FORT WORTH, Texas — Inside a Fort Worth law firm, a head of pink hair rounds the corner and walks toward a conference room near the front door.
It's effortless to recognize Maitlyn Gandy these days -- she hasn't changed the color of her bright hair since her 7-year-old daughter, Athena Strand, was murdered in November of last year.
It is a visual reminder, she said, to keep fighting for her daughter's legacy.
Something that isn't always easy.
May 23 would have been the little girl's 8th birthday.
"Her birthday was very hard," Gandy said. "Every day is a different day. Some days are good, and some are not good. I'm getting used to the pink, it helps remind me and others why I get up every day."
"Every time I'm asked about this hair, I will tell Athena's story and how wonderful of a little girl she was."
Gandy sat down and spoke with WFAA alongside her attorneys for the first time since December 2022.
Weeks before that, investigators said her daughter was strangled to death by a driver for FedEx who later dumped her body in a rural part of Wise County.
The driver, Tanner Horner, confessed to accidentally hitting the little girl with his truck while dropping off a Christmas present at her home. The gift was a box of Barbie dolls that were intended for Athena.
Horner later said he panicked about the accident and killed the girl, fearing what would happen to him.
He has since been indicted for capital murder for a person under ten and aggravated kidnapping. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and Horner has pleaded not guilty. A trial date has yet to be set.
Gandy and Athena's father have since jointly filed a lawsuit against FedEx after the company terminated Horner.
As Gandy awaits a criminal and potential civil trial, she has worked tirelessly over the previous months to apply any lessons learned from her daughter's death in the state legislature.
With the help of state Rep. Lynn Stuckey, Gandy crafted a new bill signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott precisely three weeks after what would have been Strand's 8th birthday.
The legislation dubbed the "Athena Alert" bill allows law enforcement to send out a regional missing child alert without needing to prove that a child has been abducted.
Proof of abduction is required for statewide AMBER Alerts. The regional "Athena Alert" would only go to people within a 100-mile radius of where the child is believed to have gone missing or was last seen.
When Athena went missing, law enforcement waited almost 24 hours to issue an AMBER Alert. By only the process of elimination did they deduce that she was abducted.
During that delay, Gandy admits that she was upset.
"I felt helpless, and the entire time I was frustrated," Gandy said. "I would never blame law enforcement, but it was an obstacle we had to overcome."
Gandy even spent time in Austin lobbying lawmakers for change after the bill was filed. She spoke in front of several House members asking for the bill to be given the green light.
"I was so nervous I didn't know what I said until I watched back the video," Gandy said. "We all know there will be another child, there will be another that goes missing. I hope this brings that child's parents some comfort."
With a new alert cementing Athena's legacy, Gandy feels like her daughter would be proud.
The state knows her name, and so does the governor who runs it.
"We can't help Athena; that's up to the Wise County DA and the jury put on her case," Gandy said. "But we can help others. I hope that as terrible as my situation is and as terrible as Athena's life ended, we can impact at least one child's life not to end the way Athena's did."
"I do believe, even now in her death, if I could speak to her--that she would be very proud if she could understand the impact that her death and her life has made for other children."
Gandy told WFAA that now she will look to other states to see if she can help adapt or improve their AMBER Alert systems.