Full interview: Athena Strand's mom shares what she'd tell her 7-year-old daughter's accused killer

[0:00] So we'll go ahead and get started. First and foremost, I want to thank you for sitting down [0:04] with us and talking with us about this subject. I know it's a tough one. My first question, [0:10] and I kind of mentioned it before we sat down, is really to just get an update on you. [0:16] It's been two weeks today since the Amber Alert was issued. There's been a lot that's happened. [0:24] What's this last two weeks been like for you and for your family? [0:27] It's been rough. Mostly it's been rough for my daughter, my three-year-old. She doesn't [0:35] understand why she can't call Sissy or why Sissy hasn't come home yet, because this is a very long [0:41] time for her to go without seeing her sister. We're coping. We're trying to function. It's been [0:53] long. It's been hard, but it feels very chaotic at the same time. A lot of moving parts. [1:00] I think the public has been so gravitated toward what has happened to you and your family, [1:05] because it was said at the vigil, and I think it was said very well by one of the pastors, [1:10] that this could have been anyone's kid out there. This could have been anyone's child. This could [1:15] have been anyone's pain. I think a lot of people have tried to stand in your shoes to understand [1:21] how you feel, but we can't. We can't understand that. Is there any way you can tell us what it's [1:29] like to stand in Maitland Gandy's shoes today? I'm sad. I'm angry. I'm confused. I am doing my best, [1:45] but to stand in my shoes, I don't know how to describe it. I don't. I wish I did so other people [1:57] could understand. I've been very scared. I don't sleep very often. I don't sleep for an extended [2:07] period of time the way people are supposed to. Noises at night scare me. I triple check my doors [2:15] every night. I hold my three-year-old tighter, and I'm scared to let her go. Everything's just [2:22] very, very scary and very, very sad. When we met two weeks ago, the only thing I knew about Athena [2:31] was that she was missing and that people were working tirelessly to try and find her. Before [2:38] the Amber Alert was issued and before I think the country and the area got to know her, you knew her [2:46] very well, and you knew her as her mom. Can you tell us just a little bit about her and just about [2:55] who she was to you while you were living with her and teaching her and instructing her and raising her [3:00] for her seven years? Athena was, I think, the way her teacher worded it was very polite. Athena was [3:09] very free-spirited and wild, and she loved to jump in muddy puddles, and she was very smart. I do okay [3:36] until I started talking about it. Athena. Athena was a lot of things. Sorry, that's the thing. It's not [4:03] okay. Athena was very free-spirited and loving and kind, and I think a lot of things that people miss [4:31] when they see me is not me. It's the fact that Athena would run up to anybody and scream out their [4:37] name and give them hugs and say hello because she didn't know a stranger. Raising her was the best [4:51] seven years of my life, and I just expected a lot more years. So I don't know how to, I don't know [5:04] how to describe raising her because it was just, raising my girls has always been everything to me, [5:10] and I was robbed of that. When we spoke for the very first time, you said none of this added up. [5:26] You said this didn't make sense. There's no way she would have just disappeared, wandered off. [5:30] Your instinct was correct. What was it like for law enforcement, for you as a mom, knowing that [5:43] nothing was adding up, you know, the minute that they told you what had happened or that she had [5:48] been found? Can you walk us through that moment, or do you feel comfortable walking us through that [5:52] moment? When we found out originally that Athena was no longer with us, Sheriff Aiken was there, [6:10] and we had been escorted to a room. Myself, Athena's father and stepmother, and then my dad, [6:18] Jacob's father, and Jacob's mother, because I asked for our parents to be there. And one of the FBI [6:27] trauma agents, she had escorted us into that room, and I knew from the moment that Sheriff Aiken walked [6:36] in that he was going to tell me everything that I had felt had happened. It's hard to look people in [6:48] the face when you're giving them the worst news of your life, and so I knew when he walked into the [6:53] room, and he was looking down, and he just had, he had his lips rolled in, I guess is how I would [7:01] describe that. I don't remember what he said. I just, I remember feeling broken and empty, [7:17] and I couldn't breathe. I, I, I literally stopped breathing, and it took my dad and the FBI trauma [7:34] agent to make me start breathing again. I don't know how to describe that feeling. I don't, and I [7:45] think a lot of people in those experiences try to block it out, and I just remember the feeling of [7:52] not being able to breathe and crying. I don't know, I don't know how to answer some of these questions. [8:04] So I'm sorry. That's okay. What you're saying is totally fine. We just want to know, based off of [8:12] what you told me originally, and knowing what had happened, you know, how you handled that as a mom, [8:19] and I want to ask, based off of, you know, what he spoke to and told investigators, allegedly we now [8:26] know that he told police that he accidentally backed into Athena, and then put her in the van, [8:35] that she was alive at the time, she was breathing, and that he decided to take her life because he [8:43] was in fear of the consequences that would happen. I know you've read that. I know you've been told [8:49] that, and we know that people are trying to verify and get the facts correct, but if that alleged [8:56] confession is true, that he could have done the right thing, and your daughter would be alive, [9:03] what do you, how do you react to that? I've thought about that a lot, actually. Jacob and I are very [9:13] forgiving people. If that were the case, and Athena was not injured, or even if, you know, she had a few [9:21] bumps and scrapes, he could have just driven away. We wouldn't, we wouldn't have went after him legally. [9:28] We wouldn't have done anything. We would have forgave him because accidents do happen, but he chose to [9:35] do more, and what he did is unforgivable. I don't. I did Athena's hair, and I dressed her before the [9:53] funeral. I did all of that myself, and I have a hard time believing that Athena couldn't have just [10:00] walked away. In my opinion, and I'm not a medical examiner by any means, Athena could have just [10:09] walked away, and I wish he would have let her. If you could say anything, or even ask anything to [10:20] the suspect, is there anything you'd like to ask or say to him? I don't think he would ever give me [10:28] the answers that I want, or that I think I need to hear. If I could sit down in front of him, I think [10:40] what I would like to tell him is that he is nothing, but Athena is absolutely everything, [10:51] and I will make sure that everybody in this world knows that he is nothing, and she is everything. [10:57] Death penalty. Law enforcement, prosecutors say that they want to seek it, [11:03] and go after it in this case. It's not at the DA's office just yet, but hearing that news, [11:11] how do you as a mom in this situation react to the punishment that they're seeking? I support the [11:17] death penalty in any sentencing that may come, as long as it's to the fullest extent that we can get it [11:28] to. Every breath that he takes is one that my daughter doesn't. The funeral was really beautiful, [11:50] and that was something that you told me over the phone, and you said that everybody wore pink. [11:59] It was a bright occasion, Disney songs were saying. I think that you, and sharing obviously that you [12:07] did her hair, I think that you, if anything, were very pleased that you gave her a final send-off that [12:18] was very fitting for, like, as you said, a Viking princess. Can you walk us through just that day, [12:23] um, and how there was a lot of things, and a lot of people that did a lot of things for you, I think, [12:29] uh, to make that day a little easier? Yes, um, we used Hudson and Torres' family funeral home [12:37] from Bridgeport, Texas, and they were very understanding. Um, I didn't want people to feel [12:44] sadder than they already felt. I wanted it to be, I wanted people to see Athena for Athena. I wanted [12:51] them to know what Athena loved. So, Athena's father and I, and her stepmother picked out Disney songs, [13:01] um, happy Disney songs that she would love, that she, I have recordings of her just screaming. [13:08] She wasn't the best singer in the world, but she definitely tried. Um, and Jay Hudson did a lot [13:18] for us. He was a very, very kind man. Um, the church was pink as could be. There was pink flowers. [13:28] There was more stuffed animals, um, and there was Athena, and she looked beautiful. She had a big [13:43] Jojo Siwa bow on, very sequin and sparkly, and she had a beautiful felt pink dress on, [13:51] um, and of course her eternal bed, as Trey calls it, was just, it was beautiful. She looked very [14:01] comfy, very warm, and I wanted people to see Athena for as beautiful as she's always been. [14:09] A little girl who seemingly has no enemies. I don't know one person in this world that's just never [14:19] not loved Athena. She, it's hard to not love a child in general, but it was extremely hard not to [14:28] love Athena. You told me, um, over the phone that the hardest part about that day was seeing her face [14:38] for the last time. I didn't realize how hard that would be. I guess I didn't think about it. I mean, [14:47] I knew ultimately that that would be the last time, but the actual reality of it, when it set in, [14:53] it was rough. So I was the one who saw her face last, and I closed her casket before her daddy and [15:07] her uncles and her grandfathers carried her out, and I just, I held her hand, and I kissed her, [15:21] and I told her how sorry I was, and how much I love her, and that was the last time I saw her. [15:35] Um, the community has been incredibly helpful to you and your family, and, uh, a lot of people have [15:52] came to know the name Athena Strand. You know, how can you kind of tell people about that love, [16:01] you know, that you've kind of witnessed over the last two weeks? Because it's not just been people [16:06] locally, it's been people from all around the world. It was very unexpected, um, and I'm, [16:15] I'm more than grateful, but I don't think there are words to describe. There are no words to describe [16:22] how grateful I am, and all of Athena's family is. The outpour from law enforcement and other agencies [16:35] that responded to her case, as well as the hundreds of, if not thousands of volunteers, um, and of course, [16:45] the churches and Jay Hudson. I, I know I wouldn't have made it through without those people. [16:53] I just wish that they would have actually got to. I wish everybody that helped me [17:05] find Athena would have actually gotten to meet Athena as Athena, because everybody would have [17:13] loved her so much more than they think that they already do. It was a privilege to know Athena and [17:21] to raise her and to be her mother, and I just want everyone to know that I am very grateful for [17:29] everything that everyone's done. The love and the prayers are felt in thinking of her face. [17:49] The thing I want to ask Lass is you want Athena's name to be remembered. That's one of the reasons [18:14] why you're doing this story with us, or at least sitting down with us and just talking with us about [18:18] this. And we appreciate that. Um, but even before sitting down, you were, I remember the day after [18:26] the conference, you know, where they talked to us about what had happened. You were on Facebook because [18:32] people wanted to know about your daughter, people were eager to learn about your daughter and you [18:37] were not afraid to type away just a few little things that people could, could understand about [18:43] her. Um, I think that's a very admirable thing to do as a parent has just been through a catastrophic [18:51] moment to not let people lose focus on the fact of who this person was that we lost. You know, [18:57] can you just tell us what you want people to take away from all of this as a lawsuit comes out, as we [19:05] learn about more about the suspect, you know, as this story continues down this line and checks boxes off, [19:13] what is the one thing you want us to remember? That Athena was a real little girl. She was very, [19:23] very loved. And to want people to know not to take the time with their children for granted, [19:53] because I would do anything to go back to May 23rd of 2015 and relive every moment from that time [20:08] forward. That's what I want people to know. I want people to know her. She's not just a name and she's [20:18] not just a face. She was a real little girl and she was taken from me. And we need to do better [20:27] to protect our children and expect better of other people.