Two separate women have testified that the FedEx driver who abducted and killed seven-year-old Athena Strand raped them when they were teenagers.
The two unidentified women shared their stories in court on Tuesday, as prosecutors pushed for the driver, 34-year-old Tanner Horner, to be sentenced to death for abducting Strand from outside her home in Paradise, Texas, while she played outside unattended in November 2022.
Horner, who has pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, had been delivering a box of Barbies that were due to be Strand’s Christmas present when he took the youngster, strangled her and dumped her body in a creek.
Swabs from Strand’s sexual assault kit showed male DNA, and blood and semen were detected of Horner’s FedEx shirt, Jacqueline Ferrara, a forensic expert, testified on Tuesday, KDFW reports.
Semen was also detected on Horner’s hoodie, jeans and underwear, while Strand’s fingernail clippings tested presumptively positive for blood, Ferrara said.
She shared her findings after the two women told jurors how Horner raped them when they were 16 years old – one year younger than the age of consent in Texas.
The first woman even said she was sexually assaulted by Horner twice in 2013, when he was 22 years old.
Her accusations are now the basis of two sexual assault of a child cases pending in Tarrant County.
Jurors at Tanner Horner’s sentencing hearing heard from two women who claimed Horner (pictured in court last week) raped them as minors
Horner, 34, has pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in the case of seven-year-old Athena Strand (pictured)
The witness testified that Horner had asked her to lie to his grandmother about her age when he took her back to his shed to drink alcohol he had purchased and smoke marijuana.
‘That night when I decided it was time to go to sleep, I laid down and Tanner Horner started grabbing a hold of me, kissing me and proceeded to have sex with me,’ the witness testified.
She said she told him the following day that she did not want to have that kind of a relationship with him, but after another night of smoking and drinking a few months later, she found him sexually assaulting her once again.
In that case, the woman said she fell asleep in Horner’s room and woke up to him grabbing and touching her – before proceeding to have sex with her.
‘I froze,’ the woman testified. ‘I completely froze, shut down, did not know what to do and just let it happen.’
She said she felt gross, violated and hated herself for allowing the sexual assault to occur, and told jurors she feels guilty about not reporting the sexual assaults sooner, saying if she had ‘things may not have happened to other people.’
But under cross examination, the accuser admitted that no one had forced her to be around Horner, and that no one forced her to drink alcohol or use drugs in his presence.
She also said she had intended to spend the night at Horner’s house and admitted she ‘went along with it’ after Horner made the first move, even telling Fort Worth police it was ‘consensual.’
Horner had been delivering a box of Barbies that were due to be Strand’s Christmas present when he took the youngster, strangled her and dumped her body in a creek. The two are pictured in his FedEx truck following the kidnapping
From there, a second woman took the stand to claim that Horner raped her the following year, in 2014, when she was 16 years old.
She said she and Horner would see each other at band practices as well as with mutual friends. Often, alcohol and drugs were involved.
The witness said she never agreed to date Horner or have a sexual relationship with him.
She then said the alleged sexual assault came when she was staying at another friend’s house, where he and Horner shared a bed. But, the witness said she told him she did not want to be touched and only wanted to go to sleep.
When the witness then woke up a short time later, however, she said she found Horner on top of her.
‘I became conscious and came to to Tanner Horner raping me,’ the alleged victim said.
She then went on to say she did not initially recall what had happened, but got some flashbacks the following morning.
She also described a sexual encounter that she said helped jog her memory, and in 2018, she made a public accusation.
One woman testified on Tuesday that she and Horner would see each other at band practices as well as with mutual friends. Often, alcohol and drugs were involved
Swabs from Strand’s sexual assault kit showed male DNA, and blood and semen were detected of Horner’s FedEx shirt, Jacqueline Ferrara, a forensic expert, testified on Tuesday
When she then found out that Strand’s body had been found dumped in a creek two years later, the witness said she contacted police about her experience with Horner.
‘I felt like I had been put back in 16-year-old me’s body,’ the woman testified.
‘I felt guilt for not coming forward. I felt shame for not speaking up sooner, legally speaking. I felt a lot of pain reliving those memories over and over again.’
The powerful testimonies came just one day after jurors heard a recording from a call Horner made to his mother, in which he said he did not rape Strand because he had a low libido.
‘Tanner, I just hope you didn’t do nothing weird to that little girl,’ his mother could be heard telling him in the recording. He then replied that he didn’t.
‘OK. I didn’t think you did, I just know how you get,’ Horner’s mother said.
‘Well, actually, with my medication, I barely even have a libido as it is,’ the FedEx driver then revealed.
Horner had told his mother in a phone call played in court on Monday that he did not sexually assault Strand (pictured) because he was suffering from low libido
In his trial on Monday, jurors were also shown letters Horner wrote to Strand’s family
In another phone call played in court on Monday, Horner again denied raping Athena to his grandmother.
‘Are you remorseful, Tanner?’ she asked her grandson.
‘How can I not be?’ he replied. ‘I haven’t been on my medication for the last few weeks and I’m getting emotional.’
The FedEx driver then went on to break down on the call, while talking about how he would not be able to spend Christmas with his young son.
By January 2023, Horner decided to send Strand’s heartbroken family a remorseful letter saying he does not ‘do well with changes or things that are unpredictable’ due to his Asperger’s Syndrome – an autism spectrum disorder whose sufferers may struggle to cope if their usual daily routine is disrupted.
Horner said in the letter he was extremely stressed by not being able to drive the exact same route in his FedEx truck every day, which he blamed for committing the murder.
‘I’m sorry I allowed my mental state to be unstable. I’m sorry I took your little angel away from you. She didn’t deserve it. My son didn’t deserve to lose his father,’ he wrote, as he moaned about the impact his crime would have on his own family.
‘My mother didn’t deserve to lose her son. My fiancé didn’t deserve to have her wedding day stripped away from her. I pray my death eases your suffering,’ he concluded.
