{"id":612236,"date":"2026-04-17T05:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612236\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:05:14","slug":"tanner-horner-jurors-sob-as-audio-of-athena-strand-asking-killer-heartbreaking-question-plays-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612236\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanner Horner: Jurors sob as audio of Athena Strand asking killer heartbreaking question plays in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: Distressing content<\/p>\n

Jurors have broken down sobbing as they listened to the audio of a seven-year-old murder victim asking her killer heartbreaking final questions.<\/p>\n

The kidnapping and murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand shocked the United States and made headlines across the world.<\/p>\n

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Tanner Horner, 34, took Athena on November 30, 2022 from the driveway of a Paradise, Texas home she was staying in while her mother and stepfather were away.<\/p>\n

On April 7, Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. Working as a FedEx driver back in 2022, he took Athena while delivering a Christmas package.<\/p>\n

Her body was found two days after the horrific crime, about 20km from her Boyd, Texas home.<\/p>\n

As part of Horner\u2019s sentencing, the jury are being shown evidence to decide whether he should be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole.<\/p>\n

One piece of audio played in the courtroom on Thursday was so devastating that the presiding judge told people in court they might need to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think you cannot watch it or listen to it, leave now. Now\u2019s your time to get out,\u201d Judge George Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

\"AthenaAthena Strand Credit: Suplied<\/p>\n

Having already been shown surveillance footage of Horner arriving at the Paradise home and taking Athena, the next piece of evidence prompted an emotional response.<\/p>\n

Video footage from inside Mr Horner\u2019s truck shows the seven-year-old girl kneeling in the back of the car, asking her killer two questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you a kidnapper?\u201d little Athena asked, according to NBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Fox 4<\/a>, the seven-year-old also asked Horner: \u201cWhere are you taking me?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood the recording captures Horner telling Athena to sit down before threatening to harm her if she screams.<\/p>\n

He asked her about school before saying, \u201cYou\u2019re really pretty, you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"7yo7yo Athena Strand who was kidnapped and strangled on November 30, 2022, by a FedEx worker delivering Christmas gifts to her home unknown Credit: unknown\/NBC 5 News<\/p>\n

The Nightly has chosen not to report the rest of the recording, but jurors were heard sobbing as they listened to it.<\/p>\n

In previous hearings, the jury had been warned before being shown distressing evidence.<\/p>\n

Wise County District Attorney James Stainton warned the jury that they would hear confronting audio and video evidence captured on the day of the murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child. And when I say it\u2019s horrible, I mean it. I\u2019ve been doing this (for) 25 years, and I promise you, buckle up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning: Distressing content Jurors have broken down sobbing as they listened to the audio of a seven-year-old murder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-612236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}