FedEx driver accused of murder of Athena Strand is charged with sexual assault of child nine years ago

Tanner Horner being held on $1.5m bond

Prosecutors in Texas have filed new charges against the FedEx driver arrested earlier this month and accused of killing a seven-year-old girl.

Tanner Horner, 31, had already been booked into custody and charged with the capital murder and aggravated kidnapping of Athena Strand earlier this month. Wise County jail records now show he also faces three counts of sexual assault on a child.

Fox 4 reports that court records revealed that the incidents relating to the new charge date from 2013 and took place in Forth Worth.

No further details have been released about what led to these charges being filed against Horner.

He is currently being held in jail on a $1.5m bond.

According to his arrest affidavit for the death of Athena, the delivery driver told investigators that he accidentally hit her with his truck on 30 November, “panicked”, and put her into the vehicle.

Afraid of what would happen if she told her father about the accident, he strangled her inside the truck and dumped her body on a country road, seven miles from her home.

After a frantic search by the local community, her body was found on 2 December. It emerged later that Horner had been delivering the little girl’s Christmas present.

Athena’s father, Jacob Strand, has filed a lawsuit against FedEx, claiming they did not carry out sufficient background checks before hiring Horner.