FedEx Driver Accused of Killing Athena Strand Facing Unrelated Sexual Assault Charges

Tanner Lynn Horner
Wise County Sheriff's Office

The FedEx delivery driver accused of killing Athena Strand in Paradise, Texas, is facing three unrelated charges of sexual assault of a child.

The recent charges date back to 2013, NBC DFW reported Wednesday, adding the suspect, 31 year old Tanner Lynn Horner, was charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping once authorities took him into custody on December 2.

The report continued:

Online records from the Wise County Jail show Horner is now also facing three counts of sexual assault of a child under 17 with bonds of $15,000 each. Horner remains in the Wise County Jail held on bonds now totaling $1,545,000.

The new charges of sexual assault of a child, which were filed on Wednesday, were alleged to have taken place nine years ago. According to information obtained by NBC 5, the alleged assaults all took place in 2013 on June 1, Aug. 11 and Dec. 6. Further details about the charges have not yet been confirmed including whether the allegations come from one victim or multiple victims.

Horner was arrested after he made a delivery to seven year old Athena Strand’s home and Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin told reporters Horner confessed to killing the child, according to Breitbart News.

“After Horner confessed to abducting and killing the child, he showed officers where her body was located southeast of Boyd, approximately 10 miles from the place she disappeared,” the report said.

Horner later reportedly told authorities he hit Strand with his work van, but she was not hurt, according to an arrest warrant.

“According to the documents, the suspect told officers he put her in the back of the van and killed her because he ‘panicked’ and feared she would tell her father about the incident,” per Breitbart News.

The child’s official cause of death has not yet been released.

During a recent interview, Strand’s mother told WFAA, “Athena was very free spirited and loving and kind.”

“I think a lot of things that people miss when they see me is not me, it’s the fact that Athena would run up to anybody scream out their name and give them hugs and say hello because she didn’t know a stranger. Raising her was the best seven years of my life,” she added.

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