GUILTY TX - Athena Strand, 8, Abducted & Murdered by FedEx Contract Driver, Tanner Horner, Paradise, 30 November 2022 #2

[panther518]

Yesterday the ME testified and said there wasn't any physical trauma to the girl's private areas.
But I think what's important is there doesn't have to be physical trauma for there to also be biological evidence of SA.
That poor little girl.

jmo

That makes sense. I hate to say I felt some relief yesterday that she might have been spared some horrors but now I know that’s not true. How dare he do this to a child. If he doesn’t get DP, please let him be put in gen pop.

 

[Megnut]

And the Defense is forcing the Prosecution to bring in every single witness who handled evidence from LE to photographer to collector to tester. It is causing the State to adjust the order of why they present.

I will give the Defense this -- because it is their job -- to make it not easy for the Prosecution prove guilt (even though he pleaded guilty, the Prosecution is laying to out to BARD, for the benefit of the jury.

It's a little disruptive to the Prosecution's flow but it's all coming in eventually.

When the Prosecution plays that hour of audio hell on earth, all that chain of custody fastidious will fall away.

TH didn't choose consenting adult women for his violence because they don't exist. They'd say no. So he looks for victims who can't say no (because he prevents them).

I will never get over the chevron pattern of the Fed Ex floor and the tread of his shoes.

Monster.

JMO

 

[Niner]

Wednesday, April 15th:
*Trial continues/Sentencing Phase (Day 7) (@ 9am CT) - TX - Athena Presley Monroe Strand (7) – (last seen near the 200 block of County 3573 on Nov. 30, 2022 in Paradise. Reported missing by stepmom @ 6:40pm on 11/30/22; found deceased along the water’s edge of the Trinity River southeast of Boyd on the evening of Dec. 2, 2022 about 9 miles from her home). *Tanner Lynn Horner (31/now 34) arrested (12/3/22), indicted (2/16/23), charged & arraigned (3/6/23) with capital murder (under the age of 10) & 1st degree felon aggravated kidnapping. Bond $1M (murder) $500K (kidnapping). Surety Bond total $1,545,000. Plead not guilty (3/6/23). DA will seek DP (2/18/23). Wise County/Now in 297th District Court-Tarrant County
TX - *Tanner Lynn Horner (31/now 34) charged (12/21/22) with 3 counts of sexual assault (from 2013) in Fort Worth. Bond @ $45K. Surety Bond Total $135K. Tarrant County
Admitted kidnapping & killing Athena.
Jury selection began on 1/30/26 & ended on 2/11/26. Final jury selection began on 4/1/26 & ended. 12 jurors & 2 alternates.
Trial began on 4/7/26. Horner plead GUILTY. Punishment phase (sentencing) started on 4/7/26.
Trial was moved from Wise County to Tarrant County [3/16/24].
Judge George Gallagher presiding. Wise County DA James Stainton. DA Allenna Banks. Defense: Public defenders Susan Anderson & Steven Goble. For Aggravated kidnapping defense attorney Pamela Fernandez.
Case & court info from 11/30/22 thru 12/21/22 [Tarrant County] & thru 1/21/26 [murder] & Jury Selection Day 1-4 (1/29-1/30, 2/11 & 4/1/26) & Trial/Sentencing Phase Day 1-5 (4/7-4/13/26) reference post #1136 here:
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/t...actor-tanner-horner-paradise-2.649712/page-57
4/14/26 Tuesday, Trial Day 6/Sentencing Phase: State witnesses: FBI Agent Scott Morris [IT specialist & Digital forensics examiner]. Wise County Constable Kevin Huffman. [Constable Precinct 4. He lives in Paradise on County Road 3573]. Kaylen Higgerman [She lived in Hazel TX in Jan,. 2013. the witness is blurred - this would be the young girl, a minor (16) at the time he SA'd back then]. Shayleigh Moore [another minor, 14 at the time SA’d by TH; Dec., 2014]. Jacqueline Ferrara [forensic expert {testified re DNA found]. Trial continues on Wednesday, 4/15/26.

 

[tricia]

Look at the top of this thread and you'll see the Court TV livestream. You don't have to leave the thread to watch the livestream.

 

[Ad2817]

Sorry if I’m being thick/naive.
How can there be no sign of SA from the ME but there is male DNA within the areas that were swabbed?

 

[su5ie]

Sorry if I’m being thick/naive.
How can there be no sign of SA from the ME but there is male DNA within the areas that were swabbed?

Definitely not thick or naive ,I think a lot of us are struggling to comprehend that one

 

[Megnut]

Sorry if I’m being thick/naive.
How can there be no sign of SA from the ME but there is male DNA within the areas that were swabbed?

Definitely not thick or naive ,I think a lot of us are struggling to comprehend that one

Iiuc what she reported is that she found no physical trauma of SA.

She never said none occurred.

But now we know it did. "DNA in places it didn't belong." Imagining how it got there will peel our skin.

Much of that DNA, identified as male, was not tested. IMO because of the complexity of mixed DNA (mixed with Athena's -- devastating) but it has been preserved and there can be no doubt whose DNA it is. Future and better testing will confirm it.

Right now, hell is building a separate hell for TH. It smells like hell but it'll be worse.

JMO

JMO

 

[RaspberryMama]

The audio for yesterday’s last testimony was awful. If I turned the volume up enough to hear the attorney, the witness would be much too loud. I was trying to piece things together just from what I could hear, but I have so many questions! Can someone tell me if the blood and semen were found on Athena’s body? Or was it only her clothes? Either one is horrible. But if it was only on her clothes, what does that mean? We know he kept her clothing in that trashy area around his shed - did he go home and use her clothes in some self-gratifying way AFTER he’d already killed her and put her body in the water?? If so, he’s even more depraved than I’d imagined.

 

[mickey2942]

Sorry if I’m being thick/naive.
How can there be no sign of SA from the ME but there is male DNA within the areas that were swabbed?

I am guessing oral swabs were done.

 

[Megnut]

I am guessing oral swabs were done.

Multiple orifice tested. I can't tell you how much I hate him.

All came back with mixed samples, male and female DNA. You would expect Athena's DNA, in abundance. There shouldn't be any male DNA there. Demands repeating. THERE SHOULDN'T BE ANY MALE DNA THERE.

It was all preserved for future testing. My guess is that there was fear of consumption so they saved it for the future when there will be new and better ways to test it.

JMO

 

[steeltowngirl]

Sorry if I’m being thick/naive.
How can there be no sign of SA from the ME but there is male DNA within the areas that were swabbed?

I’m struggling to understand this too. Why wasn’t TH charged with aggravated sexual assault?

 

[Megnut]

I’m struggling to understand this too. Why wasn’t TH charged with aggravated sexual assault?

Same.

We now why there wasn't

Spoiler: Graphic

penile penetration

because he couldn't but this was a violent sexually motivated crime. Her clothing was removed and she was viscuously assaulted. Even without male "DNA where it doesn't belong", that is a sexually motivated crime.

Obviously the Prosecution doesn't need additional charges for their capital case but I don't like even an appearance of him getting a pass on this.

That audio is one hour long.

And we're learning the evidence in this case shares elements with his other alleged sexual assaults.

JMO

 

[su5ie]

Iiuc what she reported is that she found no physical trauma of SA.

She never said none occurred.

But now we know it did. "DNA in places it didn't belong." Imagining how it got there will peel our skin.

Much of that DNA, identified as male, was not tested. IMO because of the complexity of mixed DNA (mixed with Athena's -- devastating) but it has been preserved and there can be no doubt whose DNA it is. Future and better testing will confirm it.

Right now, hell is building a separate hell for TH. It smells like hell but it'll be worse.

JMO

JMO

Yeah sincerely hope hell has a basement

 

[steeltowngirl]

Athena Strand killer Tanner Horner is accused of child rape

Two separate women testified on Tuesday that Tanner Horner, 34, who abducted and killed seven-year-old Athena Strand raped them when they were teenagers.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Megnut]

Yeah sincerely hope hell has a basement

So he can be under it.

 

[Megnut]

Let the record show, in the phone call, he didn't even deny SA. He deflected. Answered by answering a question no one asked.

In what universe?--

Did you--?

He answers about his libido.

Let that sink in.

The inference he leaves it that the only reason he didn't is because he couldn't.

If that isn't a confession, born out by the evidence, I don't know what one is.

Who even associates libido and CSA?????? He didn't even flinch.

JMO

 

[mickey2942]

So he can be under it.

Prison is not a good place for people like this, even if he is placed in a segregated area with security. Bullying is an art form there, with prison guards who have turned passive aggressive responses into a completely novel experience. Emotional abuse can drive people crazy. Tanner and "Zero" will no doubt be the recipient of this treatment.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Sorry if I’m being thick/naive.
How can there be no sign of SA from the ME but there is male DNA within the areas that were swabbed?

The difference is in the wording. She didn't say no sign of SA, she said no sign of trauma.
I think most of us hear the word "assault" and immediately assume physical violence or damage, but that wasn't the case here.
No physical trauma, but still the male DNA.

Why he wasn't charged with that as well, I have no idea.

 

[Megnut]

And we're back to counselors we can't hear. Why are they even speaking from their tables?

 

[RaspberryMama]

The fact that her clothes were taken off of her prior to her death is SA imo. We can be sure she did not want that to happen. There’s no need for anything more. But as far as why he wasn’t charged with SA… could it be that the murder alone makes this a capital crime and therefore the harshest punishment is allowed… and so to spare the family from even more specifics than what we’ve already heard they decided against charging him with SA?