Texas House passes ‘Athena’ bill to let police issue alert as soon as child goes missing

The Texas House of Representatives passed the “Athena Alert” bill Tuesday, allowing law enforcement to quickly issue a regional alert when a child goes missing without confirmation of a kidnapping, according to the Varghese Summersett Injury Law Group.

House Bill 3556, also known as the “Athena Alert” bill, aims to close the gap between the time a child disappears and when a statewide Amber Alert may be issued.

The bill is named in memory of 7-year-old Athena Strand, who authorities say was kidnapped and killed by a FedEx driver last year in Wise County.

The bill would allow law enforcement to activate an alert within an 100-mile radius and to neighboring counties of where a child is believed to have gone missing or was last seen, according to the Fort Worth law firm hired by Athena’s mother, Maitlyn Gandy.

The legislation, authored by Rep. Lynn Stucky, R-Sanger, is on its way to the Senate. It will be carried by Sens. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, and Angela Paxton, R-McKinney. If passed, the bill will make its way to the governor’s desk.

“I would like to thank Rep. Stucky and other lawmakers for their support of an Athena Alert in honor of my daughter,” Gandy said in a news release. “An Athena Alert will give law enforcement the ability to quickly notify the local public about a missing child in their area, even if the case doesn’t meet the strict criteria for a statewide Amber Alert.”

“If a localized alert had been issued as soon as Athena went missing, it could have made a difference,“ Gandy said. “We will never know, but I do know that I never want another parent to feel the helplessness that I felt. Law enforcement wanted to sound an alert, but under the current law’s criteria, they just couldn’t.”

On Nov. 30, 2022, Athena was playing in the front yard of her father’s Paradise, Texas home in rural Wise County when she went missing.

An Amber Alert wasn’t issued until the following afternoon — about 24 hours later – when investigators determined that her disappearance met the criteria for an Amber Alert, which is defined in Texas Government Code Section 411.355 and requires law enforcement to “believe that a child has been abducted.”

The following day, Athena was found dead about six miles from her father’s home. A FedEx Ground driver, Tanner Horner, was arrested and charged with capital murder in her killing and kidnapping.

He is facing the death penalty if convicted.

Horner told investigators that he killed Athena the same day that he kidnapped her, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Horner said that he hit the girl with his truck while delivering a Christmas present outside her home and panicked, putting Athena in the back of his truck, where he strangled her, according to the warrant.

Rep. Stucky, who represents Wise County as part of District 64, filed the “Athena Alert” bill in March after consulting with Gandy and her attorneys at Varghese Summersett, which filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Horner, FedEx, and contractor Big Topspin, in March.

Last month, Gandy and her attorney, Benson Varghese, traveled to Austin to testify before the Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, which voted unanimously to advance the bill to the full Texas House of Representatives.

Varghese called an Athena Alert “common sense legislation” that will not result in additional taxes or financial burdens on the public.

“This proposed law is not intended to replace the AMBER Alert — an incredible law that has saved hundreds of children’s lives,” Varghese said. “It extends an alert system that is already in place, allowing it to be used locally during the early stages of an investigation into the disappearance of a child.”

“Because it is local, we believe more people will pay closer attention to the message when they hear it. The sooner we can get the word out, the more likely a child can be found,” said Varghese.