![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/41992285159-18.jpg\")
Live Updates 9:40 a.m. Tanner Horner’s second cousin testifies <\/p>\nFORT WORTH, Texas – Jurors will return to a Tarrant County courtroom Thursday as they continue to weigh a death sentence for Tanner Horner.<\/p>\n
Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and kidnapping in the 2022 death of 7-year-old Athena Strand. He admitted to abducting the girl while delivering a package to her Wise County home on Nov. 30, 2022. The jury must now decide between the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live Updates 9:40 a.m. Tanner Horner’s second cousin testifies <\/p>\n
A woman who was identified as Horner’s second cousin took the stand and testified about babysitting Horner when she was 10 years old, and he was an infant. She did so during summers until she was 12 years old.<\/p>\n
She described Horner as a hyper toddler and said he threw extreme fits. She recalled having to hide change from him because he continuously tried to eat the coins.<\/p>\n
She would be left alone with him for entire weekends as Horner’s mom worked as a stripper. She said when she was 12, Horner’s mom offered to pay her with either cash or weed for her babysitting services.<\/p>\n
9:15 a.m. Tanner Horner’s aunt testifies ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/41992285159-19.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The first witness to testify on Thursday morning was Horner’s aunt. She is his father’s sister. She talked more about substance abuse among members of her family, including Horner’s father.<\/p>\n
She described Horner’s father as a drug addict who spent about 90% of his life in prison. She said he molested her and lived in filth when he was not in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination, the prosecutor said it sounded like her upbringing was rough. She agreed.<\/p>\n
“And you never killed anybody?” the prosecutor asked.<\/p>\n
“No, sir,” she said.<\/p>\n
“And you’ve never sexually assaulted or molested anybody, have you?” the attorney asked.<\/p>\n
“No, sir,” Horner’s aunt admitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
9 a.m. Judge order on audio and video <\/p>\n
The judge explained that there might be times during Thursday’s testimony when he would ask for the audio to be turned off or the video to be blurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Day 9 Recap: Horner’s mother testifies The mother of Tanner Horner broke down on the stand today during the third week of the trial to decide whether Athena Strand’s convicted killer will get the death penalty or life in prison. FOX 4’s Peyton Yager has more.<\/p>\n The morning began with testimony from John Edens, a psychologist and professor at Texas A&M University. Edens testified regarding developmental and personality disorders, detailing the clinical distinctions between the two for the jury.<\/p>\n Horner\u2019s mother also took the stand, though her face was not shown on the court\u2019s camera feed. She provided a candid look at her son\u2019s upbringing, admitting to a history of substance abuse involving heroin, methamphetamine, and alcohol.<\/p>\n She testified that she was using “anything I could get my hands on” before realizing she was eight or nine weeks pregnant with Horner, at which point she said she attempted to stop.<\/p>\n The testimony turned emotional when the defense asked about the murder of the 7-year-old. “I\u2019m so mad at him. I want to just tear his a– up,” she said through tears. “She was just a baby.”<\/p>\n Following a midday recess, his mother testified that Horner struggled to interact with other children as a youth. She told the court that after rigorous testing at a specialized center, Horner was diagnosed with Asperger\u2019s syndrome.<\/p>\n The defense also called Dottie, Horner\u2019s great-aunt, who described Horner\u2019s “rambunctious” childhood. She testified that Horner and his father lived with her mother intermittently and noted that Horner’s father struggled with drug addiction and served time in jail.<\/p>\n Athena Strand Murder: Tanner Horner Trial Recap In the most harrowing day of the trial, jurors heard audio recorded inside Horner\u2019s FedEx delivery van. The recording captured the child talking to Horner about her school and teacher before the situation turned violent. Several jurors wept as the room fell silent; Horner was observed looking away from the screen as the struggle began.<\/p>\n Day 7: Athena Strand\u2019s Mother Testifies; DNA Evidence Linked to Tanner Horner <\/p>\n Maitlyn Gandy, Athena\u2019s mother, testified about her final moments with her daughter, recalling a promise to see her that Friday for Christmas lights. Later, a Texas DPS forensic analyst testified that Horner\u2019s DNA profile could not be excluded from samples collected in a sexual assault kit.<\/p>\n Day 6: Forensic Experts Detail DNA Evidence Found on Athena Strand\u2019s Clothing <\/p>\n Forensic analysts testified that male DNA was detected on swabs from the child\u2019s sexual assault kit and under her fingernails. While the defense questioned the precision of the DNA quantification, experts maintained that the presence of male DNA was significant.<\/p>\n Day 5: Medical Examiner Reveals Athena Strand\u2019s Cause of Death; Jailhouse Letters Shown\u00a0 <\/p>\n Medical examiner Dr. Jessica Dwyer testified that Athena died from blunt force injuries, smothering, and strangulation, stating she believed the child suffered. The jury also reviewed letters Horner wrote in jail; one blamed a “mental breakdown,” while another claimed an unidentified man forced him to commit the crime.<\/p>\n Day 4: Jury Hears Testimony Regarding Tanner Horner\u2019s \u2018Zero\u2019 Alter Ego <\/p>\n Jurors watched video of investigators questioning Horner about the location of the body. In the footage, Horner spoke as an alter ego he called “Zero,” claiming he found the situation “funny.” A Texas Ranger testified that Horner\u2019s physical demeanor would change significantly when he allegedly switched personalities.<\/p>\n Day 3: Interrogation Video Shows Tanner Horner Negotiating for Christmas Release <\/p>\n Additional body camera footage showed Horner asking investigators to let him out of jail for a month to spend Christmas with his family in exchange for the location of the victim’s body.<\/p>\n Day 2: How Investigators Used \u2018Zero\u2019 Personality to Locate Athena Strand\u2019s Body <\/p>\n Authorities testified that Horner initially led them to the wrong location. Investigators stated they were only able to locate the child after changing their interrogation tactics to address Horner directly as his alter ego, “Zero.”<\/p>\n Day 1: Tanner Horner Pleads Guilty to Capital Murder of Athena Strand <\/p>\n The trial began with Horner\u2019s unexpected guilty plea to capital murder. Prosecutors described Athena as a “warrior” who fought her attacker, while the defense pivoted immediately to the sentencing phase, focusing on Horner\u2019s mental health history.<\/p>\n Tanner Horner Trial Daily Recaps Athena Strand’s Death Horner was charged with capital murder for the death of 7-year-old\u00a0Athena\u00a0<\/a>Strand<\/a>\u00a0outside her family\u2019s Wise County home on Nov. 30, 2022.<\/p>\n A contract delivery driver working for FedEx at the time, Horner was delivering what was meant to be a Christmas present for the young girl.<\/p>\n Horner told investigators he accidentally hit Athena with his van <\/a>while delivering a package to her home. She reportedly survived, but Horner told authorities he panicked and kidnapped her, later strangling her to death.<\/p>\n Athena was reported missing, and eventually an Amber Alert was issued, leading to 72 hours of searching. She was found dead in Boyd, Texas,<\/a> not far from her family’s home.<\/p>\n Athena Alert After Athena Strand’s<\/a> case, Texas Legislators passed a new bill <\/a>that created a version of an Amber Alert known as the \u2018Athena Alert.\u2019<\/p>\n The new law allows authorities to issue an Amber Alert for a missing child that doesn\u2019t have to meet all of the initial criteria.<\/p>\n Under the Athena Alert law, an Amber Alert can still go out even though authorities haven\u2019t confirmed a missing child was kidnapped.<\/p>\n The alert would be able to be sent out to a 100-mile area around the disappearance and adjacent counties.<\/p>\n DPS emphasizes that this is not a new type of alert. All alert messages will still be referenced as an Amber Alert.<\/p>\n The Source: The information in this story comes from trial testimony and past news coverage.<\/p>\n Athena Strand<\/a>Fort Worth<\/a>Wise County<\/a>Tarrant County<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, Texas – Jurors will return to a Tarrant County courtroom Thursday as they continue to weigh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[35751,1046,116,118,117,223,391,122,216,393,13468],"class_list":{"0":"post-262889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-athena-strand","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","12":"tag-fort-worth-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-people","15":"tag-tarrant-county","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-wise-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tanner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9f5874h0pj1c9z3m.jpg\")
Tanner Horner’s mother breaks down during testimony<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/horner-strand-in-fed-ex-truck.jpg\")
Day 8: Audio Evidence of Athena Strand\u2019s Final Moments Played for Jury <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cd348b55-athena-strand-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/athena-strand-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n