A FedEx driver who brutally murdered seven-year-old Athena Strand told police he ‘kind of tossed her’ into the woods when he was first apprehended by investigators.
Tanner Horner, 34, made the chilling confession to cops in bodycam footage shown at his trial on Wednesday, after he pleaded guilty earlier this week to killing the child in November 2022.
Horner is now facing a sentencing trial to determine if he will face the death penalty.
The bodycam footage shown on Wednesday saw police search Horner’s home for signs of Strand, after which they ordered the suspect to tell them where she was.
‘I can show you,’ he told the officers, to which one responds: ‘Is she alive?’
Horner responded: ‘She wasn’t alive when I put her in the truck.’
At the time, Horner attempted to claim that he accidentally hit Strand with his truck, however he has since admitted to murdering the girl.
The bodycam shown in court then revealed Horner took the officers to a wooded area, and after the cops failed to find her body, Horner told them he was unsure of her exact location because of the callous way he dumped her remains.
‘I just kind of tossed her in,’ he said.
As he pleaded guilty this week, authorities released a nightmarish image of Strand standing inside Horner’s FedEx truck when he abducted her.
Athena Strand is filmed being driven to her death by kidnapper Tanner Horner. He admitted the November 2022 murder in court Tuesday
Strand was snatched by Horner as he dropped off a package containing a Christmas gift for the youngster – a box of Barbie dolls
The bodycam came after prosecutors warned jurors in Horner’s trial that they would be faced with gruesome evidence, including horrific audio of Strand’s final moments.
Strand was strangled to death by Horner in his truck, with her tortured last minutes captured by a microphone in his vehicle after he covered a camera inside.
Jurors were cautioned by Wise County prosecutors that they will still be presented with all the evidence in the case for the ‘punishment phase’ of the trial, which will see them decide whether Horner should be sentenced to death.
Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said: ‘You are going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound child.
‘And when I say it’s horrible, I mean it.’
Jurors will be watching video and listening to audio files during Wednesday’s hearing, with Horner said to have warned Strand: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you’ as he picked her up and put her in his truck.
‘I’m going to put you as close as you can be without actually being there that day. We have video of it and we’re going to show it now,’ Stainton told the jury.
Strand was abducted by Horner from outside her home in November 2022
Horner was set to go on trial before abruptly pleading guilty this week
At his trial on Wednesday, police involved in the search for the seven-year-old said they anguished for days as they hoped to find Strand alive.
Texas Ranger Job Espinoza said in his testimony that he scoured the area around her home for three days, and said images from inside Horner’s truck showing she was alive when she was abducted gave him some hope.
He said officers raided Horner’s home for signs of the child, saying that, ‘if it means preservation of life, it allows us to go in there and make sure someone isn’t in danger.’
Espinoza said in his testimony that after Horner was trying to show them where he ‘just tossed’ Strand’s body, he later understood that the driver had led them to the wrong location.
