What to Know<\/p>\n
Previous Trial Coverage:\u00a0Day 1<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Day 2<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Day 3<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Day 4<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0|\u00a0Day 5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Day 6<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n In court Wednesday, Athena Strand\u2019s mother described cherished memories, the shock of her daughter\u2019s disappearance and the pain of seeing her again after she was found.<\/p>\n A Fort Worth courtroom fell silent as Maitlyn Gandy took the stand to testify in Tanner Horner’s capital murder trial.<\/p>\n Prosecutors called Gandy to talk about the day she learned her young daughter was missing. It was a moment many in the courtroom had been waiting for as the mother began by sharing happy memories of Athena\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Jurors were shown some of the last photos of Athena, including one of her wearing a red bow. Gandy said she has frequently carried that red bow with her for the past several years.<\/p>\n She described Athena as happy, girly and still very much a kid. She said Athena loved playing outside and spending time with her dad.<\/p>\n Gandy, who lives in Oklahoma, co-parented Athena with Athena\u2019s dad, who lives in Paradise in Wise County.<\/p>\n She said she rushed to Texas after learning Athena was missing and later saw her daughter for the first time days after she was found.<\/p>\n As she described that moment, Gandy said, \u201cHer ears were messed up. And she had incision lines, and her chin was scraped up \u2026 I searched her body, looking for any reason that that wasn\u2019t my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n Gandy also made clear she wants people to remember who Athena was beyond this case. She said, “She\u2019s not just some story \u2026 she was loved and she is loved. She had a life and she wanted to live. And no one can take that from her.\u201d<\/p>\n Athena would have turned 11 next month and would be finishing her fourth-grade year. Gandy said she wants to continue being her daughter\u2019s voice. She also said she wants the man who admitted to killing Athena to tell the entire truth about what happened, and she wants the shirt Athena was wearing back.<\/p>\n The court is expected to see difficult video testimony tomorrow showing the moments after Athena was kidnapped.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What to Know The trial will be livestreamed and live blogged in this article. The judge has warned…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":731459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,70669],"class_list":["post-731458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wise-county"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116412859524461970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}