Mother of FedEx driver who murdered Athena Strand breaks down in court as she describes killer son’s childhood

The mother of the FedEx driver who admitted killing seven-year-old Athena Strand broke down in court Wednesday as she spoke about her son’s upbringing.

The woman who was referred to only as ‘Miss’ in court. Horner told jurors at the sentencing hearing of her son, Tanner Horner, that she used drugs and drank before she knew she was pregnant with him and how she was bullied as a child.

‘So he wanted to get along with people, but people weren’t interested in chatting with him,’ he testified. According to NBC DFW.

‘It was hard to watch. So sad. They didn’t like him at all.”

Defense attorneys apparently hope jurors will consider Tanner’s testimony when deciding whether to execute him for Strand’s murder.

He pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping at the trial on April 7, just hours before his trial was set to begin.

However, Tanner denied raping the young girl before strangling her to death; His mother said she didn’t believe it anymore. Fox 4 reports.

“I’m very angry with him,” Ms Horner said of her son, when asked by the defense if she was angry at her son, given what he had pleaded guilty to.

‘I want to smash your ass… It was just a baby,’ he said.

Tanner admitted kidnapping seven-year-old Athena Strand from her home and killing her

Much of Ms. Horner’s testimony on Wednesday dealt with her own upbringing and its effects on Tanner as he grew up.

He told jurors how he was born to a teenage mother, how his parents divorced when he was just a year old, and how his stepfather sexually abused him when he was four.

“I don’t remember dreaming,” said Miss Horner. ‘I didn’t have a childhood.’

He then described years of drug abuse and mental health problems, saying he had used heroin for 25 years and was currently on methadone.

‘I used everything I could,’ he said According to CBS News. ‘It wasn’t a good lifestyle.’

The woman, whose image was blurred in the live broadcast of the court to prevent her name from being disclosed, also said that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder.

He said he first went to rehab at age 14, then dropped out of high school and eventually got a job as a teenager with Tanner’s father, Terry, at a strip club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Miss Horner said the man raped her the night they first met but eventually decided to marry her when she was 19.

‘This wasn’t for love,’ he told the jury.

Miss Horner told the court on Wednesday that Tanner (pictured) had trouble making friends as a child.

Ms Horner later claimed she did not know she was pregnant with Tanner until she was approximately eight and a half weeks along.

By then, he said, he had continued to use drugs and was drinking ‘enough to cause cirrhosis’.

Ms Horner said she continued to smoke cigarettes and marijuana even after she found out she was pregnant.

She also testified that Tanner continued to use drugs throughout his childhood, noting that he was only two years old when he used drugs again.

‘I once shook my head in the toilet,’ he recounted. ‘Tanner came in. ‘He was just a little guy and he thought I was dead.’

Tanner and his younger brother occasionally lived with their mother in rehab facilities. However, Tanner and his brother would also be living with his mother when he was arrested on drug and prostitution charges.

Ms Horner said she had difficulty making friends and communicating with other children throughout her childhood.

Tanner strangled Strand, kidnapped him, and dumped his body in a creek. The two are seen in a FedEx truck after the hijacking

Horner kidnapped the little girl while she was delivering the Barbie package her father and stepmother had bought her as a Christmas present.

During the trial, jurors were also shown letters Horner wrote to Strand’s family.

He said Tanner had frequent meltdowns in his youth and assumed they were just temper tantrums.

However, when he began to be bullied at school, Miss Horner said Tanner would become violent by hitting him on the head; however, Tanner insisted that Tanner never hit him or others.

Tanner was eventually diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Patients may have difficulty coping if their usual daily routine is disrupted.

In a letter to Strand’s heartbroken family, Tanner appeared to blame his actions on the diagnosis.

In the letter he explained how When he kidnapped and killed Strand, he was extremely stressed because he couldn’t drive the same route every day in his FedEx truck.

‘I’m sorry for allowing my mental state to become unstable. I’m sorry I took your little angel from you. “He didn’t deserve this,” Tanner wrote, lamenting the impact his crime would have on his own family.

He claimed that in November 2022, while delivering Barbie dolls that were to be Christmas gifts, he accidentally hit Strand with his truck and strangled her because he was afraid she would tell her family.

He told the court he initially tried to break Athena’s neck to kill her but it didn’t work so instead he strangled her with his bare hands while singing ‘Jingle Bell Rock’.

But prosecutors called the allegations an ‘absolute lie’ and said Athena was not injured before he kidnapped her, and that there was footage showing Athena was conscious and apparently physically unharmed inside the truck.