At one point, Horner complained he couldn’t get through before rolling down his window and speaking with a woman nearby.

“Um, you can pull up and try to ask them to get through, but there’s been a kidnapping, so it’s all blocked off … a 7-year-old was taken,” the woman said, according to CBS.

“Are you serious?” Horner replied.

“That’s what all this is for,” she responded, per the outlet, with Horner asking, “Are you serious?” again.

On Thursday, April 16, 2026, jurors were shown surveillance footage and audio from inside Horner’s delivery truck, including portions capturing Athena’s final moments before her death, PEOPLE previously reported.

Jurors watched video showing Horner pulling up to the girl’s home and walking back toward his truck with Athena following behind him, before lifting her inside and shutting the door.

They then heard audio from inside the truck in which Athena repeatedly asked, “Are you a kidnapper?” and “Where are you taking me?” as Horner warned her not to scream or he would hurt her.

At one point, he told her, “You’re really pretty, you know that?” before ordering her to remove her shirt. She refused and asked for her mother.

The audio included crying, screaming and banging, prompting jurors to sob and appear visibly shaken. Some of Athena’s family members left the courtroom during the playback.

Before the footage was shown, as PEOPLE previously reported, Judge George Gallagher warned those in the courtroom that the material would be disturbing.

“If you think you cannot watch it or listen to it, leave now. Now’s your time to get out,” he said.

Athena’s father, Jacob Strand, also took the stand, describing the toll his daughter’s killing has taken on him and his family.

“It made me feel horrible,” Strand testified, per NBC DFW. “You know, like, I should have done something or been there. I wasn’t there to protect them like I should be, like a father’s role.”

Tanner Horner.

Tarrant County Jail

He said he turned to alcohol after her 2022 death, that it ruined his marriage and that he struggled to eat or sleep, at one point losing about 50 pounds.

Strand also said Athena’s sister has required therapy and recently returned after experiencing nightmares about what happened, according to his testimony.

Horner, 34, pleaded guilty earlier this month to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping in Athena’s death, which occurred on Nov. 30, 2022, while he was delivering a package to her home in Paradise, Texas, PEOPLE previously reported.

Her body was found two days later about 9 miles away, and jurors are now tasked with deciding whether Horner will be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.