In a Texas courtroom heavy with unspoken agony, the parents of little Athena Strand stood before the man who stole their daughter’s life and laid bare the unrelenting torment that has haunted them since the day their bright-eyed 7-year-old vanished from their rural Wise County home.

Jacob Strand, Athena’s father, took the stand Thursday morning, his voice quiet yet laced with raw pain, as he described how the murder has shattered him from the inside out. Just days earlier, Athena’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, had faced the killer directly, her words dripping with sorrow and fierce maternal love as she admitted the one regret that eats at her every single day: she wasn’t there to shield her daughter from the horror.

The emotional testimonies came during the punishment phase of Tanner Horner’s capital murder trial. The former FedEx driver pleaded guilty to kidnapping and strangling Athena on November 30, 2022, after pulling up to the family’s home in his delivery van. Now, a jury must decide if Horner will face lethal injection or spend the rest of his life behind bars. Prosecutors are pushing hard for death, and the parents’ heart-wrenching accounts have only intensified the stakes.

Jacob Strand began by painting a vivid picture of the lively little girl who filled their world with joy. Athena loved adventures — camping, hiking, splashing at the lake. She climbed trees, laughed freely, and greeted everyone with open arms. “She loved everybody,” he told the silent courtroom, his words hanging in the air like a final, loving tribute. “Just her laugh and her spirit… She loved everybody.”

That spirit was extinguished in one unthinkable afternoon. Strand recalled the last precious moments with his daughter. He was preparing to head out on a hunting trip with his father when Athena ran up for one final hug. “I gave her a hug and told her I love her,” he said. It was the last time he would ever hold her.

Shortly after he left, Horner arrived. What unfolded next was pure evil: the driver abducted the trusting child, strangled her, and dumped her body in a river miles away. When authorities first told Strand his daughter was missing, he initially thought she might be playing hide-and-seek — a heartbreaking assumption that quickly dissolved into panic and then unimaginable grief.

The aftermath broke him completely. Strand admitted he “held everything in,” bottling up the pain until it consumed him. He turned to alcohol to numb the unbearable void. Sleep became nearly impossible. He ate only once every seven days at times. The physical toll was devastating: he lost nearly 50 pounds in the months following Athena’s murder. His marriage crumbled under the weight of the loss. Everyday life turned into a daily struggle just to survive.

“It just broke me,” he confessed to the jury. The guilt weighed heaviest of all. “It made me feel horrible… I wasn’t there to protect them.” He spoke of visiting a pear tree that Athena used to climb, standing beneath its branches to talk to his little girl, desperately seeking any remnant of the laughter that once echoed through their home.

When asked what he misses most, Strand didn’t hesitate. “Just her laugh and her spirit,” he replied softly. “She loved everybody.” Before stepping down, he looked toward the jury with a quiet plea: “I just hope that the jury and the justice system makes the right decision.”

Defense attorneys offered condolences but chose not to cross-examine him, a somber acknowledgment that no words could undo the damage.

The day before, Athena’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy, delivered her own powerful and gut-wrenching testimony. Wearing pink — Athena’s favorite color — she stared directly at Horner and spoke as her daughter’s voice, refusing to let the child be reduced to a headline or a statistic.

Gandy described the frantic drive from Oklahoma to Texas after learning Athena was missing. She made the two-hour trip in just 45 minutes, her heart pounding with terror. “It felt like I was dying,” she said. “I couldn’t breathe, but I knew I had to keep going.” She searched the property repeatedly with family members, clinging to any sliver of hope.

The sorrow of not being there to protect her daughter has haunted her ever since. Gandy openly shared her regret: “I tell her that I love her… I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to protect her and to stop him.” She spoke of covering the handprint bruises around Athena’s neck when viewing her body, a mother’s desperate attempt to shield her child even in death. “She no longer has a voice,” Gandy said fiercely. “I will be her face and her voice… She was loved. She is loved. She is missed. She was real, and she had a life, and she wanted to live.”

Gandy emphasized that Athena was more than a tragic story — she was a vibrant child who loved life fully. “She was the perfect mixture of me and Jacob,” she told jurors. She held up a red Christmas bow that belonged to Athena, a small keepsake she carries as a constant reminder. One of the last things she told her daughter was simple and loving: “I love you, and I’ll see you on Friday.” That promise was shattered forever.

Both parents have carried burdens no mother or father should ever bear. Jacob wrestles with the guilt of leaving for that hunting trip. Maitlyn grapples with the “what ifs” of not being physically present that day. Their marriage did not survive the strain. Their other children have grown up in the shadow of a sister taken too soon. Holidays, once filled with Athena’s excitement over gifts like the “You Can Be Anything” Barbie dolls Horner ironically delivered, now serve as painful reminders.

The trial has exposed the full brutality of the crime. Jurors have heard chilling audio from inside Horner’s FedEx van, viewed disturbing footage, and learned about DNA evidence linking him to Athena. Horner himself wrote apology letters from jail, but Strand made it clear he doesn’t believe the remorse is genuine.

As the state rested its case after playing more graphic evidence — including audio of the murder itself — the parents’ testimonies served as a devastating human counterpoint to the cold facts. They reminded everyone in the courtroom that behind the legal arguments, the van videos, and the DNA lies a little girl whose laugh is forever silenced and whose love touched everyone she met.

For Jacob Strand and Maitlyn Gandy, Athena may be gone, but the pain remains — a constant companion that follows them through sleepless nights, quiet moments under the pear tree, and every milestone their daughter will never reach. The guilt of not protecting her lingers like a shadow they cannot escape.

The jury now carries the weight of deciding Horner’s fate. Prosecutors argue his actions demand the ultimate punishment. The defense will present mitigating factors, but after hearing the raw anguish of Athena’s parents, the path toward mercy feels steeper than ever.

In the end, Jacob Strand and Maitlyn Gandy did what any loving parent would: they showed the world the depth of their loss and the enduring love for a child whose spirit refused to be defined by the monster who took her. “She loved everybody,” Jacob said — words that now stand as both tribute and accusation in a courtroom where justice for Athena Strand is finally within reach.

The little girl who climbed trees and hugged her daddy tight is gone. But the pain she left behind — and the love that still burns in her parents’ hearts — ensures her story will never fade. As the trial hurtles toward a verdict, one thing is painfully clear: Athena’s light may have been extinguished, but the darkness her family endures every single day burns on.

Her parents have spoken. Now the jury must answer: will justice finally bring them even a fragment of peace, or will the pain of losing Athena Strand remain forever unhealed?