The mother of Athena Strand stared daggers at her daughter’s killer at his sentencing hearing Wednesday – describing how she had to hide the bruises he left on her neck, as she vowed to keep her memory alive.
“I had to cover up handprint bruises around my daughter’s neck,” mom Maitlyn Gandy told a Texas court Wednesday, when asked why she’d been to nearly hearing for her 7-year-old girl’s murder.
“And because she no longer has a voice. And I want people to know that she’s not just some story. She’s not just some number. She’s not just some picture you see in a headline,” she said.
Maitlyn Gandy, mother of Athena Strand, seen in court at her daughter’s killer’s sentencing.WFAA
Gandy, who wore a pink suit and dyed her hair to match Athena’s favorite color — stared down the little girl’s confessed killer, former FedEx driver Tanner Horner, who sat meekly across the courtroom as she spoke.
“She was loved. She is loved. And she is missed, and she was real, and she had a life, and she wanted to live,” Gandy said. “I will be her face, and I will be her voice, and I will make sure that every single person in this works knows that that she is loved, and that she wanted to live, and we want her in our lives.”
The hearing comes as the judge deliberates Horner’s fate after he pleaded guilty to the vile Nov. 2022 killing last week.
He faces the death penalty or life in prison.
Strand was just seven years old.Family Handout
Horner – 31 at the time of the murder — claimed her hit accidentally hit Athena with his FedEx truck while delivering a package to her family’s Ft. Worth-area home, and that he strangled her out of fear that she’d tell her parents about the incident.
Athena had been outside her home when Horner showed up for the delivery and snatched her.
But prosecutors didn’t buy Horner’s version of events that came with the confession – especially since footage from inside his FedEx truck showed him driving off with the girl while she appeared to be in perfect health.
He also threatened to hurt the girl if she didn’t keep quiet during the kidnapping.
“Don’t scream or I’ll hurt you,” he was heard saying on camera – with the audio shocking the court it was played.
The bald Horner slouched his way through the hearing, sometimes cradling his head in the crook of his arm as family told how their lives had been shattered by the loss of the vibrant young girl.
Tanner Horner faces charges of capital murder of a person under 10 years old and aggravated kidnapping.WFAA
Gandy tearfully told of the moment she first saw her daughter’s body in a morgue after it was found discarded and naked days after her disappearance.
“When I got to her, she was so cold, and she didn’t like the cold, so I wanted to make sure that she was dressed,” Gandy said. “I wanted to make sure she had one of her bows. So I got her some bows.”
Gandy made a point of seeing Athena before the girl’s father, Jacob Gandy, so that he wouldn’t have to see his daughter as a battered corpse.
“Her ears were messed up and she had incision lines and her chin was scraped up,” she said. “That wasn’t my baby. And then we did her makeup so Jacob wouldn’t have to see the discoloration and how bad it was.”
Horner also threatened to hurt the girl if she didn’t keep quiet during the kidnapping.FOX 4 DFW
She also shared the heart-wrenching moment of learning her daughter was dead.
“I stopped breathing, and I started to black out,” Gandy testified.
Horner’s defense has argued he has Aspergers syndrome and should therefore be spared the death penalty.
But his vile behavior apparently did not start with Athena – one woman testified at the trial that he raped her when she was 16-years-old and he was 22.
Horner is facing the death penalty or life in prison.Wise County Jail
His own mother even said “I just know how you get” when asking him if he was innocent after his arrest.
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Horner then responded that medication he takes lowers his libido.
It remains unclear if Athena was sexually assaulted, but prosecutors said Horner’s DNA was found “in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.”
Horner — who was over 200 pounds at the time of the killing — told the court how he initially tried to break Athena’s neck to kill her, but that it didn’t work so he strangled her with his bare hands instead.
His sentencing hearing will continue Thursday.
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