FedEx Driver Charged in 7-Year-Old’s Murder Shares Chilling Details With Mother in Jailhouse Call

A recorded jailhouse phone call between Tanner Horner and his mother was played for the jury during his sentencing hearing.The man is accused of kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old girl.

A recorded jailhouse phone call has provided a glimpse into the case regarding a former FedEx driver’s state of mind after he allegedly killed a 7-year-old girl.

In the recorded phone call, which was played in the court for the jury, Horner's mother is heard asking if he had done anything to the girl, Horner denied it.

In a phone conversation obtained by KDFW-TV, Horner’s mother asked him, “Tanner, I just hope you didn’t do nothing weird to that little girl.” Horner replied, “I didn’t, okay?”. His mother responded, “I didn’t think you did, I just know how you get.”

In another exchange played for the jury, Horner’s mother is heard asking, “What did you do? Did she die on her own?”, to which Horner replied, “No.” To this, his mother responded, “Oh my God,” and Horner replied, “I know,” according to CBS News.

Horner was charged with the murder of a 7-year-old girl in 2022. He pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping during his trial in Tarrant County, Texas, on April 7. The jury is now expected to decide his sentence, whether he will face the death penalty or life in prison.

Athena Strand, a 7-year-old girl, was found dead in November 2022. Shortly afterward, Tarner Horner was named as a suspect in the kidnapping and death of the child.

Horner was working as a FedEx delivery driver and was making a delivery in the neighborhood where Strand lived. This was on November 30, 2022, just two days before the girl's remains were found 200 yards from her home in Paradise, Texas.

According to KDFW-TV, a tip led the investigators to a 31-year-old contractor, who the authorities alleged confessed to killing the little girl and told them where to find the body.

In early December 2022, Horner was arrested and charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping of Strand shortly after he confessed to kidnapping the child, according to an arrest affidavit reviewed by the People.