Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner went home and had sex with his fiancée just hours after he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered 7-year-old Athena Strand, a jury has heard.
The confessed murderer made the sickening revelation in a twisted attempt to deny being a pedophile, according to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Eileen Ryan, who interviewed him in jail several times after his arrest over the little girl’s 2022 slaying in Texas.
“He had sex with his fiancée,” Ryan, a defense witness, said under cross-examination Wednesday.
Delivery driver Tanner Horner has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and strangling 7-year-old Athena Strand outside her home in Wise County in 2022. FOX 4 DFWThe twisted 34-year-old had allegedly told the psychiatrist he slept with his partner soon after the killing in an attempt to prove he wasn’t a pedophile — even though he admitted sexually assaulting the helpless 7-year-old girl.
“It says here … that that night, he had sex with his girlfriend — I won’t use her name — just to prove that he wasn’t into kids. That’s what he told you,” the prosecutor said while reading from Ryan’s notes.
Ryan testified that she didn’t consider him a pedophile because such sickos needed to show consistent arousal from children.
“I was pressing him to find out more about any prior interest in kids [and] that was something that he told me,” Ryan said.
“He had sex with his fiancée, according to him.”
Athena Strand, 7, was strangled in the back of Tanner Horner’s FedEx truck in 2022. Family HandoutElsewhere in her testimony, which solicited eyerolls from some members of the jury, Ryan went on to note that Horner — who will find out this week if he will face the death penalty — appeared to have a normal sex life with his future spouse.
Here’s the latest on killer FedEx driver who murdered 7-year-old Athena Strand:
- Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner killed Athena Strand after she caught him ‘snorting cocaine,’ psychiatrist testifies
- FedEx driver had totally nonchalant response after he murdered little Athena Strand, his own pastor reveals at death penalty trial
- Monster FedEx driver Tanner Horner sang ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ as he murdered Athena Strand, chilling audio shows
- Inconsolable FedEx driver killer’s mother tells jury she’s furious with son — ‘She was just a baby’
- Killer FedEx driver’s mom testifies about his disturbing upbringing — as jury sees childhood photos
In his prison interviews, Horner had also disclosed to the psychiatrist that he only forced the 7-year-old girl into his van after she apparently saw him “snorting cocaine” as he was delivering a Christmas present to her family’s home in Paradise on Nov. 30, 2022, the doctor testified.
“Once she saw him doing cocaine, that was when he decided he had to do something to stop her from telling anyone,” Ryan said, adding that Horner was afraid of losing his job and losing contact with his son when he made the “completely unreasonable” jump from “Point A to Point Z.”
A jury will determine whether Horner will be sentenced to death. APThe killer also admitted to assaulting Athena — despite initially denying it — after being probed by the psychiatrist, according to the doctor’s testimony.
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 the packaged gift.
He also previously blamed his alternate persona, whom he called “Zero,” for the strangling.
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.
Athena’s naked body was found in a rural creek two days after she was kidnapped.






