shirt. Athena crying and screaming for her mom, telling Horner, my mom says you can't do that to me. The sound of a brutal murder and Athena's final gasp for air.
True Crime Narrator (1:05)
This is the story of seven year old Athena Strand, who was abducted right outside of her home by a FedEx delivery driver who was actually dropping off a Christmas present for Athena, a set of Barbies for her for Christmas. That package, and even just saying that, it still doesn't feel real. This guy was dropping off a, a Christmas gift for her and as the seven year old innocent little girl, and then abducts her. But what we have learned since then, not only about the crime itself, but about Tanner, this monster, his past, the allegations against him, the predatory behavior, it paints an even more disturbing, more horrifying picture than we originally knew. Because now through the trial and the footage and the audio recordings that have come out, investigators believe that, that this was not only a sexually motivated crime, but a truly evil crime of opportunity. We also now know that Athena was asking him for her mom. That at one point she even asked him point blank, are you a kidnapper? Which just hearing that, it breaks your heart. Now, back in my original deep dive, I shared my initial thoughts based on the limited information that we had at the time. And unfortunately, a lot of those early instincts have seemed since been confirmed. I also went into his background, the allegations, the women who have come forward, all of it. So today what I want to do is reopen Athena's case. And if you're new here or new to this format, when I do a reopened episode, I walk you through the original case as it unfolded in real time. But I also layer in everything that we know now. The new evidence, the trial updates, the context that we didn't have back then because the original episode, it was recorded within days of Athena being abducted and then found. And so much has come out since then. As a quick reminder, in these reopened episodes, you may hear a slight difference in audio quality here or there because equipment has changed over time. But the goal in doing these episodes is to give you a full, comprehensive picture of the case. Now, I do want to give a little bit of a warning. This is one of the most unsettling and disturbing cases I have ever covered. And even following this trial in real time has been incredibly difficult. I'll be honest with you, there were moments where I genuinely didn't know if I was going to reopen this case. It's incredibly difficult to hear. But Athena's story, it deserves to be told. Her voice deserves to be heard. So take a quick second, hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, hit the follow button on your podcast. And I'm Annie Elise. This is Tend to Life. And today we are reopening the case of Athena Strand. Let's jump right in.