Tanner Horner: Woman says she was raped by murder suspect in 2014 when she was a teen

A Texas woman says she was raped in 2014 by Tanner Lynn Horner when she was 16 and ‘drunk’, now Horner is the man who kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Athena Strand on Wednesday.

Strand was found dead Friday night, police confirmed in Wise County, northwest of Dallas.

Investigators revealed that she likely died “within an hour” of being abducted from where she lived in Paradise, Texas.

The suspect, aspiring musician Tanner Horner, 31, of Lake Worth, confessed to Athena’s kidnapping and murder. According to jail records, Horner is 6-foot-3 and weighs 220 pounds.

DailyMail.com has found that Shay Marie, a 23-year-old Texas woman, said publicly and repeatedly on social media that Horner raped her in 2014. It is unclear if the woman ever went to authorities with her allegations.

In 2018, the woman posted a series of screenshots showing text conversations she had with friends and Horner’s then-girlfriend.

Marie writes: ‘One Friday night, [Horner] He got me drunk with the intention of having sex with me. He was almost drunk when he decided to rape me. I couldn’t physically fight him. My body did not move.

‘The next day, I was still out of it… It was just me and Tanner. She had almost no recollection of the night before at this point. We made acid. We were fine until we went down. She was lying down with her back to him,” she wrote.

The victim continued: ‘He kept touching me. I pushed her hand several times. She began to have a lot of anxiety. I was frozen. I cried. He was stroking my legs and side, talking about my most recent ex at the time. He wouldn’t stop.

Marie continued: ‘He didn’t give me his address so I could leave. He wouldn’t leave the room so I could change. She kept demanding that I speak to him, asking me what I had done wrong. He acted innocent. He started cutting behind me. I have a hold of my friend. I had to run and hide in the bathroom. She and her mom came looking for me. By the time she got to this point, it was around 8 am on Sunday morning. I haven’t talked to him since.

In a subsequent post, the woman wrote about the circumstances of the attack, saying that at the time “my first love had just broken my heart.” I was reckless and hung out with anyone and everyone, and being the girl who hung out at band practice was legit, so cool for me at 16.

The victim wrote in a November 2019 Facebook post: “Friendly reminder that Tanner Horner is a rapist.”

In another post from last September, the woman said: ‘I’m 23 years old. The man who assaulted when I was 16 years old was 23. We were ‘friends’, he tried to convince me to go out with him and I refused. We remained “friends” until he was able to get me drunk enough to take advantage of me, a 16 year old.

She also said: ‘I could never in a million years imagine being friends with a 16-year-old now, let alone trying to date/sleep a 16-year-old. I will never understand.

Posts on the suspect’s Instagram page show that he was an aspiring musician and was in a band called Commit and Conquer.

In another series of messages, Marie talks to

Horner was charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping and is being held on $1.5 million bail.

“We’re saddened that it didn’t end the way we hoped it would,” Sheriff Lane Akin said during a news conference Friday night.

Horner is the only suspect authorities believe is responsible in the case, Akin said. He had no relationship or connection to the family.

According to the Wise County Sheriff’s Office, the girl was dropped off from school at her home in Paradise at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Sometime later, the young woman was outside her house after an argument with her stepmother. At the same time, Horner was delivering a FedEx package to her home.

When Athena did not re-enter and could not be found in her room, her stepmother reported her missing to the police around 6:40 p.m.

Police believe the girl was likely abducted from her driveway, just 200 yards from the safety of her home.

Authorities were only able to connect the dots between Athena’s disappearance and Horner’s delivery route after a tip, with the FBI, Texas Rangers and Wise County Sheriff’s offices working together to bring the case to a close. fast but tragic, although two red herrings were sent. the police look for the girl in all the wrong places.

The young woman’s body was eventually found 10 miles from her home.

The county sheriff paid tribute to the locals who had helped with the investigation as hundreds of volunteers came out to help with a massive search.

“This community doesn’t like to lose our children and we were able to see that because of all the people who came out and helped us through this ordeal,” Akin said.

“It’s one of the most difficult investigations I’ve ever been involved in because it’s a child, and every time a child dies, it hits your heart. You compare that child to your own children when they were that age,’ he added.

When asked about the family’s reaction to the girl’s death: “They are devastated,” Akin said.

“They are angry about what happened: a precious child that was taken from them.”

FedEx issued a statement late Friday expressing its condolences to the family: ‘Words cannot describe our shock at the reports surrounding this tragic event. First and foremost, our thoughts are with the family during this very difficult time.”