‘You never know who your neighbor is.’ Fort Worth residents react to Tanner Horner arrest
Those who live in Tanner Lynn Horner’s west Fort Worth neighborhood, near Lake Worth, describe it as a quiet place where neighbors usually keep to themselves.
Elderly people walking their dogs and moms with children are a regular sight on the street. At least a couple of the houses are Airbnb rentals.
Crystal Guadian said she’s lived in that area on Sommerville Place Road for five or six years and she’s always felt safe.
When she saw on the Friday night 10 o’clock news that one of her neighbors, Horner, was accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Athena Strand in Wise County, she said she “freaked out.”
Guadian said she didn’t know Horner, but she frequently saw his FedEx truck parked outside his house.
Friday around 3 p.m., Guadian left the house to pick up one of her children from school. When she got back to her street around 3:30, it was blocked off and there was a heavy police presence. She also saw the Texas Rangers and SWAT in the area.
Guadian said she started to shake all over when she found out what happened and she didn’t sleep at all Friday night.
“You kind of forget that you never know who your neighbor is,” she told the Star-Telegram.
Another neighbor who asked that the Star-Telegram withhold her name confirmed that Horner lived in the neighborhood with his mother and grandmother.
The neighbor said Horner was always coming and going. Sometimes he would be home for a couple weeks and then he would leave for a month.
The woman said she didn’t know Horner well, but she had a hard time picturing him intentionally abducting and harming a child.
“I find it just shocking it was him,” she said.
Neighbors said they believe Horner is the father of a young child who doesn’t live at his home.
Another neighbor who also asked to remain anonymous said police were “everywhere” Friday until after midnight. She didn’t know what was going on, but she said rumors started to circulate on Facebook that evening that it had something to do with Athena Strand.
Authorities said their investigation shows Horner abducted Athena when he was outside her home to deliver a package. He is believed to have killed her within about an hour and left her body several miles away, near the Trinity River in Boyd, according to the Wise County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators searched Horner’s home on Friday but did not say what they found there.
