7 Yr Old Girl Asks Killer "Are You A Kidnapper?" 1 Hr Tape of Her Murder Played To Emotional Jurors

19:37And I think that's not even true at this point. Throughout the multiple interviews, there will just be times where he says things that showcase how out of touch he is.

19:46Sabrina:I think that this has nothing to do with a lack of development in the brain. This is all to do with you're just a shit person. You can't say that you're fucking evil and say, oh, it's because my brain did not develop completely. You're just fucking evil. The investigators are asking him when you were talking to her. Did she tell you her name? Yeah. Did she tell you her full name or just Athena? No, she didn't tell me her last name. So she just told you her name was Athena. OK, which I actually thought was pretty cool because I like mythology. and stuff like that. There are other points in the interviews where he starts almost talking to the detectives as if he's trying to show them how cool he is.

20:23Sabrina:For example, he's asked to describe who he all lives with in the house. And he says, my mom, my little brother, my grandmother and Cassie, the fiance, and several annoying dogs. What kind of dogs? Itty bitty little ankle biters. He says, you know, it's me, Cassie, our cat and an annoying little shit named Draco. what breed is Draco? not sure exactly but he's part chihuahua and part annoying shit it's like very reminiscent of a middle schooler trying to curse in front of the high schoolers to appear cool but housed in the vile body that is Tanner Horner a man in his 30s in another segment he's yapping about his ex-girlfriends one of them named Nicole who he describes her being as dumb as a brick he says she ended up cheating on me with two different black guys which eventually ended up you know telling me later on what was really going on also just like the whole jewish thing and then the black thing like i'm like i think you're anti-semitic and i think you're racist but you're trying to play it off that's the vibe the way he even phrases it i think you have to watch the clip to see but the way it's almost he says that he had a problem ghosting girls because quote because you know we're flirting and all this other shit sometimes we would sleep together all that shit but then afterwards i'm like, shit, I don't know where to go from here.

21:37Sabrina:So he has a reputation of ghosting girls. He states that he had a habit of being a player. Quote, I started realizing getting older, I kind of need to settle down. So that's why he got with Cassie. Every other answer is framed as woe is me. So when he's not trying to sell this weird alter ego personality zero, then he's talking and trying to be cool with the officers. And then every other response after that is woe is me. And I don't think it registers in his English pea-sized brain that he's not the victim in this situation. He's asked questions like, when you start choking her facing away from you, like you stated earlier, how long did it take her to essentially pass out or stop crying?

22:17Sabrina:Was it long or short? It was probably about a minute, but it felt much longer. And there's this undercurrent. It sounds like he feels bad for himself that it took longer. Like it felt so long to kill Athena. Not that Athena suffered for so long. He leans against the wall during the interrogation. Am I going to go home at all? No, you're not. He says about this whole experience, aka murder, he says, it's just been kind of fucking with me a lot that I hurt a fucking kid. Can you all just shoot me in the head? I just want to be with my family. We were just like we were finally getting our shit together.

22:55Then he goes on to rant almost. I'm going to miss out on the first part of my child's fucking life,

23:00Sabrina:okay like I can't this is one of those you know probation things this is one of I'm gonna go away for a long time things and I'm gonna miss out all of my fucking son's life I would rather die I'm gonna miss out on all my son's Christmases his birthdays him growing up I'm gonna miss out on everything all because I didn't listen to some I just listened to some stupid voice in my head that's probably isn't even there audaciously he asked the authorities if he can just be free for a month after admitting to murder of a seven-year-old girl. He asks if he can just have a month to spend Christmas with his families.

23:34And this is why, again, I feel like he watches those movies and he thinks that they're all real. Like he watched Split once because the way he asks, he's like, give me a month. I just need a month. You're not an undercover CIA agent. You're scum. He offers them. I want a month a month a month with what? Even if you have to do gps monitors, you know check in with me If you give me a month with my family so I can have christmas with my son. I will tell you everything

24:04Sabrina:I'm gonna be honest with you tanner. That's beyond our power. That's above my pay grade Even if y 'all set up cameras outside the house I want to answer everything you have But the main motivation behind me wanting to talk to you is I literally just want to see my son. I want to be there for Christmas. I want to give him that good Christmas feeling. He's making it seem like this is the biggest impact on him. However, if you put it in juxtaposition with everything else that's happening, when the investigators are trying to pull Athena's body out of the creek, he's talking to another detective about vapes.

24:38He says, I was, you know, vaping there for a little bit, but then I got sick with COVID two weeks ago. And I switched back to smoking because I didn't get all the fluid in my lungs out because a friend of mine got serious lung issues because he was vaping when he was sick. Then he starts going down this thoughtless rabbit hole about how some vapes smell like pancakes and waffles. And that makes him crave pancakes and waffles, which naturally leads to a conversation. And again, I think the officer is playing into this. I don't think the officer is sitting there like, oh, yeah, let me just make small talk.

25:04Sabrina:I think the officer is like, my fucking body cam is on and I'm going to egg you on and make you talk about what you want to talk about while we are pulling a seven year old girl's body out of the water. And he starts talking about pancakes and waffles with him. And he says that he prefers hash browns with cheese and onions, a Whataburger patty melt with a Dr. Pepper shake. And then he later asks out of nowhere after he's talking about food for five minutes, what happens if I get an attorney? I mean, that's your choice, your legal right. then he tries to bring up how the last time he was in handcuffs was four years ago when he attempted self-exit and how he would have constant headaches to the point of being halfway convinced that he had a tumor in his brain he also mentions quote i'm the kind of person where i don't go to the hospital until the very last second which that's probably the best you know thing i really like you know but i have these random heart palpitations and stuff because i drink a lot of energy drinks I even had a heart attack like a year ago.

26:01And in the car, he's talking about how he semi-likes being a delivery driver, except, quote, right now we're going through peak season, which to be honest is kind of a pain in the butt. And I just didn't like the whole being a 1099 thing. So instead of being an employee with a W-2, he doesn't like being a 1099 contractor.

26:18Sabrina:And later he motions to the officer who's driving and he says in a teasing voice, ooh, texting and driving. Oh, this is in the car? Yeah, later in the car. So they were outside the car smoking a cigarette. And then now they put him in the car and they're driving him to a second location. And he's yapping in the car. He's like, ooh, texting and driving. Crazy. And when it comes to the crime, he blames everyone else but him. The investigators are trying to get him to show remorse. I think they're not trying to get him to show it because that would benefit him. And it would. but I think they're just trying to understand so that they can get this all on camera to see how he really feels about it.

27:00Sabrina:And he can't even fake it. He can't even say words. He just talks about how he's no longer on the meds that he was placed on initially. I haven't been on that medicine in five days and it's starting to wear off. I've actually been crying. Do you know what that's like? Not being able to cry for months and months and months? Tanner, are you remorseful for what you did? Obviously, you're telling me you're crying. I'm a father. I took a fucking, I took away something from someone. All I want is just to spend one last Christmas with my son and I'll tell you everything. You didn't answer my question.

27:30Are you remorseful for what you did? I'm a father. Tell me about that. Are you hurting inside for Athena? He nods. Hurting for her, hurting for her family. Even if this is some random person, I'd still be hurting for this. If her mom and dad were here right now, what would you want to say to them? and then he goes back to getting a month with his son. If there's even a sliver of a chance that I can get out. If I'm on house arrest, something like that, I would be able to right those wrongs. If I was on house arrest, I would actually be able to give my son a Christmas. I would be able to, you know what I mean?

28:05Where did you come up with this idea?

28:07Sabrina:Is this your idea or something you saw somebody else? The idea of asking for a fucking month. I prayed about it. pray about it. God spoke to you. He said, this is what you should ask for. He nods. The investigator goes on to tell Tanner Athena's parents' names and what they've been asking and what they want answers to. But all Tanner can say is, can I speak for a minute? The reason that I want to do this, I just want to spend one last Christmas. I have videos of Christmas morning and waking up, going to the trees to see his presence. This isn't even really about me at this point. It's about that little boy.

28:43I want this because I want him to be able to have something to look back on the reason I want to trade this is because if somehow by some million and one shot they were able to put me on a monitor and put cameras around the house everything if y 'all were just able to do that I would just go no contest all I want is one month time hell not even a month technically just end of the year you know what I mean that one month time that one last crucial time for my son

29:08Sabrina:I would give up everything I would just just throw me in a jail cell forever I don't care and it's like you're already getting that but I would give up everything I give up all my defenses I would give up everything plead no contest give you all the information that you want everything that's what I want you to convey to the judge he says he's never done anything like this before he's the type to cry when he runs over dogs at work which the investigator is like then why did you kill a seven-year-old girl why Athena to which he responds it wasn't me now that I haven't been on the medication I haven't heard from zero in two days He says that none of this would have happened if he hadn't accidentally run over at the network saying, if that hadn't happened, I'd be at work right now.

29:46I would be at work saving up for Chester's Christmas, getting everything ready, just trying to get us into an apartment. I was this close.

29:53Sabrina:I finally got a new car. I was having to drive the freaking work trucks home for a month because I didn't have a car because my car broke down several months ago and then Cassie's broke down. Life was getting bad. The stress was getting too much. I'm not a violent person. I'm not a bad person. I've never been a bad person. And the only bad thing I've ever done is occasionally I'll smoke marijuana. But that's, you know, so you can look at my history. I'm not some deranged psychopath. I'm not some criminal. I'm an autistic, weird dude who likes music that other people tend to shut out. I'm a musician.

30:21Sabrina:I was in a Christian punk band at one point, a Christian punk band. Not going to lie. The vocals weren't the best. Yeah, I've worked mastering my craft for years. And at this point, I write my own music. I've written my own music. but I haven't really, I had lyrics and everything, but I never really got the, you know what I mean? He talks a lot. Yeah. He likes to talk. Yeah, and he thinks that everyone should care about him. Personally, I'm glad to hear that because if you do show some type of emotion, if you do have some type of remorse, that goes a long way as opposed to just being a cold-blooded killer monster.

30:59If I was a cold-blooded killer, I would have been killing people for years. You know what I mean? I have a conscience. I have feelings. I'm just a person. It was a decision that was made at the, you panicked.

31:09Sabrina:It wasn't my decision. I wanted to let her go. There's other jobs out there. He didn't want to let her go. Now I haven't heard from him in like two days. We're human, right? You're going to have human emotions as a parent, as a son. So what do you do next after killing Athena? I didn't know what to do. So I just tried to live my life. I don't know if the only thing that I could think of and this is such a shitty comparison but have you ever met those people who they will stub their toe and they expect everyone to fall to their knees and care about their toe and then someone around them will be diagnosed with a terminal illness and they're like what does that have to do with me this is the type of energy that tanner horner gives he just does not care when the detectives ask about why he lied about the green van he blames it on zero saying i mean obviously he would know, like we share the same memories.

32:00Sabrina:He has access to my memories and my dad used to have an old green Astro van. And I think that's where he got that from. He says, when we were talking to Athena, me and Zero were also arguing. And I was trying to be like, you just put her back and forget the whole fucking thing. You know what I mean? Normally he's a cool guy, but he was a little more manic than normal. I remember there was a point where me and Zero were getting verbal, like outward verbal versus inside the head verbal. And she was just kind of freaking out over it. And again, it's like he watched the movie Split because there's no, there's no depiction of this in any of the audios that they retrieved from the FedEx truck.

32:32Sabrina:How is she freaking out? She was just kind of looking at us like, why is this dude talking to himself? You know what I mean? Yeah, if I saw someone like having a conversation, arguing with themselves, I'd be freaking out too. Tanner is the type of person that thinks at such a pace that you can almost see the thought forming inside of his dense skull and then he acts on it. And once he realizes the detectives are not putting in as much effort to believe the alter ego zero's existence, he asks them, can y 'all do some research on something for me? Sure. Can you look up some of the potential negative psychoactive effects of potentially Prozac?

33:06And then he notices one of the investigators fidgeting with his fingers. Oh, you do the same thing? I do that because I'm a drummer.

33:12Sabrina:You can see scars from years and years of playing drums where I bust in my fingers. The investigator is like, okay, well, let's get back to the topic. And he says, I guess the whole motivating factor again, going back to the why is you bumped this little girl with a truck and you're thinking I'm going to lose my job, potentially my freedom. He says, I wasn't worried about losing freedom part because honestly, that's an honest accident. He's like, why would I go to jail for running her over? It was an accident, which again, no one thinks that he did that, but you know what I mean? All it would take is going up there and talking to the parent like, hey, accidentally bumped your daughter.

33:47There's more jobs out there. You know what I mean? It's not that hard to find a job. I mean, shit. So I sat her on the back of the van trying to calm her down, but she wasn't calming down. And then zero kind of took over. One of the last things Athena wrote in her school journal was about stranger danger. There was, that's what the class was learning at the time leading up to Christmas, is who a stranger is, what to do when a stranger approaches you, who not to trust. And I think that adds a really twisted layer to this case, because it's not, not that it would make it any better. But I think that there is this knowledge that Athena knew what kind of danger she was in as it was happening.

34:23And I know that sounds obvious to adults, but it's even from the second it started, she knew she was in danger. And I think the part that people find heartbreaking is the fact that from the second that she was hauled into that van, she would have had a lot of conscious thoughts about what is happening. and this is dangerous and this is bad and it would have probably made her feel a lot more panicked. She was learning of what to do in the event of stranger danger. And like I said, one of the most damning pieces of evidence in this trial is the audio footage of Athena's murder. This was played in court for the jurors and all of the live streaming cameras rightfully, thankfully, had to be shut off so the public could not hear it.

35:07There were press members in the courtroom who described some of the jurors reactions as well as what was heard in the audio but it's a lot i don't even think they played the full footage for the jurors because they were just sobbing breaking down a lot

35:22Sabrina:of them were trying to hold back tears a lot of them were outwardly just dry heaving and sobbing the jurors right the jurors the prosecutor describes it as you're going to hear in this audio what a 250 pound man can do to a 67 pound child and when I say it's horrible I mean it I've been doing this for 25 years and I promise you buckle up the footage is an hour long the prosecutor says it's an hour it's not five minutes it's an hour and it's not just one time that he's trying to kill her it's over and over and over again you can hear the banging in the truck you can hear the screams this is what's coming it didn't happen fast the first thing that tanner says to athena when she's in the van he leans down towards her face and says don't scream or i'll hurt you she tries to tell him that he can't take her because she has school tomorrow and athena strand asks him if he's a kidnapper and tanner responds by demanding she take off her shirt.

36:25Athena screams and cries for her mom and tells Tanner, you can't do that to me. You can hear her. So we know that there was male DNA found inside of, found on the vaginal and in his swabs, but they also, in the audio, there is very clear apparent gagging noises from Athena. Now, Tanner would later try to come up with this lie that he was trying to get her to swallow a pill. I guess a pill to sedate her or something, but it's pretty apparent that he was assaulting her. And she screams for her mom and she screams, you can't do that for me. You can hear her gasp for air, begging to go home. At one point, Tanner Horner sings Christmas music, Jingle Bell Rock specifically, because it was playing in the van.

37:15The audio footage is so bad that Athena's mom even apologizes to the jurors for what they have to see. Maitland is Athena's biological mother, and I do want to make it clear that Maitland's favorite color is not pink. Athena's favorite color was pink, but she goes up on the stand in a pink blazer. She's been in court every single day wearing pink. Her whole head of hair has been dyed pink. It's been pink for a really long time. Right now, it's a pastel pink color. Previously, it was a much darker, vibrant pink, and every day she's there wearing pink and she gets up on the stand to testify and she talks about what her life has been like we're gonna get into all of that soon but she says about the audio she could only listen to a minute she says i couldn't get past a minute and she says i'm sorry to all the innocent people that have to watch that and she turns to the jurors and says i'm so sorry i'm so sorry to you and i'm so sorry to y 'all too because none of us not athena not me not anyone in this room besides Tanner Horner asked for what's on that video and Athena definitely didn't.

38:21I really am sorry. After the prosecution present all their evidence, it's now time for the defense and it consists of just trying to paint this very sad picture of the sad life of Tanner Horner. As Tanner describes it, his dad was a crackhead, his mom is a heroin addict, and he was raised by his grandparents. Those are direct quotes. Well, my grandmother and my step-grandfather, which I consider him my grandfather than anybody because he's the man that raised me. He says for his childhood, his dad was in and out of prison and his mom was also in and out of jail constantly. And the part that really gets me is he says, because now he's in jail.

38:57He says, I actually worked on this, you know, when my mom and my grandmother come to see me, I actually worked on this clever line, like, oh, how the tables have turned because now he's the one in jail. but he says that he's glad his grandparents raised him because quote because you know i'm glad they did because i wouldn't be the kind of person that literally buys fucking homeless people food you know what i mean the defense brings up his rough upbringing they also bring up the fact that he's autistic people that know tanner say that he made it his whole personality that he is autistic he threw it out there in every conversation but not in the sense of oh i'm trying to connect with

39:36Sabrina:people or I'm trying to describe why I may behave in certain ways that a neurotypical person would not. It's not like that. It's not like, oh, I'm trying to connect with someone. Maybe you have certain things that you do that you could relate to. It's not like that. It's just to justify things. That's what people say. It's like he's always justifying an action or mistake or straight up wrongdoings by saying that he's autistic. In his mind, because he's on the spectrum, he can do no wrong. His defense wrote in a filing that his quote, autism reduces his moral blameworthiness. And a lot of people, a lot of autistic people are just fucking fed up with this trial because they're like that.

40:16Sabrina:Why is the defense doing this? Like, it doesn't make any sense. It just makes us, it's adds a stigma to our community. Most people, most autistic people wouldn't hurt a fly. They're like, what's happening. And on top of that, Tanner Horner has been accused of SA and SA against minors several times before this. A woman named Shea Marie had posted on Facebook for years. Friendly reminder that Tanner Horner likes to take advantage of drunk 16-year-old girls. Another one. Friendly reminder that Tanner Horner is a rapist. And these are back from 2019. Against her? Yes. This would have been when Tanner was 23.

40:56She's 16. years before Tanner would go on to kill Athena Strand. She made another post around the time of his arrest and said, Tanner Lynn Horner, the man who raped me at 16, eight years ago, murdered Athena Strand, a seven-year-old girl. I hope the family gets just this that they deserve. I hope he rots. And I hope that everyone who didn't believe me when I've talked about this for eight years, fuck all of you. She's also posted on TikTok about what's happened, saying that nobody believed her at the time. She's also posted screenshots of what people widely believe to be a conversation between Shay and Cassie, the fiance, but it's not been verified.

41:33But it appears that the fiance is messaging Shay, saying things like, hey, Shay, I heard you were with Tanner, but he was lying to me and all kinds of shit, so I was just gonna ask what happened. And Shay Marie confides in her, saying like, oh, well, you should know

41:47Sabrina:that he physically took advantage, he raped me. Like, this is what happened. I'm telling you right now, like, this is a shit person. And if this is truly Cassie, I think this is why a lot of people dislike her as well. There's a response to Shay that reads, well, don't worry, though, he's attached to me now. And Shay writes, OK, question mark, question mark. All I'm saying is him and I are still kind of together, but not like I fell deeply in love with him and he won't leave me alone because I do love him and he doesn't get he doesn't want to get rid of me. Like we technically are not together, but still are.

42:18I don't know. It's hard to explain. if this is Cassie I think this is where a lot of the vitriol against her stems from which Cassie is someone that Tanner met and potentially groomed I believe that she was 17 years old when they met as well and about meeting Cassie he says I met her and it just kind of clicked which is really weird because her mom was trying to get on me yeah and her mom's

42:42Sabrina:like her mom was interested in me it literally was not yeah I was like your daughter's a lot cuter man and you're like 50. They share a young son together. He doesn't speak nicely about Cassie either. He says that she's not working and quote, she's using my Grubhub account to go get money every once in a while, but it's gone by the next day. So at least from this point, she's at least providing money for her own dumb shit. Dude, she will go and do Grubhub to order Grubhub later. Like gotta love that girl, but so dumb. He also complains about how people think he's dumb, but he's actually a lot smarter than people think.

43:19Before his arrest in the Athena Strand case, he was charged with three counts of SA of a child dating back to 2013. Two separate women have testified in court thus far that Tanner Horner raped them when they were both minors. And while now it's the defense's turn to try and make a compelling argument for mitigating factors of why he should not be killed by the state, there's a lot of things that we do need to keep in mind. Like the fact that during the interrogation, the lead detective is telling him when they find Athena, they're going to have a medical examiner look at Athena's body. They're going to know a lot of things.

43:50So we're going to know, you know, we're going to be able to essentially corroborate what you're telling us now. So is there anything else we're going to find out? Because I don't want you to lie to me. So tell us what we need to know. And he's like, no, sir. Okay. So I think I know what you're about to ask. And no, I didn't.

44:06Sabrina:What am I about to ask? You're going to ask if I sexually assaulted her and I did not. you didn't sexually assault her. No, sir. Everything's going to tell me that you did not sexually assault her. With my medication, and again, this is the argument that people are so upset by because if someone in their right mind who genuinely did not assault someone, they would be offended. They would try to defend their character of like, no, of course not, because of A, B, C, and D. I'm not that type of person, A, B, C, and D. But his response is, with my medication, I don't even really have much of a libido.

44:36Sabrina:Okay. Like with my fiance, say, I tell you that it kind of pisses her off most of the time because I don't really have much of a libido. He gives the same excuse to his mother when she calls him in jail. And there's a lot of jailhouse calls that are being played during the trial. And it's just a whole lot of complaining. Even to the detectives, he complained that being in jail is a lot of stress because you got to ask people for everything. He's like, when I ask people for water while I'm in that fucking padded cell, I'm sitting there waiting for like a water. Everybody in there looks at me like i'm a monster which understandably so given the circumstance but i'm not a monster what's his parents attitude his mom testified and it was um i think a lot of people have limited sympathy for the mom so just judging by her testimony it seems that she had a very rough life and she was dealt a lot of shitty cards as well there is this point in the testimony though where she says that she wants to tear his fucking eyes out because of what he did to the little girl and she's very emotional so it seems that people do not she's not one of those moms that's like my son could never however there is this one point that she describes that that's not her the son she knows which a lot of people had problems with that wording but she is not one of those moms that's like, no, my son could never.

46:04My son, well, maybe the victim asked for it because my son is a saint. She's not doing that. Yeah. Dad? Dad is dead. Yeah.

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48:27but during one of the initial jailhouse calls to his mom she picks up and she's like are you okay not really you want to tell me what happened i pulled into this driveway and all that stuff i was playing forward and i was backing up and i hit this little girl okay go ahead and then you know she was crying i tried calming her down and it didn't work my thoughts are oh my god i'm gonna lose my job and everything. Yeah. Okay. I know you should have called. I didn't know what to do, mom. Did she fall and hit her head? What did you do? Did she die on her own? No. And she starts panicking and she's like, oh my God, I know Cassie hasn't even tried calling me up here.

49:09Then there's this very disorienting moment where he asks about the bail. So was it you guys who tried calling bill or whatever it was called yeah how much was it 1.5 million are you kidding me he starts complaining about that the truck doesn't have a backup camera well it has a camera but it doesn't work it hasn't worked for like two months so he starts using that as an excuse and another

49:32Sabrina:call he complains about how he gets reading material in jail but it's you know he asked for the bible he gets a version of the bible where it has quote shakespearean dialogue and he has to constantly take breaks. And though I tend to think that it's not a problem of the version, but rather he's just giggling about how he's not in the crazy room anymore. He's in the less crazy room, but still the version of the Bible sucks. He also says, you could not believe all the crazy letters I'm receiving. Like fan letters? I don't know if it's hate, fans, other child molesters. I don't know. He also talks about how all the news outlets are reaching out.

50:12And he also complains a lot. Oh, more on that in a second. But he also complains about like the dumbest shit. He says, I had an ingrown nail the other day and I started messing with it and they don't let me come my fingernails. So it just kind of gets bad. And then his mom is trying to give him some perspective of like, well, yeah, your time is bad in there too. But also she says, you're not getting all the hate that I'm getting here. Hey, you shouldn't be receiving any hate. I want to know what the they're saying on TV because I guarantee they're always making it worse than it is. Well, it's coming out that you didn't rape her, right?

50:45No, on my medication, I couldn't even get it up for Cassie. I know that's a little bit too much information, but still. He says the news reporters, journalists, investigators, major publications are all monsters.

51:00Sabrina:They want their story. That's all they want. That's why I'm tempted to write, hey, you guys bail me out and give me an extra million dollars. I'll give you a story. And he says he's going to demand a million dollars from news networks. And with that million dollars, he's going to get his baby a nice house, fix up his mom's house, and then give the leftovers to the family. Athena Strand's family. He says, give the leftovers. His mom tries to comfort him in jail. And again, I think this is why people have limited sympathy for her. But she's saying things like, you know the people that know you know you're not that kind of person i'm sorry for you and he says i don't want people to be sorry for me he says there's this one mexican gangster dude that just looked at me with hate rage filled eyes apparently they might keep me from the general population works for me though i'm a bit of an introvert anyway so it's not a big deal getting two books from the library hopefully they come in one of the star wars i like books so i don't mind and she's just like okay well i just want you to know that many people are concerned about you who those are the people you need to send my attorney's way he needs many character witnesses yeah i'm not his only client but i'm actually his most high profile client also these are court-appointed attorneys so it's hard to yeah yeah he's proud about that huh yeah he's actually working his ass off right now as far as i'm concerned and i just imagine the attorneys fucking hating their lives sitting next to him i can sense it on the cameras but hey you know do not take toilets for granted.

52:31Sabrina:Sometimes I can't even have a toilet. He also says things like, I'm pretty sure everybody knows. According to my attorney yesterday, this is literally like national news. It's not like Texas news. It's national. Yeah, I always wanted to be famous, but not like this shit. He says, I feel bad for the family. I miss my son. I miss my son before I even got arrested. He complains about one of the guards saying she just literally hates me. It's not professional. She's an older lady. Ironically, her last name is Collard. Ironic because I tried Collard Greens for the first time when I was in here, by the way.

53:05Sabrina:Oh my God, it's so good. I'm like, oh man, I'm actually going to be able to poop. What's going on? He's like, what's going on? He doesn't care about anyone else but him. He thinks that if he says something was a mistake, everyone should forgive him and baby him for finding himself in this situation. There's no, yeah. He complains about how he had to eat applesauce paired with something that wasn't good. But at least he gets reading material. Again, quote, I'm just glad I'm getting some reading material from the library because holy crap. I need to put my head in a good fantasy book. He does want someone, however, to send him a meditation book because, quote, it helps when I'm having an anxiety attack because being stuck in a box, you're going to end up getting a little bit of anxiety.

53:50When I start getting that anxiety, I'll sit down, meditate, try to block out everything, relax. It helps. he also wants manga Dragon Ball Z manga and when this part is played out in court where he talks to his family about wanting them to send manga he laughs into his hand like he chuckles as if like oh my god look at me being so quirky there were envelopes found in Tanner Horner's jail cell and all of them were titled so one of them is for Athena's family one of them is detectives only one of them is Legacy Church and one of them is for Cassie he had these all sprayed out And this is where I say the timeline gets very confusing.

54:26So at first when he is talking about what happened, he's like, I don't know what happened. I'm just as sad as everybody else. I'm a father. And then he's like, oh, yeah, I did deliver a package. Well, no, he says, I don't remember delivering a package. Then it goes to I did deliver a package.

54:37Sabrina:I saw a man with a green van. And then it goes to I backed up into her and she was dead. Then it goes to I backed up into her. She was alive. And then zero took over. And then now back in jail, he's like, actually, I'm getting framed. That's where the letter comes from. And I'm going to read you all the letters. okay but to the one to athena's family it reads to athena's family i wanted to start off by saying how sorry i am about athena the entire time i've known my legal counsel they've continued to tell me how i don't need to apologize i shouldn't apologize until the trial i don't think this is true but and frankly i can't hold it in any longer i've done a terrible thing to your family and i'm sorry i can't tell you how many countless nights i've stayed awake unable to sleep i pray for all of you so many were affected by my breakdown not just your family but my own as Well, you'll never get to see your baby girl grow up, and I'm sorry.

55:24Sabrina:Now, my son is going to grow up without his father and protector. I owe it to you to explain where my mind is at. Let me start by saying that I have Asperger's syndrome. In other words, I'm on the autism spectrum. I don't do well with change or things that are unpredictable in nature. When I first started as a driver at FedEx, I was given a singular route, and that route wouldn't change for a while. After a bit, my employer started making random changes in my route, avoid adding stuff from other routes so they could make more money. I don't do well with change. Again, I can have meltdowns when unexpected changes to my daily route happened.

55:55It was bad one day. I started to have suicidal episodes. I had to leave early that day where I was going to walk myself into oncoming traffic. The only thing that stopped me was thinking of my son growing up without his father. So I took off for a week and sought out help. I got put on medication and a week later I was back at work.

56:09Sabrina:I'd let my employers know how I needed to keep a consistent routine and I wouldn't have any issues. However, I was ignored. When I returned, they did the opposite of what was good for someone like me. They put me on as a floater. They put me on a different route every day, every time. I reminded them that I needed to be on a routine and it was like it would go in one ear and out the other. My mental health started to steadily get worse because of it. I couldn't just quit either. I had a son and I had to take care of him. Then on top of that, certain aspects of my home life started to fall apart as well.

56:38I guess they got sick of me constantly telling them that I needed consistency because they sold me off to another company without having any say in the matter. In hindsight, I'm starting to think that they were attempting to get me to quit, which in retrospect was kind of scummy. After a while with the new contract, I started with Big Top Spin. My life started to kind of fall back into place. I got a car again, but I was consistently stressed and had multiple minor meltdowns because even the new company had no regard for my mental health because they still refused to put me on a consistent route.

57:04The holidays came and my stress only multiplied. They forced everyone to work six days. Six days as volume got higher and higher and it was all the wrong place in the wrong time. I'm sorry I allowed my mental state to be unstable i'm sorry i took away your little angel from you she didn't deserve it you all didn't deserve it my son didn't deserve to lose his father my mother didn't deserve to lose her son my fiance didn't deserve to have her wedding day stripped from her i pray that my death eases your suffering in some way the only thing i can think of is for forgiveness and for you to remember my son and show him some grace and mercy for he no longer has his father i love you all and i'm sorry Tanner Horner what do you mean

57:40Sabrina:I love you all that also pisses me off like I mean everything about this letter pisses me off but the I love you all so what are these letters intended for like he just wrote it he wanted to he did try to self exit in jail okay but I don't know if it was a full hearted attempt yeah because I feel like these letters are insulting yeah right like that's only even putting salt on the womb even more I feel like his and I never say this because But I think that his self-exit in these letters was performative at best. It's just the most empty attempt at appearing remorseful. Because even previously during the interviews when he was requesting to take a month for his son, they keep trying to bring him back to as a parent, because you keep mentioning you're a parent.

58:29My question to you was, if Athena's parents were here, put yourself in their shoes for a minute. What would you say to them? I don't know what I would say. Would you apologize to them? Would you explain why you did this? I don't know what I'm going to say. I'd be speechless. What do you want to say to the community? What do you want to say to the family? Is there anything you want to put out today? No one deserved any of this. And it almost seems like he's counting himself as no one. The defense attorney during cross for the lead detective says, but you would agree with me that he told you several times that he felt bad about what happened and expressed.

59:04He may not have said, I feel bad, but he expressed his emotions about what happened. And the detective leans into the mic in court during the trial and says, yes, ma 'am, I did not believe him. Ranger Espinoza, you were able to recognize that Tanner was being remorseful as well, didn't you? No, ma 'am. You don't recall telling him, I see remorse in you, I see regret in you? That's part of the interview tactic in order to maintain rapport. Later on, they also bring up the Google searches that were made. okay so there is a search that he was looking at a three circle venn diagram for the three things being autism catholicism and nerd shit so the circles for autism and catholicism overlap with clearly defined rules hierarchies and rituals the circles for autism and nerd shit overlap at obsession over fine details the circles for catholicism and nerd shit overlap at silly outfits and complicated lore and all three circles overlap together with bdsm wait like he's just looking up things like this he's also looking up after athena's murder license plates license plate types why my fiance's family makes me out to be a demon and youtuber with the highest net worth and paradise missing girl he views multiple photos of Athena Strand, even going onto Facebook to look up photos and Facebook posts of Athena Strand with community members begging to find her.

1:00:35He also looks up, do FedEx cameras constantly record? The same day that he's doing that, he looks up a book called Hot and Bothered, how to think about, talk about, and have sex you really want. It has also been stated that... This is before or after? This is after. and it's been stated that he, well, okay, it's, there has been some Karen Reed trial stuff where there's been debate of, oh, maybe this was a tab that he looked up previously and then it refreshed and then he Googled something else in the tab. But these are the things that were coming up in the search. What do you mean Karen Reed trial stuff?

1:01:14Like the house long to die in the cold. So there, some people are arguing, okay, like this is something that he looked up days before the murder and then it refreshed because he opened that tab to google something else but it doesn't really matter yeah yeah because it seems that even days before four days before the murder he was planning something he was covering the cameras with sticky notes so i don't think it really matters the timeline additionally it's been stated that he had intimate relations with his fiancee hours after killing athena which would indicate that this depraved act was something that he wanted obviously but was also more turned on by how did they have that information i think probably an interview with the fiance one that is in comments unless they can prove that he doesn't know right from wrong their point is moot which that's that's not what's happening so this is not um they're not trying to say that he knows right from well not knowing right from wrong is more in tune with like the insanity plea but this is the sentencing so they're not saying that he doesn't know right from wrong they're just saying that these are mitigating factors of why the state should not kill him.

1:02:26But a lot of people are arguing, I mean, he's hiding the body, that's evidence, and he knows what he does wrong, I don't understand. Other people are saying, if he knew how to cover the cameras in the car and Google's if FedEx cameras record all day, he knew what he was doing. Other people are saying, so just to sum it up, the defense is wasting everyone's time in court by trying to make excuses for him. Other people are saying, well, they have to. That's the whole point. And they're commenting, I think this is better actually because it would be better if he can't appeal. If the defense does as much as they can to do their best, then he cannot appeal saying that he was not represented well and the family doesn't have to go through an appeal.

1:03:04So really this is probably best for Athena Strand's family so that there's not years and years of more hearings, more another trial. Like he can't say that he wasn't adequately represented. So this is probably for the family for the best. but they could probably tone it down a bit i will say there's also another scary um testimony coming from one of the neighbors he says that tanner horner dropped off a fedex package the night before athena was taken and his two young girls same age as athena were outside playing and there was this very odd interaction where tanner horner didn't want to get out of the truck until the parents because one of the parents was in the doorway one of the parents to come get it and he describes how oh he ruined christmas for a few kids before by giving them the package but there was just this overwhelming feeling by a lot of people that he was what's going on he gave the package directly to the kids to the adults but he's saying oh i don't give it to the kids anymore because i ruined christmas once i guess maybe one of the kids had opened the package and realized it was their christmas present but a lot of people feel that he was overcompensating for the fact that maybe that night he also had nefarious intentions, but he realized that the parents were in view.

1:04:21So he comes up with this weird, like, oh, I never give the packages to the kids. I never talk to kids because I ruined Christmas for a kid once. But that is kind of where we're at. Athena's mom has stated that she wants the whole world to know her baby. And I think that she has done, I hate that she's in that position, but I think that she's done a really good job of being able to give people the feeling of who Athena was. And she describes it as, I mean, there's a lot of interesting things about Athena.

1:04:53Sabrina:She loves Pink and she loves Rapunzel, but also she wants to be like her Viking dad. Her favorite movie is Frozen, but she also loves to just like get in the mud and dig for the biggest worm that she can find. And it's just a very, the way that everybody talks about Athena, I think the prosecutors point out it's sad that everything has to be in past tense, but you could just tell everyone loved her. She did recently, well, not recently, but prior to her death, she did get in trouble for smacking a kid on the bus with a water bottle. And Athena's mom testified and she said, mommy did teach her no means no.

1:05:31And the prosecutors are like, oh, so she's independent. Yeah, she gets that from me. And strong, physically, she gets that from her father. Athena's mom says she was the perfect mixture of me and Jacob and I think that goes to show they're not even together they were co-parenting really well and she said that you know Athena loved to wear pretty princess dresses but at the same time she would play in the dirt in those same pretty princess dresses and she was just free she was wild she was bright she was loving she wanted to love and be loved and that's it I mean it's very common for her to want to do anything outdoorsy with her father.

1:06:06As long as her father was around, as long as daddy was around, she was great with being dirty and outside. She has a little sister and Athena's mom says, I didn't know how to tell her little sister. I didn't think I was strong enough to tell her. So I lied to her for a long time. I would tell her that she was just staying with her daddy for a little bit longer. And when she asked to FaceTime her or call her, I would tell her that she was at school or she was sleeping. And she was, I lied to her up until about a year ago. She didn't know the whole truth but I didn't tell her that I just said that Athena was dead until um yeah which should have been Athena's eighth birthday Athena's mom did Athena's makeup before her funeral so she's um it was she didn't want Jacob to see the handprints around her neck so Athena's mom made sure to do Athena's makeup and she didn't like the dresses they had so she was just like mindlessly roaming around Walmart looking for the perfect dress but like how can you find the perfect dress the prosecutors ask her why did you make it a point to be at every hearing that we've had in this case and she says because I had to cover up the handprint bruises around my daughter's neck 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 was loved she is loved and she's missed and she was real and she had a life and she wanted to live and no one can take that from her not a single person can take that from her and I will be her face and I will be her voice and I will make sure every person in the world knows.

1:07:40She's asked, what is it that sticks out to you? What do you want to know? I know it sounds stupid and I know it sounds selfish. I know he'll never tell me the truth, but I want to know where my daughter's shirt is. I want to know everything, but he won't tell me that. And I highly doubt that he cared enough to pay attention to when my daughter took her last breath because I brought her into this world and I know when she took her first, I was there for that. I was there when she took her first steps and she said her first word, but I wasn't there when she took her last. So I want to know where her shirt is maybe because maybe he could give me that much grace.

1:08:14Athena's mom, Ashley, also testified. She says her favorite picture of Athena is she's very much an outdoorsy kid and it's, um, she's about five years old in this picture and her and Alice had been playing outside in the mud all day long and she comes up to me and she's holding this gross

1:08:29Sabrina:little worm in her hand. She's covered in mud. I mean, head to toe, it's all over her face. And she's so excited to have this little worm. That's my favorite picture of her. Ashley and Jacob divorced after Athena's murder. Ashley states that definitely this played a huge role in their separation. She says that it didn't just alter their marriage, but it fundamentally impacted her. I mean, I'm not the same anymore. I don't trust anybody. You're just not okay after or something like that. Even my five-year-old says stuff. And her other daughter, Ashley's daughter, she says, I mean, she lost her sister in the most horrific way.

1:09:03Even if a delivery driver just drives down the driveway and she's outside, she runs inside and hides. It's affected her school. It's affected her friends. It's affected her in general. She has nightmares. Jacob, Athena's dad also testified and his body language and demeanor just looks defeated the whole time. and he just keeps saying that he couldn't protect his daughter. And even all the little kids in Athena's classroom, Miss Thompson, she testified during the trial, her teacher, and she said that it was really hard. A lot of the kids, some, this is her quote, some knew that something wasn't right, but I mean, everyone knew that she wasn't there and I was having to count her absent when she was missing.

1:09:42And a lot of the kids, you could just tell that they were anxious, like they were worried, they knew something was wrong. And once they found Athena's body, She said that it was nearly impossible to go back to work that next monday, but she had to because quote Because I knew that the rest of my class needed their teacher and they needed someone to love them and support them and help them walk through this What's happening in that school that day that monday? We had a crisis team which includes local counselors counselors within our district people from local churches They came in to talk and support the kids We read off a script of letting them know that their classmate is no longer there We did activities to try and help them begin the grieving process there's just there's a lot going on like just trying to help kids cope and learn but it's this is a big thing for them to at six seven years old have to walk through and so there's just a lot of counseling guidance and support that's happening she and her husband created a mailbox to put outside the classroom so the students could write letters to athena and place them in the mailbox to help them process.

1:10:44Sabrina:There were over a hundred letters placed in the mailbox. And she's asked about how this has altered her life as well. And she says, when I look at my life and career, it looks very different. Every day I hug my kids as they walk out the door and I tell them I love them. But now every day when I do that, and for the rest of my teaching career, I have to think about what if they don't come back tomorrow? I have been through hours and hours of therapy myself trying to heal from this. It has forever changed my life. It has forever changed how I teach my kids. One of the biggest moments of struggle for me was one day I had this little girl.

1:11:19She came out into the hallway. This was about like three months after everything and she was crying. And she sat down and she said, Miss Thompson, I really miss Athena. But I'm also really scared it's going to happen to me too. She says, even now there are several kids who are now in the fourth grade and they're still having outside counselors. Several students are afraid to sleep in their own bed and will not play in the yards, in their own front yard. Athena's case took over Texas.

1:11:51Sabrina:People had pink out days, water towers, city official buildings, homes were all decorated with pink lights. And it actually kick-started a lot of delivery drivers putting pink bows on their trucks to show support and there was a whole trend online of your babies are safe with us on our route and and Mattel the company the creator of Barbie they did a huge donation with Athena Strand's family because that was what Athena had gotten for Christmas and that was what was left on their porch that day so with that that is um where we are with the case the trial is still ongoing. The sentencing phase of the trial is still ongoing.

1:12:37We're going to have answers probably by the time you see this and I'm going to leave a pinned comment of what the result was, but let me know in the comments what are your thoughts. Be safe and I will see you in the next one. There's a difference between liking a house and actually getting it. Redfin is built to close that gap. Redfin agents close twice as many deals as other agents. So when you find a home you love, you're not a step behind when it's time to make an offer. That means less watching great homes disappear and more zeroing in on the one you'll actually end up calling home. Redfin helps turn saved listings into real addresses.

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