Killer FedEx driver Tanner Horner claimed his victim, Athena Strand, saw him “snorting cocaine” before he kidnapped and killed her, a psychiatrist testified at his murder trial.
The confessed murderer said he forced the 7-year-old girl into his van after she saw him taking drugs and began “catastrophizing” over what would happen if she reported him, Dr. Eileen Ryan told the jury on Tuesday.
Horner was afraid of losing his job and losing contact with his son when he made the “jump from Point A to Point Z” that was “completely unreasonable,” Ryan told the jury at the court in Fort Worth, Texas.
The killer, who will find out this week if he will face the death penalty, also admitted to assaulting Strand after initially denying it, Ryan said, testifying for the defense.
“The only other time that he had a similar demeanor was talking about his own rape when he was 10,” she told the jury, describing how he appeared deeply ashamed.
Dr. Amy Fritz, another expert witness testifying for the defense, described how Horner’s justification for abducting Strand after she saw him snorting cocaine reflected his “weak theory of mind,” and difficulty in understanding other people’s perspectives.
Here’s the latest on killer FedEx driver who murdered 7-year-old Athena Strand:
“If your cause to action is to abduct a child and kill them because you think that they may have seen you do cocaine, you are definitely not understanding their perspective,” Fritz said.
“First of all, a young child may not have any idea of what cocaine is or what it looks like to use it, or that it’s against the law,” she added.
The explanation for the kidnapping differs wildly from Horner’s initial account, when he told investigators he panicked after accidentally hitting Strand with his delivery van.
He also previously blamed his alternate persona, whom he called “Zero,” for the strangling of the little girl, who was kidnapped from her family’s driveway in Paradise, Texas, while Horner was delivering a package to the home on Nov. 30, 2022.
Her naked body was found two days later in a rural creek, with the medical examiner determining she died from blunt force trauma, smothering, and strangulation.