Authorities seek death penalty for suspect in Athena Strand's murder
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The Wise County sheriff is recommending that prosecutors seek the death penalty for the FedEx driver accused of kidnapping and strangling a 7-year-old girl before dumping her body in the Trinity River.
Driving the news: The sheriff's office plans to turn over the criminal case to the district attorney's office this week.
- Tanner Lynn Horner, 31, faces charges of capital murder of a person under 10 and aggravated kidnapping in the death of Athena Strand. He remains in jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail.
State of play: Texas prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in capital murder cases less frequently. Only two people have received a death sentence this year in the state.
- And executions are declining after peaking in 2000 at 40. Five people have been executed in the state this year.
Catch up fast: Athena was reported missing Nov. 30 from her family's Paradise home, and her body was found two days later along the Trinity River in Boyd, northwest of Fort Worth.
- Investigators learned a package of "You Can Be Anything" Barbie dolls was delivered at the home shortly before Athena's disappearance and identified Horner as the delivery driver, per the Houston Chronicle.
- Horner told investigators that he panicked after he accidentally hit Athena with his delivery truck and feared she would tell her dad what happened, according to an affidavit released late last week.
- The affidavit says he admitted to strangling her and led authorities to her body.
Details: Athena was visiting her father and stepmother for the holidays and was going to return to her Oklahoma home with her mother after Christmas, her mother, Maitlyn Gandy, said during a news conference.
- Instead, "she will come home in an urn," her mother said.
- The family held a private funeral for her on Friday.
What's next: Gandy has hired an attorney to investigate whether a background check was conducted on Horner before he was hired to be a delivery driver and to figure out everything that happened leading up to Athena's kidnapping and killing.
- "Screening and hiring policies must be put in place so that monsters wearing delivery uniforms don't show up on our children's doorsteps," Gandy said.