The pastor who once ministered to the FedEx driver responsible for the abduction and murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand has made a chilling revelation: the murderer often brought a bag filled with knives to church. Known only as ‘Gary,’ the pastor took the stand during Tanner Horner’s death penalty hearing, offering testimony for the defense.
In a gripping courtroom moment, Gary recounted how Horner, now 34, confessed to the brutal crime that rocked the small community of Paradise, Texas. It was November 2022 when Horner kidnapped the young girl, who had been innocently playing outside her home. His admission to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping laid bare the horrifying details: he had been delivering a package of Barbies, meant to be Athena’s Christmas gift, but instead, he cruelly took her life, leaving her body in a creek.
Gary shared that Horner joined his congregation during his junior high years, portraying him as an ordinary child despite his struggles with autism. These insights into Horner’s background provided a complex picture of a man who, on the surface, seemed unremarkable, yet harbored dark and violent tendencies.
Horner, who 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.
The FedEx driver became a member of pastor Gary’s church while he was in junior high. Gary described him as a normal kid but was aware that he had a form of autism.
The pastor explained how Horner’s behavior drastically changed to cold and uncommunicative after his medication was switched.
‘We tried to talk to him, but he started carrying a bag to church, and at some point you have to figure out, ‘What’s in the bag” Said Gary.
Officials and security at the church went through the bag, finding all kinds of knives, said the pastor.
The pastor, identified only as ‘Gary,’ testified on behalf of the defense at Tanner Horner’s death penalty hearing on Monday during day 12 of the trial (Horner pictured in court the week of April 7)
Horner, 34, has pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in the case of seven-year-old Athena Strand (pictured)
The pastor added that Horner didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to bring the sack to church and stopped attending regularly.
Gary went on to explain how the murderer contacted him after being arrested for Strand’s death in 2022.
Horner requested a specific bible verse from the pastor and did not speak with him about murdering the little girl, said Gary.
‘I met with him, and I just wanted to make sure he was OK and wanted to make sure he understood, you know, really what had happened, because of his autism. I don’t know what range of the spectrum he was, but connecting things was sometimes you had to really help him connect that,’ Gary told the jury.
‘As a pastor, we don’t always get to do the easy things. We do what we’re called to do,’ he added.
Gary admitted that he now knows Horner was dishonest when he was told Horner had hit Strand while backing up and had panicked.
‘You know now that that’s not what happened,’ the prosecution asked Gary.
The pastor responded, ‘Yes, sir.’
In addition to the pastor, two separate women have testified that Horner raped them when they were teenagers.
The women told jurors how Horner raped them when they were 16 years old – one year younger than the age of consent in Texas.
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
The FedEx driver became a member of Gary’s church while he was in junior high and the pastor explained how Horner started carrying a bag to church after changing medications. Gary said the bag was full of knives
The first woman 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.
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 lay 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.’
Additionally, two women testified on April 14 who claimed Horner raped them as minors. One woman testified on that she and Horner (pictured) would see each other at band practices as well as with mutual friends. Often, alcohol and drugs were involved
Jurors were also shown letters Horner wrote to Strand’s family on April 13
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.’
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 and Horner would see each other at band practices and with mutual friends. Often, alcohol and drugs were involved, the woman testified.
The witness said she never agreed to date Horner or have a sexual relationship with him.
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 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.
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.
