FORT WORTH, Texas — The mother of Athena Strand, the 7-year-old girl who was kidnapped and killed in Wise County in November, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against FedEx, Big Topspin and the driver accused of the girl’s murder, according to a news release.
Tanner Horner, the 31-year-old FedEx contract driver indicted on charges of kidnapping and murdering Athena, is named in the lawsuit along with his employers.
Horner was delivering a Christmas gift of Barbies for Athena to her father’s North Texas home on Nov. 30 when he kidnapped the child and put her in the back of his FedEx truck, according to the Wise County Sheriff’s Office. Horner told investigators that he had backed into Athena with the truck and even though she wasn’t seriously injured, he took her and killed her because he was afraid she would tell her father about the accident, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
