deaths

[spaminator]

Ex-FedEx driver Tanner Horner sentenced to death for Texas girl's murder
Prosecutors say he kidnapped and strangled Athena Strand when he was delivering Barbies to her house

Author of the article:Ling Hui
Published May 05, 2026 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read

Defendant Tanner Horner enters the courtroom for closing arguments during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Defendant Tanner Horner enters the courtroom for closing arguments during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial Tuesday, May 5, 2026, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Amanda McCoy /Star-Telegram via AP
A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he admitted to killing a seven-year-old girl while he was delivering what would have been her Christmas gift to her Texas home.


Tanner Horner, 34, was accused of kidnapping and strangling Athena Strand after hitting her with his delivery van in front of her home in in Paradise, Texas on Nov. 30, 2022.


At the start of his trial before a jury in Fort Worth last month, he pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, which sent proceedings to the penalty phase.

Prosecutor James Stainton told jurors in opening statements that Horner was delivering Barbies to Athena’s house when he abducted her.

Her body was found two days after she was reported missing on Dec. 2, 2022, less than 16 kilometres away from her home.

Video and audio recordings moved jurors to tears
The jurors were shown disturbing surveillance video and audio recordings of the little girl’s last moments while she was inside Horner’s delivery van.

Several jurors cried when they were presented with the chilling hour-long audio and video clips. Horner could be seen lifting her into the van, and then driving away, telling her not to scream or he’d hurt her.


An image shown in court during the trial of FedEx driver Tanner Horner in the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand.
An image shown in court during the trial of FedEx driver Tanner Horner in the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Photo by Court photo
Stainton said Horner covered the camera in his FedEx truck before attacking the little girl, and then repeatedly lied to authorities, including telling authorities that he accidentally struck the girl with his van while making the delivery and then killed her in a fit of panic.

The jury also heard testimony from a forensic psychiatrist and crime scene experts.

Defence sought life sentence
Horner’s defence lawyer pointed to his childhood with parents who had substance abuse issues, his struggles with autism and mental illness, and his exposure to toxic amounts of lead while pushing for a life sentence.

In their sentencing, which came after two and a half hours of deliberations, the jurors found there was a probability Horner would commit criminal violence and be a continuing threat to society. They said there was nothing in the commission of the crime or in Horner’s background to warrant life without parole instead of death.

According to CBS Texas, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, delivered a tearful victim impact statement, telling Horner: “You did not just take a life; you destroyed a family. You took a little girl who trusted the world and repaid that innocence with violence. You chose to cause pain that will last generations. You say you found God, but what you did to Athena stands in direct opposition of everything you claim to believe.

— with files from The Associated Press

Ex-FedEx driver Tanner Horner sentenced to death for Texas girl's murder

A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death after he admitted to killing a girl while he was delivering a Christmas gift to her Texas home.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Woman dies after exiting Mercedes and falling into open New York City manhole
New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered

Author of the article:Eddie Chau
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

Warm steam rising from a round metal manhole cover on a city street
A woman has died after falling into a manhole in New York City Photo by Adobe Stock
A 56-year-old woman has died after plunging down an open manhole while stepping out of her vehicle in New York City on Monday.


The New York City Police Department said the Westchester County, N.Y., woman had parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV near the Cartier and Nike stores at West 52nd and Fifth Ave. just before 11:20 p.m. She fell into an uncovered manhole as she stepped out of her SUV.


The woman plunged about three metres (10 feet), authorities said, as reported by ABC 7 New York.

Emergency personnel arrived on scene and found the woman unconscious and unresponsive inside the Con Edison utility hole, the New York Post reported.

After being recovered from the hole, the woman was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

Family members want answers
The family of the woman told ABC 7 New York they are deeply saddened and shocked by her death. They said they wanted answers on how the incident could have happened.

The woman’s name was not released.

New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered for the tragedy to occur.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm that a member of the public has died after falling into an open manhole,” Con Edison said in a statement to media.

“We are actively investigating how this occurred. Our thoughts are with the individual’s family, and safety remains our top priority.”

Police said the medical examiner will determine the woman’s cause of death.

Woman dies falling down open manhole in Midtown after stepping out of her Mercedes near Cartier store: NYPD

A woman is dead after she fell into an open manhole in Midtown Monday night, police said.

nypost.com

Woman dies after falling in uncovered manhole in Midtown Manhattan

The victim's family is demanding answers as to how this could have happened.

abc7ny.com

Woman dies after exiting Mercedes and falling into open New York City manhole

New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered. Read on.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Woman dies after exiting Mercedes and falling into open New York City manhole
New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered

Author of the article:Eddie Chau
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

Warm steam rising from a round metal manhole cover on a city street
A woman has died after falling into a manhole in New York City Photo by Adobe Stock
A 56-year-old woman has died after plunging down an open manhole while stepping out of her vehicle in New York City on Monday.


The New York City Police Department said the Westchester County, N.Y., woman had parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV near the Cartier and Nike stores at West 52nd and Fifth Ave. just before 11:20 p.m. She fell into an uncovered manhole as she stepped out of her SUV.


The woman plunged about three metres (10 feet), authorities said, as reported by ABC 7 New York.

Emergency personnel arrived on scene and found the woman unconscious and unresponsive inside the Con Edison utility hole, the New York Post reported.

After being recovered from the hole, the woman was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

Family members want answers
The family of the woman told ABC 7 New York they are deeply saddened and shocked by her death. They said they wanted answers on how the incident could have happened.

The woman’s name was not released.

New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered for the tragedy to occur.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm that a member of the public has died after falling into an open manhole,” Con Edison said in a statement to media.

“We are actively investigating how this occurred. Our thoughts are with the individual’s family, and safety remains our top priority.”

Police said the medical examiner will determine the woman’s cause of death.

Woman dies falling down open manhole in Midtown after stepping out of her Mercedes near Cartier store: NYPD

A woman is dead after she fell into an open manhole in Midtown Monday night, police said.

nypost.com

Woman dies after falling in uncovered manhole in Midtown Manhattan

The victim's family is demanding answers as to how this could have happened.

abc7ny.com

Woman dies after exiting Mercedes and falling into open New York City manhole

New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered. Read on.

torontosun.com

was a woman in new york recently submerged in boiling water - Google Search

 

[spaminator]

was a woman in new york recently submerged in boiling water - Google Search

she must have been steaming/boiling mad.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Woman dies after exiting Mercedes and falling into open New York City manhole
New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered

Author of the article:Eddie Chau
Published May 19, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

Warm steam rising from a round metal manhole cover on a city street
A woman has died after falling into a manhole in New York City Photo by Adobe Stock
A 56-year-old woman has died after plunging down an open manhole while stepping out of her vehicle in New York City on Monday.


The New York City Police Department said the Westchester County, N.Y., woman had parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV near the Cartier and Nike stores at West 52nd and Fifth Ave. just before 11:20 p.m. She fell into an uncovered manhole as she stepped out of her SUV.


The woman plunged about three metres (10 feet), authorities said, as reported by ABC 7 New York.

Emergency personnel arrived on scene and found the woman unconscious and unresponsive inside the Con Edison utility hole, the New York Post reported.

After being recovered from the hole, the woman was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

Family members want answers
The family of the woman told ABC 7 New York they are deeply saddened and shocked by her death. They said they wanted answers on how the incident could have happened.

The woman’s name was not released.

New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered for the tragedy to occur.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm that a member of the public has died after falling into an open manhole,” Con Edison said in a statement to media.

“We are actively investigating how this occurred. Our thoughts are with the individual’s family, and safety remains our top priority.”

Police said the medical examiner will determine the woman’s cause of death.

Woman dies falling down open manhole in Midtown after stepping out of her Mercedes near Cartier store: NYPD

A woman is dead after she fell into an open manhole in Midtown Monday night, police said.

nypost.com

Woman dies after falling in uncovered manhole in Midtown Manhattan

The victim's family is demanding answers as to how this could have happened.

abc7ny.com

Woman dies after exiting Mercedes and falling into open New York City manhole

New York City power provider Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was left uncovered. Read on.

torontosun.com

Notice how they're reporting this? They emphasize the vehicle she was driving, (a Mercedes) & where she was parked (in front of a Cartier & Niki stores) so that readers will not feel too badly about this woman because she's obviously a woman of "means." The article is written in such a way to supposedly raise envy and hatred towards a woman who should never have died that way. THAT was the point, not the fact that she may have been well to do. Stupid media!!

And, of course, they all hate people who have done well. It's not surprising tho'.

 

[spaminator]

Teen pleads guilty to 'highly violent' murder of 11-year-old girl
The victim suffered 70 stab wounds and was sexually assaulted in the attack in Huron County

Author of the article:Jane Sims
Published Jun 02, 2026 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 5 minute read

Scales of justice
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
Editor’s note: This story contains details that will be disturbing to some readers.


GODERICH – He told the 911 dispatcher that a girl had been abducted by three men in a white truck.


But when OPP officers finally found the then-13-year-old youth on a road near Holmesville, west of Clinton in Huron County, the blood all over his hands and clothing suggested something more sinister.

Within the hour of picking him up on July 2, 2024, the body of an 11-year-old girl was found in a bush area near a now-closed elementary school. Her pants had been tossed aside and there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted.

An autopsy would later show that the 82-pound girl who stood little more than five feet tall had suffered 70 incised wounds to her head, face, neck, torso and extremities. There were deep cuts that severed her carotid artery and jugular vein, perforated her sinus and cranial cavity and collapsed her lung. The wounds on her hands and arms were evidence she tried to ward off the blows.

Further investigation uncovered that the youth, who had just turned 13 two weeks before the murder, had been viewing enormous amounts of online pornography and thinking about having sex with the girl.


On Tuesday, the youth, now 15 and much taller and beefier than he was two years ago, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a case that Superior Court Justice Marc Garson said several times was “disturbing,” “upsetting,” “highly violent” and “troubling.“

The guilty plea came months after the completion of an Ontario Court preliminary hearing in which the youth was committed to stand trial for first-degree murder because of a conclusion that the girl was killed during a sexual assault.

The youth was brought to the large Goderich courtroom wearing his baggy youth detention centre burgundy sweats and in both leg irons and handcuffs. Half of the courtroom’s public gallery was filled with the victim’s family and friends.

The youth sat with his defence lawyer, Robert Morris, and he often buried his face in his hands as the facts were told to Garson. Some of the photo exhibits were so disturbing that Garson ordered them sealed.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act protects his identity. A further publication ban protects the identity of the victim.


Assistant Crown attorney Deanna Bronowicki meticulously went through an agreed statement of facts outlining what happened on that summer afternoon two years ago.

The youth and the girl were known to each other. Sometime after 2 p.m., they headed to a park to play. The girl did not have her cellphone, but the youth had his and he was also carrying a knife, as he often did to cut brush or whittle sticks.

But before they reached the park, they entered a wooded area near the closed Holmesville public school.

Bronowicki said the youth’s intention “was to engage in sexual activity” with the 11-year-old. He knew she was not consenting when he tried to touch her. When she resisted, he attacked her with the knife.

“At some point during the knife attack, he overcame her resistance and was able to remove her pants completely, throwing them to the side and pulled down her underwear leaving the garment around her right ankle,” she said.

Bronowicki said while the girl was dying or was already deceased, the youth touched her sexually.


The youth called 911 just after 4 p.m., about 30 minutes after his last cellphone use. Bronowicki said the youth told the dispatcher that the girl had been “forcibly taken from the bush area … by three men in a white truck.”

The 911 call was played. “People just came from nowhere and grabbed (her),” the youth told the dispatcher. “I don’t know. I just ran.”

He told the dispatcher that the girl was “screaming” and the men were in “their 30s or 40s.” He said he was “in the fields somewhere” near Holmesville.

The dispatcher kept the youth on the phone until emergency services were able to track his cellphone location. An OPP officer “located (the youth) walking down Tipperary Line covered in blood and still on the phone with the dispatcher,” Bronowicki said.

The youth had some cuts on his hands but paramedics determined he didn’t need immediate medical attention and chose not to clean them off. He would later require surgery to repair a tendon.

The officer video-recorded their conversation in the cruiser during a drive back to the school. During that exchange, the youth deleted messages off his cellphone.


The police quickly surmised that the youth’s story wasn’t adding up. They began to search the bush and at 5:10 p.m. they found the girl lying motionless on her back.

Bronowicki said it was evident the girl had suffered “significant blood loss from what appeared to be numerous stab wounds to her arms, hands, neck and head.” A knife was found on the ground next to her left hip.

She had no vital signs, but paramedics began life-saving efforts, but couldn’t put in an airway because of trauma to her trachea. She never showed any signs of life and was pronounced dead at Clinton Public Hospital.

An autopsy would determine that the girl died of “multiple sharp-force trauma” and significant blood loss.

The youth was taken to the Clinton OPP detachment and ultimately charged with murder.

The next day, the police searched the youth’s bedroom and found a number of knives and Airsoft BB guns. A pair of girl’s underwear and feminine hygiene products were in one of his dresser drawers.


When the police searched his cellphone, there were 27 secretly taken photos of the girl’s body and evidence that between Nov. 10, 2023, when he was just 12, and July 2, 2024, the youth had “accessed pornography-related websites over 2,000 times,” Bronowicki said.

She said the youth’s DNA from his blood was found throughout the crime scene: on the girl’s body, on a button on her jeans, on a ball cap and sunglasses and the knife.

Because of his young age, the youth will not face an adult sentence. Morris didn’t say what the defence’s sentencing submission is but noted the maximum sentence for first-degree murder under the youth law is 10 years, with six years in detention and four years under community supervision.

Morris said the Crown has already agreed that the youth will get some credit for his time served. The youth will also be required to give a DNA sample and put under a 10-year weapons prohibition.

A pre-sentence report and an updated medical/psychiatric risk assessment were ordered by the judge. The case returns on Aug. 10 to check the progress before setting a sentencing date.

Garson made it clear that he wants to set the sentencing date as soon as possible.

“There is not a case, in my view, that could take more importance in this county than the one that’s before me,” he said.

jsims@postmedia.com

Teen pleads guilty to 'highly violent' murder of 11-year-old girl

The victim suffered 70 stab wounds and was sexually assaulted in the attack in Huron County

torontosun.com