Heartbreaking final image shows 7-year-old girl inside FedEx truck before she was murdered

In a heartbreaking moment in court this Tuesday, a final photo was released of 7-year-old Athena Strand who was abducted from her driveway in late 2022 and later murdered and dumped near a river. The release of the black-and-white photo captured in the back of a FedEx delivery van that showed the girl kneeling behind the driver’s seat coincided with a turn of events at the courtroom.

34-year-old Tanner Horner, the driver responsible for the delivery, unexpectedly pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. The plea came just as his trial was prepared to begin, sparing the court a lengthy fact-finding phase but doing little to ease the emotional weight of the evidence presented.

Horner, who was delivering a box of “You Can Be Anything” Barbies to Athena’s rural home in Paradise, near Fort Worth, claimed he accidentally struck her with his van and then panicked and put her inside the van, and eventually strangled her and left her body near a river, Express reported.