Overview
- Tanner Horner, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, sending the case to a jury to choose death or life without parole.
- Following Thursday's courtroom playback, jurors saw bodycam and interrogation videos where Horner shifted to an alter ego called Zero and then led a Texas Ranger to Athena Strand's body in a creek.
- Investigators said a camera in the FedEx truck showed Athena alive inside before the lens was covered, and the truck’s audio kept recording during the attack.
- Prosecutors highlighted DNA they say links Horner to Athena, including DNA under her fingernails, as the defense urged life in prison based on autism, mental illness and heavy lead exposure.
- Testimony detailed recovered clothing found in Horner’s backpack and home, and FBI agents described using a T‑Mobile geofence and cell data to pinpoint his device, a case that later helped inspire Texas’s Athena Alert changes to Amber Alert practice.