WISE COUNTY (WBAP/KLIF News ) – The man charged in the kidnapping and murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand has received three additional unrelated charges of sexual assault of a child.
Authorities said the charges against 31-year-old Tanner Horner stem from unrelated incidents in Tarrant County in 2013.
The Wise County Sheriff’s Office said the former Fed Ex contract driver confessed to accidentally hitting Athena with his truck outside her home in Paradise as he backed up after delivering a package late last month.
He claims she was not seriously injured but told investigators he panicked, put her in his truck and strangled after when she threatened to tell her father about the collision.
Strand was found dead on December 2, two days after she was reported missing.
Police charged Horner with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping and are asking prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
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