A North Texas community is mourning the death of a 7-year-old girl who was abducted from her home and killed this week.
Late Friday night, Wise County authorities confirmed they found the body of 7-year-old Athena Strand.
According to Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin, Strand was taken from her driveway by a FedEx contract delivery driver who delivered a package to Strand’s home on Wednesday afternoon.
Akin said Friday night that the suspect, 31-year-old Tanner Horner, confessed to killing the girl. Unspecified digital evidence and interviews indicated the child was killed within an hour of her abduction, Akin said.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
“It’s one of the toughest investigations I’ve been involved in because it’s a child,” he said Friday. “Anytime it’s a child that dies, it just hits you in your heart. You compare that child to your own children when they were that age and it just takes the wind out of your sails, but at the same time it gives you purpose because it makes sure you want to do the best you can.”
Mary Stapleton was one of the hundreds of volunteers who combed the area for two days. Stapleton is also with the Cottondale Volunteer Fire Department.
“We did ATVs. We went on foot. We went probably five miles, no, two miles towards 51. We searched in that area,” Stapleton said. “You’re not able to sleep. Just knowing that she’s out there somewhere. Didn’t really get resolution until last night.”
Stapleton lives around the corner from the family.
“Like, during the summer … they would have parties and I can hear their laughter, music, and all the fun they were having. It was awesome. It was literally just across the pasture from me,” she said. “It’s a bucket full of emotions, literally. Like, relief that we know where she’s at now. Anger, of the circumstances that surround it.”
The FBI, Texas Rangers and the Wise County Sheriff's Department are among the agencies who helped bring the case to a conclusion roughly 48 hours after the child was reported missing by her stepmom.
Horner has been charged with aggravated kidnapping and capital murder in connection with the child's abduction and death. It is unclear whether he has obtained an attorney.
