WISE COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) — The Wise County Sheriff held a press conference Friday night to give an update on the disappearance of 7-year-old Athena Strand who went missing from Wise County.
According to Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin, Strand’s body was recovered sometime in the evening on December 2, 2022, in Wise County near Boyd.
Sheriff Akin said that Strand was abducted near her home by a contract Fed-Ex driver, Tanner Lynn Horner, 31, from Lake Worth. He went on to say that a tip lead them to Horner and that Athena likely died within an hour of her abduction.
Horner has been charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. He is currently in Wise County Jail on a $1.5 million bond, Akin said.
Athena Strand, 7, was last seen at 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, in the 200 Block of County Rd 3573 in Paradise, according to officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
On Thursday, December 1, 2022, authorities issued an Amber Alert for Strand.
Early Friday evening several posts started circulating on social media about the investigation into the location of Strand and of large law enforcement presence involving multiple agencies, including the FBI, continuing their search for the girl.
According to Meredith Yeomans, a reporter with NBCDFW, a large law enforcement presence has been on County Road 4599 in Wise County, about 7 miles from where Strand was last seen, since around 5:45 p.m. on Friday, December 2, 2022.
Yeomans reported on her official Twitter account that the DPS, the FBI, and local law enforcement agencies have been spotted on the scene.
During a press conference held on Friday, December 2, officials with the Wise County Sheriff’s Office said they were transitioning from a search with an investigation to an investigation with a search.
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