Texans erupted in a mix of grief, outrage, and relief after the courts handed down a long-awaited decision in the case of the FedEx driver who kidnapped and killed 7-year-old Athena Strand from her front lawn while delivering Christmas presents in 2022. 

At the time of her kidnapping in 2022, the horrifying case spread rapidly across social media when Athena Strand’s parents called on her North Texas community to help locate the missing girl. Initially the driver claimed he had accidentally hit her with his delivery truck, seeming to imply that he panicked and acted in fear. It was later discovered via camera footage that she was alive and well inside his truck. During the court proceedings, prosecutor James Stainton aired an audio recording offering this warning:  

“I’m going to tell you right now. One thing you’re going to hear that is something you can’t unhear is the level of fight that a 7-year-old girl has when she’s facing down a certain death.”

Stainton further indicated that DNA evidence found on the girl’s body was found “in places where you shouldn’t find DNA on a 7-year-old girl.”

On May 5, after the FedEx driver Tanner Horner pleaded guilty in the capital murder trial, jurors decided that Horner will face the death penalty. As news of the decision spread—even capturing national attention—social media commenters praised the decision noting the swift application of justice to Horner. Yet, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, gave a victim statement that reminds us no matter how swift and righteous the judgment, the pain of her loss can never be fully healed in this life. Strand had this to say in his victim statement: 

“You did not just take a life, you destroyed the family. You took a little girl who trusted the world, and repaid that innocence with violence. You chose to cause pain that will last for generations… But I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story. Her name will forever be remembered. Her name will forever be celebrated and everyone will forget you. You wanted your 15 minutes of fame. You got it, and no one’s gonna remember you after this.”

Athena’s death is an unimaginable loss and shock to her family, her community, and those who know her story. The details around the case cause any mother to shudder at the thought of such wickedness being perpetrated against a child who was taken right out of her front yard. Yet God did not leave us alone to figure out how to execute justice on earth against those who commit murder. Genesis 9:6 tells us that, “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.”  This formula for justice in the American legal system is a great gift from God which our founders and the earliest American settlers embedded into the laws of our land. The death penalty, given to us as God’s standard for biblical justice, has been applied to this case which is a cause to rejoice!

The absence of justice seen so often in cases like Iryna Zarutska’s—or even the uncertainty of whether justice will be applied, as in Jocelyn Nungaray’s case—is destabilizing to a society. This is especially true in a society built like ours on the biblical idea of covenants based on mutual consent and personal responsibility. The blessings of trusting your neighbors and believing the best in the people around you create stability and peace among communities. It follows, then, that when that trust is broken, the absence of justice or a form of justice that is too soft for the crime, is a destabilizing force in the community. Because of this shared understanding we have as Christians first and Americans second, that biblical justice against Tanner Horner is essential to a functioning and orderly society. It is only biblical justice that can soothe the heart of a mother in the face of such evil.