Athena Strand jury sobs as they see video of frightened girl, 7, asking killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner distressing question

Jurors were moved to tears after being shown horrific video of a murdered seven-year-old girl asking the FedEx driver who kidnapped her where they were going.

Athena Strand allegedly asked Tanner Horner, 34, ‘Where are you taking me?’ he was heard asking. during footage played in a Fort Worth courtroom Thursday afternoon.

The little girl later spoke to Horner about her teacher and school in dashcam footage on the day of the murder in November 2022.

He became increasingly frightened as the truck stopped, Fox4 reported.

Many jurors were moved to tears during Thursday’s hearing, while family members were so moved by the footage that they left the courtroom.

A gruesome photo displayed last week showed Athena kneeling next to Horner as he drove her to her death in the truck.

He kidnapped the teenager from her home in Paradise, Texas, while she was delivering the Barbie package her father and stepmother had received as Christmas gifts.

Horner confessed to capital murder hours before his trial was to begin, and the jury is now tasked with deciding whether he should be executed.

Strand was abducted from her family’s home in Paradise, Texas, on November 30, 2022.

Before the footage was shown in court, Judge George Gallagher warned people in the courtroom to leave if they did not want to watch.

‘If you think you can’t watch or listen, leave now. “It’s time for you to get out,” Gallagher said.

Athena’s parents, Jacob Strand and Maitlyn Gandy, testified at the hearing but did not sit in the courtroom while the video was played.

The entire footage showed Horner arriving at Athena’s house. He walked past the driver’s side window to deliver the packages, and Athena walked behind him.

He opened the truck as the boy stood nearby and picked him up and placed him inside the truck before closing the door.

Horner can be heard whispering something and moving Athena from the back of the vehicle to the front.

The terrified boy then asked him: ‘Are you the kidnapper?’ He then repeated the question several times in the footage.

Horner told her to sit down and threatened to hurt her if she screamed. As this situation was seen in the courtroom, several of the little girl’s relatives left the courtroom.

Her stepmother said Athena enjoyed living on her country estate where she could “run wild and free.” The little girl is pictured above

Horner confessed to capital murder hours before his trial was due to begin, and a jury is now tasked with deciding whether he should be executed

Athena asked the truck driver where they were going and told the truck driver to sit down before turning off the camera in the truck, meaning only the audio could be heard from that spot.

While chatting with the child, Horner can be heard asking the child’s age, which school he goes to, the name of his teacher and whether the teacher is okay.

He answered the questions and said that he had a sister. ‘You are really beautiful,’ Horner later said to Athena. Do you know this?’

The truck can be heard stopping before Athena asks: ‘Is this your house?’ Horner replied: ‘No, I don’t live around here.’

When the little girl asked where he lived, he said ‘Far away’.

After a few minutes the truck appeared to start, then brake again, and the boy asked: ‘What are we doing?’ Horner told him to ‘hang out for a minute’.

Horner then asked the boy to take off his shirt, and he said “no” before asking for his mother.

The moments that follow are heartbreaking; While a crash is heard, the child can be heard crying and screaming.

Some of the jurors began to cry at this point, and the audio recording also stopped when the court broke for lunch.

Horner, an independent contractor working with FedEx, killed Strand on November 30, 2022.

Athena Strand spoke to Horner about her teacher and school in dashcam footage on the day of the murder in the back of a FedEx van in November 2022.

Horner was scheduled to appear in court this week before suddenly pleading guilty to capital murder. Now facing a criminal case

Horner told authorities that he strangled Athena after accidentally hitting her with his van during a delivery, according to an arrest warrant.

Horner said Athena, who hit Athena while backing up, was not seriously injured, but he panicked and put her in his van.

He then strangled her to death in his truck, and her final torturous moments were recorded by a microphone in his vehicle after he turned off a camera inside.

Horner claimed to police that he tried to calm Strand down, but when he failed, a sort of alter ego he called ‘Zero’ ‘kind of took over’.

“He (Zero) told him, ‘Get in the back of the van, we’re going to the hospital,'” Horner said.

Horner said Zero killed Strand.

‘I didn’t do it, but he did, and that’s what bothers me… I wonder who’s been inside my head all this time,’ he said.

“Part of me is in denial that I didn’t pull the trigger,” Horner said.

“You think Zero pulled the trigger?” Investigators wanted Horner to answer this question in the affirmative.

‘I tried to disarm the gun. ‘I tried to prevent all of this from happening,’ he said.

Maitlyn Gandy, mother of seven-year-old Athena Strand, takes the stand at the sentencing hearing of murderer Tanner Horner on April 15, 2026.

Athena Strand’s father, Jacob Strand, testifies in the capital murder trial of Tanner Horner on Thursday, April 16, 2026

The warrant said Horner led investigators to where he left Athena’s body.

Horner’s lawyer, Steven Goble, told jurors in his opening statement: ‘When someone’s brain is injured, you can’t see it.’

Goble acknowledged that the evidence against Horner was “overwhelming” and “appalling”.

But he also told jurors that Horner’s mother drank while pregnant, that she is autistic and has suffered from ‘a variety of mental illnesses throughout her life’, and that she was also exposed to ‘large amounts of lead’.

Goble asked jurors to sentence him to life in prison.

Athena’s stepmother, Ashley Strand, told jurors that the package Horner left behind was a Christmas gift for Athena; a box of ‘Anything is Possible’ Barbies.

Strand, who has since divorced Athena’s father, said Athena enjoyed living on her land in the country where she could ‘run wild and free’.

The trial was moved from rural Wise County to Fort Worth after Horner’s attorneys argued he would not receive a fair trial.