A FedEx driver accused of abducting and killing a younger woman in Texas has advised authorities that he strangled her after unintentionally hitting her along with his van whereas making a supply at her dwelling.
Tanner Lynn Horner, 31, advised investigators that seven-year-old Athena Strand was not critically harm after he hit her whereas backing up final week, however he panicked and put her in his van.
Horner stated he did not need Athena, who he stated advised him her title, to inform her father what occurred, so he tried to interrupt the woman’s neck and when that did not work, he strangled her along with his fingers behind the van, the warrant stated.
Athena was discovered useless on 2 December, two days after she was reported lacking from the house of her father and stepmother in Paradise, a city round 60 miles (96km) northwest of Dallas.
Her mom, Maitlyn Gandy, stated the bundle that Horner delivered that day was a Christmas current for the “amazing little girl”.
“I was robbed of watching her grow up,” Ms Gandy stated as she stood beside the current, a field of You Can Be Anything Barbies, at a information convention on Thursday.
Ms Gandy stated that Athena had been set to return dwelling to her in Oklahoma after the Christmas break.
She described her as “her father’s daughter” and stated she beloved dancing, singing and all animals.
At a vigil was held on Tuesday night time in Paradise, as mourners who gathered to recollect Athena wore pink.
Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin stated they knew early on {that a} supply had been made on the woman’s dwelling at about the identical time that she disappeared and that she was killed about an “hour or so” after being kidnapped.
The warrant stated Horner took investigators to the place he’d left Athena’s physique.
It added that the van that delivered the bundle was outfitted with video and an FBI worker who watched it noticed the motive force take a younger woman who regarded like Athena within the van and spoke to her.
Horner was arrested final week on costs of capital homicide and aggravated kidnapping and remained jailed on Thursday along with his bond set at $1.5m.
The warrant stated Horner advised authorities Athena was useless and confessed. Jail information didn’t checklist an legal professional who might converse on his behalf.
Source: information.sky.com”