{"id":275070,"date":"2025-11-10T22:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275070\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:20:13","slug":"18-year-old-woman-dies-during-cruise-ship-voyage-fbi-joins-investigation-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/275070\/","title":{"rendered":"18-year-old woman dies during cruise ship voyage, FBI joins investigation – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI are investigating a cruise line after an 18-year-old woman died on one of its ships on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anna Kepner, a recent high school graduate, was travelling on the Carnival Horizon cruise from Miami to the Caribbean when she died.<\/p>\n

Details about the circumstances and cause of her death have not been released.<\/p>\n

Carnival Cruise Line confirmed her death in a statement to Global News, saying, \u201cOur focus is on supporting the family of our guest and cooperating with the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince this is an ongoing matter under the jurisdiction of law enforcement, it is up to the FBI\u2019s Miami public affairs office to provide further details.\u00a0 Our focus is on supporting the family of our guest,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:43
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t5-year-old girl fell overboard on Disney cruise due to her mom, police allege\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n

\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Her family told ABC News<\/a> that Kepner was a bright, straight-A student with a bubbly personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she walked into a room, she would light it up,\u201d her family told the outlet. \u201cIf you were sad, she\u2019d make you laugh. She would joke around and be the funniest little person in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a people person,\u201d her family continued, adding that she loved being by the water, and had recently obtained a boating licence and scuba diving certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved being around people. She had that type of energy that just drew you in with her smile and the way she carried herself. She was such an easy person to talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFILE \u2013 Carnival Cruise Line\u2019s Carnival Horizon cruise ship is shown docked in Miami, FL. on Friday, April 9, 2021.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAP Photo \/ Wilfredo Lee\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Her family told the outlet that they\u2019re struggling to come to terms with her death and lamented the plans she\u2019d never get to see to fruition.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had just finished taking the test to join the military,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was already talking to recruiters and had chosen her career path. She wanted to do something that would help her community,\u201d they added, noting that she was an avid gymnast who was on her high school\u2019s varsity cheerleading team, volunteered regularly at her grandparents\u2019 55-plus residential neighbourhood and often lent a hand to local businesses in her hometown of Titusville, Fla.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tCanada loses measles elimination status after outbreaks\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tN.S. Supreme Court chief justice defends staff poppy ban in some courtrooms\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Kepner was a graduate of Temple Christian High School, whose staff described her in a Facebook statement<\/a> as curious, gentle and caring.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on World
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cYour absence will be felt every day, but your impact and the memories you created will continue to live on in our hearts,\u201d her teacher, Mr. Brunner, wrote.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Instagram, Anna\u2019s former employer, Aqua Mart Aquariums, a local pet store in Titusville, spoke of her tireless work ethic and commitment to the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnna was a pivotal help before we ever moved into our current building, and during the move itself, she worked tirelessly alongside us. Even after we got settled, she stayed right there helping with all the finishing touches to make everything just perfect,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Her grandmother was a retired employee at the same store.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Her family said Anna was \u201cthe best child you could ever meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll always remember her for who she was,\u201d they concluded.<\/p>\n

According to the Carnival Horizon\u2019s website<\/a>, the ship has a guest capacity of 3,960 and a crew of 1,450. The ship sails from Miami and Galveston, Texas, to the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FBI are investigating a cruise line after an 18-year-old woman died on one of its ships on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23585,43,44,41,39,42,40,519,2845],"class_list":{"0":"post-275070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cruise-ship","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories","15":"tag-trending","16":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}