Missing 7-year-old Texan found dead on Friday
WISE COUNTY, Texas (NBC) - Authorities arrested a FedEx delivery driver after finding the body of a 7-year-old girl Friday.
Athena Strand went missing and an Texas authorities issued an AMBER Alert after she left her home in rural Wise County Wednesday afternoon.
Two days later, however, the authorities recovered her body Friday about 10 miles from her home.
The Wise County Sheriff's Office said they arrested 31-year-old Tanner Horner of Lake Worth, who then confessed to killing the child.
Horner, a FedEx contract driver, had delivered a package to Strand's home the same day she went missing.
The suspect led investigators to two separate locations before finding Athena's body.
Investigators then believe the girl died within an hour or so after her abduction.
"It's one of the toughest investigations that I've been involved in because it's a child. And anytime there's a child that dies, it just hits you in your heart. You compare that child to your own children when they were that age," Sheriff Lane Akin spoke.
Charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, Horner remains in jail on a $1.5 million bond.
