The FedEx driver accused of strangling 7-year-old Athena Strand and dumping her body in a nearby river was hit Tuesday with new charges of sexual assault of a child. The three molestation charges are not related to last month’s horrific killing of Athena, Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin told WCMessenger.com. Tanner Lynn Horner, 31, was already jailed on charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in Athena’s death.
Court records out of Tarrant County show that Horner is set to make an initial appearance for the new charges on Jan. 5, 2023.
The sexual assault charges were filed from Tarrant County, approximately 35 miles from where Horner, 31, abducted Athena from her Paradise home.
In the murder case, Horner told investigators that he backed into 7-year-old Athena Strand with his van as he was delivering a package at her house in Paradise, a small town about 60 miles northwest of Dallas.
He said that he panicked and put her in his van, then strangled her because he didn’t want the girl to tell her dad what happened, according to an arrest warrant.
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Athena’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, spoke at a news conference shortly outside Wise County courthouse in Decatur, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of Paradise.
She said that the package that Horner dropped off that day was a Christmas present for the “amazing little girl” she wanted everyone to know about.
“I was robbed of watching her grow up,” Ms Gandy said as she stood beside the present, a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies.
Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin has said that they knew early on that a delivery had been made at the girl’s home at about the same time that she disappeared.
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Sheriff Akin has said she was killed about an “hour or so” after being kidnapped.
Working with employees from the contracting company that was delivering packages for FedEx, investigators determined which van and driver made the delivery, the warrant said.
Investigators also learned that the van that delivered the package was equipped with video, the warrant said.
An FBI employee who then watched video from the van could see that the driver had taken a young girl who looked like Athena in the van and had talked to her.
The warrant said that when investigators located Horner, he told them Athena was dead and confessed.
Horner is being held on a combined $1.5million bond for the murder and kidnapping charges. Each sexual assault charge has a $15,000 bond.
Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty in Strand’s murder.
Jail and court records did not list an attorney who could speak on Horner’s behalf.
