THE SHOCKING COURTROOM REVELATION The sentencing phase for former FedEx driver TANNER HORNER took a “dark and baffling” turn this week as a forensic psychiatrist testified to a new, previously unheard motive for the 2022 murder of 7-year-old ATHENA STRAND. According to DR. EILEEN RYAN, a child forensic psychiatrist called by the defense, Horner claimed during an evaluation that he kidnapped the young girl because he believed she had witnessed him SNORTING COCAINE in his delivery van.
A DISPUTED CONFESSION While Horner initially told investigators he abducted Athena because he accidentally struck her with his van and panicked, Dr. Ryan testified that Horner later admitted this was a lie. He allegedly told the doctor that while he was making a delivery to the Strand home, Athena saw him using drugs. “He immediately jumped to the conclusion that Athena would tell someone, he would lose his job… and he would lose his son,” Dr. Ryan told the jury. However, the psychiatrist noted a crucial caveat: there is no physical evidence that Horner was actually using cocaine at the time, leading experts to wonder if the “cocaine scenario” was a product of Horner’s documented mental health struggles.
THE “CATASTROPHIZING” DEFENSE The defense is using this testimony to argue that Horner, who has been diagnosed with AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER, “catastrophized” a minor or imagined situation into a lethal one. Dr. Ryan explained that Horner’s neurodivergence caused him to spiral into an “avalanche” of panic. Once Athena was in the truck, Horner allegedly believed he was in “too much trouble” to ever return her. He then told the psychiatrist he “tried to make it as quick and painless as possible” by snapping the child’s neck—a detail that caused gasps of HORROR AND DISGUST from the gallery.
A BATTLE FOR HIS LIFE This testimony comes as the jury deliberates whether to sentence the 31-year-old to DEATH or life in prison without parole. Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder on April 7, 2026, but the “cocaine confession” has added a layer of complexity to the sentencing phase. Prosecutors have dismissed the drug claims as yet another lie from a “calculated predator,” while the defense maintains that Horner’s “distorted reality” and history of childhood trauma—including a revealed history of sexual abuse—should spare him from execution.
