{"id":294268,"date":"2025-11-19T23:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294268\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T23:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:31:13","slug":"stepbrother-named-possible-suspect-in-18-year-old-womans-death-on-cruise-ship-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294268\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepbrother named possible suspect in 18-year-old woman\u2019s death on cruise ship – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The stepbrother of an 18-year-old woman found dead<\/a> on a Carnival cruise ship<\/a> earlier this month is being investigated as a possible suspect in her death, according to a legal document<\/a> in a separate case.<\/p>\n

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

Carnival Cruise Line previously 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. Our focus is on supporting the family of our guest,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n

In an emergency motion filed Monday in Brevard County, Fla., in a separate case relating to Kepner\u2019s stepmother\u2019s past marriage, it states that the stepmother, Shauntel Hudson, requested to pause testimony in the divorce hearing due to \u201can extremely sensitive and severe circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cCurrently there is an investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I) arising out of the sudden death of eighteen (18) year old Anna Kepner, who was found deceased on November 9, 2025, on a Carnival Cruise,\u201d the filing reads.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMs. Anna Kepner, the deceased, is the daughter of the Respondent\u2019s paramour and the Respondent and the minor children of this instant action were all on the cruise ship together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hudson was advised by the FBI and her lawyers that \u201ca criminal case may be initiated against one of the minor children of this instant action,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n

She asked that the proceedings be postponed until the \u201ccriminal investigation has concluded.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the emergency motion for temporary relief<\/a>, viewed by Global News, one of the stated grounds includes that a \u201csixteen year old child is now a suspect in the death of the step child during the cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n

A law enforcement source and a person familiar with the matter told CBS News<\/a> that Kepner and her step-sibling may have had some kind of altercation while on the family vacation in the Caribbean with her father, stepmother and three step-siblings.<\/p>\n

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The outlet also reports that Kepner\u2019s body was found by a housekeeper under the bed in her stateroom.<\/p>\n

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Her family told\u00a0ABC News<\/a>\u00a0that 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

\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

\u2014 With files from Global News\u2019 Rachel Goodman<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stepbrother of an 18-year-old woman found dead on a Carnival cruise ship earlier this month is being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2169,23585,43,44,41,39,42,40,519,2845],"class_list":{"0":"post-294268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-cruise-ship","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories","16":"tag-trending","17":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294268","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=294268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}