Small paper confronts a monumental tragedy

First grader’s abduction, murder leaves Wise County residents reeling

By ROY EATON

Publisher, Wise County Messenger

DECATUR – A wave of sadness and anger swept over Wise County in early December after the abduction and murder of a seven-year-old girl.

Law enforcement officers said Athena Strand was abducted from her home in a sparsely populated area of the county just minutes after she got off the school bus from her first grade classes at Paradise Elementary School.   

Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin said she was abducted by a contracted Fed Ex driver who had made a delivery to her home a short time earlier.

Officers charged Tanner Lynn Horner, 31, of Fort Worth with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. He was held in the Wise County jail on $1.5 million bond. While not on the same scale as that faced by our friends Craig Garnett in Uvalde or Randy Mankin in Eldorado, this story caught the attention of nationwide media. NBC News sent a reporter to cover the story and the Dallas-Fort Worth television stations were at the scene quickly.

So how does a twice-weekly paper whose deadlines don’t match up with a fast-moving case keep up with the story and provide meaningful coverage that competing television stations and daily newspapers missed?

At the Messenger, our reporter Brian Knox had developed a close relationship with Akin over the years.

Akin, a retired Texas Ranger, made sure his hometown newspaper got the jump on the out-of-town reporters.

At the time Akin announced Horner’s arrest at a news conference in a nearby fire station just in time for the 10 p.m. television newscasts, he called Brian at home to tell him about the arrest so that we would have it first on our internet and social media sites.

“Words cannot express our shock and sorrow surrounding this tragic event,” Akin said at the news conference. “The family is devastated and angry. A precious child was taken from their lives.”

His words were echoed by Wise County Judge J. D. Clark, himself the father of three young girls.

“I feel shocked, I feel angry, I feel disgusted, I feel scared, but more than anything else, what I have felt more is that I want to go home and hug my kids,” Clark told a crowd of hundreds who gathered on the courthouse lawn for a prayer service.

The Messenger’s news coverage, led by Editor Austin Jackson, continued for weeks after the arrest.

The mother of the child, Marilyn Gandy, hired a Dallas law firm and several days later held a news conference on the steps of the courthouse.

Her lawyer, Benson Varghese, said in a news release: “Corporations like FedEx are welcomed at our homes to bring packages to our doorsteps, not danger.”

FedEx officials released the following statement to reporters:

“Our thoughts remain with the family of Athena Strand during this most difficult time. Words cannot express our shock and sorrow surrounding this tragic event and we continue to cooperate fully with the investigating authorities.”

Key facts of the case contained in the arrest warrant were sealed. Akin said his investigators are working to develop a rock-solid case against Horner.

“We’re taking our time to make sure everything is correct,” he said.

So, how could we have done better in covering this tragic story? I think we did all we could under the circumstances with the resources we have. Our investment in internet and social media paid off tremendously when the “printed word” was available only in our daily Update.

The Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram did a good job with the story, but they have limited circulation in Wise County.

I often wish we had the resources to “broadcast live” during events such as this. We could have shown the hundreds of volunteers who spent hours searching for Athena near her home in a sparsely populated part of the county. They walked in grids and used drones, four-wheelers, a helicopter and horses to search for the child.

We could have covered live the emotional news conferences of the sheriff and county judge and talk to other people involved. The Metroplex TV stations did a very good job on the story, but I wish it could have been us that was “first on the scene” with live coverage.

Maybe someday that will be possible.