Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner revealed the chilling final words he told 7-year-old Athena Strand before strangling her inside his delivery truck and dumping her body in a creek near her Texas home.
The twisted 34-year-old ordered the terrified girl into the back of his truck, telling her he’d take her to the hospital after abducting Strand from her Paradise home while delivering her Christmas present on Nov. 30, 2022, according to police interview footage played in court Thursday.
“Just get in the back of the van, we’re going to the hospital,” Horner told investigators of their final exchange, while denying that he had killed Strand.
Instead, he claimed his alter ego “Zero” was the one who murdered the little girl.
The sicko told police he accidentally hit Strand with his truck and claimed he tried to calm her down — but when he failed, his sinister shadow self “took over.”
Horner insisted it was “Zero” — not him — that demanded the 67-pound child get into his truck before strangling her, stripping her clothes off and dumping her body in Trinity River, where she was found two days later.
There is also evidence that the deviant sexually assaulted the girl either before or after he killed her.
“I didn’t do it, but he did, and that’s what f–ks with me,” Horner told police following his arrest.
“I’m wondering who the hell’s been in my head this whole time.”
Horner unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the heinous slaying just as his murder trial was set to kick off.
A Texas jury has since heard harrowing testimony to determine whether he will be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.