Justice For Athena / Your Babies Are Safe On My Route

About

Justice For Athena or Your Babies Are Safe On My Route refers to the TikTok hashtag "#JusticeForAthena," which FedEx employees started to use in December 2022 in response to the death of 7-year-old Athena Strand, who was kidnapped and murdered by a FedEx driver after he delivered her Christmas presents. In videos under the hashtag, FedEx and other delivery service employees typically film themselves on the job under the caption and catchphrase, "your babies are safe on my route."

Origin

Background

On December 3rd, 2022, the Fort Worth Star Telegram^[1] reported that a 7-year-old Fort Worth, Texas girl, Athena Strand, was kidnapped and murdered by 31-year-old Tanner Horner. According to the report, he was seen delivering a package to the Strand home on November 30th, the day she disappeared. The police were tipped off to investigate him and FedEx helped them identify the driver. Horner later confessed to the crimes. His bond was set at $1.5 million. Later updates on the story shared that the packages Horner was delivering were her Christmas presents.^[2]

#JusticeForAthena

On December 7th, 2022, TikToker^[3] and FedEx employee @knightzkikz posted a video using the hashtag "#JusticeForAthena" showing himself working in the back of a FedEx truck, captioned, "YOUR BABYS ARE SAFE ON MY ROUTE🙏💪🙌," garnering over 9 million views in two days (shown below). The video was notably set to "Dancing in the Sky" by Beverly Ann.

Spread

Over the following days, other FedEx and delivery service employees started using the hashtag and original sound to post similar videos in response to Strand's death. On December 8th, 2022, TikToker^[4] and FedEx employee @fernando_munoz4 duetted the original video, garnering over 4 million views in a day (shown below, left). On the same day, TikToker^[5] and Amazon worker @dvyemx posted a similar video, garnering over 3.9 million views in a day (shown below, right).

On the same day, December 8th, 2022, TikToker^[6] @@mrs_n_mr.reed posted a video to the hashtag, garnering over 2.4 million views in a day (shown below). By December 9th, videos under the hashtag were viewed a collective 35 million times.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References