This is the moment the killer of a seven-year-old girl was arrested by police in front of the FedEx truck from which he had kidnapped the girl.
Police bodycam captured the arrest of sicko Tanner Horner, 31, who pleaded guilty to accidentally hitting little Athena Strand with his truck, kidnapping her and then strangling her to death.
Her horrific murder by Horner, who was a FedEx driver at the time, occurred just minutes after she gave birth to Barbie Christmas Be present at his house.
Horner was tied to his FedEx truck by two policemen before being taken to investigators in late 2022.
His arrest followed the discovery of Athena’s body – which was found two days after she was reported missing.
Horner surprisingly pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of murder and aggravated kidnapping.
hunter’s past
Athena Strand killer ‘sexually assaulted teen’ years before murdering 7-year-old girl
utter filth
Horrific photo shows 7-year-old girl moments before she is killed by driver in FedEx truck
He is facing the death penalty after admitting to murdering her after abducting her from her father’s home in Paradise, Texas, on November 30, 2022.
A surprise entry came in court The room outside Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, at the beginning of Horner’s trial.
Now, a jury is deciding whether Horner will be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.
The court heard how police found Horner on the second day of their search for Athena after they realized the delivery driver may have witnessed her abduction.
Chief Detective Sgt. Job Espinoza explained: “My main objective was: Who distributed it? What did they see?” He said. “More than anything for me in the beginning, it’s another set of eyes.”
Sergeant Espinoza said that once Horner was identified as the driver and interviewed, he tried to mislead police by saying he had seen a green van parked at the Athena home.
While searching for more clues about the alleged green van, police found surveillance footage from a FedEx van.
Investigators show the horrific moment Horner put Athena alive inside the truck.
A chilling CCTV image taken from inside Horner’s truck shows the moment he bludgeoned the baby to death.
The harrowing black and white image, taken just above the driver’s head, shows Athena gripping the sides of the cabin to support herself, where her killer is sitting.
The little girl kneeling in the back of the truck has her mouth open and her expression confused.
Police arrested Horner on December 2, 2022.
Horner eventually told police the little girl was not seriously injured when he accidentally hit her during the delivery – but the court heard he panicked and drove her into his van.
He didn’t want her to tell her father what had happened, so he tried to slit her neck.
When that did not work, he strangled her to death, the arrest warrant said.
Prosecutors said that version of events was part of Horner’s “pattern and web of lies”.
The ill-fated former driver was delivering a Barbie, which was to be a Christmas gift for Athena, when he hit her while backing out of the driveway.
After the shock plea, prosecutors told the jury that the first words Horner said to Strand were: “Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you”.
Jurors were then warned that audio and video from the day of his death would be shown to them.
Wise County District Attorney James Stanton said: “Someone covered the camera because they don’t want you to see. Guess what? The audio is still playing, and you’ll hear it.
“You’re going to hear what a 250-pound man can do to a 67-pound kid. And when I say it’s terrifying, I mean it. I’ve been doing this (for 25 years), and I promise you, buckle up.”
The seven-year-old girl returned from school at around 4.30 pm and then went to her bedroom.
After being unable to locate Athena, her stepmother was said to have reported her missing at around 6.40pm.
Her body was found on December 2 in the nearby town of Boyd, about six miles from Paradise.
A woman told police Horner attacked her when she was just 16, a court heard on Wednesday.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by an ABC affiliate WFAAThe woman reported to Fort Worth police on December 20, 2022, that Horner attacked her in 2013, when he was 22 years old.
She told authorities that she had been drinking at his house and had stayed the night to avoid getting caught by her grandmother.
When she went to bed, Horner began making sexual advances, which she repeatedly resisted before he became intoxicated, the affidavit states.
