Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner once wrote a groveling letter to the family of his 7-year-old victim, Athena Strand, in which he apologized for taking away their “little angel” — and blamed his boss for switching up his delivery routes and triggering meltdowns, according to reports.
The twisted 34-year-old penned the note just before he tried to take his own life in 2023 while already in jail for the helpless girl’s death, a Texas jury heard Monday.
“I’m sorry I took your little angel away from you. She didn’t deserve it. Ya’ll didn’t deserve it,” he wrote, according to WFAA.
Surveillance footage of 7-year-old Athena Strand inside Tanner Horner’s FedEx truck.3
Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner blamed the murder of Athena Strand, 7, on his alter ego “Zero.”FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
“I pray that my death eases your suffering in some way.”
The letter was among a handful of rambling writings uncovered in Horner’s cell after he tried to kill himself while awaiting trial.
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Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner revealed the chilling final words he told 7-year-old Athena Strand before strangling her inside his delivery truck and dumping her body in a creek near her Texas home.
Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner reveals chilling final words to Athena Strand, 7, before savagely murdering her
Horner, who has already admitted to abducting and killing Athena after delivering a Christmas gift in 2022, also had the gall to lament how his own son would be forced to grow up without a father, the letters show.
“Just know I have found God through all of this,” Horner insisted to his victim’s loved ones. “I love you all and I’m sorry.”
Horner went on to describe how he lives with Asperger’s syndrome and does not do well with “unpredictable” changes — citing that he had been given an ideal singular route when he started working as a FedEx driver, CBS News reported.
Tanner Horner walking into the courtroom during the first day of his capital murder trial.3
Horner claimed that he thought his crimes were a “nightmare,” a jury in Texas heard.The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images
But after his employer started “making random changes” to his route “so they could make more money,” he did not adjust to the switch-up in his routine, and it nearly sent him into a suicidal episode, Horner wailed.
His unnamed boss ignored Horner’s request for a consistent route and instead made him a “floater,” placing him on different routes every day, the outlet reported.
The killer moaned that the change in route led his mental health to spiral and caused meltdowns.
“I’m sorry I allowed my mental state to be unstable,” he wrote.
“My son didn’t deserve to lose his father. My mother didn’t deserve to lose her son. My fiancé didn’t deserve to have her wedding day stripped away from her.”
“The only thing I ask is for forgiveness and for you to remember my son and show him some grace and mercy,” Horner wrote, “for he no longer has his father. I love you all, and I’m sorry.”
People with Asperger’s syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder, often struggle to cope with deviations in their routines and everyday rituals, according to the National Autistic Society.
A young girl with blonde hair in pigtails smiles, wearing a light blue shirt with a plaid pumpkin design and black and white checkered pants.3
Horner claimed that his other personality “took over” when he strangled the young girl after kidnapping her from outside her house.Facebook/Maitlyn Presley Gandy
Horner’s trial is to rule on whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison over the slaying of the little girl in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth, some four years ago.
Horner has blamed his alter ego, “Zero,” for the cowardly act.
Initially, Horner had told authorities he’d accidentally struck the 67-pound child with his van and then strangled her in a fit of panic after delivering her gift.
But prosecutors have repeatedly branded Horner a liar, especially after surveillance video captured the child sitting inside the delivery truck — largely unharmed — shortly after her abduction.
“The first thing Tanner Horner says to Athena when he picks her up and puts her in that truck, he leans down and he says: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you.’ He says that twice,” Wise County District Attorney James Stainton said during opening statements.
“The only truthful thing that Tanner Horner told law enforcement was that he killed her,” Stainton said. “The pattern and web of lies that he put together, it’s going to be hard for y’all to keep up with. It is lie upon lie upon lie upon lie.”
Defense attorneys, for their part, have blamed his heinous crimes on a brain injury and his autism.
Little Athena Strand’s mom stares down FedEx driver killer as she gives heart-breaking reason why she attended every court date
The mother of Athena Strand stared daggers at her daughter’s killer at his sentencing hearing Wednesday – describing how she had to hide the bruises he left on her neck, as she vowed to keep her memory alive.
“I had to cover up handprint bruises around my daughter’s neck,” mom Maitlyn Gandy told a Texas court Wednesday, when asked why she’d been to nearly hearing for her 7-year-old girl’s murder.
“And because she no longer has a voice. And I want people to know that she’s not just some story. She’s not just some number. She’s not just some picture you see in a headline,” she said.
Maitlyn Gandy, wearing a pink jacket and with pink hair, in court for the murder trial of Athena Strand.5
Maitlyn Gandy, mother of Athena Strand, seen in court at her daughter’s killer’s sentencing.WFAA
Gandy, who wore a pink suit and dyed her hair to match Athena’s favorite color — stared down the little girl’s confessed killer, former FedEx driver Tanner Horner, who sat meekly across the courtroom as she spoke.
“She was loved. She is loved. And she is missed, and she was real, and she had a life, and she wanted to live,” Gandy said. “I will be her face, and I will be her voice, and I will make sure that every single person in this works knows that that she is loved, and that she wanted to live, and we want her in our lives.”
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