The family of Anna Kepner, an 18-year-old cheerleader who was found dead on a Carnival Cruise ship, has spoken out after her step-brother was named as a potential suspect in the investigation.
In divorce proceedings involving Shauntel Hudson, the stepmother of Anna Kepner, court documents revealed that Anna’s 16-year-old step-brother is being treated as a suspect by authorities looking into her death.
This was confirmed by Kepner’s grandparents during an interview with ABC, where they expressed their confusion and heartbreak over the loss of Anna, who died during what was supposed to be a joyful family trip. Grandmother Barbara Kepner mentioned that all nine family members were ‘having a great time’.
“I couldn’t fathom why anyone would wanna hurt my baby,” she shared with the broadcaster, speaking of Anna’s untimely demise on November 7, as the cruise was returning to Miami from the Caribbean.
The family trip, intended as a bonding experience, included Anna’s grandparents Barbara and Jeffrey, their son and his three children (including Anna), his new wife Shauntel, and her two children from a previous marriage.
Anna’s grandparents remembered her as an independent young woman who was in her final year of high school and eager to pursue a career in the armed forces, with aspirations to join the Navy.
These aspirations were tragically ended aboard the Carnival Horizon ship, where her body was discovered by housekeeping staff in the room she shared with two step-siblings. She was found wrapped in a blanket and hidden beneath life vests.
“We were looking forward to seeing her grow,” Jeffrey told ABC. “The cruise itself wasn’t what made me excited. It was the fact that I was gonna get to spend another week with my youngest son and his family and all the grandkids.”
The family believes that Anna died of asphyxiation, possibly from an arm held across her throat in a bar hold, although the FBI has not confirmed this and has declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.
The grandparents also shared more about the sleeping arrangements for their group of nine, with the family spread across three rooms on the ship.
Barbara explained: “The two younger girls stayed with the parents and then the three teenagers, they decided amongst themselves they wanted to stay in the room together.
“But we had a larger room and we made it very clear that at any time if they weren’t getting along, they didn’t want to be together, we had an extra bed in our room that they could come to.”
They described a close-knit blended family, emphasizing that there were ‘no such things as steps’ and that they were all just ‘family’.
Upon their son’s remarriage, Anna’s grandparents expressed that it felt as though they had gained two new grandchildren.
“I loved them just like I’ve loved the rest of my grandchildren. They called us Memaw, Peepaw, told us they loved us,” Barbara recounted.
She described Anna and her step-brother as being ‘just like brother and sister’ and ‘two peas in a pod.’ However, court documents now indicate that he is a suspect in her death.
“I know that those two kids cared about each other in the right way,” Barbara Kepner told ABC. “I can’t accuse him because I don’t know what happened in that room.”
No charges have been filed, and the Kepner family states that neither drugs nor alcohol were found in Anna’s system, and there were no signs of sexual assault according to the family.