Seven-year-old Athena Strand was outside her dad and stepmother’s home in Paradise, Texas on November 30 when she was abducted and murdered by a FedEx delivery man. On December 2, two days later, the girl’s body was found in the Trinity River in the nearby city of Boyd.

The child was staying at her father’s home temporarily. 

The suspect, 31-year-old Tanner Horner, admitted to his crimes. He said that he hit the girl with his truck, panicked, then proceeded to strangle and kill her inside the vehicle, since he feared that she would tell her father what happened. He then drove away to throw her body on a country road seven miles away from her father’s home.

Horner was delivering a “You Can Be Anything” Barbie doll package. Her mother, Maitland Gandy, said that the dolls were supposed to be her Christmas gift. She emotionally added that she was supposed to bring the girl back to her home for the holidays, but she will be bringing home her urn instead.

Jacob Strand, Athena’s father, filed a negligence lawsuit against FedEx and Big Topspin on December 13. Horner has been charged with capital murder and kidnapping. 

In addition to the murder charges, Horner now has been charged with sexual assault due to a prior unrelated incident. A woman, who spoke about it after Horner’s arrest, said that the incident happened around nine years ago, in 2013. 

A young woman named Shay Marie claimed in several social media posts in 2018 and 2019 that Horner molested her when she was 16 years old. She recalled that “December 6 and 7 marks seven years since you violated me and treated me like you were entitled to my body.” Horner was 23 at the time. 

Police are investigating the new charges.