Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson here with Pushing Up Lilies. In today’s episode, I’m delving into the heartbreaking case of seven-year-old Athena Strand, whose life was tragically cut short by a FedEx driver. We’ll examine the devastating details of this crime, the circumstances that led to her untimely death, and the aftermath that shook an entire community. Join me as we explore the search for answers and justice, and reflect on the innocent life lost far too soon. * Listener discretion is advised.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:31 Hey guys, here we are again.
0:33 Got another really interesting murder case for you.
0:37 It's one that's kind of sad.
0:39 It's close to my home that this happened.
0:42 I just remember when this went down.
0:45 I can't imagine losing a child, especially in this way.
0:49 But first, I want to say that we were talking at work the other day about how you used to be able to go outside and play and not have to worry about your neighbor or someone driving down the street that was going to abduct you.
1:06 I can remember when I was a kid, I mean, we all had bicycles, and we rode them everywhere.
1:12 Our parents never knew where we were.
1:14 We spent the entire day outside on Saturday and Sunday, and we didn't have cell phones, so they couldn't even contact us to find out where we were or to tell us to come home or any of those things.
1:27 I mean, the fear was just basically nonexistent.
1:31 It's kind of crazy when you're my age and you compare things now to the way they were back then, because it is so incredibly different.
1:40 I mean, back in the day, we'd be outside at night chasing fireflies.
1:45 I can't tell you when the last time I saw a firefly was, but we'd be outside with jars, and we'd be catching fireflies and watching them, and we'd be outside catching frogs.
1:56 I mean, literally in the middle of the night.
1:59 Our parents had no clue where we were.
2:01 We walked around, we rode our bikes, we went to the neighbor's house, we went inside the neighbors' houses.
2:08 I can just remember years ago, my daughter, trying to remember how old she was, but she was probably maybe 6 or 7, and I could not find her.
2:19 And I panicked, literally went to the neighbor's house.
2:22 Our neighbor's little girl was with her, so they were both missing.
2:26 We went and got a couple of the other neighbors, and we were just like, please y'all help us find them.
2:31 We don't know where they are.
2:32 We live in a nice neighborhood, so it wasn't like we were really afraid something had happened, but it just was really scary because it was dark outside and they were young, and we could not find them.
2:46 I felt a little bit better that there were 2 of them, hoping that they were still together, but we searched frantically, and across the street, a little old couple lived over there, and their son pulled up to visit them.
3:02 And he's like, is everything OK?
3:05 And I said, we're looking for our kids, two little girls, they're 7 years old.
3:10 They were out here playing, and we cannot find them anywhere.
3:14 He went in the house and the kids had gone over there and knocked on the door and the little elderly couple had let them in.
3:21 And giving them snacks and they were coloring and having the time of their life while we are literally outside freaking out.
3:28 So that man, thank God, came outside and said they're in my parents' house, they're fine, you know, and of course, his parents had no idea that their parents didn't know where they were.
3:40 I think they were in their 80s.
3:42 One of them may have had Alzheimer's, but it was the scariest thing ever.
3:48We finally found them and the man kind of told his parents, hey, from now on, if kids come over here and you let them in, make sure their parents know where they are.
3:59 But it was horrifying.
4:01 We called the police, we had the police looking for him, and the police went and talked to them, not to scare them, but just kind of said, hey, when you leave your house, if you leave your yard, make sure that your parents know where you are because they were terrified that something bad had happened.
4:20 You hate to make your kids paranoid, but you just want to make them aware that bad things can happen.
4:27 I'm going to tell you it scared me to death.
4:31 At the same time, I was passing a kidney stone, and I really wanted to go to the emergency room.
4:38 I was outside on the curb.
4:40 I could not physically stand up and walk without vomiting, but I was sitting on the curb just basically watching everybody look for my child, hoping that not only we could find her, but that when we did, I could get to the emergency room as soon as possible and get something to relieve my pain.
4:59 It was just bad.
5:00 It was a scary night.
5:02 My daughter reminds me of it frequently.
5:04 It was just an experience that I hope no parent ever has to go through.
5:10 This was a story.
5:12 It happened here in Texas, over in the Paradise Boyd area, which is really not far from where we live.
5:22 Tanner Horner was 31 and he was a FedEx driver, and he reportedly panicked after striking 7-year-old Athena Strand in his work van, and then he threw her in the truck.
5:39 And ended up killing her.
5:41 Now, he told authorities that he placed Athena in his truck after he basically backed over her.
5:49 She was out playing.
5:51 She was at her dad and stepmom's house.
5:54 I believe it was out in the country.
5:56 She was outside playing, and he supposedly accidentally backed over her in his FedEx truck.
6:03 Now he told investigators that she was not seriously injured when he backed the truck into her, and he even told them that he spoke to her, and she was able to tell him her name.
6:18 She obviously wasn't that injured, but he killed her after he panicked, and the reason for this was because he was afraid that she was going to tell her father.
6:31 About being hit by the FedEx truck.
6:35 Athena's mother Maitland Gany said that Horner was delivering Athena's Christmas present shortly before she was killed, and he did drop it off, but apparently when he got back in his truck and went to back out or move it at some point, he did back over her.
6:54 Again, she was at her dad and stepmother's house, and so her stepmother called 911 to report that she went missing from their home in Paradise, Texas.
7:06 And this again was at about 6:40ish at night on November 30th of 2022.
7:15 It wasn't that long ago.
7:17 I just remember this happening and it was just horrific.
7:20 Less than an hour after her stepmother last saw her in a converted storage shed, which had been converted into a temporary bedroom that she shared with her stepsister, she went missing.
7:34 She'd not even seen her an hour prior.
7:37 When you live in a country like that, I mean, they were kind of out in the middle of nowhere.
7:42 Paradise is a very rural area.
7:44 You don't really expect anything bad to happen.
7:47 I mean, it's not an area that a lot of people go to on a normal basis.
7:53 Investigators learned that FedEx had delivered a package around the same time that Athena went missing.
8:02 They worked with a contracting company delivering packages for FedEx to determine which van driver made the delivery.
8:10 Apparently busy time of year, FedEx had contracted other employees from other companies to carry out their deliveries, and that was the case here.
8:21 The FedEx truck was also equipped with cameras that captured little one-minute clips of things that happened inside the truck.
8:31 An FBI employee analyzed the video evidence and found that the driver had taken a young girl visibly similar to Athena into his van.
8:43 And the driver was seen on video talking to her in the van.
8:48 Again, we've always talked about how helpful cameras are.
8:52 I'm so thankful for cameras now, and I encourage everybody who has them in their vehicle, at their home, outside their place of business to make sure that they're working.
9:04 I hate to sound again paranoid like you need your cameras going at all times, but the reality is if something bad goes down, there's a good possibility that your camera could catch it.
9:18 Not too long ago, my daughter had her car parked out in front of our house, and it was struck by someone.
9:27 The person tried to make it look like they were being a good Samaritan and put a note on her windshield.
9:34 It was obvious the car belonged to someone at my house, but they didn't come to the door.
9:39 Instead, they put this note on the windshield.
9:42 Well, lo and behold, the phone number on the note didn't work, and of course they were just trying to make it look like, hey, if I get caught or they get the license plate off my car, at least it'll look like I'm trying to be a good guy and look like I'm trying to provide my phone number so that I can be contacted and I can make this right.
10:01 I can provide them with my insurance information.
10:03 No, the number did not work.
10:06 A police report was filed.
10:09 And nobody's cameras in the area captured the event.
10:13 Had they been able to, then we could have caught the person that did it, and we could have made them pay for the damages, but instead, she had to pay for them herself.
10:25 Again, I encourage you to make sure that your cameras are working and make sure that they're in order because there may be a day that you may be able to really help somebody with the footage that you were able to capture.
10:40 Now this FBI employee again analyzed the video and was able to see the driver take a young girl that again, he didn't know at the time that it was Athena, but it was someone similar to her and similar to her age.
10:56 Horner was later identified as the driver of the FedEx truck.
11:02 After he admitted to killing Athena, he told investigators where they could find her body.
11:08 She was found later in a small body of water by law enforcement.
11:15 Horner was arrested two days after she disappeared.
11:19 Now there was a large search for her with around 200 volunteers, and again, that resulted in her body being found in Boyd, Texas, which was about 11 miles away from where she was originally abducted.
11:36 Now, as horrifying as it may be, I always like when a killer admits to the crime.
11:43 It makes it a lot easier to find the deceased person and make sure that they don't do it again.
11:51 He said that he attempted to break Athena's neck to kill her, but when this didn't work, he strangled her with his bare hands.
12:01 And this took place in the back of the FedEx van.
12:05 Again, at the time of the incident, Athena was staying with her father and stepmother.
12:10 Her father was away on a trip, so Athena had been there alone with her stepmother.
12:17 She was supposed to return home to Oklahoma to go to her mom's house for Christmas.
12:23 Now Horner was from Fort Worth.
12:26 He attended Azel High School and didn't appear to have a criminal record.
12:32 Although he reportedly was autistic and lived with his mother and grandmother.
12:39 Prior to this event, he did not know Athena, he did not know her family, and he had absolutely no connections with anyone related to her, had never seen her before, all the things.
12:54 Now, this is the really, this is another scary part, y'all.
12:58 Because I know we talked about Uber drivers and even Uber riders, you know, who are dangerous to each other, but he previously worked for Uber as a driver.
13:11 You know this because he was so close to me and they said he worked in the Denton area, which is where I live.
13:18 I still want to go back to my Uber rides and see if I ever rode with this guy because that freaked me out because it said that he worked in the Denton area.
13:30 I'm like, this is weird and super creepy to think that someone who murdered this little girl could have like driven me to the airport at one time.
13:41 But apparently, he had been accused of rape about 3 years earlier.
13:46 I don't think anything ever came of it, but after all this got posted and there were posts on Facebook and Instagram about him being arrested, someone came forward and said that he had raped them previously.
14:01 My guess is that it had never gone to trial, and nothing came of that.
14:06 But at the time this happened, He lived in Lake Worth, which is close to Fort Worth, really close to this area.
14:14 Now, it is believed that Athena died within an hour after he abducted her.
14:21Like I said, he said he panicked.
14:24 He took her into the truck, was going to try to break her neck and ended up strangling her.
14:31 He did send the police on a wild goose chase initially.
14:36 He gave him a couple of false locations when they asked where the body was.
14:42 He had remained in solitary confinement in the Wise County jail.
14:49 He was awaiting a trial that could end him in the death chamber in Huntsville.
14:57 He faces a capital murder charge of a person under 10 years of age, but his case has been kind of dragged through the courts because of issues regarding court appointed attorneys and issues with court appointed attorneys.
15:12 In the meantime, Athena's parents, both dad, stepmom, and mom, have sued FedEx in civil court.
15:22 They've also named Big Top Spin Incorporated, which is a Dallas contractor who hired him to deliver for FedEx in the lawsuit.
15:34 Now, in March of 2023, Hoarder pled not guilty during his arraignment.
15:41 The sad part is he was delivering a six pack of you can be anything Barbie dolls, and these were meant to be a Christmas present for Athena.
15:51 And again, he did drop them off.
15:54 They were delivered, Athena never got to play with them.
15:58 What I do love though, and what many people may not know is that after this happened, Mattel donated 2000 Barbies and other toys to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth and Athena's honor.
16:14 This is, you know, again, here in our area, a hospital very close to where this occurred at, and Matel gave them Barbies for the kids there, and other toys.
16:27 Now, in May of 2023, the Texas Senate approved a change in state law that would enable missing or abducted children's alerts to go out as soon as a child is known to be missing.
16:41 This is called Athena's alert.
16:44 This is sent immediately when a child goes missing, and it's sent to everyone within a 100-mile radius of where the child disappeared from, which is amazing.
16:56 Now we've had the Amber Alert forever.
16:59 It's super loud on our phones and they wake us up in the middle of the night.
17:04 Typically, I mean, that's been in effect, but it goes out usually the following day.
17:09 Sometimes, as in this case, it's too late.
17:13 The Texas State Senate approved this change, so now Athena's alert goes out within that 100-mile radius immediately when a child is reported missing.
17:24 Apparently Horner again has been in solitary confinement due to a suicide attempt, so I did a little investigation, and I found that they are concerned that he may harm himself again.
17:37 Reportedly, they were wanting to move him to Tarrant County, which is in the Fort Worth area.
17:43 He was in Wise County, which is just not far down the road, but they said that, you know, he didn't have a bed, he was sleeping on a concrete floor with a thin mattress and a blanket.
17:54 And they wanted to have him moved because of the amount of publicity that this case got in that area.
18:02 They didn't want him to go to trial in Wise County because of the number of people that were familiar with the story.
18:09 Of course, little did he know, like this was on the national news, and so it doesn't matter where he goes.
18:15 Like this case is going to follow him, everyone's going to know who he is.
18:19 It doesn't matter if you're in Wise County or Tarrant County.
18:22 The trial is scheduled to begin March 17th in Tarrant County.
18:29 Everything I found said that he's been in Wise County jail since he was arrested back in December of 2022, but I looked at the Wise County jail roster, and he's not there.
18:41 It turns out he was transferred to Tarrant County, so he is now in custody at Lown Evans Correction Center in Tarrant County, and he was booked in that jail, that facility on November 12th of 2024.
18:59 I'm quite sure this guy's going to get the death penalty.
19:02 It's crazy that he pled not guilty, but this will go to trial in March.
19:08 I'm anxious to see what happens.
19:11 I don't think he had really any money, so I do believe that he'll probably still end up with a court appointed attorney.
19:18 I don't know how good or bad that is, but I don't think they have a lot of skin in the game and probably don't make a whole lot of money when they defend somebody, and their reputation is not really at risk at that point because they're working for the district attorney's office.
19:33 But this story again, it was horrifying to everyone around here.
19:38 It was horrifying when we found out who did it and when we found out that it was actually a FedEx driver.
19:44 But during that time that she was missing, I mean, everyone was scared.
19:49 It doesn't matter how close you lived to paradise or how far you were from Fort Worth.
19:56 I think everyone was scared.
19:58 No one knew what was going on.
19:59 No one knew who had taken her.
20:02 It's just horrifying to think nowadays that our kids can't just go outside and play.
20:08 I mean, even when you're in the country and you feel like you're away from everybody, and they're going to be safe, and no one can hurt them, and they can't be abducted.
20:17 You know, something like this happens.
20:19 This was just a crazy story.
20:22 Definitely… When this goes to trial, I'm going to continue to follow up.
20:27 I'm just curious to see what will happen.
20:29 I don't know what has come of the lawsuit, the civil lawsuit that was filed by the family, but I'm quite sure they stand to get money from that as they should.
20:40 That will never ever bring her back.
20:43 That they deserve justice, and this guy needs to be given the death penalty.
20:48 And that's just what I believe.
20:50 Sorry if you don't believe it.
20:51 That's what I believe.
20:53 This week, we get to work one day from home, which is kind of nice because of the Martin Luther King holiday.
21:01 I was able to watch the inauguration on TV and I thought that was interesting to say the least long, it definitely seemed like an all-day thing, but it's over, so we shall see what happens.
21:16 I am moving my med spa this week, so we're going to go probably about 2.5 miles down the road.
21:22 I'm kind of excited to get a smaller spot.
21:26 And I love that some of y'all have reached out to me to ask about our weight loss program.
21:31 We do have Semaglutide and Trazepaide available.
21:35 We can do virtual FaceTime assessments and mail the medications, and I do have several podcast followers who have reached out and have started our program.
21:47 And I can tell you that I've lost 50 pounds, and I feel amazing.
21:51 A big majority of my clients who have been on it, and we have well over 100 who are on it now, have lost 30+ pounds, and many of them are no longer on their blood pressure medications, and many of them have been able to stop taking oral GLP-1’s for their diabetes.
22:13 It's amazing. It's amazing.
22:15 And I think I read somewhere by next year, 60% of the population will be on these medications.
22:23 I encourage you to reach out to me, Juliet Pushinguplilies.com, or send me a private message on Facebook or Instagram.
22:31 I will gladly message and yes, it will be me.
22:34 I have ordered our subscription boxes.
22:37 The very first group, I think I'm going to do just 30, just to kind of as a trial.
22:43 I've already chosen the items that's going to be in those, so I'm super excited about it.
22:47 I'm going to get up on my web page and wait for you to order.
22:51 Again, there won't be a choice as far as what items you get.
22:56 Every time you order it will be the same items, but I'm kind of excited because I really carefully handpicked the items to go in this first box, and I think y'all are going to be super excited.
23:09 I chose things that I would have wanted because I know that we all have true crime in our blood.
23:15 And so, we all kind of like the same things.
23:17 We want neat things, nothing too gory, but something fun, something that you just can't go get at the store.
23:26 Something that just kind of gives us the satisfaction of being true crime fans.
23:32 That's what I think is amazing.
23:34 There's such a big following and I've had so many new subscribers and so many people reach out and I appreciate it so much.
23:43 Trying to get on all the podcast groups on Facebook and just spread the word.
23:48 If you love the podcast, please don't hesitate to reach out, share it with your friends.
23:53 I just really appreciate it more than you know.
23:57 Back to the office tomorrow, hoping that everyone behaves.
24:01 Holidays have been pretty good to me this year.
24:04 I was unfortunate enough to have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the county was good to me, which I really appreciated.
24:13 Again, a lot of times if we work during the summer holidays, when everyone's at the lake, it's not abnormal for us to get drownings and those types of things, but today everything stayed fairly calm, and I don't want to jinx myself for tomorrow.
24:29 And it's crazy y'all, and some of y'all may be able to relate to this, but I really love my coworkers.
24:35 And so it's weird when I'm not at work that I missed it.
24:38 Is that weird?
24:39 My boss is amazing; my co-workers are amazing.
24:43 I mean, even the officers that we work with on scenes are amazing, and I had the opportunity last week to share my podcast with a couple of officers from Little Elm.
24:53 I hope I got some new followers.
24:55 So if y'all are listening, shout out to y'all.
24:57 I love doing it.
24:58 I love talking about what we do.
25:01 It helps me a little bit to kind of vent.
25:03 My family doesn't love hearing my stories.
25:06 They don't love what I do.
25:07 They don't share my passion.
25:10 My kids both think it's kind of gross.
25:12 My husband really doesn't want much to do with it either.
25:14 I mean, he loves helping me choose content, but outside of that, he doesn't really want to hear the story.
25:21 I love sharing it with people who share my passion, and I appreciate y'all being here for me so much.
25:28 Have an amazing week.
25:30 I know the weather is going to be terrible in some places, supposed to be cold here.
25:35 We're making our move on Thursday to my store.
25:39 I'm hoping it's not terribly, terribly cold, but I did hire movers, so I don't have to do a lot of lifting and hopefully won't have to be outside a lot.
25:47 Anyway, have an amazing week and please be safe and stay warm and I will talk to you next week.
25:54 Bye y'all.
25:55 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
25:59 If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple Podcast.
26:06 This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public.
26:10 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at pushinguplilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.