The family of a seven-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered told her killer he would ‘face the wrath of God’ after he was sentenced to death.Athena Strand was playing outside her family home in Texas in November 2022 when she was first abducted by Tanner Horner, a FedEx driver who was delivering a box of Barbie dolls to her house for Christmas.Chilling audio and video footage later captured the young girl inside Horner’s van, asking: “What are you doing? Are you a kidnapper?”The 34-year-old can then be heard telling Athena that she was pretty and that she should remove her clothes.

Although there was no sexual assault charge, Horner’s DNA was found inside the child’s underwear, while audio footage made it clear that he had killed her, despite previous lies about hitting her with his van and panicking.The driver first pleaded guilty on 7 April. Following 19 days of testimony, the jury took two and a half hours to decide between the death penalty and life in prison, and they unanimously found that there was a probability that Horner would commit further acts of violence.